malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Mon Mar-21-11 05:48 AM
Original message
BP, Haliburton and Libya's oil
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/...
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"At the moment we just have to wait and see," a BP spokesman said. "We're monitoring the situation. We have a contract with NOC and as far as we know it is still in place."
BP has no production in Libya at the moment, but the company has started an exploratory drilling programme in the west of the North African nation. This work was suspended following the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, last month.
Similarly, Royal Dutch Shell has an exploration programme in the country, started after sanctions were lifted in 2004.
On Wednesday last week, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of NOC, said the Libyan government would honour existing contracts with Western oil companies. "We have our contracts with them. We will honour our commitments and I'm sure that they will honour their commitments," he said. However, this contradicted comments by Col Gaddafi, who has said that he would shun Western oil groups, replacing them with companies from Russia, India and China.
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http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/libya.html
<snip>
"We hope Iraq will be the first domino and that Libya and Iran will follow. We don't like being kept out of markets because it gives our competitors an unfair advantage," John Gibson, chief executive of Halliburton's Energy Service Group, told International Oil Daily in an interview in May of 2003.1
Some of the most significant sanctions against doing business with Libya were put in place by President Reagan in 1986, in response to the country's use and support of terrorism against the United States and other countries. The sanctions banned most sales of goods, technology and services to Libya. They provided for criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in corporate and $250,000 in individual fines.2
Despite these sanctions, Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root had worked in Libya ever since the 1980s. The company helped construct a system of underground pipes and wells that purportedly are intended to carry water. But according to Congressman Waxman, "some experts believe that the pipes have a military purpose. The pipes are large enough to accommodate military vehicles and appear to be more elaborate than is needed for holding water. The company began working on the project in 1984 and transferred the work to its British office after the 1986 sanctions were enacted in the United States.
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It's never about people - always about resources and in the Middle East and North Africa, it is about oil.
Wake up people!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x705326The usual fulminating ensues. They want BP and Halliburtin raked over the coals but this time the POTUS seems to escape blame for actually ordering the war.
I guess they still need someone to vote for in 2012.
