Can Petroleum Aid development?

The document outlined a key PR tactic of divide and rule, where Shell would work with some of its critics but isolate the others. Under the ”Occupying New Ground” scenario the document outlined how the company wanted to “Create coalitions, isolate the opposition and shift the debate.” The company would “Prepare a game plan for those NGOs considered key” and emphasised the need to “work with [and] sway ‘middle of the road’ activists”. Others who offered the “possibility of beginning to build trust and understanding” included Pax Christi, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Differentiating the interest groups into friends and foes, Amnesty was singled out as one NGO to approach for a dialogue.

This new evidence reveals that Shell’s cooperation with Amnesty – that would last a decade – was a part of a plan to seek “third party endorsement” for its operations in Nigeria. Getting third parties to endorse you is another classic PR tactic that Shell employed.

To improve its green image, the company had to counter accusations of “environmental devastation”, so Shell planned to produce a video “to publicise successes” and “to turn the negative tide”. The most important topic to be included in the film was “oil spills generally, focusing on sabotage.”

The company's "crisis plan" focused on what the documents refer to as "the message" and getting the "style, tone, content and timing right, reflecting greater humanity". Philip Watts, who would later become Shell chairman, emphasised that everyone must "sing to the same 'hymn sheet'."

Dividing NGOs into friends and foes, Shell emphasised the need to "work with [and] sway 'middle of the road' activists". The Body Shop, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth were seen as unlikely to change their position. One suggested tactic to counter these organisations was to "challenge [the] basis on which they continue their campaign against Shell in order to make it more difficult for them to sustain it". Human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were seen as more easily persuaded. The document suggests building relationships with the organisations and encouraging "buy-in to the complexity of the issue".

In particular they wanted to "build a relationship" with journalist Hilary Andersson, who had recently become the BBC's Lagos correspondent, as well as "any of her known contacts in the divisions".

Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alinson-Madueke who also addressed the forum, said that by enacting the law and establishing a formidable Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), which would help to implement the provision of NOGICD Act, the Federal Government had taken the lead with the provision of the enabling environment and would continue making the improvements required.She said that with the new drive, there would be “transformation of ownership profile of marine assets supporting industry activities from a current ratio of 20 Nigerian-owned vessels: 280 Foreign-owned vessels to a more equitable ratio of 180 Nigerian:120 (Foreign).”She noted that the Nigerian content would not only integrate indigenes and businesses residing in the oil producing areas into the mainstream of industry economic activity, but it would also capture of over 70 per cent of banking services, insurance risk placements, and Legal services supporting industry activities and transactions.

The Commissioner, who charged oil companies operating in the state and their host communities to see themselves as development partners, assured the host communities to OML 66 that government would ensure that a thorough environmental impact assessment (EIA) is carried out by the oil company before commencement of work in the area.

Kosmos Energy’s activity in a conservation area is not unique. A new report issued by the WWF, the Center for the Environment and Development and RELUFA (Reseau de lutte contre la faim au Cameroun), Emerging Trends in Land-use Conflicts in Cameroon, reveals that “a total of at least 33 oil and mining permits have been granted inside of 16 different protected areas in Cameroon.”

Campo Ma’an, one of the National Parks created as a mitigation measure when the Chad-Cameroon pipeline was constructed has about 2/3 of its surface licensed to mining operations. (See my documentary, Oil: A Pipeline to Prosperity? for more information on Campo Ma’an.) 

NNPC General Managing Director Dr. Mohammed Barkindo was interested in doing something on climate change in preparation for the climate change summit in Copenhagen December 6-18. Barkindo was spread pretty thin so Shell will ask him how they can help him prepare for the summit.

She said it would be helpful if the Embassy would continue to deliver low-level messages of concern. In particular, she thought it would be helpful for the Embassy to call on Speaker of the House Dimeji Bankoke to see where he stood on the bill. Beyond that, she would like to keep the Embassy in reserve and use it as a “silver bullet” if the PIB passes the House. The Ambassador noted that the U.S., U.K., Dutch and Qthe House. The Ambassador noted that the U.S., U.K., Dutch and French Embassies had already made a joint call on NNPC General Managing Director Dr. Mohammed Barkindo.

Pickard said Shell had good sources to show that their data had been sent to both China and Russia. She said the GON had forgotten that Shell had seconded people to all the relevant ministries and that Shell consequently had access to everything that was being done in those ministries.

Lawyers at EarthRights International, a Washington-based human rights law nonprofit, say they suspect that a new legal submission  - which was signed only by the U.S. Justice Department - reflects tensions inside the government on how to deal with multinational corporations do business in the U.S. Significantly, neither the State nor the Commerce Department signed on to the brief, despite their key roles in the case.

Filartiga v. Peña-Irala set a precedent for U.S. federal courts to punish non-U.S. citizens for acts committed outside the U.S. that violate international law or treaties to which the U.S. is a party. ATCA has brought almost 100 cases of international (often state-sanctioned) torture, rape and murder to U.S. federal courts to date.

No plaintiff against a corporation has won on ATCA grounds, although some have settled or plea bargained.

the statutory body established to provide an independent assessment of how petroleum revenues are managed and used as stipulated by the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815), says the Ministry of Energy has made payments from oil revenues into an account different from the one established by the law.

The Ministry, as the PIAC points out is indicating that oil revenues from the Saltpond oilfield in 2011 were paid into the Government Non-Tax Revenue Account. But according to the PIAC, “This account is quite different from the Petroleum Holding Fund into which they were required to make the payments further to the passage of Act 815 in April 2011.”

In its bid to take control of one of the most lucrative oil fields in Nigeria, OPL 245, oil giant, Shell, ably assisted by senior Nigerian officials, condoned illegalities, subverted laid down rules and then lied repeatedly to cover its track, an ongoing PREMIUM TIMES investigation has shown.

Further investigations by PREMIUM TIMES have however shown that 10 years before Shell made the controversial payment in 2011, the oil giant had tolerated illegalities committed by Malabu and colluded with the company in compromising Nigerian officials and subverting the regulations and guidelines under which the oil block was awarded.

Fully aware of the huge reserve OPL 245 holds, Mr. Etete and Mohammed Sani (Abacha) used executive fiat to discretionally award the block to themselves, through Malabu, a company they hurriedly cobbled together. Mr. Etete was petroleum minister at the time while General Sani Abacha, Mohammed’s father, was Nigeria’s head of state. To conceal the fact that he awarded the block to himself and shield himself from public scrutiny, Mr. Etete designed an ingenious scheme. He created a fictional character, Kweku Amafegha, and made him one of the three shareholders of Malabu, the others being Mr. Abacha and Hassan Hindu (wife of Hassan Adamu, former Nigerian Ambassador to the UK, who is popularly known as Wakili Adamawa).

The less attractive possibility is that there is much more money to be made by Shell on a global basis by stemming oil flow from Nigeria than in keeping it flowing.

According him, what Shell is doing, is merely restructuring its port folio by divesting from small oil fields, which he noted was not a strange practice globally,

The oil giant Shell has lost its appeal against a ruling that it is not the rightful owner of land where it runs Nigeria’s biggest oil export terminal.

Remember that in their 2010 budget, they had a chicken-change sum of N90m for staff marriages and bereavements! The commission defended the outrageous budgetary allocation on the grounds that it was dictated by emotional intelligence. Peculiar intelligence, one would say.

the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation still relies largely on paper-based accounting systems.

Why would the oil companies refuse to give figures of extracted oil measured at the well heads?

The World Bank is providing funding for the gas project and Bank officials do not understand why the project is stalling.

Yeboah’s article focuses on citizens’ grievances in Bonyere and the neighboring communities.  Although it is unlikely that community concerns are the main cause of the project delays, it does appear that the government still has some significant community relations issues to resolve.

Gary explains that, “too often, projects suffer from an ‘original sin’ – affected communities were not adequately consulted prior to the investment decision and had little say about how and whether these projects were developed.”

The initiative for not extracting the oil was originally proposed 20 years ago by Fundación Natura, the largest environmental organisation in Ecuador, and has since been supported by a number of environmental and indigenous groups defending the Yasuní National Park and its buffer zone, where the oilfields are located.

But there are strong supporters for drilling, like the deputy minister of non-renewable natural resources and former manager of the state oil firm Petroecuador, Carlos Pareja, and President Correa himself has talked extensively about "Plan B".

Meanwhile, the German government said it will not support the Yasuní-ITT initiative, because the precedent might be imitated by other countries. The announcement came as very bad news for the initiative.

The Angolan government, led by reformed socialist strongman President Jose Eduardo dos Santos since 1979, has recently touted its oil wealth, economic growth and social stability to attract foreign investment, but avoids the topic of political repression and glaring economic disparities. Rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized the government's use of violence to silence critics, exemplified by the recent attack on the 10 activists in Luanda. "This brutal beating highlights the ongoing threat of violence that anyone speaking up for free speech in Angola faces," Muluka-Anne Miti, Amnesty International's Angola researcher, said in a statement.