Energy, Mining & Utilities

Months of investigation by The New York Times revealed a level of contacts and financial support to the military not fully disclosed by Freeport, despite years of requests by shareholders concerned about potential violations of American laws and the company's relations with a military whose human rights record is so blighted that the United States severed ties for a dozen years until November. Read More

A scandal has rocked the $64 billion global diamond business and tarnished the credibility of one the industry's biggest players,according to a news report Tuesday. Read More

An antitrust lawsuit filed against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs. Read More

Venezuela has given the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, until the end of this year to enter a joint venture with the state. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in Exxon losing its oil field concessions in the country. Venezuela's socialist government has now signed new agreements with almost all foreign petroleum companies. After months of pressure from left- wing leader Hugo Chavez most foreign oil firms working there have caved in. Read More

Water that is undrinkable. Air that is better left unbreathed. A community impoverished, living above mountains of gold. These are some of the contradictions of Andalgalá, a town of 17,000 inhabitants in Catamarca, Argentina, 240 kilometres from the provincial capital, home for ten years now to the largest gold and copper mine in the country, and one of the largest in the world. Read More

Soon heading to trial, the former Enron CEO implores -- before a wealthy crowd -- company employees to "stand up" for him. Read More

Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human rights abuses of modern times, but it is increasingly difficult to hold them to account. Economic globalization and the rise of transnational corporate power have created a favorable climate for corporate human rights abusers, which are governed principally by the codes of supply and demand and show genuine loyalty only to their stockholders. Read More

December 9, 2005Ebocha JournalStrangers in the Dazzling Night: A Mix of Oil and MiseryBy LYDIA POLGREENEBOCHA, Nigeria - The sun had almost set, and another glum happy hour arrived at One for the Road. Veronica, its proprietor, put out her white plastic chairs and tables, checked her stock of chilled beer and waited for paying customers. There was no need to switch on the lights. Across from her tavern, day and night, burns a ghastly, eternal flame. Read More

Azerbaijan prepares for another round of oil wealth and risk as a consortium led by BP gets ready to pump one million barrels a day from a big offshore field to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. Read More

Oil was meant to bring hope and money to this sleepy fishing town in Cameroon, but Kribi's residents say they can barely make ends meet. Read More