good stuff/great blog..............From Spin Watch
By Andy Rowell
''Hats off to our friends at Platform, the oil industry watch-dog. For the
last few years, they have been digging around Shell’s dirty dealings
in the Niger Delta. Last week they released a briefing paper,
co-published by SpinWatch, which showed that Shell is still at heart of
the vortex of violence that continues in the Delta.
The briefing paper, called Dirty Work,
examined Shell’s security spending in Nigeria. It revealed that the
oil company spent $383m over three years protecting staff and
installations in Niger delta region. This represents about 40 per cent
of the $1 billion Shell spends globally on security.''
read more
Showing posts with label nigeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nigeria. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
''Nigerian Navy Impounds French Ship For Stealing 500,000 Barrels of Crude Oil Per Day''
From Information Nigeria
''A special naval team has impounded a French ship, MT Vannessa, which has allegedly been stealing 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the country since June 9.
Investigations on showed that six crew members, including two Britons; two Nigerians and two Togolese, were also arrested.
A top naval officer, who pleaded anonymity, said the arrests were made at Brass Loading Terminal, Bayelsa State.
Since June 9, when it had been loading 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Thursday when it was impounded, the naval team suspected that the ship might have stolen 8.5m barrels of crude oil.''
read more
''A special naval team has impounded a French ship, MT Vannessa, which has allegedly been stealing 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the country since June 9.
Investigations on showed that six crew members, including two Britons; two Nigerians and two Togolese, were also arrested.
A top naval officer, who pleaded anonymity, said the arrests were made at Brass Loading Terminal, Bayelsa State.
Since June 9, when it had been loading 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Thursday when it was impounded, the naval team suspected that the ship might have stolen 8.5m barrels of crude oil.''
read more
''Embassy cables reveal Western complicity in Nigerian oil conflicts''
From The Bureau Investigates
''A new timeline launched by oil watchdog Platform suggests that the role of British and US governments in the Niger Delta conflict links them to Nigerian military groups through oil giants like Shell and Chevron.
The timeline, based on over 4,000 leaked US embassy cables from 2001 – 2010, is part of Platform’s ongoing investigation into the Delta conflict and an attempt to bring to light the involvement of Western governments, oil companies and security services.
With the aid of interactive bullet points on the timeline, the secret documents strongly suggests that the US, UK and Dutch governments were aware and part of the situation for over a decade without putting an end to it.''
read more
''A new timeline launched by oil watchdog Platform suggests that the role of British and US governments in the Niger Delta conflict links them to Nigerian military groups through oil giants like Shell and Chevron.
The timeline, based on over 4,000 leaked US embassy cables from 2001 – 2010, is part of Platform’s ongoing investigation into the Delta conflict and an attempt to bring to light the involvement of Western governments, oil companies and security services.
With the aid of interactive bullet points on the timeline, the secret documents strongly suggests that the US, UK and Dutch governments were aware and part of the situation for over a decade without putting an end to it.''
read more
Saturday, June 2, 2012
''Shell and ENI must come clean over oil deals in Nigeria''
From Global Witness
''Explanations made by Shell and ENI about payments made for a controversial oil deal in Nigeria are no longer sufficient and they must immediately come clean with more information about the deal, said Global Witness today. The call comes in response to a statement made by the Nigerian government which contradicts those made by Shell and ENI.''
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''Explanations made by Shell and ENI about payments made for a controversial oil deal in Nigeria are no longer sufficient and they must immediately come clean with more information about the deal, said Global Witness today. The call comes in response to a statement made by the Nigerian government which contradicts those made by Shell and ENI.''
read more
Saturday, May 26, 2012
''The Looting of Nigeria: BIG OIL’s $140 Billion A Year and Counting''
From Foreign Policy Journal
''As western oil companies loot some $140 billion a year of Nigeria’s black gold, two thirds of the country’s 100 million people live on less than $2 a day.
Nigeria’s “official” oil production figures show about 3 million barrels a day being pumped from their oil fields into the holds of western tankers, though for decades now informed observers have estimated up to one third of all Nigerian oil is actually “stolen”, secretly loaded onto oil tankers after bribes are paid to corrupt government officials.''
Friday, May 25, 2012
''Nigeria: Azazi to U.S. - Don't Put 'Terror' Label On Boko Haram''
From All Africa
''Nigeria fears that including Boko Haram in the US watch list could make it more difficult for Nigerian citizens to travel to the US and further affect bilateral trade between the two countries.
The Federal Government said it would manage to counter the threat posed by Boko Haram, as was done in the past with other militant groups in the country.''
read more
''Nigeria fears that including Boko Haram in the US watch list could make it more difficult for Nigerian citizens to travel to the US and further affect bilateral trade between the two countries.
The Federal Government said it would manage to counter the threat posed by Boko Haram, as was done in the past with other militant groups in the country.''
read more
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Nigeria: ''Petrodollars, Politics and Parasites''
if you read one story today, make it this one......
From This Day Live
By Simon Kolawole
From This Day Live
By Simon Kolawole
''Acclaimed founder of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Venezuelan politician/lawyer, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, famously said in the midst of the maddening oil boom of the 1970s: “It is the devil’s excrement. We’re drowning in devil’s excrement… Ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see: oil will bring us ruin...” He saw something that many other leaders of oil-rich countries might not have seen then: the danger of getting sunk by a flood of petrodollars. He was speaking at a time things appeared rosy and the future looked even more promising. “Look at us,” he warned in 1976, “we are having a crisis… We are dying of indigestion.”
Alfonzo, who died in 1979, saw what many oil-dependent countries, such as Nigeria, could not understand. All we could see then was that our revenue had gone up astronomically—which meant we could triple salaries, backdate it and pay arrears in the name of Udoji awards; we could begin to devote less energy to agriculture and industry and focus on sharing federally-collected revenue every month; we could afford to disconnect the state from the society by deemphasising the role of taxation in governance and focussing instead on the windfall of petrodollars. Alfonzo foresaw trouble. He foresaw mess. He saw a shift in emphasis from economic productivity to parasitic proclivity. He saw a deformation of the structure and the values of the society. It’s a shame Alfonzo is not alive today to see the results of his lamentations—especially in Nigeria.''
Friday, April 27, 2012
Nigeria: "Boko Haram, the Case of a Hijacked Revolution''
From 'There are no Sunglasses'
"Boko Haram has been blamed for most attacks in Nigeria, but the dimension and scope of the current bomb attacks have shifted the attention of experts to the possibility of external influence. The bomb attacks according to experts have become bigger and more sophisticated. The targets also have become more diversified and include both Muslims and Christians, mosques and churches: a clear departure from its original focus”, reports Danjuma Abdullahi."
read more
"Boko Haram has been blamed for most attacks in Nigeria, but the dimension and scope of the current bomb attacks have shifted the attention of experts to the possibility of external influence. The bomb attacks according to experts have become bigger and more sophisticated. The targets also have become more diversified and include both Muslims and Christians, mosques and churches: a clear departure from its original focus”, reports Danjuma Abdullahi."
read more
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
''Shell Nigeria oil spill '60 times bigger than it claimed''
From The Guardian
"According to Shell, the 2008 spill from a faulty weld on a pipeline resulted in 1,640 barrels of oil being spilt into the creeks 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 US oil spill consultancy firm Accufacts, suggests that a total of between 103,000 barrels and 311,000 barrels of oil flooded into the Bodo creeks over the period of the leak."
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"According to Shell, the 2008 spill from a faulty weld on a pipeline resulted in 1,640 barrels of oil being spilt into the creeks 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 US oil spill consultancy firm Accufacts, suggests that a total of between 103,000 barrels and 311,000 barrels of oil flooded into the Bodo creeks over the period of the leak."
read more
Saturday, April 21, 2012
''China in Nigeria: Triumph of the Beijing Model?''
From Geopolitical Monitor
"According to a 2011 survey from the Pew Research Centre, 76 percent of Nigerians have a generally positive view of China. And with Beijing providing moral and material assistance at a level most Western countries can’t compete with, it’s not too difficult to see why. Yet relations between these two countries may not always go so smoothly, for theirs is a trade dynamic full of structural challenges."
read more
"According to a 2011 survey from the Pew Research Centre, 76 percent of Nigerians have a generally positive view of China. And with Beijing providing moral and material assistance at a level most Western countries can’t compete with, it’s not too difficult to see why. Yet relations between these two countries may not always go so smoothly, for theirs is a trade dynamic full of structural challenges."
read more
Thursday, April 19, 2012
''Looted Libyan weapons found in Nigeria''
From 'There are no Sunglasses'
"In the dying days of the regime of Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the armoury was looted and some sophisticated weapons were reportedly stolen.
There had been unconfirmed reports that some of the looted weapons, which included surface-to-air launchers, had found their way into Nigeria and might be part of the Boko Haram armoury."
read more
"In the dying days of the regime of Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the armoury was looted and some sophisticated weapons were reportedly stolen.
There had been unconfirmed reports that some of the looted weapons, which included surface-to-air launchers, had found their way into Nigeria and might be part of the Boko Haram armoury."
read more
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
''Nigeria’s Boko Haram and Sahel Insecurity''
From GeoPolitical Monitor
''New evidence of ties between Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant Islamist group, and Al Qaeda’s branch in North Africa threatens to unleash a new wave of terrorism in Nigeria and the Sahel region.
"Mohammed Suleiman Ashafa, accused by the Federal Government of Nigeria of being a middleman between the group and Al Qaeda, has admitted to facilitating training of several members of Boko Haram in the Sahel. The extremist sect has perpetrated numerous attacks on civilian and international targets, including the United Nations Headquarters in Abuja."
read more
''New evidence of ties between Boko Haram, a Nigerian militant Islamist group, and Al Qaeda’s branch in North Africa threatens to unleash a new wave of terrorism in Nigeria and the Sahel region.
"Mohammed Suleiman Ashafa, accused by the Federal Government of Nigeria of being a middleman between the group and Al Qaeda, has admitted to facilitating training of several members of Boko Haram in the Sahel. The extremist sect has perpetrated numerous attacks on civilian and international targets, including the United Nations Headquarters in Abuja."
read more
Monday, April 16, 2012
''Sentencing of former Nigerian politician highlights London’s role as world-leading money laundering centre''
From Ian Fraser Blog
"Barclays, Citibank, HSBC and Abbey National (now owned by Santander) helped to launder some $250 million for James Ibori, former the former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State. The money was almost entirely siphoned from state funds. Ibori has been described by Sahara Reporters as:-
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"Barclays, Citibank, HSBC and Abbey National (now owned by Santander) helped to launder some $250 million for James Ibori, former the former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State. The money was almost entirely siphoned from state funds. Ibori has been described by Sahara Reporters as:-
“one of the most ingenious and mindless embezzlers of state resources of all former Nigerian state governors” awaits sentencing in Southwark Crown Court."
read more
Monday, March 19, 2012
''Boko Haram Brings Nigeria to the Brink of Collapse''
From Diplomatic Courier
"The people committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad, or Boko Haram as they are infamously known to the international community, has escalated its war on the Nigerian government in recent in months with devastating effects. In January alone, the terror group’s attacks have already claimed over 250 lives, more than half of all deaths inflicted by their attacks in all of 2011. With a history of sectarian violence and recent bouts of civil unrest, Nigeria is on the path of collapse as it faces one of the deadliest Islamic insurgencies in the world."
read more
"The people committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad, or Boko Haram as they are infamously known to the international community, has escalated its war on the Nigerian government in recent in months with devastating effects. In January alone, the terror group’s attacks have already claimed over 250 lives, more than half of all deaths inflicted by their attacks in all of 2011. With a history of sectarian violence and recent bouts of civil unrest, Nigeria is on the path of collapse as it faces one of the deadliest Islamic insurgencies in the world."
read more
Monday, March 12, 2012
''Nigeria's Battle for Stability''
From National Interest
John Campbell
"RECENT EVENTS in Nigeria, including its presidential elections last April, have produced two narratives on the current state of that oil-rich West African nation with a history of civic turmoil. The first is that events there have unfolded rather favorably since its elected president, Umaru Yar’Adua, fell ill in late 2009 and the country was left leaderless. That raised fears of a military coup, but then Goodluck Jonathan emerged to fill the power vacuum, first as an extraconstitutional “acting president,” then as a constitutional successor after Yar’Adua’s death and finally as the elected executive following the 2011 elections."
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John Campbell
"RECENT EVENTS in Nigeria, including its presidential elections last April, have produced two narratives on the current state of that oil-rich West African nation with a history of civic turmoil. The first is that events there have unfolded rather favorably since its elected president, Umaru Yar’Adua, fell ill in late 2009 and the country was left leaderless. That raised fears of a military coup, but then Goodluck Jonathan emerged to fill the power vacuum, first as an extraconstitutional “acting president,” then as a constitutional successor after Yar’Adua’s death and finally as the elected executive following the 2011 elections."
read more
Monday, February 13, 2012
Nigeria: ''Report Cautions Against Deepening Corruption in Oil Sector''
"The report, titled 'Rigged: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, Gas and Minerals,' calls for more transparency in the oil, gas and mining industries to prevent deepening corruption.
According to the report, released midweek, small and obscure companies involved in resource deals in Nigeria and Angola could be acting as fronts for government officials or their proxies."
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
''Boko Haram: between rebellion and jihad''
"Is Boko Haram just the latest in a long list of violent spasms in Nigeria, or is it the next battalion of global jihadists, capable of thrusting Africa's most populous nation into civil war?
The answer to that is not simple. There is evidence - some of it detailed in this story for the first time - that elements of Boko Haram have received training from foreign militant groups, including North Africa-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM). The August attack was far more sophisticated than anything linked to Boko Haram before."
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Nigeria: Boko Haram gets a Name and a Face
smoke and mirrors.......NATO wants in bad........from alarabiya....
"Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but has re-emerged to lead Islamist group Boko Haram from the shadows as it carries out a bloody onslaught in northern Nigeria.
Very little is known about Shekau, but this week he appeared on YouTube, threatening more attacks and saying Boko Haram was responsible for the January 20 violence which killed 185 people in Kano in reprisal for the arrest and torture of its members."
"Abubakar Muhammad Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but has re-emerged to lead Islamist group Boko Haram from the shadows as it carries out a bloody onslaught in northern Nigeria.
Very little is known about Shekau, but this week he appeared on YouTube, threatening more attacks and saying Boko Haram was responsible for the January 20 violence which killed 185 people in Kano in reprisal for the arrest and torture of its members."
Thursday, January 26, 2012
''U.N. warns arms from Libya could reach Boko Haram and al-Qaeda''
this is how they suck you into another war.........from alarabiya....
"The report on the impact of the Libyan civil war on countries of the Sahel region that straddle the Sahara -- including Nigeria, Niger and Chad -- also says some national authorities believe the Islamist sect Boko Haram, which killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 this year in Nigeria, has increasing links to al-Qaeda’s North African wing."
"The report on the impact of the Libyan civil war on countries of the Sahel region that straddle the Sahara -- including Nigeria, Niger and Chad -- also says some national authorities believe the Islamist sect Boko Haram, which killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 this year in Nigeria, has increasing links to al-Qaeda’s North African wing."
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
''US offers to 'assist' Nigeria in fight on Terror''
ya all know what that means.........read more from all africa...
"The United States has said it will partner Nigeria in the fight against terrorism, a phenomenon it described as similar to that being faced by Americans.
The country's Consul General, Mr. Joseph Stafford, who stated this during a courtesy visit to THISDAY Corporate Headquarters in Lagos Tuesday, pointed out that the matter was on the agenda of US, Nigeria Bi-National Commission summit which ended in Abuja Tuesday."
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