17 October 2011

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a lawsuit accusing Royal Dutch Shell of human rights abuses, a case that could make companies liable for torture or genocide committed overseas.

The plaintiffs — relatives of seven Nigerians killed by the country’s former military regime — sued the Anglo-Dutch energy giant and other firms for apparently enlisting the government to suppress resistance to oil exploration in the Niger Delta in the 1990s.

The case will assess the potential liability of corporations — including multinationals with a US presence — under the Alien Tort Statute, a US law dating back to 1789 which scholars say was meant to assure foreign governments that the United States would help prevent breaches of international law.

The 12 Nigerian plaintiffs charge Shell with “complicity in human rights violations committed against them in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta in Nigeria between 1992 and 1995,” according to their complaint put before the court.

“These violations included torture, extra-judicial executions and crimes against humanity.”

It said Shell “aided and abetted the Nigerian government in committing human rights abuses,” and added: “For the victims of human rights violations such cases often provide the only opportunity to obtain any remedy for their suffering.”

The Kiobel versus Royal Dutch Petroleum case will be heard by the high court alongside a new torture case, Mohamad versus Rajoun, which involves the family of an American who died in 1995 from torture injuries inflicted by Palestinian Authority officers.

A US appeals court in New York ruled in both cases that corporations or political organizations were immune to such liability.

The Supreme Court’s 2011-2012 term began this month, and the nine justices are expected to issue their decision on the cases by the end of the session next June or July.

The Kiobel case was part of a broader set of legal complaints by Nigeria’s Ogoni people, who argued that Royal Dutch Shell was complicit in murder, torture and other abuses committed by the country’s former military government.

The victims included Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and others executed in 1995 in what plaintiffs said was a campaign of repression backed by the oil giant.

Saro-Wiwa had led a non-violent campaign to protest environmental destruction and abuses against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta before he was hanged along with other activists after his trial in a military court.

In 2009 Shell agreed to pay out $15.5 million to relatives of the victims, in what it hoped would be the end of a long legal battle and avoidance of a potentially embarrassing court case.

Shell maintained its innocence throughout, saying the settlement was a “humanitarian gesture” to help the Ogoni, but human rights lawyers in New York two years ago hailed the agreement as a precedent for holding Shell and other oil giants responsible for activities in countries with repressive governments.

That case did not mark the end of Shell’s legal troubles. Esther Kiobel, wife of Ogoni activist Barinem Kiobel, who was executed along with Saro-Wiwa, did not participate in the settlement and pressed on with her suit.

Shell’s lawyers argued that the case is “a poor vehicle” for address human rights issues.

“The essence of Kiobel’s complaint is that Dutch and English holding companies should have to answer in a US court for acts committed in Nigeria by the Nigerian government, allegedly with assistance from their indirect Nigerian subsidiary,” the company said in its brief.

SOURCE

OCTOBER 17, 2011 12.35 P.M. ET

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will use a dispute between Nigerian villagers and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas.

The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of Shell. The case centers on the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute that has been increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad.

Other cases pending in U.S. courts seek to hold accountable Chiquita Brands International for its relationship with paramilitary groups in Colombia; Exxon and Chevron for abuses in Indonesia and Nigeria, respectively, and several companies for their role in apartheid in South Africa.

The Nigerians argue Shell was complicit in torture and other crimes against humanity in the country’s oil-rich Ogoni region in the Niger Delta.

A divided panel of federal appeals court judges in New York said the 18th century law may not be used against corporations. More recently, appellate judges in Washington said it could.

In a second case the court agreed to hear, the justices will weigh whether the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1992 can be invoked against organizations, or only individuals.

The sons and widow of Azzam Rahim have filed a civil lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Palestinian-born Rahim was a naturalized U.S. citizen who was beaten and died in the custody of Palestinian intelligence officers in Jericho in 1995. Three officers were jailed for their role in the case, according to a State Department report.

But when Rahim’s relatives sought money damages for his death, the federal appeals court in Washington said they could not use the 1992 law to go after the Palestinian organizations. The law may be applied only to “natural persons,” the appeals court said.

The Nigerians’ lawsuit stems from alleged human rights violations between 1992 and 1995. The suit claims that Shell was eager to stop protests about continuing oil exploration in the area and was complicit in Nigerian government actions that included fatal shootings, rapes, beatings, arrests and property destruction.

Specifically, the villagers claim Shell gave soldiers money, food and transportation, and allowed its facilities to be used as staging grounds.

A divided panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York voted 2-1 to throw out the suit, saying corporations cannot be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute. The full appeals court split 5-5 on whether to rehear the case. The tie vote left the panel ruling in place.

The cases will be argued early next year.

The cases are Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, 10-1491, and Mohamad v. Rajoub, 11-88.

—Copyright 2011 Associated Press

SOURCE ARTICLE

17 October 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will use a dispute between Nigerian villagers and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas.

The justices said Monday they will review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of Shell. The case centers on the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute that has been increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad.

The villagers argue Shell was complicit in torture and other crimes against humanity in the country’s oil-rich Ogoni region in the Niger Delta.

A divided panel of federal appeals court judges in New York said the 18th century law may not be used against corporations. More recently, appellate judges in Washington said it could.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

ADDED BY JOHN DONOVAN: SHELL IN NIGERIA

Shell’s horrendous track record in Nigeria includes embedding spies in the Nigerian government; paying rival militant gangs; engaging in corruption (not only in Nigeria); arming police spies; using a private spy firm (Hakluyt) partly owned and controlled by Shell directors, to infiltrate Nigerian activists (friends of Ken Saro-Wiwa) and linking Shell with murder and human rights abuses which are the subject of the above case. Questions inevitably arise about financial linkage to Shell of the militants responsible for the repeated attacks against Shell pipelines and infrastructure over many years, which has driven up the cost of oil. Shell has such a shameful record in Nigeria, including plunder and pollution on an epic scale, that it has even considered ditching the Shell global brand name. Such a radical move would also distance the company from its Nazi past.

Business.Scoop

Edited by JONATHAN UNDERHILL & PATRICK SMELLIE

Auckland, Monday 17th October, 2011. This morning Greenpeace activists held a legal protest outside Port Taranaki against a ship that is due to depart imminently to start exploring for deep sea oil – the new frontier of oil development off New Zealand’s shores.

There was a heavy police presence at the port overnight and this morning – to protect the controversial ship, Polarcus Alima, which arrived in Taranaki this morning. It is due to leave shortly to start exploring for oil off Raglan at depths of up to 1600 metres, on behalf of US oil giant Anadarko (1).

If the ship’s survey is successful then the drilling of wildcat oil wells off Raglan could begin as early as next year (2). Anadarko were part owners of the 1500 metre deep well the Deepwater Horizon was drawing oil from, which leaked 780 million litres of oil into the Gulf of Mexico last year over a three month period. A major reason it took so long to control the leak was the extreme depths the oil companies were operating in. The ship will later go on to prospect in deep water areas off Stewart Island, in a permit area due to be taken over by Shell Oil.

Greenpeace Campaigner Simon Boxer said, “Greenpeace are here conducting a legal peaceful protest to expose the fact that even as oil continues to seep from the wreck of Rena, the Government is pushing ahead with the next phase of their controversial deep sea oil drilling plans.

“The Government’s blinkered obsession with deep water oil drilling has to stop now. It’s time for it to stop spending millions on trying to entice the deep sea oil industry to New Zealand and telling us that to drill ever deeper is the only future for this country. This is simply not true; study after study tells us that leveraging New Zealand’s clean reputation is the key to our economic future.”

Mt Maunganui-based surfer Dominico Zapata, who was part of the protest said, “I’ve spent the week clearing oil off the beaches of Tauranga and witnessing the devastation on Motiti Island. I’m here today to say never again. If we can’t control the spill from Rena, then we have no chance of containing a deep sea oil drilling disaster.”

Another protestor, Raglan resident Phil McCabe, said, “Two years ago I stood up to see off plans to open our best conservation land for mining and today I’m here to take a stand against deep sea oil drilling. Rena showed us that our oceans and our coastlines are too valuable to gamble for oil.”

He continued, “It chills me to imagine the impact of a blowout from one of the Government’s planned deep water oil rigs – then we would be looking at millions of barrels of oil washing up on our shores, not hundreds.”

Greenpeace has been dealing with a surge of public interest following the Rena spill. Thousands of New Zealanders signed Greenpeace’s ‘No New Oil’ petition over the last week, with the total number of signatories now standing at over 92,000.

A team of volunteers organised by Greenpeace NZ have been working since Saturday to help clean toxic fuel oil off beaches in the Bay of Plenty. Today they are working to clean up Matakana Island.

A Greenpeace scientist with experience of assessing the impacts of both the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf and spills in the Amazon has also been brought to the Bay of Plenty to provide expert advice.

CONTACTS:

Phil Crawford Greenpeace Press Officer in Taranaki can be reached on 021 229 9594 Simon Boxer, onsite Campaigner in Taranaki is on 021 905 579. Footage and photos of the ship arriving and of the protest will be available. A Greenpeace spokesperson is also available in Mt Maunganui. To arrange an interview contact Dean Baignent-Mercer on 022 673 0572.
Footnotes:

(1) Polarcus Alima is due to be in New Zealand waters for the next four to five months conducting deepwater 3D surveys. The first surveys are being done for off Raglan in depths of up to 1600m on behalf of a coalition of oil companies led by Anadarko. http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/4948787/Taranaki-set-for-deep-sea-drilling

(2) source: energy news bulletin. http://www.energynewsbulletin.net/storyview.asp?storyid=2489610§ionsource=s69

Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url

SOURCE ARTICLE

Energy Business News

EBR Staff Writer: Published 17 October 2011

UGI Corporation has acquired the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution businesses of Shell in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

These businesses delivered about 300 million gallons of LPG in 2010, the addition of which will expand the scale of UGI’s European LPG business to over 700 million gallons.

UGI chairman and CEO Lon Greenberg said the acquired businesses provide UGI with an attractive opportunity to expand its footprint in northern Europe to LPG markets that are in close proximity to its existing operations in France and Central Europe.

“Despite the transition expenses typically incurred immediately following a transaction of this size, we expect the financial results of the acquired businesses to be modestly accretive to earnings in Fiscal 2012,” Greenberg said.

UGI is engaged in the distribution and marketing of energy products and services.

SOURCE ARTICLE

From pages 48 & 49 of “Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles” – Background report to the Erratum of Shell’s Annual Report 2010

The report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.

The Sakhalin-2 project

According to its developers, the Sakhalin-2 project is the world’s largest integrated oil and gas project. The capital expenditure for this project amounted to USD 21.3 billion from 2001 through 2009, while total costs exceeded USD 24 billion.

The project is about extracting gas and oil offshore Sakhalin Island, in the Russian Far East. The fields are called Lunskoye (mostly gas) and Piltun-Astokhskoye (mostly oil). The company Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Sakhalin Energy) is the operator of the project. Royal Dutch Shell is a partner and lead technical adviser to the operator. Under the shareholding structure of Sakhalin Energy, Gazprom holds 50% (plus one share), Shell 27.5% (minus one share), Mitsui 12.5% and Mitsubishi 10%.

The field development of the Sakhalin-2 project involved:

− two offshore platforms (Lunskoye-A and Piltun-Astokhskoye-B);

− an 800 kilometres onshore pipeline system to the south of the island; − offshore pipelines systems;

− an onshore processing facility;

− a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant;

− offloading terminals for crude oil and LNG.

At the end of 2010 the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant of Sakhalin Energy reached its full production capacity of 9.6 million tonnes a year. Sakhalin Energy now has a 5% share in the world’s LNG market. The entire output is contracted under long-term arrangements (for 20 and more years). Around 65% of the Sakhalin LNG will be supplied to customers in Japan. The rest is intended for consumers in South Korea and North America. In 2009, Sakhalin Energy produced and offloaded over 5.5 million tonnes of oil and condensate. Oil produced from the Molikpaq and the PA-B is blended with gas condensate from the Lunskoye field. The blend of crude is used to produce petrol, kerosene, diesel fuel, and source materials for the petrochemicals industry. Molikpaq (Piltun-Astokhskoye-A) was the first offshore oil platform, installed in 1998 during phase 1 of the Sakhalin 2 project.

Case: the Western gray whale is on the brink of disappearing forever

The offshore gas and oil extraction by Sakhalin Energy interferes with the feeding grounds of the Western gray whale. Western gray whales feast throughout the summer and autumn in the waters off Sakhalin Island. The estimated population size in 2009 was about 130 whales, including only around 30 mature females. The population, which is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM, could be driven to extinction by the mortality of just a small number of reproductive females.

In 2006 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) created a panel of independent scientists – the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel (WGWAP) – which provides scientific advice and recommendations on the operational plans and mitigation measures by Sakhalin Energy. On the first day of the 9th meeting of the WGWAP (4-6 December 2010, Geneva, Switzerland) Sakhalin Energy announced a plan to construct another offshore oil and gas platform.

The NGOs World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Pacific Environment, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Sakhalin Environment Watch strongly oppose the construction of a new platform and associated subsea pipeline. Subsequently, they also oppose the seismic survey in preparation for this platform, which is announced by Sakhalin Energy to take place during the summer of 2011.

The NGOs have urged the WGWAP to strongly recommend that Sakhalin Energy will not develop the extra platform. To underpin their statement, the NGOs have put forward several arguments:

− The acoustic pollution due to all platform-related activities near an area of high whale density might scare the whales away from their feeding grounds.

− There are increasing risks that a vessel might strike a whale.

− The risk of a Sakhalin-2 platform-related oil spill and/or additional subsea pipeline accident risk increases by 50%.

− The marine ecosystem may get polluted through drilling.

− The Western gray whales are likely already stressed from major seismic surveys which took place in 2010. Assessment of the full range of impacts (including impacts to feeding and reproduction) of the 2010 seismic surveys will not be possible until late 2011.

− It is essential to, at first, evaluate the cumulative impacts on the Western gray whales from the variety of different off shore oil and gas activities off Sakhalin Island.

− There is no good reason why the seismic survey needs to happen in 2011, as Sakhalin Energy has reiterated that a decision whether or not to go ahead with building the new platform would not be taken for several years.

− Sakhalin Energy has already put out a tender for the seismic survey and ruled out some design alternatives. The proposed route of the associated subsea pipeline(s) have not been disclosed even in the most cursory form. All this contradicts the repeated call for information on company activities to be presented to the WGWAP and observer organizations in a timely manner.

− The construction of a new platform fundamentally changes the full Sakhalin II project scope. Prior WGWAP recommendations (which are required by lenders) were based on an assumption that a total of two platforms would be built. The same is true of prior lender decisions, and Russian environmental regulatory decisions. Thus, Sakhalin Energy’s revelation brings into question whether the WGWAP should review the adequacy of prior recommendations.

THE COMPLETE 73 PAGE REPORT (with reference sources)

RELATED ARTICLE: 6 Oil Wells On Sakhalin Go Offline Moscow Times 14 October 2011

VANGUARD

OCTOBER 16, 2011

By Emma Amaize in The Netherlands

NIGERIAN Embassy in The Netherlands,  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands and Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, avoided taking a risk, weekend,   when the  prosecution of  a Nigerian-Dutch activist, Comrade Sunny Ofehe, by the Netherlands government for alleged pipeline bombing in Nigeria reverberated at an international conference on the Niger-Delta in Rotterdam.

But Ofehe’s  lawyer, Mr. Ed Manders of Manders Advocaten, who spoke to journalists 24 hours earlier in his office in Rotterdam, said the case of terrorism by The Netherlands police against his client, who is the founder/president of the Hope for Niger-Delta Campaign, HNDC, was not provable, as the prosecution was merely relying on a phone conversation in which the activist requested for an opportunity to videotape an oil bunkering activity in Nigeria.

Nigerian Ambassador to The Netherlands, Dr. (Mrs.) Nimota Akanbi, who was reacting to the allegation that the Federal Government kept mute while its citizen was being prosecuted abroad in what the Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta and Chief Executive Officer of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Hon Kingsley Kuku described as “persecution”, said “the Embassy is monitoring the case”.

The Head Horn of Africa, East and West Africa, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, Mr. Michiel Beirkins, and Strategic Business Manager, SPDC, Mr. Barnabas Briggs, who spoke at a conference, organized by HNDC, on “Success and Challenges of Nigeria Government Amnesty Programme: Role of International Community”, said since the case was already in court, it would be groundless to comment on it.

Akanbi, who was represented by a minister in the embassy, Mr. Mustapha Kida, received some bashing from the former national president of the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Dr. Chris Ekiyor, and other Nigerians who attended the conference for not personally attending the event. She was supposed to have delivered a lecture, “Nigeria-Dutch Bilateral Relations: Impact on the Niger-Delta”, but she stayed away when she learnt that  Kuku rushed back to Nigeria.

However, Kida maintained, “As an embassy, part of our functions is to take care of all Nigerians in The Netherlands. We were concerned when we read that he (Ofehe) was charged before the Dutch court”.

SOURCE

14 October 2011
Vedomosti

Dysfunctional oil wells at Sakhalin-2 are threatening to decrease production at the field in Russia’s Far East and could be indicative of more serious problems.

Last year Sakhalin Energy extracted 6.1 million tons of oil, while Molikpaq yielded 2.2 million tons. If all factors remain the same, Molikpaq will be short 440,000 tons of oil this year, and the production for the entire project will fall short 7 percent.

ENDS

SOURCE

RELATED ARTICLES

(1) The inside story of Shell’s Sakhalin II debacle

(2) Shell Fixes Sakhalin Violations (Moscow Times)

(3) Sakhalin Pep Talk From ‘Old Blood and Guts’ (Moscow Times)

(4) Sakhalin Energy’s Greer Steps Down (Moscow Times

Sakhalin Energy’s Greer Steps Down

Friday, June 22, 2007. Issue 3683. Page 5.
By Max Delany
Staff Writer

David Greer, the Sakhalin Energy deputy CEO running the giant Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, has left the company unexpectedly just weeks after a leaked e-mail he wrote revealed the pressure that managers working there were facing.

Greer’s departure comes as Shell is adjusting to ceding control of the $20 billion project to Gazprom after sustained state pressure.

“I can confirm that David Greer has left the company to pursue other business interests,” Sakhalin Energy spokesman Ivan Chernyakhovsky said Thursday. He did not elaborate on Greer’s future plans.

“He decided to leave the company and left the company,” Chernyakovsky said. “We wish him well in his future after working at Sakhalin Energy for 3 1/2 years.”

Chernyakovsky said any suggestion that the departure of Greer, a 27-year Shell veteran, was connected to the leaked e-mail was “pure speculation.”

Shell spokesman Maxim Shub could not say when Greer had offered his resignation, saying only that the announcement was made Thursday.

Greer could not be reached by cell phone Thursday evening.

Sakhalin Energy’s technical director, Jaap Huijskes, has been appointed as the new project director for the remainder of the Phase-2 development, a source inside Shell confirmed.

A motivational e-mail written by Greer to staff working on the project, originally leaked to an anti-Shell web site, Royaldutchshellplc.com, was the subject of a front-page story in the Financial Times earlier this month.

It also emerged that Greer had borrowed heavily in the e-mail from a speech made by U.S. General George Patton on the eve of the D-Day landings in World War II, with phrases such as “Lead me, follow me or get out of my way.”

Greer’s memo, written shortly after Gazprom officially took control of the Sakhalin-2 project this spring, took the form of a bombastic pep talk.

Citing bad body language and comments at a biannual meeting, the e-mail said that senior managers at Sakhalin Energy were running “the risk of becoming a team that doesn’t want to fight and lacks confidence in its own ability.”

Last December, Shell and its Japanese partners ceded majority control of the project, Russia’s first to process and export liquefied natural gas, to Gazprom after a sustained 1 1/2-year campaign of state pressure over purported environmental violations.

Ian Craig, head of Sakhalin Energy, the project operator, is due to be replaced by a Gazprom manager once the project comes on line. LNG shipments to Asia are due to begin next year.