Shell divides $46.5 million between 15,500 Nigerians in oil spill compensation

Shell divides $46.5 million between 15,500 Nigerians in oil spill compensation

Mar 4th, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has allocated N600,000 (approx. US$3,000) to each of 15,500 indigenous peoples of Bodo, in the Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, as a monetary compensation for its excessive oil spills in the past years. These oil spills have had a damaging effect on the Ogoni environment. The compensation was decided after six years of legal battle. 

Extracts from related article

In 2010, Shell agreed on out-of-court settlement in a case brought against it by the people of Bodo community over the excessive oil spills from the company’s failed facilities, which had caused a damaging effect on the Ogoni environment and its people.

Disclosing this much during a solidarity visit by a delegation of Friends of the Earth and Environmental Rights Action FoE/ERA led by its Executive Director, Dr Godwin Ojo, the Chairman of Bodo Council of Chiefs, Mene Sylvester Kogbara, said Bodo people had already started to use the money to “develop themselves.”

Kogbara explained that after six years of intensive legal battle with the oil giant, Shell agreed to cough out 56million euros as compensation to be shared among the indigenes of Bodo.

Meanwhile, the representative of Friends of the Earth, Netherlands, Geert Ritsema, blasts Shell for the continuous gas flare in Nigeria, which he said has contributed to the global climate change.

“Oil companies in the Niger Delta behave like criminals. They don’t even respect their guidelines, which is why they must be made to comply with the international best practice. Shell is known for its poor environmental behaviour,” he said.

FULL ARTICLE

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is an international, nonviolent, and democratic membership organisation. Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments, and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.

Share this:

• Facebook1
• Twitter4
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Africa, Business Principles, Climate Change, Corporate Governance,Environment, Litigation, Nigeria, Ogoniland, Oil, Oil Spill, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Litigation · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Shell to set up global IT centre at Bengaluru

Shell to set up global IT centre at Bengaluru

Mar 4th, 2015 

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

New Delhi: Global energy giant Shell on Wednesday announced setting up of a global information technology center at Bengaluru to provide IT support to all its business verticals.

“Shell plans to begin operations at the centre later this year,” the company said in a statement here.

The centre will provide IT services to all of Shell’s businesses upstream oil and gas production, downstream refining and marketing and projects & technology as well as associated support functions. Without giving investment details, the statement said Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd will create the in-house centre, “which is expected to provide employment opportunities for several thousand IT professionals by 2020″.

“The investment stems from a review of Shell’s global IT projects and selected operations support capability that places greater emphasis on delivering projects in-house,” it said, adding that the centre will form an integral part of the firm’s global IT project delivery and support network.

Yasmine Hilton, Chairman of Shell Companies in India, said the move will deliver benefits to Shell and India for decades to come. Shell said it selected Bengaluru for its competitiveness and the availability of a skilled, diverse IT talent pool covering the broad range of skills and disciplines that the firm needs worldwide.

“This is an important development for Royal Dutch Shell,” said Harry Brekelmans, Shell’s Projects & Technology Director.

“Bangalore’s significant IT talent will improve our ability to provide top-quality IT project delivery and selected operations support around the world.”

Shell already has a Projects and Technology Centre in Bangalore (STCB) employing over 1,000 scientists and engineers. In 2016, STCB will move to a purpose-built, dedicated campus, spread over 52 acres near Devanahalli, close to Bengaluru International Airport. Shell also has a Business Operations Centre based in Chennai, where over 2,000 employees provide business and financial support to Shell companies worldwide.

In India, the company has a lubricants and retail business and is present in integrated gas through its liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Hazira in Gujarat. Shell recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Andhra Pradesh Gas Development Corporation, GDF Suez and GAIL for setting up a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) project in Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. 

SOURCE

Share this:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: India, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Tagged: India · Royal Dutch Shell Plc

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

More Steelworkers Cross Picket Lines as Refinery Strike Drags on

More Steelworkers Cross Picket Lines as Refinery Strike Drags on

Mar 4th, 2015

by John Donovan. 

No comments yet

Article by Zain Shauk published 4 March 2015 by Bloomberg.com

More Steelworkers Cross Picket Lines as Refinery Strike Drags on

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said more than 20 percent of about 800 union workers at its Deer Park refinery in Texas have crossed picket lines, undermining a strike that has entered its second month.

Workers also have begun returning to their jobs at refineries owned by Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said Kelly Op De Weegh, a Motiva spokeswoman. LyondellBasell Industries NV and Tesoro Corp., two other refinery owners affected by the strike, are seeing a growing number of employees coming back to work, according to spokespersons for the companies who wouldn’t provide a specific estimate.

“We have had workers return at all three of our sites,” said Destin Singleton, a spokeswoman for Tesoro Corp.

The Steelworkers said only a small fraction of the 6,600 workers joining the strike since Feb. 1 have been crossing the picket lines. The union has confirmed 113 members have returned to work at Deer Park, said Lee Medley, president of the USW local that covers the plant. The union isn’t keeping a tally of all the members who have crossed picket lines in the strike, he said.

“They went after the low-hanging fruit, the newer people,” Medley said of Deer Park. “But the men and women that I represent are standing strong and we will continue to stand strong.”

Strike Expansion

The walkout of U.S. oil workers is the first national action since 1980, when a stoppage lasted three months. In the past month the strike has expanded to include a dozen refineries and three other plants nationally. The last to join the action was Motiva’s Port Arthur, Texas refinery, the nation’s largest, as well as Motiva’s refineries in Convent and Norco, Louisiana, which went on strike Feb. 20.

Shell, which is representing U.S. oil companies in its talks with the union, said it will meet with the USW Wednesday to continue negotiations for an agreement.

The union, which has rejected seven contract offers from Shell, says USW members should handle daily maintenance at plants. Shell has said the union’s “unreasonable” demands would take away hiring flexibility.

The work stoppage so far has had little impact on refineries that are highly automated and have been able to weather the walkout using non-union workers, according to the companies. At least four of the U.S. oil refineries targeted by the strike had reported equipment failures requiring unplanned repairs since the action began.

Scare Tactics

Ratcheting up pressure on the strikers, Shell said in an open letter to employees published on its website March 2 that it would have enough new workers trained by mid-summer to return to full staffing levels without its union employees.

The union dismissed the announcement as scare tactics. “Legally they’re not allowed to permanently replace workers during our strike,” said Medley at Deer Park.

Tesoro is giving “monetary recognition” this week to “those of us at work and eligible,” according to an open letter published on the company’s website March 2 by Keith Casey, Tesoro’s executive vice president of operations. Tesoro had already said on its website that striking workers are not eligible for compensation, including bonuses.

Even small numbers of returning workers undermine the effectiveness of the strike, said Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Keeping it Running

“They enable management to continue production longer and to keep up with the repairs and necessary maintenance. The more people who come back, the more people management has to run the refinery,” Lichtenstein said.

“It’s not an unusual circumstance that an employer would encourage people to come back to work and cross the picket line,” said Leo Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers, speaking at a labor conference Feb. 24 in Atlanta. Companies’ efforts to bring union members back to work is “creating unnecessary division in the workplace,” he said.

Strike breakers might be a factor in negotiations, but “not necessarily a decisive factor, as witnessed by the fact that, overwhelmingly, the workers are still out,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in labor and trade.

BP Plc and Marathon Petroleum Corp., which also have affected refineries, declined to comment on workers crossing the picket line.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zain Shauk in Houston atzshauk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Susan Warren atsusanwarren@bloomberg.net Carlos Caminada

SOURCE

Share this:

• Facebook8
• Twitter
• Email
• Print

Like this:

Loading...

Posted in: Bloomberg, John Donovan, Motiva, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Saudi Aramco.
Tagged: Motiva Enterprises · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

shared from

WEDNESDAY, 4 MARCH 2015 Who Loves the US More? Steve Hochstadt: Giuliani said that Obama does not love Americans. In fact, it is many Republicans who don’t love their fellow citizens, if they are too liberal. That is a difficult partisan divide to overcome. READ MORE

Who Loves the US More?

BY STEVE HOCHSTADT

TwitterFacebookEmailPrintMore

P
resident Obama has been accused by Republicans of many sins. The castigation of Obama goes beyond the usual political criticisms to the deeply personal, notably that he was born in Africa or that he is lying about his Christian religion. Two weeks ago, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York who has become one of the sharpest conservative voices, accused Obama of the ultimate personal failing for an American politician – he doesn’t love America. Giuliani was speaking at a fund-raiser for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. The next day, Walker refused to say whether he agreed. Not until this Sunday did Walker decide to saysomething different, that he didn’t question that Obama loves America. His silence up to that point did exactly that, though.

Politicians change their minds about what they meant to say, when it turns out they said something that hurts their reputation. But Giuliani was firm in his convictions. Two days later he emphasized, “I said exactly what I wanted to say. I conveyed exactly the message I wanted to convey.”

This is actually a familiar Republican refrain. When Obama first ran for president, conservative commentators questioned whether he might be a traitor. Near the end of the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney responded to the news of attacks on our embassies in Libya and Egypt by saying, “I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” This turned out to be an untrue version of events, but a true Republican response to Obama.

Even New Yorkers don’t like Giuliani any more. But of course he’s right that a black man had a different experience growing up in this country in the late 20th century.

What do these accusations of Obama mean? Let’s look at more of what Giuliani said, since he thought he had been so clear. “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the President loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.” Even New Yorkers don’t like Giuliani any more. But of course he’s right that a black man had a different experience growing up in this country in the late 20th century. There was plenty for a black person not to love about America when Obama and Giuliani were young men.

Like Giuliani, the white voters who believe that Obama doesn’t love America are thinking about their own version of America. Many people don’t want to hear anything negative about their history. Conservatives are upset by attempts in high schools and colleges to teach about American historical failings: centuries of slavery, lynching, killing of Native Americans, Jim Crow laws. That is why the Jefferson County, Colorado, school board wanted to revise American history teaching to emphasize “positive aspects of the United States and its heritage,” while avoiding lessons that demonstrated that racist laws across America were morally and constitutionally wrong.

When anyone notes that America’s history includes serious moral failings, that is all that conservatives hear. In a column about Obama’s lack of love for the US, Kevin Williamson of the National Review generalizes further, “For the progressive, there is very little to love about the United States.”

When President Obama, among many other people, takes note of these facts and openly expresses his rejection of them as American values, conservatives like Rudy Giuliani and Scott Walker and Kevin Williamson feel their good white traditions under attack. And they feel empowered to say that other people are not as good Americans as they are.

Great majorities of Americans of all political leanings say they love America. Democrats and Independents tend to place themselves right in the middle of an imaginary spectrum of patriotism. Nearly 10% of them say they are not sure if they are more or less patriotic as most people. Republicans are different. Nearly half say they are more patriotic than most people. Virtually none are unsure about how they rank. And three-quarters of Republicans think Obama is less patriotic than most people in public life.

Giuliani said that Obama does not love Americans. In fact, it is many Republicans who don’t love their fellow citizens, if they are too liberal. That is a difficult partisan divide to overcome.

Steve Hochstadt
Taking Back Our Lives

The TRUTH will set you FREE.