Clipmarks | papananook's 'oil' clips

Cheney Colleague Admits Bribery in Halliburton Oil Deals

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:32:26 GMT

clipped by: papananook

US Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at a news conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008. A former colleague of the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has pleaded guilty to funnelling millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative contracts in Nigeria for Halliburton, during the period in the Nineties when Mr Cheney ran the giant oil and gas services company. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Albert Stanley, who was appointed by Mr Cheney as chief executive of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR, admitted using a north London lawyer to channel payments to Nigerian officials as part of a bribery scheme that landed some $6bn of work in the country over a decade.

"There is no suggestion that Mr Cheney knew at the time of the acquisition, or subsequently, that bribery was involved in the Nigerian contracts."

Of course not. Who would ever suggest that cheney ever did anything wrong.

The Great Amnesia How we became slaves to oil

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:11:00 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Lemmings come to mind.

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

Oil really is the root of all evil

Take oil and petroleum out of the energy equation and replace it with a locally produced, locally controlled, ecological, economical, renewable resource and what happens?

95% of the world's structural problems melt away.

No more oil wars. No more money leaving our country by the hundreds of billions. No more ecological devastation related to fuel production. Greatly reduced carcinogens.

But oil is necessary for our lifestyle, right?

If it's not, how did we get hooked on oil in the first place?

History tells us the US went from whale oil to kerosene for lamps courtesy of the ingenuity of John Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

But think about something for a moment.

Prohibition was the total ban on alcohol manufacturing in the US from 1919 to 1933.

Are we to believe that these 1919-era men were led and controlled a group of 1919-era church ladies?

Does that make any sense?

Why T. Boone Pickens' 'Clean Energy' Plan Is a Ponzi Scheme

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:36:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: read the article.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The controversial oil magnate has made headlines for a supposed conversion to cleaner energy, but there's ample reason to be suspicious.

"If you are going out of business, you don't go down with the ship, you get another ship. For us, it's natural gas." -- T. Boone Pickens, "Becoming a Billionaire"

You can't always get what you want, the Rolling Stones counseled. But if you try sometimes, you get what you need. Factor billions of dollars, questionable loyalties and a privatization rap sheet invested more in profit than people into the equation, and you usually can get both what you want and what you need. In the case of hyper-loaded oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, that means having your cake on climate crisis, fossil fuel addiction, eminent domain, water privatization and corporate earnings -- and eating it too.

Russia, Georgia and the US

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:20:53 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: OIL, OIL, GAS AND OIL

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

What really happened in Georgia?

Some basic facts:

1. The citizens of South Ossetia have long expressed a desire to break away from Georgia and, in fact, declared themselves independent from Georgia in the 1990s.

2. On the first day of the 2008 Olympics, Georgia launched an all-out, "shock and awe" attack on numerous civilian targets in Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia

3. Russia, which shares a border and a long historical connection with South Ossetia, sent troops into the region to fight back the attacking Georgian military.

4. The arms for Georgia's attack on South Ossetia were largely provided by the US.

5. The US and UK news media have successfully managed to portray these events as a random, unprovoked and savage attack on Georgia by Russia.

In this video, Mikhail Gorbachev responds.

For another example of how the reality of a war was completely recast by the US news media, check out this site from the Brasscheck.com archives:

Analysis of the US led assault on Yugoslavia

Proposal to harness wind power off Calif. coast worries fishing industry

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:05:56 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: It's over fished anyway...but there will be a fight for sure.

Clip Source: www.mcclatchydc.com

Oil companies, some politicians and commuters paying $4 for a gallon of gas might look at California's coast and think of crude oil pooled below the seafloor.

The state's North Coast, however, holds promise of another energy bounty.

In less time than it would take to fire up new offshore oil drills, waters off our coast could host floating wind turbines and undulating buoys driven by waves, producing abundant electricity for a power-thirsty state.

The Electric Power Research Institute estimates enough wave power can be extracted from coastal waters to account for about 15 percent of California's electricity production. Wind could provide up to 110 percent, according to a Stanford University study published last year.

Read the complete story at sacbee.com

Big Oil and their GOP lapdogs

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:40:47 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: jblaque.livejournal.com

Wait... what?

While Republicans, the U.S. oil industry and other assorted asshats piss and moan about more access to federal lands to (presumably) reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, American-based companies are shipping record amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel to other countries.

No, really.

A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33% from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.

The surge in exports appears to *ahem* contradict pleas from Big Oil and the Bush administration for Congress to open more offshore waters and Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

can help alleviate shortages by drilling for oil and gas in our own country," Bush told reporters last month. "We have got the opportunity to find more crude oil

Mississippi Oil Spill Closes river Traffic

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:26:37 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Half a million gallons on top of all that crap from the floods--it's gonna be a sad year for the Gulf of Mexico

Clip Source: www.sundancechannel.com

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, July 24, 2008 (ENS) - Crews are struggling to contain and clean more than 419,000 gallons of fuel oil from an 80 mile closed stretch of the Mississippi River that extends from New Orleans downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

The oil spilled early Wednesday near downtown New Orleans when the 600-foot Liberian-flagged oil tanker Tintomara collided with an American Commercial Lines barge that was being pushed by a tug, the Mel Oliver.

The collision split the 61-foot barge in half and the oil spilled from the barge into the river at mile marker 98, near Harahan, just north of the Huey P. Long Bridge. The tanker was not damaged.

The Coast Guard has confirmed that none of the tug's crew had the licenses that are required to operate on the river.

Representatives from the tug Mel Oliver report that "there were no properly licensed individuals on the vessel during the time that the incident occurred," the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Greenpeace Activists Arrested Protesting Oil Sands in Northern Alberta

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:27:19 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: “Today we brought our message to the perpetrators of this environmental crime with a clear message to put the brakes on the tar sands,” Hudema said.

The tar sands use more water than any other Alberta user. Current projects are licensed to remove more than 450 million cubic meters of water from the Athabasca River each year, about two and a half times the amount of water used by the city of Calgary each year.

After use, the water is so contaminated with toxic chemicals that it is stored in toxic tailings ponds so large that they can be seen from space.

With today’s demonstration, the Greenpeacers targeted the same sludgy six-square-kilometer tailings pond where 500 ducks drowned in April, despite environmental regulations that require Syncrude to have wildlife deterrents in place.

“We take a lot of pride in having systems in place to prevent birds from landing on settling basins and storage ponds,” Syncrude’s Katinas said at the time. “So we’re very saddened and sorry that

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta, Canada - Eleven Greenpeace activists entered Syncrude’s Aurora North Tar Sands facility north of Fort McMurray today, erecting a banner that transformed the opening of a tailings pond pipe into the “mouth” of a giant skull, spewing toxic sludge. Shortly after 8:00 am, two Greenpeaceers blocked the pipe by shutting down the valve before chaining and locking themselves to the control box.

Two other activists hung a banner reading “World’s Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands,” on the bank of the tailings pond.

Before they could completely block the second pipe, Syncrude security took the 11 activists into custody and handed them over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Charges are pending against all the demonstrators.

oil companies are pillaging Alberta’s natural resources, robbing freshwater from the Athabasca River to make giant lakes of toxic sludge that are killing wildlife and poisoning local communities,” said Mike Hudema, a tar sands campaigner with Greenpeace.

So where's the big Bargain?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:22:22 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: It just doesn't make sense on so many levels, including $$, but somebody is gettin' rich on this Goddamned war.

Clip Source: c3.newdream.org

The following quote is from an episode of The History Channel's "Modern Marvels" entitled "Doomsday Tech 1."

One section of the show focused on the impending end of the global oil supply and the wars which would result. One of the experts said the following:

"The United States government now spends more money maintaining a military presence in the Persian Gulf than the net value of the oil it's getting from the Persian Gulf -- and that was before the war. That was 200 billion dollars ago."

OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL...DO YA GET IT YET?

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:15:01 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: For those of us that saw this 6 yrs ago, it is really frustrating to hear people saying this so late in the 2nd Bush term...Idiots! (not Moyers)

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Oh, no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al-Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire and ashes. And now the bottom line turns out to be ... the bottom line. It is about oil.

Chomsky: Bush & Cheney Always Saw Iraq as a Sweetheart Oil Deal
Noam Chomsky

With Unexpected Iraqi Withdrawal Demand, Bush Has Lost the War
Gareth Porter

Kurdish Official: Iraqi Oil Deals "Illegal"
Bassel al-Khateeb

Iraq and Oil: Will the Corporate Media Ever Make the Connection?
Nick Turse

Remember, also, that soon after the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld's deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, told the press that war was our only strategic choice. "We had virtually no economic options with Iraq," he explained, "because the country floats on a sea of oil."

Big Oil CEOs are drinking our milkshake

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:28:27 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Obscene amount of $$ for NOT making the gas situation better

Clip Source: gristmill.grist.org

Everyone is acutely aware that the price of oil is surging and gas prices break a new record almost daily. Less well-reported -- yet completely unsurprising -- is that the paychecks of Big Oil CEOs are also reaching new heights, according to a report by Equilar, as reported by MSN Money.

Median S&P 500 CEO compensation: $9.9 million. Big Oil CEO pay range: $15-$21.7 million (!)

Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, raked in an astonishing $21.7 million and is sitting on nearly $78 million of unvested stock options. (Though this is chump change compared to the obscene $500 million golden parachute his predecessor, Lee Raymond, received upon retirement. That is of course also the same amount ExxonMobil will have to pay in punitive damages for the ExxonValdez disaster, thanks to a recent wrongheaded Supreme Court decision.)

Kucinich Still fighting for Impeachment

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:15:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Thanks, Dennis, for staying with it...even if the 'Merikan people and their Reps. in congress don't fuckin' listen. Sheeple and traitors, hand in hoof.

Clip Source: kucinich.us

FISA bill violates 4th Amendment

In an impassioned floor speech, Congressman Kucinich warns of the dangers of secret surveillance and blanket wiretaps of innocent U.S. citizens.

And they said the war wasn't for the oil

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:33:30 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: “We pretend it is not a centerpiece of our motivation, yet we keep confirming that it is,” Frederick D. Barton, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in a telephone interview. “And we undermine our own veracity by citing issues like sovereignty, when we have our hands right in the middle of it.”
SURPRISE, SURPRISE---NOT!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.

The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts’ announcement, is the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration in deals to open Iraq’s oil to commercial development and is likely to stoke criticism.

In their role as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, American government lawyers and private-sector consultants provided template contracts and detailed suggestions on drafting the contracts, advisers and a senior State Department official said.

It is unclear how much influence their work had on the ministry’s decisions.

The contracts are expected to be awarded Monday to Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total and Chevron, as well as to several smaller oil companies.

Dollars, Oil and the Big Wipe Out

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:54:23 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

[Video]

The Petro-Dollar War

The first thing the US did when it invaded and took over Iraq was reverse Saddam Hussein's recently policy of demanding Euros in payment for his countries oil.

Some think that's what the war was all about and that Iran's insistence on receiving Euros for its oil is the real reason that country has been targeted.

Dollars? Euros? What's the difference?

The difference is this...if you are the dominant currency, you can support your lifestyle and war machine by printing more when you run out.

Take that power away and there will be a very economic painful dislocation in the US.

They're Baaack--Juan Coles take on Amerikan Big Oil in Iraq

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:52:10 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Thanks to Ratilfar...Maybe he clipped it too but it deserves all the spreading it gets...excellent column by Juan Cole:

Bush and Cheney clearly went into Iraq primarily in order to put US petroleum firms in precisely this favored position. The US power elite wanted this outcome and connived actively at it. As Alan Greenspan put it, “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”

Poor Iraq has been looted, occupied, and disrupted by the industrialized West for a century because of the curse of its oil wealth. The Iraqi Petroleum Company was until 1929 the Turkish Petroleum Company since it began in 1912 with a concession from the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Iraq before the 1917 British conquest. The victors of World War I used their victory to leverage themselves into Iraqi oil. The Ottomans had thrown in with Germany and Austria in 1914, and were defeated by the victorious allies. Iraq was considered a s

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

They're Baaack;
It is Politically Inconvenient to Acknowledge . . .

The consortium of American and European oil companies that had dominated Iraqi petroleum in the twentieth century is returning to Iraq to carry out service agreements aimed at expanding production in four southern oil fields.

Jonathan Steele reports,

' But the deals, known as service contracts, are unusual, said Greg Mutitt, co-director of Platform, an oil industry research group. "Normally such service contracts are carried out by specialist companies ... The majors are not normally interested in such deals, preferring to invest in projects that give them a stake in ownership of extracted oil and the potential for large profits. The explanation is that they see them as a stepping stone..."

He said the companies' lawyers had been insisting "on extension rights under which each company would get first preference on any future contract for the field on which it has worked".'

Patrick Cockburn has more.

Clipmarks | papananook's 'oil' clips

Cheney Colleague Admits Bribery in Halliburton Oil Deals

The Great Amnesia How we became slaves to oil

Why T. Boone Pickens' 'Clean Energy' Plan Is a Ponzi Scheme

Russia, Georgia and the US

Analysis of the US led assault on Yugoslavia

Proposal to harness wind power off Calif. coast worries fishing industry

Big Oil and their GOP lapdogs

Mississippi Oil Spill Closes river Traffic

Greenpeace Activists Arrested Protesting Oil Sands in Northern Alberta

So where's the big Bargain?

OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL...DO YA GET IT YET?

Big Oil CEOs are drinking our milkshake

Kucinich Still fighting for Impeachment

And they said the war wasn't for the oil

Dollars, Oil and the Big Wipe Out

They're Baaack--Juan Coles take on Amerikan Big Oil in Iraq

They're Baaack; It is Politically Inconvenient to Acknowledge . . .

They're Baaack;
It is Politically Inconvenient to Acknowledge . . .