Andrew Newton 
Most Read on APEsphere
Most Commented on APEsphere
Blogs we like
Resources
Renewables will never meet energy needs, the former chief executive of oil company Saudi Aram-co told the Royal Academy of Engineering last week.
Abdallah Jum’ah dismissed hopes that renewable energy sources will meet more than a tiny proportion of the world's energy needs as a pipe dream, while arguing that the world had more than enough oil reserves to fill the gap
I guess this isn't really news. It is a useful reminder that there are leaders in the Middle East, too, that have no interest in seeking a sustainable future.
The tiny Alaskan village of Kivalina is suing 23 of the world's biggest producers of oil and gas, alleging conspiracy to mislead the world about global warming. Kivalina's own microclimate has changed so dramatically in the past decade that the village is being forced to move from its barrier reef on Alaska's coast, as a lack of sea ice leads to alarmingly quick erosion, carrying the village into the sea.
This case is reminiscent of the big tobacco lawsuits of the 1990's, which fundamentally altered the relationship of the tobacco companies to society. This will be an interesting case to follow.
This news report from Aljazeera is 23 minutes long, but well worth the time.
To celebrate Earth Day, we feature 5 must-see films that deal with our environmental sensibility through different facets of sustainability.
BusinessWeek has done an analysis piece arguing that biofuel innovation is destined to benefit the existing oil majors, not the VC-funded startups.
A thorough and interesting read.
The Peruvian Supreme Court last month ruled that oil exploration in the Cordillera Escalera should be suspended pending environmental review.
The decision, which cited the human right to drinkable water, halted exploration by a consortium in which Canada's Talisman Energy holds the largest (40%) stake, and Spain's Repsol and the Brazilian state company Petrobras have a 30% share each.
This BBC article analyses what is at stake while the oil exploration is now being reviewed by the central government: not just the region's supply of clean water, but biodiversity and the sustainability of Peru's path of development.
ExxonMobil continues to use single-hulled oil tankers despite growing condemnation of their use, and despite the fact that their competition have almost all switched to double-hulled vessels. Double-hulled vessels are deemed safer and more effective in preventing oil spills.
The Age: "Even after 79 per cent of the world supertanker fleet has been replaced by craft with two hulls, Exxon Mobil remains the biggest Western user of the older designs. It hired more of the tankers last year than the rest of the 10 biggest companies combined.
Exxon, the world's largest oil company, has kept using tankers with one hull even as 151 countries have decided two are better than one for preventing oil spills and pledged to ban single-hull vessels by 2015. The European Union called the design more accident-prone in 2003, when it started a prohibition that takes full effect next year. London-based BP says it won't hire them because of the risk of leaking.
US refining rivals, including Sunoco, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Koch Industries, and Paris-based Total didn't hire one such vessel last year. Exxon's use of single-hull ships compared with its nine biggest competitors is based on more than 12,500 ship rental deals."
There appear to have been further developments in an investigation of the firm launched over a year ago by the US Department of Justice and the SEC.
The investigation was launched under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
From The Guardian's Market Force Live blog:
"Coinciding with a strategy update, the company's annual report reveals on page 16 that "Shell is currently under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice for violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
"Shell has an ongoing internal investigation and is co-operating with the US DoJ and the SEC investigations. While these US investigations are ongoing, Shell may face fines and additional costs.""
Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has announced it is pulling out of wind, solar and hydro because these are uneconomic. The company is to focus on oil, gas and first generation (ie food-competing crop) biofuel, with an unspecified investment in second generation biofuels that use non-food crops. I wonder whether oil would still look like the much better investment of shareholder funds if Shell had to pay a carbon tax for every barrel of oil it produced, and if governments ceased to subsidize oil.
Now the government is permitting the highly polluting flaring of natural gas to continue until 2011. There have been calls for an end to the practice since 1969.
Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) dismissed the planned extension of the deadline as being scripted by the oil copanies themselves. Successive Nigerian governments have demonstrably shown little commitment to ending the practice, despite horrendous envrironmental degradation and now increasing militancy within the Delta region which hosts most oil production.
Expatica: "Three hundred jobs are to go in Total's petrochemical arm and around 250 in its refineries, union officials were told at a specially convened meeting with management.
Philippe Goebel, managing director of Total Petrochemicals France, told AFP the posts would go at the subsidiary's French plants, offices and research centres.
He said the job cuts were a result of overcapacity in world petrochemical production and promised that the firm would create 100 new jobs in a partnership deal with GDF-Suez to produce solar panels.
Goebel insisted that there would be no compulsory redundancies and most would be through retirements.
But, coming less than a month after the Total parent company said it had made a French record profit of EUR 13.9 billion in 2008, the announcement angered both the government and unions."
Of course no French layoff announcement would be complete without a vigorous protest, which duly proceeded: "Workers at Total's Gonfreville l'Orcher refinery on France's north coast held a protest outside the plant after the job cuts were announced."
The Kazakh Emergencies Ministry reported the incident on Friday 27 February.
The pipeline is owned 50:50 by a state consortium and by a private oil consortium led by Chevron.
No details have been published regarding the location or extent of the leak, and whether oil is spilling into the already degraded and fragile environment of the Caspian Sea.
The APEsphere troop
Stakeholder Engagement? Shell Says: “No, Thanks.”
This week’s $15.5 million human rights settlement spurred a social media movement. But so far, the company’s not playing along. >>
- 0
- on 12 Jun 2009
Must read analysis
News by Impact
- G20 puts pressure on India to phase out fuel subsidies
- G20 condemn fuel subsidies
- US pushes G20 to cut fossil fuel subsidies
- Oil corps learn astroturfing from healthcare sector
- Fossil lobby gets to work ahead of Senate climate bill
- Trafigura drops bid to gag Guardian over MP's question
- G20 puts pressure on India to phase out fuel subsidies
- G20 condemn fuel subsidies
- US pushes G20 to cut fossil fuel subsidies
- Burma Junta Gas Profits Kept in Singapore Banks: ERI
- Despite record profits, Total cuts French jobs
- Barack Obama talks about renewables policy
- The cheese stands alone: Exxon shuns safety practices
- Financial innovation? Hi-tech oil price manipulation
- Shell under investigation for corruption
- Despite record profits, Total cuts French jobs