Greg Palast On Big Oil

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Tue, 8 Aug 2006 07:01:00 -0700 (PDT)

Greg Palast On Big Oil

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.gregpalast.com/section/articles

 

 

 

 

 

BRITISH PETROLEUM'S " SMART PIG "

0 Comments Published by Greg Palast August 8th, 2006 in Articles

The Brilliantly Profitable Timing of the Alaska Oil Pipeline Shutdown

 

by Greg Palast

For The Guardian (UK)

Tuesday, August 9, 2006

 

Is the Alaska Pipeline corroded? You bet it is. Has been for more than

a decade. Did British Petroleum shut the pipe yesterday to turn a

quick buck on its negligence, to profit off the disaster it created?

Just ask the " smart pig. "

 

Years ago, I had the unhappy job of leading an investigation of

British Petroleum's management of the Alaska pipeline system. I was

working for the Chugach villages, the Alaskan Natives who own the

shoreline slimed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker grounding.

 

Even then, courageous government inspectors and pipeline workers were

screaming about corrosion all through the pipeline. I say " courageous "

because BP, which owns 46% of the pipe and is supposed to manage the

system, had a habit of hunting down and destroying the careers of

those who warn of pipeline problems.

 

In one case, BP's CEO of Alaskan operations hired a former CIA expert

to break into the home of a whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, who had

complained of conditions at the pipe's tanker facility. BP tapped his

phone calls with a US congressman and ran a surveillance and smear

campaign against him. When caught, a US federal judge said BP's acts

were " reminiscent of Nazi Germany. "

 

This was not an isolated case. Captain James Woodle, once in charge of

the pipe's Valdez terminus, was blackmailed into resigning the post

when he complained of disastrous conditions there. The weapon used on

Woodle was a file of faked evidence of marital infidelity. Nice guys, eh?

 

Continue reading `BRITISH PETROLEUM'S " SMART PIG " '

http://www.gregpalast.com/british-petroleums-smart-pig#more-1474

 

 

 

 

 

Big Oil and the Trillion-Dollar War Bonus

1 Comment Published by Greg Palast August 8th, 2006 in Articles

 

by Greg Palast

excerpted from, " Armed Madhouse " (Penguin 2006)

 

It has been a very good war for Big Oil courtesy of OPEC price hikes.

The five oil giants saw profits rise from $34 billion in 2002 to $81

billion in 2004, year two of Iraq transition to democracy.

 

But this tsunami of black ink was nothing compared to the wave of $113

billion in profits to come in 2005: $13.6 billion for Conoco, $14.1

billion for Chevron and the Mother of All Earnings, Exxon's $36.1 billion.

 

For these record-busting earnings, the industry could thank General

Tommy Franks and the troops in Baghdad, the insurgents and their

oil-supply-cutting explosives. But, most of all, they had to thank

OPEC and the Saudis for keeping the lid on supply even as the planet

screamed in pain for crude.

 

When OPEC raises the price of crude, Big Oil makes out big time. The

oil majors are not simply passive resellers of OPEC production. In

OPEC nations, they have profit sharing agreements (PSAs) that give

the companies a direct slice of the higher price charged.

 

More important, the industry has its own reserves whose value is

attached, like a suckerfish, to OPECs price targets. Here's a

statistic you won't see on Army recruitment posters: The rise in the

price of oil after the first three years of the war boosted the value

of the reserves of ExxonMobil Oil alone by just over $666 billion.

(The devil is in the details.)

 

Smaller Chevron Oil, where Condoleezza Rice had served as a director,

gained a quarter trillion dollars in value. Chevron named a tanker

after Rice, but given the firm's change in fortunes once she became

National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State, they should

rename the whole fleet in her honor. Altogether, I calculate that the

top five oil operators saw their reserves rise in value by over $2.363

trillion.

 

Continue reading `Big Oil and the Trillion-Dollar War Bonus'

http://www.gregpalast.com/big-oil-and-the-trillion-dollar-war-bonus#more-1475

 

 

 

 

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, " ARMED

MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the

Scheme to Steal `08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from

the Front Lines of the Class War " - from which the above excerpt is taken.

 

www.GregPalast.com