Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

The Shell Game

I've told everyone that would listen not to buy Shell oil or gas because of the situation in Nigeria. Most people, these being largely black people, didn't care. The same excuse was always given: I live here, blah blah blah. anyway. the NYTimes has an article covering Shells recent reserves issues
turns out a part of the reason for overstating reserves was too prop up the Nigerian government. The same government that put Ken Saro Wiwa to death for advocating that Shell stop polluting his peoples land. I told ya'll Shell was dirty.

quote:

In any case, the documents about Nigeria offer a far bleaker assessment of Nigerian operations than the company's public disclosures.

Nigeria, for example, has called for an end to the practice of flaring, or burning off, natural gas that is a byproduct of oil production; two billion cubic feet of natural gas are burned this way in Nigeria every day, and this has become an environmental and political issue. Mr. Corrigan said the company was committed to meeting the target. Shell's Web site says "this opportunity" to gather gas "is going well."

But the Shell documents present a different view. A high-level review in December found that many oil field projects did not include plans to gather natural gas, and that "oil production would have to be shut in," or stopped, unless the company found a way to use the gas. Shell could sell it in Europe or the United States, but natural gas is expensive to transport across the ocean.

Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/business/worldbusiness/19OIL.html?hp