Energy, Mining & Utilities

LAGO AGRIO, ECUADOR: ChevronTexaco will face off against indigenous Ecuadorians in an Ecuadorian court and the stakes are massive. On May 6th, attorneys representing more than 30,000 Ecuadorian rainforest peoples will file suit in Lago Agrio, a small oil town in the heart of Ecuador's Oriente region, charging the petroleum giant with systematically destroying their homeland through massive dumping of highly toxic wastewater and crude oil over the two decades of the company's operations in Ecuador. Read More

Bechtel has also played a major role in construction for the fossil fuel economy and the mining industry. Today as we lurch into a world where climate change has become a daily reality because of our over-consumption of fossil fuels Bechtel must take a share of the blame having built quite a few of the nation's as well as the world's major oil and natural gas production facilities and pipelines. Read More

Multinational corporations vie for a share of the American water market, and if they are given the opportunity, affordable drinking water may soon be a thing of the past. From Stockton, to Atlanta, to Cochabamba, Bolivia, privatization has proven a risky business with far-reaching consequences. Read More

Venezuela's state oil monopoly, PDVSA, one of the biggest companies in the Southern Hemisphere, is facing the challenge of holding onto its status as one of the world's leading oil firms after a two-month lockout that crippled output and the dismissal of nearly half of the company's executives. Read More

MOSCOW, Apr. 1 (IPS) -- Moscow is planning to develop new markets in Asia for its crude oil and become an alternative to the volatile Middle East. In the blueprint are big pipeline projects to boost its oil exports to countries such as Japan -- the second biggest importer of oil in the world after the United States -- and China, the world's third largest oil consumer. Read More

The subtleties surrounding the sensitive role oil plays in the Iraqi war may have eluded the United States Army. Deep in some newspaper coverage yesterday was a report that the 101st Airborne Division had named one central Iraq outpost Forward Operating Base Shell and another Forward Operating Base Exxon. Read More

Bechtel raised the Bay Bridge and assembled the Hoover Dam. The San Francisco company extinguished the oil well fires in Kuwait and dug tunnels for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Its workers have laid 50,000 miles of pipeline and built 17,000 miles of roadway in 140 countries. Read More

Nigeria's petroleum industry may not benefit from the bombardment of Iraq by the United Stated-led coalition after ethnic clashes last week forced multi-national companies to shut down of operations in Warri, one of the major oil-producing cities in the Niger Delta region. Read More

CorpWatch has learned that VP Cheney's former company has a $multi-million contract servicing troops in Kuwait. This special series looks at how Halliburton profits from the Iraq war, now that bombs are falling on Baghdad. Read More

Ecuador's government recently ruled indigenous opposition to Amazon oil development a "cause beyond control." That leaves the companies free to pull out. It could also be an excuse to step up repression. Read More