Energy, Mining & Utilities

LOS ANGELES (May 6, 2002) -- At its annual shareholder meeting today, Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) announced its plans to return to the Colombian government its controversial Siriri oil block (formally Samore), located on the traditional territory of the U'wa people. This follows a nearly decade-long peaceful campaign by the U'wa to halt the oil project. Read More

Enron's Cuiaba gas pipeline project, built with US government support, is an ecological and social disaster. Jimmy Langman reports from Bolivia. Read More

Energy traders for Enron used elaborate schemes with nicknames like ''Death Star'' and''Get Shorty'' to manipulate California's electricity market and boost profits, according to internal company memos released by federal regulators Monday. Read More

CUT THE LIFELINE! is an ongoing campaign aiming to cut the economic lifeline keeping the Burmese military dictatorship in power. The latest target in this campaign is Amerada Hess, an American oil company which owns 25 percent of Premier Oil. Premier Oil are the largest UK investor in Burma. Our campaign to persuade them to pull out has been backed by Aung San Suu Kyi and the UK government. Read More

Calgary (April 30, 2002) -- Rights and Democracy advised oil corporation Talisman today that future complicity in Sudanese human rights abuses could be liable for prosecution by the impending International Criminal Court. Read More

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Youths who seized an oil rig off southern Nigeria released their last 43 hostages and left the rig peacefully Thursday, after the oil company agreed to discuss their demands, officials said. Read More

The World Bank president's June meeting could do worse than to consider Uganda's Bujagali Dam project and Tanzania's Bulyanhulu Gold Mine. The two large-scale projects are being supported by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga), as part of a broad strategy to increase economic growth and alleviate poverty. Read More

Following a vote in the United States Senate last week to block changes to a bill which would have allowed oil exploration and development of a fragile wildlife habitat in the Arctic, activists are now planning their next steps to ensure that the area remains protected from future environmental threats. Read More

Last Friday, April 12, The Municipal Government of Talamanca (one of the counties where the Costa Rican government granted concessions to U.S. companies for oil development) declared Talamanca an ''Oil-Free'' County. As far as we know, this is the first government entity anywhere that has declared its territory ''free of oil and gas exploration and exploitation'' by initiating a ''moratorium on all activities related to petroleum exploration and exploitation within the Talamancan territory.'' Read More

WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department on Thursday approved final rules to allow energy companies to share the costs and revenues from drilling for oil and natural gas on leased tracts in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve. Read More