Firm challenges BP & Shell acquisitions
Saturday, 16 June 2012 19:44
Darlington Musarurwa
Business Editor
A local petroleum firm, Hughber Petroleum, has filed an application in the High Court seeking the nullification of the acquisition of BP & Shell assets by Masawara through its subsidiary FMI Energy Zimbabwe Limited (FMIE) and for it to be substituted as the purchaser, it has been learnt.
The company put in a competing bid for the former BP and Shell assets in 2010.
By last month, FMIE and two other respondents — the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (Nieeb) and the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment — had been served with the papers.
However, BP Africa Limited and the Shell Petroleum Company Limited had not been served with the application by May 2.
It is understood that the ministry and the board are opposing the application.
Hughber Petroleum was formed in 1999 by Mr Hurbert Nyambuya, a former regional manager with Total Zimbabwe, and is a member of the Indigenous Petroleum Group of Zimbabwe.
On March 24 last year the AIM (Alternative Investment Market)-listed Masawara, through its wholly owned subsidiary FMI Energy Zimbabwe (Private) Limited, concluded the acquisition of BP Zimbabwe and Shell Zimbabwe for $32,7 million.
In a recent statement accompanying the company’s annual results, Masawara contended that the court application “is fundamentally flawed and has no merit, and that it will ultimately be dismissed by the court”.
“Hughber Petroleum (Private) Limited (“Hughber”), a company that put in a competing bid for the former BP and Shell assets in 2010, filed an application in the High Court of Zimbabwe in February 2012 seeking an order for, inter alia, the nullification of the acquisition of these assets by FMI Energy Zimbabwe (Private) Limited (“FMIE”) and for it to be substituted as the purchaser in place of FMIE.
“FMIE and two other respondents that have been served with papers, that is the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board and the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, are opposing the application.
“As at 3 May, 2012, the other respondents, BP Africa Limited and the Shell Petroleum Company Limited, had not yet been served with the application. The directors of the company believe that the court application is fundamentally flawed and has no merit, and that it will ultimately be dismissed by the court,” noted Masawara.
Though Nieeb is believed to be opposing the court application, earlier this year it accused Masawara in a 23-page report of misrepresenting its shareholder composition and also failure to carry out an employee shareholder scheme — a precondition for the consummation of the acquisition.
Ultimately, the board recommended the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, Mr Saviour Kasukuwere, to cancel the deal.
Said Nieeb: “We recommend revocation of the approval. The legal implication will be that the two parties will not be legally able to conclude their agreement. Both parties will revert to the status quo. The company will continue to operate under BP and Shell through local management until properly indigenised.”
The recent court application is the third hurdle faced by the Mr Shingi Mutasa-led group after the deal was also queried by Nieeb and the Competition and Tariff Commission early this year.
When the deal was conceived, three entities — Masawara Group, Masawara Mauritius Limited (MML) and FMI Zimbabwe — were central to the transaction.
FMI Zimbabwe is wholly owned by MML, which, in turn, is also owned by Masawara.
However, by the end of March last year, MML had formed a joint venture with a Mauritian-based firm, Alveir Management Limited, with the former holding 51 percent and the latter having 49 percent in the resultant entity — Masawara Energy Mauritius (MEM).
MEM, which wholly owns FMI Energy Zimbabwe, now controls BP and Shell assets.
Critics argue that MEM “has a different DNA” to FMI Energy Zimbabwe, which was the initial applicant; and, therefore, cannot be compelled to comply with the local empowerment legislation since it is based in Mauritius.
FMI Holdings, which controls the FMI group of companies, is an investment company incorporated in Zimbabwe under registration number 3181/90. Its shareholders include: Listerton Investments, owned by the Mr Shingi Mutasa Family Trust, S. Mutasa and L. Mutasa; Invesco, which is considered an inactive shareholder with a 25,5 percent; and private investors based in the UK.
Initially fears raised by Nieeb were that FMI Holdings shareholding in the Masawara group had been diluted to 26 percent, which is below the approved threshold, and there was a possibility of it to be whittled further since the company had borrowed money from an “unknown bank” on October 31 2011 and offered $50 million FMI Holdings shares as collateral.
Masawara, formed as a Zimbabwe-focused business, last year acquired 50 percent in telecommunications business Telerix Communications in January and a 15 percent stake in iWay Africa in October.
In addition, the company also shored up its stake in TA Holdings from 30 percent to 37,73 percent.
Meanwhile, in the annual report, Masawara reported that for the year ended December 31 2011 it realised a $6,7 million profit from a loss of $3,3 million buoyed by a gain on the bargain purchase of BP & Shell assets of $9,2 million.
TA holdings also performed well after recording a net profit of $6,3 million, with the group’s share of profit being $1,6 million.
iWay Africa and Telerix, however, underperformed and will be restructured during the course of the year.
In particular, Telerix incurred a loss of $3,2 million for the period due to costs related to the development and testing of the WiMAX network that is expected to be launched before the end of the year.
Joina City showed signs of growth with revenues jumping to $1,2 million in the review period from $538 000 in the same period a year ago. At the end of the period, the retail section was 90 percent occupied, while the office tower was 29 percent occupied.
As part of a comprehensive restructure of the group, more than $800 000 has since been used in the retrenchment at TA Holdings and at the Zimbabwe hotels head office.
Already, a decision has been made to divest from PG Industries and from the Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company.
Labels: BP, OIL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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Shell Oil in Nigeria: A Social and Environmental Disaster
by Friends of the Earth International
Global Research, May 21, 2012
Friends of the Earth International
MAY 21st, 2012
SEVENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE ASK OIL GIANT SHELL TO CLEAN UP ITS MESS IN NIGERIA
AMSTERDAM (THE NETHERLANDS), May 21st, 2012 – On the eve of the annual general meeting of oil giant Shell, Friends of the Earth International announced that it will deliver to Shell CEO Peter Voser some 70,000 signatures of people who want Shell to start cleaning up its mess in the oil-rich and highly polluted Niger delta in Nigeria.
The signatories believe that Shell must take responsibility for its pollution and provide a US$1 billion emergency fund needed to start cleaning up the Niger Delta.
Friends of the Earth International Corporates campaigner Paul de Clerk will deliver the signatures at the Shell meeting in The Hague on May 22.
The signatures were collected by the organisation SumOfUs [1] in close cooperation with Friends of the Earth and Amnesty International.
Nnimmo Bassey, director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria and chair of Friends of the Earth International, said:
“Shell continues to reap obscene profits from the oil fields of Nigeria at the expense of the lives and the livelihoods of the poor people. As we speak Shell is intensifying its poisoning of the environment and the peoples of the region. by our records Shell had over 200 oil spills in 2011 alone and the 2012 tally is rising already. Shell must stop the poisoning and start cleaning up its mess right now.”
Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth International corporates campaign coordinator, said:
"Almost one year has passed since the UN presented its report on Shell's pollution of Ogoniland. But we are still waiting for a comprehensive plan from Shell to clean up its mess. The first step recommended by the UN was US$1 billion emergency fund for clean up. We want Shell to commit to that today".
Friends of the Earth Netherlands campaigners will stand outside the May 22 Shell meeting and offer to Shell shareholders the opportunity to taste a sip of contaminated water from the Niger Delta: water with hydrocarbons such as benzene, but also other hazardous chemicals such as barium. This is the only 'drinking' water which many residents of the Niger Delta can drink.
Over the past decades Shell let tens of millions of litres of oil to stream into the Niger Delta by refusing to properly maintain the pipeline network. Moreover, the AngloDutch multinational still does not comply with the Nigerian ban on gas flaring.
Because Shell is doing so little, Friends of the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie started an international campaign which members of the public can support at www.worsethanbad.org
For instance three people will win the opportunity to go with Friends of the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie on a mission to Nigeria and see with their own eyes what Shell has brought about.
In August 2011 the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) launched a report about oil pollution in Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta. UNEP’s report was harsh on Shell — for instance, it reported on the inadequacy of Shell’s previous halfhearted clean-up efforts, stating that “the difference between a cleaned-up site and a site awaiting clean-up was not always obvious.”
UNEP concluded that the maintenance of the Shell infrastructure “has been and remains inadequate” and calls for a $1 billion starter fund for clean-up in the Ogoniland region to be contributed.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth International corporates campaign coordinator:
Tel +32 494 38 09 59 or Paul@milieudefensie.nl
Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth Nigeria and chair of Friends of the Earth International:
Tel: +234 52 880619 (Benin city, Nigeria office) +234 803 727 4395 (Nigerian cell), Nnimmo@eraction.org
Friends of the Earth Netherlands / Milieudefensie press office:
+31 (0)20 – 5507 333, persvoorlichting@milieudefensie.nl or visit www.worsethanbad.org
Labels: NIGERIA, OIL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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Shell 'lied' about oil spill
JOHN VIDAL Apr 26 2012 00:00
A Shell oil spill in the Niger Delta was at least 60 times greater than the company reported at the time, according to unpublished documents obtained by Amnesty International.
According to Shell, the 2008 spill from a faulty weld on a pipeline resulted in 1640 barrels of oil being spilt near the town of Bodo in Ogoniland. The figure was based on an assessment agreed at the time by the company, the government oil spill agency, the Nigerian oil regulator and a representative of the community.
But a previously unpublished assessment, carried out by independent United States oil spill consultancy firm Accufacts, suggests that between 103 000 barrels and 311 000 barrels of oil were flooding into the Bodo creeks every day for as long as 72 days following the leak. Accufacts arrived at the figure following analysis of video footage of the leak taken at the time by local people.
"The difference is staggering: even using the lower end of the Accufacts estimate, the volume of oil spilt at Bodo was more than 60 times the volume Shell has repeatedly claimed leaked," said Audrey Gaughran, director of global issues at Amnesty International.
The amount of oil spilled will be key to a high court case expected to be heard in London later this year. Shell is being sued by nearly 11000 Bodo inhabitants. The community, represented by the London law firm Leigh Day, is thought to be seeking more than $150-million to clean up the creeks that, four years after the spill, remain coated in oil. -- © Guardian News & Media 2012
Labels: NIGERIA, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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COMMENT - Copperbelt to follow, I hope.
UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment Reveals Extent of Environmental Contamination and Threats to Human Health
Abuja, 4 August 2011 - The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health.
A major new independent scientific assessment, carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), shows that pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the region has penetrated further and deeper than many may have supposed.
The assessment has been unprecedented. Over a 14-month period, the UNEP team examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records and engaged over 23,000 people at local community meetings.
Detailed soil and groundwater contamination investigations were conducted at 69 sites, which ranged in size from 1,300 square metres (Barabeedom-K.dere, Gokana local government area (LGA) to 79 hectares (Ajeokpori-Akpajo, Eleme LGA).
Altogether more than 4,000 samples were analyzed, including water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifically for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes.
Key Findings
Some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground and action to protect human health and reduce the risks to affected communities should occur without delay says UNEP's Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland.
In at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened, according to the assessment that was released today.
In one community, at Nisisioken Ogale, in western Ogoniland, families are drinking water from wells that is contaminated with benzene- a known carcinogen-at levels over 900 times above World Health Organization guidelines. The site is close to a Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline.
UNEP scientists found an 8 cm layer of refined oil floating on the groundwater which serves the wells. This was reportedly linked to an oil spill which occurred more than six years ago.
While the report provides clear operational recommendations for addressing the widespread oil pollution across Ogoniland, UNEP recommends that the contamination in Nisisioken Ogale warrants emergency action ahead of all other remediation efforts.
While some on-the-ground results could be immediate, overall the report estimates that countering and cleaning up the pollution and catalyzing a sustainable recovery of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years.
This work will require the deployment of modern technology to clean up contaminated land and water, improved environmental monitoring and regulation and collaborative action between the government, the Ogoni people and the oil industry.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said the report provided the scientific basis on which a long overdue and concerted environmental restoration of Ogoniland, a kingdom in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, can begin.
"The oil industry has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have paid a high price, as this assessment underlines," he said.
"It is UNEP's hope that the findings can break the decades of deadlock in the region and provide the foundation upon which trust can be built and action undertaken to remedy the multiple health and sustainable development issues facing people in Ogoniland. In addition it offers a blueprint for how the oil industry-and public regulatory authorities- might operate more responsibly in Africa and beyond at a time of increasing production and exploration across many parts of the Continent," said Mr Steiner.
"The clean-up of Ogoniland will not only address a tragic legacy but also represents a major ecological restoration enterprise with potentially multiple positive effects ranging from bringing the various stakeholders together in a single concerted cause to achieving lasting improvements for the Ogoni people," said the UNEP Executive Director.
UNEP today presented its report to the President of Nigeria, The Hon Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Among its other findings are:-
* Control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland has been and remains inadequate: the Shell Petroleum Development Company's own procedures have not been applied, creating public health and safety issues.
* The impact of oil on mangrove vegetation has been disastrous. Oil pollution in many intertidal creeks has left mangroves-nurseries for fish and natural pollution filters- denuded of leaves and stems with roots coated in a layer of bitumen-type substance sometimes one centimetre or more thick.
* The five highest concentrations of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons detected in groundwater exceed 1 million micrograms per litre (µg/l) - compared to the Nigerian standard for groundwater of 600 µg/l.
* When an oil spill occurs on land, fires often break out, killing vegetation and creating a crust over the land, making remediation or revegetation difficult. At some sites, a crust of ash and tar has been in place for several decades.
* The surface water throughout the creeks in and surrounding Ogoniland contain hydrocarbons. Floating layers of oil vary from thick black oil to thin sheens.
* Despite community concerns, the results show that fish consumption in Ogoniland, either of those caught locally or purchased from markets, was not posing a health risk.
The report says that fish tend to leave polluted areas in search of cleaner water. However, the fisheries sector is suffering due to the destruction of fish habitat and highly persistent contamination of many creeks. Where entrepreneurs have established fish farms for example their businesses have been ruined by an "ever-present" layer of floating oil.
* The Ogoni community is exposed to hydrocarbons every day through multiple routes. While the impact of individual contaminated land sites tends to be localized, air pollution related to oil industry operations is all pervasive and affecting the quality of life of close to one million people.
* Artisanal refining (a practice whereby crude oil illegally obtained from oil industry operations is refined in primitive stills), is endangering lives and ultimately causing pockets of environmental devastation in Ogoniland and neighbouring areas.
Remote sensing revealed that in Bodo West, in Bonny LGA, an increase in artisanal refining between 2007 and 2011 has been accompanied by a 10% loss of healthy mangrove cover - or over 307,380 square metres.
* Remediation by enhanced natural attenuation (RENA) - a way of boosting the ability of naturally-occuring microbes to breakdown oil and so far the only remediation method observed by UNEP in Ogoniland - has not proven to be effective.
Currently, SPDC applies this technique on the land surface layer only, based on the assumption that given the kind of oil concerned, factors such as temperature and an underlying layer of clay, hydrocarbons will not move deeper. However, in 49 cases UNEP observed hydrocarbons in soil at depths of at least 5 m.
Next Steps Recommendations
Through a combination of approaches, individual contaminated land areas in Ogoniland can be cleaned up within five years, while the restoration of heavily-impacted mangrove stands and swamplands will take up to 30 years.
However, according to the report, all sources of ongoing contamination must be brought to an end before the clean-up of the creeks, sediments and mangroves can begin.
The report recommends establishing three new institutions in Nigeria to support a comprehensive environmental restoration exercise.
A proposed Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority would oversee implementation of the study's recommendations and should be set up during a Transition Phase which UNEP suggests should begin as soon as possible.
The Authority's activities should be funded by an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland, to be set up with an initial capital injection of US$1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the government, to cover the first five years of the clean-up project.
A recommended Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre, to be built in Ogoniland and supported by potentially hundreds of mini treatment centres, would treat contaminated soil and provide hundreds of job opportunities.
The report also recommends creating a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Restoration in Ogoniland to promote learning and benefit other communities impacted by oil contamination in the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the world.
Reforms of environmental government regulation, monitoring and enforcement, and improved practices by the oil industry are also recommended in the report.
Notes to Editors
The Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland report is available online at: www.unep.org/nigeria
Site-specific fact sheets containing detailed information about 67 of the contaminated sites studied in detail are also available at this website.
This report details how the UNEP team carried out their work, where samples were taken and the findings that they have made.
The UNEP assessment, alongside options for remediation, was conducted at the request of the Government of Nigeria. If requested, UNEP is willing to remain a committed partner of the Nigerian authorities and of the Ogoni people as they address the environmental challenges ahead.
For More Information Please Contact:
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson / Head of Media +254 733 632 755 or nick.nuttall@unep.org
Julie Marks UNEP Communications Advisor +41 794 419 937 or +234 816 0944 693 julie.marks@unep.org
Labels: ENVIRONMENT, OIL, POLLUTION, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment Reveals Extent of Environmental Contamination and Threats to Human Health
Abuja, 4 August 2011 - The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health.
A major new independent scientific assessment, carried out by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), shows that pollution from over 50 years of oil operations in the region has penetrated further and deeper than many may have supposed.
The assessment has been unprecedented. Over a 14-month period, the UNEP team examined more than 200 locations, surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way, reviewed more than 5,000 medical records and engaged over 23,000 people at local community meetings.
Detailed soil and groundwater contamination investigations were conducted at 69 sites, which ranged in size from 1,300 square metres (Barabeedom-K.dere, Gokana local government area (LGA) to 79 hectares (Ajeokpori-Akpajo, Eleme LGA).
Altogether more than 4,000 samples were analyzed, including water taken from 142 groundwater monitoring wells drilled specifically for the study and soil extracted from 780 boreholes.
Key Findings
Some areas, which appear unaffected at the surface, are in reality severely contaminated underground and action to protect human health and reduce the risks to affected communities should occur without delay says UNEP's Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland.
In at least 10 Ogoni communities where drinking water is contaminated with high levels of hydrocarbons, public health is seriously threatened, according to the assessment that was released today.
In one community, at Nisisioken Ogale, in western Ogoniland, families are drinking water from wells that is contaminated with benzene- a known carcinogen-at levels over 900 times above World Health Organization guidelines. The site is close to a Nigerian National Petroleum Company pipeline.
UNEP scientists found an 8 cm layer of refined oil floating on the groundwater which serves the wells. This was reportedly linked to an oil spill which occurred more than six years ago.
While the report provides clear operational recommendations for addressing the widespread oil pollution across Ogoniland, UNEP recommends that the contamination in Nisisioken Ogale warrants emergency action ahead of all other remediation efforts.
While some on-the-ground results could be immediate, overall the report estimates that countering and cleaning up the pollution and catalyzing a sustainable recovery of Ogoniland could take 25 to 30 years.
This work will require the deployment of modern technology to clean up contaminated land and water, improved environmental monitoring and regulation and collaborative action between the government, the Ogoni people and the oil industry.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said the report provided the scientific basis on which a long overdue and concerted environmental restoration of Ogoniland, a kingdom in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, can begin.
"The oil industry has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have paid a high price, as this assessment underlines," he said.
"It is UNEP's hope that the findings can break the decades of deadlock in the region and provide the foundation upon which trust can be built and action undertaken to remedy the multiple health and sustainable development issues facing people in Ogoniland. In addition it offers a blueprint for how the oil industry-and public regulatory authorities- might operate more responsibly in Africa and beyond at a time of increasing production and exploration across many parts of the Continent," said Mr Steiner.
"The clean-up of Ogoniland will not only address a tragic legacy but also represents a major ecological restoration enterprise with potentially multiple positive effects ranging from bringing the various stakeholders together in a single concerted cause to achieving lasting improvements for the Ogoni people," said the UNEP Executive Director.
UNEP today presented its report to the President of Nigeria, The Hon Goodluck Jonathan, in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Among its other findings are:-
* Control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland has been and remains inadequate: the Shell Petroleum Development Company's own procedures have not been applied, creating public health and safety issues.
* The impact of oil on mangrove vegetation has been disastrous. Oil pollution in many intertidal creeks has left mangroves-nurseries for fish and natural pollution filters- denuded of leaves and stems with roots coated in a layer of bitumen-type substance sometimes one centimetre or more thick.
* The five highest concentrations of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons detected in groundwater exceed 1 million micrograms per litre (µg/l) - compared to the Nigerian standard for groundwater of 600 µg/l.
* When an oil spill occurs on land, fires often break out, killing vegetation and creating a crust over the land, making remediation or revegetation difficult. At some sites, a crust of ash and tar has been in place for several decades.
* The surface water throughout the creeks in and surrounding Ogoniland contain hydrocarbons. Floating layers of oil vary from thick black oil to thin sheens.
* Despite community concerns, the results show that fish consumption in Ogoniland, either of those caught locally or purchased from markets, was not posing a health risk.
The report says that fish tend to leave polluted areas in search of cleaner water. However, the fisheries sector is suffering due to the destruction of fish habitat and highly persistent contamination of many creeks. Where entrepreneurs have established fish farms for example their businesses have been ruined by an "ever-present" layer of floating oil.
* The Ogoni community is exposed to hydrocarbons every day through multiple routes. While the impact of individual contaminated land sites tends to be localized, air pollution related to oil industry operations is all pervasive and affecting the quality of life of close to one million people.
* Artisanal refining (a practice whereby crude oil illegally obtained from oil industry operations is refined in primitive stills), is endangering lives and ultimately causing pockets of environmental devastation in Ogoniland and neighbouring areas.
Remote sensing revealed that in Bodo West, in Bonny LGA, an increase in artisanal refining between 2007 and 2011 has been accompanied by a 10% loss of healthy mangrove cover - or over 307,380 square metres.
* Remediation by enhanced natural attenuation (RENA) - a way of boosting the ability of naturally-occuring microbes to breakdown oil and so far the only remediation method observed by UNEP in Ogoniland - has not proven to be effective.
Currently, SPDC applies this technique on the land surface layer only, based on the assumption that given the kind of oil concerned, factors such as temperature and an underlying layer of clay, hydrocarbons will not move deeper. However, in 49 cases UNEP observed hydrocarbons in soil at depths of at least 5 m.
Next Steps Recommendations
Through a combination of approaches, individual contaminated land areas in Ogoniland can be cleaned up within five years, while the restoration of heavily-impacted mangrove stands and swamplands will take up to 30 years.
However, according to the report, all sources of ongoing contamination must be brought to an end before the clean-up of the creeks, sediments and mangroves can begin.
The report recommends establishing three new institutions in Nigeria to support a comprehensive environmental restoration exercise.
A proposed Ogoniland Environmental Restoration Authority would oversee implementation of the study's recommendations and should be set up during a Transition Phase which UNEP suggests should begin as soon as possible.
The Authority's activities should be funded by an Environmental Restoration Fund for Ogoniland, to be set up with an initial capital injection of US$1 billion contributed by the oil industry and the government, to cover the first five years of the clean-up project.
A recommended Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre, to be built in Ogoniland and supported by potentially hundreds of mini treatment centres, would treat contaminated soil and provide hundreds of job opportunities.
The report also recommends creating a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Restoration in Ogoniland to promote learning and benefit other communities impacted by oil contamination in the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the world.
Reforms of environmental government regulation, monitoring and enforcement, and improved practices by the oil industry are also recommended in the report.
Notes to Editors
The Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland report is available online at: www.unep.org/nigeria
Site-specific fact sheets containing detailed information about 67 of the contaminated sites studied in detail are also available at this website.
This report details how the UNEP team carried out their work, where samples were taken and the findings that they have made.
The UNEP assessment, alongside options for remediation, was conducted at the request of the Government of Nigeria. If requested, UNEP is willing to remain a committed partner of the Nigerian authorities and of the Ogoni people as they address the environmental challenges ahead.
For More Information Please Contact:
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson / Head of Media +254 733 632 755 or nick.nuttall@unep.org
Julie Marks UNEP Communications Advisor +41 794 419 937 or +234 816 0944 693 julie.marks@unep.org
Labels: ENVIRONMENT, OIL, POLLUTION, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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Farmers say 'no fracking way' to Shell
FIONA MACLEOD Apr 15 2011 10:58
Shell's plans to drill wells for natural gas across a large swathe of the Karoo are fatally flawed and should be rejected, according to lawyers representing local landowners.
Derek Light Attorneys criticised Shell's environmental management plan submitted to the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (Pasa) this week, describing it as "a worthless paper exercise" that was misleading, biased, unprocedural and unconstitutional.
The attorneys also represent AgriSA and business tycoon Johann Rupert, who owns a farm in the Karoo. The area is the world's largest mohair producer and has wool, red meat and ecotourism sectors.
Shell Exploration, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, this week submitted plans to Pasa for wells to be drilled at various sites in the Karoo Basin using controversial hydraulic fracturing, colloquially known as "fracking".
"The general perception is put across in the draft environmental management plan that Shell maintains some lofty internationally accepted environmental standard that must surely be good enough for the South African context," said the lawyers' critique.
"The strategy that Shell knowingly followed by submitting this fatally flawed plan is in fact an attempt to bypass legislation that is in place to protect the people of South Africa."
Shell's plan has set the stage for a possible legal battle over its ambitions to drill for natural gas in shale formations that cover about 90% of South Africa. The country has the world's fifth-largest shale gas reserves and oil giant Shell, which reported profits of $18,6-billion last year, is one of several companies preparing extraction applications.
Well sites inadequate
Fritz Bekker, an environmental practitioner asked by the attorneys to review Shell's plan, said the impact of fracking could include chemical contamination, gas flaring, explosions and water reduction in an already water stressed environment.
Most of the proposed fracking activities were listed and needed environmental authorisation and impact assessments, but Shell's consultants, Golder Associates, had attempted to bypass these requirements.
"All risks to the environment and the people of the Karoo must first be investigated in detailed site specific specialist investigations before applications for unfamiliar and invasive exploration technologies should be considered," Bekker said.
CONTINUES BELOW
Shell's plan suggested that eight wells would be drilled in each of the three areas it had mapped out for fracking, but no assurance was given that drilling would be confined to this. "It must therefore be assumed that Shell will drill as many wells as it may require …
"We are of the view that the size of well sites has been understated and that the proposed one hectare exploration well sites provided for [in the plan] will be inadequate," the review said.
'Speculative' plans
Bekker said the 50-odd scientists who worked on the review estimated that each well site would have to include storage bunkers for explosives and hazardous chemicals, drilling tailings and rigs, gas burners, roads and accommodation facilities.
Shell's application did not include a plan to manage or rehabilitate these and other environmental impacts of fracking, in contravention of the relevant legislation, he said.
The review also criticised the public participation process involved in Shell's application. Given the unregulated and invasive nature of fracking, landowners should have been notified in writing and given the opportunity to make meaningful input, it said.
Instead, a limited number of landowners were invited to several public meetings hosted by Shell and were given less than a month to comment on "speculative" plans posted on Golder's website.
"As a consequence hundreds of landowners, perhaps thousands of interested persons, are still unaware of the process and the landowners have been prevented from participating meaningfully in the consultation process."
'No adverse impacts'
Bekker told the Mail & Guardian that a fatal flaw in Shell's application was the assertion by Golder that fracking would cause "no adverse impacts".
"The National Environmental Management Act specifies that environmental consultants must not be biased.
"Golder Associates played along with Shell's strategy by conjuring a far-reaching blanket finding that no adverse impact will occur as a result of Shell's activities on any environmental aspects, socio-economic conditions or cultural heritage resources in the Karoo.
"They have risked tarnishing their professional integrity by presenting this biased document as an environmental management plan and could be charged under the Act."
Detailed questions about the review, sent by the M&G to both Shell and Golder, were not answered. Pasa and the department of mineral resources have 120 days to decide on Shell's application.
Life's not a gas when you live near the wells
The mayor of Dish in Texas, Calvin Tillman, decided to leave town when his sons repeatedly woke up at night with mysterious nosebleeds.
Tillman told the Huffington Post recently he had spent his time in office fighting to regulate natural gas companies that have drilled 60 fracking wells into shale. But when his five-year-old son awoke with a severe nosebleed in the middle of a night filled with strong odours from the wells, he had no choice but to leave.
"He had blood all over his hands, blood on the walls, our house looked somewhat like a murder scene," he said.
Nosebleeds reported by many residents living near the thousands of wells dotted around the American landscape are just one reason why fracking is under intense government scrutiny in the United States.
A moratorium on the gas-extraction technique has been imposed by at least 160 communities in the US, as well as in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Canada's Quebec province.
In February, the New York Times published government documents that showed unacceptably high levels of radiation in drinking water near some wells. The documents revealed that waste water from some wells was being hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water.
Gasland, a documentary by Josh Fox exposing the dangers of fracking, which has been shown at various locations in South Africa, was a runner-up in the "best documentary" category at this year's Oscars.
And in a special report on "The great shale gas rush", National Geographic reported late last year that fracking wells had destroyed the Pennsylvanian idyll of a young couple, Chris and Stephanie Hallowich. After settling on 10 acres of long-fallow farmland, the couple found themselves surrounded by an industrial panorama that included four wells, a gas processing plant, a compressor station, buried pipelines, a three-acre plastic-lined holding pond, and a road with truck traffic.
"It's ruined our lives. That's what it comes down to," said Chris Hallowich. "It's ruined our plans that we had for the kids. It's ruined what we thought was our perfect 10 acres."
What is fracking?
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves injecting huge amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressure to break up rock formations and release natural gas.
A fracking well can produce millions of litres of waste water, which is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens such as benzene and radioactive elements including radium, all of which can occur naturally underground. Other carcinogenic [cancer causing] materials can be added to the waste water by the chemicals used in the fracking process.
Shell's environmental management plan said it would use "green" chemical additives in the Karoo. The critical review responded that this "is misleading as it is unknown what the chemical composition of the fracturing fluids will be".
"Many of these chemicals are carcinogenic, hormone disruptors, mutagens [gene disruptors] or simply toxic to various organs or to the ecology. Others are secret or proprietary mixtures," said environmental researcher Glenn Ashton.
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has documented diesel and radioactive material in fracking waste water. It said that it could not be made safe. According to a recent report in the New York Times radioactivity in the waste water in Pennsylvania, which has roughly 71 000 active gas wells, is sometimes hundreds or even thousands of times the maximum federal limit.
Labels: ENERGY, POLLUTION, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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Nigeria to charge Dick Cheney in $180 million bribery case, issue Interpol arrest warrant
by John Byrne
Global Research, December 2, 2010
The company that Dick Cheney ran prior to becoming Vice President of the United States was atop the tongue of liberals each time his company was awarded a contract in Iraq. Now the company's name, Halliburton, is being spoken somewhere else: Nigeria.
According to a story filed late Wednesday, Cheney will be indicted in a Nigerian bribery case as part of an investigation into an alleged $180 million bribery scandal.
"Last week, Nigeria arrested at least 23 officials from companies including Halliburton, Saipem, Technip and a former subsidiary of Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG in connection with alleged illegal payments to Nigerian officials. Those detained were all freed on bail on Nov. 29," Bloomberg News' Elisha Bala-Gbogbo wrote.
"Authorities in the West African nation are probing Halliburton, Saipem and Technip for the alleged payment of $180 million in bribes to win a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract," Bala-Gbogbo added.
"Panalpina is being investigated for illegal payments it allegedly made to Nigerian customs officials on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell Plc."
The prosecuting counsel for the country's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said that indictments will be handed down in the next three days and that an arrest warrant for Cheney "will be issued and transmitted through Interpol."
Adds Bloomberg, "Obla said charges will be filed against current and former chief executive officers of Halliburton, including Cheney, who was CEO from 1995 to 2000, and its former unit KBR Inc., based in Houston, Texas; Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield- services provider; Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company; and Saipem Construction Co., a unit of Eni. Obla didn’t identify the former officials whom he said held office when the alleged bribes were paid."
A spokesman for Cheney declined to comment.
The US Securities and Exchange Committee probe focused on the deal as early as 2004. Wrote The Washington Post at the time:
The Nigerian project, started in the early 1990s, was worth almost $5 billion to TSKJ, a partnership that included a KBR predecessor, as well as companies from France, Japan and the Netherlands.
At issue are payments made to Tristar, a Gibraltar company that had a consulting arrangement with a corporation formed by TSKJ to "administer the contracts and execute the work" in Nigeria, a Halliburton spokeswoman said in response to questions.
KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton, was formed when Halliburton acquired Dresser Industries Inc. in 1998. It was a combination of Halliburton's Brown & Root and Dresser's M.W. Kellogg Co. Officials from the SEC and Cheney's office declined to comment. Early on Thursday, Halliburton said they hadn't seen the new charges, but still denied their involvement.
"Halliburton's oil-field services operations in Nigeria have never in any way been part of the LNG project and none of the Halliburton employees have ever had any connection to or participation in that project," Tara Mullee Agard, a spokeswoman for the Houston-based company, said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg.
Added Bloomberg: "Halliburton Co., the world's second- largest oilfield-services provider, said it hasn't seen any amended charges by Nigerian authorities who plan to indict current and former employees in a bribery scandal."
Labels: BRIBERY, CORRUPTION, DICK CHENEY, HALIBURTON CORPORATION, KBR, NIGERIA, OIL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, WAR CRIMES
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Masawara snaps up BP, Shell assets
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
12/10/2010 00:00:00
LONDON listed investment fund Masawara PLC has announced a deal to take over BP and Shell’s Zimbabwe assets subject to regulatory approvals. A statement issued by Shingi Mutasa, one of the fund's investors, on Tuesday said a deal had been agreed in principle.
The assets include 73 retail sites, storage capacity of approximately 59.5 million litres of product across ten strategic centres in the country and a total staff complement of 87 employees.
“The Company is pursuing high quality new investment opportunities in Zimbabwe to add to a portfolio of existing investments,” the statement added.
When the $100m fund launched in August it outlined plans to buy up cheap assets in Zimbabwe ahead of an anticipated upswing in the local economy as political stability returns.
"We have a great opportunity to lead the pack in bringing much needed investment capital to Zimbabwe and help the country rebuild following its recent economic difficulties,” Shingi Mutasa one of Masawara’s main investors said at the time.
Masawara was listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in August raising US$25 million in new funds.
Its portfolio of assets comprises an effective 40 percent interest in Joina City, the single largest commercial and retail building in Harare.
The company also retains a 30 percent interest in TA Holdings, a diversified investment company with stakes in insurance, agro-chemical and hospitality businesses across sub-Saharan Africa and is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
Labels: BP, INDIGENIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT ACT (ZIMBABWE), ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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Shell, BP sell Zimbabwe assets
by
14/09/2009 00:00:00
AFRICAN oil firms Engen Petroleum and KenolKobil said they plan to buy BP and Shell’s Zimbabwe assets in anticipation of growth under a unity government formed earlier this year.
The move would be the highest-profile exit by major foreign investors since President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai set up a power-sharing government in February.
Zimbabwe has asked the world for help for its devastated economy, and says it needs $10bn to rebuild dilapidated infrastructure and ease a 90 percent unemployment rate.
Western donors want political and economic reforms before aid flows to the once-prosperous southern African country. Foreign investors are also likely to remain cautious.
Engen — one of South Africa’s leading petroleum products retailers — and Kenya’s oil retailer KenolKobil said they were to acquire all the shares in Shell Zimbabwe and BP Zimbabwe.
The companies plan to acquire more than 75 service stations in a deal now under consideration by Zimbabwean authorities.
BP and Shell, whose joint Zimbabwe operations employ about 400 people and whose blending plant in Harare has a capacity of 30 million litres per year, were not available for comment.
Engen has existing operations in Zimbabwe and Jacob Segman, managing director of KenolKobil, said the joint venture would seek to benefit from the country’s reconstruction.
“While Zimbabwe’s economy has declined sharply over the last decade, it still boasts good infrastructure and we believe that this will form the basis of renewed economic growth,” Segman said in the statement on Saturday.
Labels: BP, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, ZIMBABWE
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Shell, Nigerian families settle suit for $15.5 million
Written by Reuters
Tuesday, June 09, 2009 8:47:48 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5 million to settle several lawsuits related to the executions of protesters in Nigeria in the 1990s, lawyers for both sides said on Monday. The settlement came as the more than decade-long dispute was due to go to trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said Paul Hoffman, a lawyer for the victims' families who had brought the cases along with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
The lawsuit accused Shell of human rights abuses in the Niger Delta region, including violations connected with the 1995 hangings of author and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other protesters by Nigeria's then-military government.
"We litigated with Shell for 13 years and, at the end of the day, the plaintiffs are going to be compensated for the human rights violations they suffered," Hoffman said.
"Had we tried the case and won, the plaintiffs were still looking at years of appeals," he said.
Hoffman said that $5 million would go into a trust for the benefit of the Ogoni people. The rest of the money would go to lawyers' fees and compensation for the families.
"Shell has always maintained the allegations were false," said Malcolm Brinded, Shell's executive director for exploration and production.
"While we were prepared to go to court to clear our name, we believe the right way forward is to focus on the future for Ogoni people, which is important for peace and stability in the region," he said.
"This gesture also acknowledges that, even though Shell had no part in the violence that took place, the plaintiffs and others have suffered," Brinded said.
The original lawsuits were brought under a 1789 U.S. statute, the Alien Tort Claims Act, allowing noncitizens to file cases in U.S. courts for human rights abuses occurring overseas.
The lawsuits sought unspecified damages from Shell for backing the jailing, torturing and killing of the protesters as well as for polluting the region's air and water.
Nigeria is the world's eighth biggest oil exporter.
The protesters, who campaigned nonviolently for a fairer share of Nigeria's oil wealth for the poor and against environmental damage by the industry, had been convicted of murder in a trial that human rights groups labeled a sham.
Protests led by Saro-Wiwa forced Shell in 1993 to abandon its oil fields in Ogoniland, a tiny part of the Niger Delta whose people Saro-Wiwa represented.
Reached by phone in London, Wiwa's son, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., 40, who was a plaintiff in the case, said the settlement was a vindication for his family.
"We felt we had already got the victory," he said of the settlement. "We got the precedent that a corporation can be used for human rights violations in a U.S. court."
A multinational company has never been found liable of human rights abuses by a U.S. jury, but a few have settled out of court. The Shell case would have been the third to go to trial and the second involving a major oil company.
In December, a federal jury in San Francisco cleared Chevron Corp of liability sought by Nigerians for a violent clash on an oil platform off their country's coast more than a decade ago.
The cases are: Wiwa et al v Royal Dutch Shell et al 96-08386; Wiwa et al v Anderson et al 01-01909: and Wiwa v Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited 08-1803 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Labels: NEOCOLONIALISM, NIGERIA, OIL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC
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Shell Petroleum pulls out of Zimbabwe
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare
Thursday July 17, 2008 [04:00]
DUTCH oil marketing company Shell Petroleum has decided to pull out of Zimbabwe and is selling its investment in the distribution business to South African Engen Petroleum. Pressure has continued to mount on European companies, which are succumbing to the urge to pull out of Zimbabwe as part of Europe's sanctions on the beleaguered southern African country.
Shell, which has a 50 per cent stake in the Zimbabwean joint venture with BP, said on Tuesday that it began reviewing its holding in October 2007, before Zimbabwe underwent a disputed and violent presidential election.
A fortnight ago Gieseke & Devrient, a German company that has been supplying banknote paper to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe over the past 45 years, succumbed to pressure from the German government to withdraw its services, a situation that has led to the chaotic shortage of money on the Zimbabwean financial market.
In confirming Shell's decision on Tuesday, company spokesman Rainer Winzenried said the company's holdings included about 230 retail sites throughout the country but declined to say how much the sale was worth.
"It's part of our revision of our downstream activities. We already started to look for buyers last year," he was quoted by Reuters as having commented in the Netherlands.
A statement posted on Engen's website confirms that the South African company will acquire Shell's downstream business interests in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, in terms of sale and purchase agreements signed this month.
Engen is South Africa's leading refined petroleum products company.
Engen chief executive officer and managing director Rashid Yusof said the deals with Shell were subject to approval from the countries' governments and central banks, as well as other regulatory requirements.
In the case of Zimbabwe, the deal is also subject to pre-emptive rights.
"Engen welcomes these investment opportunities. We have the utmost confidence in our future in both countries," Yusof said.
He said he had confidence in Zimbabwe.
"While Zimbabwe's economy has declined sharply over the last decade, it still has good infrastructure which we believe will form the basis of renewed economic growth, once the current political situation is resolved," he said.
"It is Engen's intention that current employees will retain their positions."
Engen is owned 80 per cent by Malaysia's national oil company Petronas and 20 per cent by South Africa's Worldwide Africa Investment Holdings.
Apart from Europe's sanctions, Zimbabwe's politics have been turbulent for eight years running and have severely disrupted business operations and created a hostile business environment.
The country has the world's highest inflation estimated by the local banks to be at over three million per cent, and strict state price controls.
This is coupled with an impending legislation that will now require all foreign companies to cede at least 51 per cent shares to indegenous Zimbabweans.
However, while some foreign firms are shutting down as a result, South African firms are resisting the urge to pull out.
South Africa has around 20 major companies and scores of smaller enterprises are still operating in Zimbabwe.
Among the biggest is Standard Bank, which trades under the name Stanbic in branches throughout Zimbabwe.
Supermarket chain 'Pick n Pay,' is also operating through its 25 per cent stake in Zimbabwe's TM Supermarket chain.
Mining giant Impala Platinum has the biggest foreign investment in Zimbabwe through its subsidiary Zimplats.
There are also scores of tour operations as well as trading businesses.
Labels: ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, ZIMBABWE
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Shell leaves Zim, Engen takes over
Nyasha Matema
Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:51:00 +0000
ANGLO-DUTCH oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc. has pulled out of Zimbabwe as South Africa's Engen Petroleum buys the 50 percent stake in a joint venture with British Petroleum.
According to the economic magazine Business Day Engen is taking over Shell's portion of a joint venture with British Petroleum for an undisclosed amount.
"We do not get involved in the politics," Engen spokeswoman Tania Landsberg told Business Day adding that they had taken a long-term view of the Zimbabwean situation. "We believe that, in the long term, this is a good deal. We believe that Zimbabwe will recover."
Engen is said to be owned by a Malaysian oil company Petronas (80%) and black economic empowerment group Worldwide Africa Investment Holdings (20%).
This news comes at a time when President Robert Mugabe has taunted Gordon Brown over the suggestion that British companies will have to reconsider doing business in Zimbabwe.
"The British are threatening to withdraw their companies," President Mugabe said. "We say: The sooner you do it the better.
"Please Mr Brown, withdraw all your companies from Zimbabwe."
President Mugabe adopted a Look East policy five years ago which seeks to court investors from Asian countries like China and Malaysia.
Labels: ENGEN PETROLEUM, OIL, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC, ZIMBABWE
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