Shell and the other oil companies: serial killers

international | anti-capitalism | other press Thursday December 08, 2011 13:35 by pat c - A World to Win News Service.

An article outlining the devastation and mass murder caused by oil companies in Nigeria.

Current investment in exploring for gas and oil in Nigeria is expected to reach 45 billion dollars this month, according to a 30 November report in the industry newsletter Sweetcrude. By coincidence, in a statement cosigned by numerous European film stars and other public figures issued the day before, Amnesty International France called for the major oil companies to be "compelled" to fund a massive proposal to clean up the damage they have already caused during the last half-century of oil drilling in the Niger River Delta. The initial cost of this plan drafted by the UN Environmental Programme would be a billion dollars.

The amount of oil spilled in the region is the equivalent of 7,000 tankers, Amnesty France said. It pointed out that while BP had been obliged to allocate about 40 billion dollars for dealing with the aftermath of the 2010 oil rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil companies have contributed little to rectify the damage they have done to Nigeria and accomplished nothing.