Oil & gas industry

Canadian energy firm stays mum on bribery allegations

Topics: 
Corruption, Oil & gas industry, Foreign corrupt practices legislation
Rating: 
3

Carrie Tait – May 15, 2012

Griffiths Energy International Inc., a company aspiring to go public but marred by an internal corruption investigation, has wrapped up its soul-searching mission.

But potential investors -- as well as existing private ones -- will find little comfort in a statement the company released Tuesday. Only three paragraphs of the 2,188-word (less boilerplate) press release are devoted to its bribery investigation.

BP suspends executive at centre of bribe allegations

Topics: 
Corruption, Oil & gas industry
Rating: 
0

Jonathan Russell – April 30, 2012

A senior BP executive alleged to have taken cash payments in return for giving multi-million pound contracts to a shipping magnate has been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry.

BP's global chartering manager, Lars Dencker Nielsen, has been put on leave of absence since The Daily Telegraph broke the story about the bribery allegations.

Oil-spill centre moving out of B.C.

Topics: 
Oil & gas industry, Regulatory oversight, Environment
Rating: 
3

Rob Shaw – April 19, 2012

The federal government is closing B.C.'s command centre for emergency oil spills at a time when the province is facing two possible pipeline projects and a potential spike in tanker traffic in West Coast waterways.

Ottawa has said it will shut down B.C.'s regional office for emergency oil-spill responders, located in Vancouver, and centralize operations in Quebec in the wake of the cost-cutting March 29 federal budget.

BP Covered Up Blow-out Two Years Prior to Deadly Gulf Spill

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, Oil & gas industry, Environment
Rating: 
2
Deepwater Horizon

Greg Palast – April 19, 2012

Two years before the Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP off-shore rig suffered a nearly identical blow-out, but BP concealed the first one from the U.S. regulators and Congress.

This week, EcoWatch.org located an eyewitness with devastating new information about the Caspian Sea oil-rig blow-out which BP had concealed from government and the industry.

BP Whistleblower Says Gulf Atlantis Facility Remains Unsafe

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, Oil & gas industry, Regulatory oversight
Rating: 
0

Laurel Brubaker Calkins & Margaret Cronin Fisk - March 16, 2012

BP Plc’s Atlantis facility remains unsafe, according to a whistle-blower who said in a court filing that the company’s second-largest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico is operating under permits BP obtained by lying to regulators.

“Immediate court action is needed to remedy unsafe conditions on Atlantis,” Mikal Watts, an attorney for former BP contractor Kenneth Abbott, said in papers filed yesterday seeking a trial date in federal court in Houston, where the case has been pending since 2009.

Budget signals attack on charities' advocacy work

Topics: 
Oil & gas industry, Environment, Charities & non-profits, Canada Revenue Agency
Rating: 
3

Tim Naumetz – March 29, 2012

Opposition MPs say a surprise allegation in the federal budget that Canadian charities are violating federal rules limiting their political advocacy is retribution for widespread opposition from environmental groups to the massive Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline across British Columbia.

The obscure provision in the budget Thursday to beef up the Canada Revenue Agency’s “enforcement tools” to monitor political activities of charities demonstrates the partisan nature of the Conservative government, opposition MPs said.

Pennsylvania doctors gagged on fracking chemicals

Topics: 
USA, Oil & gas industry, Environment, Public health & safety
Rating: 
0

A new provision could forbid the state’s doctors from sharing information with patients exposed to toxic fracking solutions.

Kate Sheppard – March 23, 2012

Under a new law, doctors in Pennsylvania can access information about chemicals used in natural gas extraction—but they won't be able to share it with their patients.

A provision buried in a law passed last month is drawing scrutiny from the public health and environmental community, who argue that it will "gag" doctors who want to raise concerns related to oil and gas extraction with the people they treat and the general public.

Canada threatens trade war with EU over tar sands

Topics: 
Oil & gas industry, Government transparency, Environment, Europe
Rating: 
0

Damian Carrington – February 20, 2012

Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February.

"Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organisation," state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada's ambassador to the EU and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws.

The Sinopec File

Topics: 
Corruption, Oil & gas industry, Environment
Rating: 
2

Andrew Nikiforuk – February 18, 2012

Sinopec, Enbridge's Chinese business partner for the Northern Gateway Project, has a long record of corruption, human rights violations, environmental pollution and doing business with terrorist-linked governments.

A Tyee investigation found that the world's seventh largest corporation has been the subject of major bribery scandals at home and has systemically invested in rogue petro states from Angola to Myanmar.

Bill Gates jumps into fray over SEC oil transparency rule

Topics: 
Corporate ethics, Oil & gas industry, SEC, Government transparency
Rating: 
2

Ben Geman - February 15, 2012

Bill Gates is pressing the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue strong rules that force oil and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments, arguing that exemptions energy producers are seeking would defeat the measure’s intent.

“I feel it is critical to ensure the final rules for this provision are strong and robust and in keeping with the intentions of Congress,” writes the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft founder in a letter obtained by The Hill.

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