The Alternative Report

Chevron's 2008 annual report is a glossy celebration of the company's most profitable year in its history. What Chevron's annual report does not tell its shareholders is the true cost paid for those financial returns, or the global movement gaining voice and strength against Chevron's abuses. Thus, we, the communities and their allies who bear the consequences of Chevron's operations, have prepared an alternative annual report of Chevron entitled "The True Cost of Chevron." Never before has one report brought together the information, stories, and struggles of communities from Angola, Burma, Canada, Chad, Cameroon, Ecuador, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines and across the United States directly impacted by, and in struggle against, Chevron's operations.

Nigeria: Fire Guts Shell Oil Well in Ogoniland Again -

AllAfrica.com, Washington - Dec 31, 2008
Available records indicate that in 2008 alone, SPDC recorded no fewer than four oil spill incidents that resulted in massive fire in its operational ...

[Oil spills]

Oilwatch Africa network held its General Assembly in Durban South Africa from September 8-14 2008. For nine days Oilwatch Africa members, emerging oil and gas communities around Africa, activists, groups and friends of Oilwatch Africa from over 23 African countries and beyond gathered in Durban, South Africa to reflect on the impact of oil on their lives and their environment. They also agreed to reinvent Oilwatch Africa, by infusing the network with more dynamism, opening the network up to more communities all over Africa given the renewed focus and increased tempo of oil and gas exploration taking place all over the continent. The General Assembly furthermore helped the network to reassert itself as the platform that supports local initiatives in Africa pertaining to community resistance against the impacts of oil and gas activities.

Click here to read/download the full report of the meetings in pdf format.

COMMUNIQUÉ ON THE OILWATCH AFRICA SUMMIT ON OIL, ENVIRONMENT AND CONFLICT HELD IN WARRI DELTA STATE IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA DECEMBER 3RD – 6TH 2007

PREAMBLE
Civil society groups and community representatives from some countries in Africa who are members of the Oilwatch Africa Network participated in a three day intensive strategy session on oil, its impact on the environment and its inherent capacity to inflict violence on local communities who are unfortunate to have oil discovered around them.

Participants particularly reflected on the activities of Oilwatch Africa in the last one year, the need to quickly strengthen and build sufficient capacity within the network such that the network can significantly influence policy on oil both at national and regional levels; participants also took a position on the climate change issue that would be pushed at the Bali Climate Change conference.

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)

THE Programme Officer of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Western Region, Mr. Kwame Diewuo, has disclosed that the agency's preliminary investigations so far conducted into the operations of the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project have confirmed that WAGP operations have led to the pollution of the sea at Aboadze.

Consequently, the agency, he said, would continue to conduct intensive investigations to prove that the WAGP was responsible for the pollution of the sea.

Speaking at the meeting of the chiefs and people of Aboadze over the pollution of the sea, the Programme Officer requested that residents of the affected areas took the samples of their urine and blood to medical laboratories for tests to see if the pollution had affected them.

Location: Ikot Ada Udo, Ikot Abasi LGA, Akwa Ibom State , Nigeria
Cause of Spill: Facility failure
Oil company: Shell Petroleum Development Company
Action taken by Shell: None
Alert Date: 15 August 2007
 
For about two weeks now, a corked well owned by SPDC has been spewing crude oil and noxious fumes into the environment of Ikot Ada Udo in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Community people say that although the oil giant has been informed of the situation it has shown no sign of waking up to its responsibility.
 

There is palpable fear of conflagration in the community going by antecedents in other areas. There is also a fear of a rise in respiratory diseases in the area as the fumes hang thick in the air.

The incident continues to attract sympathizers who only commiserate with the local people but lack the technical skills to be of any tangible help.

Shell says it requires an additional $3 billion (N375 billion) and the resolution of the Niger Delta crisis to be able to end gas flaring in the country, insisting that it will be unable to meet the December 2008 deadline due to insecurity in the oil-rich region and funding shortfalls. The oil giant said in a report on “The elusive goal to stop flares” released during the week that its major challenge in the country was to gather gas from more than 1,000 wells scattered over the Niger Delta which, it said, is larger than Portugal.
According to the company, this means building gas collection facilities at the oilfields and constructing an extensive pipeline network to carry the gas to an industrial facility where it is turned into a liquid for transport.
“Recent experience at Shell illustrates the challenges companies face as they try to put out flares. Shell reduced the amount of gas burned in oilfields by almost 60 percent between 2001 and 2007 as part of a decade-old commitment to halt the practice of continuous flaring by 2008. Shell, however, has struggled to meet that deadline, mainly due to security issues and funding difficulties with its main partners in Nigeria,” the company said.

The Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has condemned Tuesday's arrest and detention of its officers, community elders and some journalists at Iwherekan community, Delta State by soldiers guarding gas flaring sites operated by Shell. The group demands their immediate release and an apology from the military and Shell.

In a statement issued in Benin yesterday, ERA said some of its officers, community elders, women, children and journalists from national newspapers and televisions stations including the Federal Government- owned Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) were arrested during a community interactive forum on the impact of gas flaring.