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Introduction:
Some of the
main companies involved in exploration and oil extraction of the Caspian
Basin are:
Eni, British Petroleum,
Chevron, Texaco, Caltex,
Lukoil, and
 Royal
Dutch/Shell.
The rest of this webpage will go through each
companies current operations and their locations throughout the globe.
The Caspian Basin and Pipeline have caused many political controversies,
which have proven to be a significant part of the Caspian Basin.
  
Picture Source: <http://www.search.shell.com/cgi-bin/RSframeset.cgi?start=http://www.shell.com/html/investor-en/shellreport01/reports2001/rde/htm/ginBusExp.html>
<http://www.chevrontexaco.com/news/publications/aug02/gallery_13_spanish.asp>
<http://www.ask.com/main/metaAnswer.asp?>
Brief Company Overviews:
Eni is lead by
Roberto Poli, Chairman, and
Vittorio Mincato, CEO.
Agip KCO (a division of ENI-Agip, an Italian oil company) operates the
massive Kashagan discovery in Kazakhstan. They have businesses in over 70
countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Middle East, and the Americas. (see map
below)
Picture Source: <http://www.eni.it/english/mondo/mondo/mondo.html>
Eni
is also part of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) that, in 2001,
activated the oil pipeline that makes it possible to transport crude oil
from the Tengiz field, close to the Caspan Sea, to the Russian port of
Novorossisk on the Black Sea. (see map below) This involvement will allow Eni to market
around 3 million tonnes per year of the oil production from Karachaganak.
Picture Source: <http://www.chevrontexaco.com/news/publications/photo3.asp>
As any oil company would,
Agip-Eni deals with it's share of oil spills. At dawn on March 18, 1967, a
huge black oil stain floated over the waters off Cornwall as it spread
along the coasts of Southern England and Normandy. The “Torrey
Canyon”, the name of the tanker responsible for the spill, became
synonymous with environmental disaster.
An oil spill in the sea is a very difficult emergency to deal with,
only a mere 15% may be recuperated; the remaining 85% is lost, a
fraction evaporates, but the majority settles partly on the sea bed and
partly on the beaches. Legally, the responsibilities of an oil spill lie
both with the Captain and the ship-owner, but financing of the
international fund for oil spill cleanups lies mostly on the oil
companies.
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British Petroleum's head officer is
Lord Browne of
Madingley, FREng, Group Chief Executive.
.
British
Petroleum controls the Guneshli-Chirag-Azeri trend and Shah Deniz field in
the southern Caspian Sea. BP operates around the world in Africa,
Australia, Eurasia, Middle East, North America, and South America.
BP's roots stretch back to the late 19th century and the start of
systematic oil exploration in the United States and the Middle East.Since
then as individual companies we have co-operated in many different parts
of the world. Now, as an integrated group designed for the 21st century,
we have merged our strengths into a global enterprise for a global
economy.
One piece of history in BP's past:
BP and Amoco, the world's second largest oil company has lead the oil
industries campaign to break open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for
oil drilling. They recently pleaded guilty to a felony for dumping
hazardous wastes at it's Endicott offshore field at Prudhoe Bay. Over a
three period a BP contractor injected the waste back into oil wells and
was fined twenty two million dollars. BP is one of the largest producers
of global warming on the planet. Once merged with ARCO the
megacorporation's production will amount to three percent of the world's
fossil fuel emissions, making it the fourth largest carbon producer on the
planet. Around the world BP has caused countless oil and hazardous waste
spills. In America's arctic alone, BP was responsible for one hundred and
four oil spills between January of 1997 and March of 1998. That's an
average of one oil spill per day! Information from: <http://www.publicmediacenter.org/pdfs/pirg.html>
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Chevron
Texaco is based out of San Francisco and is lead by
David J. O'Reilly, Chairman of the Board and Chief-executive Officer,
and
Peter Robinson,Vice Chairman of the Board.
ChevronTexaco operates the Tengiz field in the
Caspian Basin. Around the world ChevronTexaco operates in Africa,
Asia-Pacific, Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle
East, United States, and Canada. (see map below)
Picture Source: <http://www.chevrontexaco.com/operations/worldwide/>
ChevronTexaco has had investments in the
Caspian region since 1989. In 1993 the compnay signed the TCO operating
agreement.
The following is a track record of Chevron's environmental and
political problems in Texas and in the Niger Delta.
In 1998 Chevron paid the State of Texas
US$18 million to settle claims it undervalued oil pumped from public and
Indian lands.
In December 1989 a Chevron pipeline in Beaumont, Texas spilled more than
230,000 gallons, polluting the Hildebrandt Bayou.
In November 1985, a Chevron plant in Mont Belview, Texas exploded, killing
two workers, incinerating dozens of cars, and filling the sky with smoke
visible from 30 miles away.
In October 1985, the EPA won a US$6 million penalty judgment against
Chevron U.S.A. for violating the Clean Air Act at its El Paso, Texas oil
refinery.
TEXACO IN ECUADOR
In 1993, a class action lawsuit against
Texaco was filed in the state of New York by more than 30,000 Amazon
residents seeking relief fro the health and environmental damage allegedly
caused by the company's Ecuadorian operations. This case is still
pending.
CHEVRON IN THE NIGER DELTA
1956: Oil discovered in Nigeria.
1960: Nigeria wins independence from
British rule.
1963: Gulf Oil begins oil production in
Nigeria.
1966: Military coup ends civilian rule.
1984: Chevron buys Gulf Oil, which has
extensive operations in Nigeria.
1995: Nigeria executes playwright Ken
Saro-Wiwa and eight other human rights activists for their role in
anti-oil protests.
May 1998: Two activists killed during
four-day protest on Chevron's Parabe oil platform.
October 1998: Bands of protesters seize
wells and pumping stations, shutting down a third of the country's oil
production.
July 31, 2002: Summer 2002
Women occupy Chevron drilling and port sites to protest lack of local
jobs and environmental damage.
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Lukoil is operated by
Valery Graifer, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General
Director, and Vagit
Alekperov, President of the Company and Chairman of the Management
Committee. Their headquarters is located in Moscow, Russia.
 
LUKOIL is a Russian based company that has claims in the Kumkol-Lukoil
field in the Caspian Basin. Around the world they are found in Russia,
Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Western Siberia, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Baltic
States, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Poland, and the United States. (see map
below)
Red indicates operating areas
Blue indicates areas of no operations
Picture Source: <http://www.lukoil.com/>
This company has been engaged in large-scale geological
and geophysical exploration of the northern and central Caspian Basin
since 1995. Besides that Lukoil has been conducting geological research of
the northern Caspian Sea bed since the year 2000 with in the framework of
the Caspian oil companies activities.
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Royal Dutch / Shell is operated by
Lodewijk van Wachem, Chairman, and
Jeroen van der Veer,
President and managing Director. .
Royal Dutch and Shell from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
operate in the Kashagan field of the
North Caspian Sea and in 58 countries around the world. Some of
those countries are Argentina Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany,
Iceland, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Netherlands, UK, and the United States.
In April of 1996, Kazahstan planned to open a deal with Shell to drill
oil in the Caspian Basin. As of June, 2001 Shell has invested $560
million in the OKIOC and CPC projects, according to the Kazakh Foreign
Ministry.
Shell had a net income of $10,852,000 in 20001. However they lost 17.8
thousand tons instead of the targeted 8.5 thousand. Spills consist of
crude oil, oil products, and chemicals. Shell claims that the significant
increase in the amount of oil lost form 2000 to 2001 (9,900 tons to 17,800
tons) was due to a major rupture in the Trans Niger Pipeline, with a loss
of 3,601 tons, and a well blow out at a site in
Oman, with a loss of 1,275 tons. The blow out in Oman has been completely
restored.
Picture Source: <http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=royal-en&FC1=&FC2=%2FLeftHandNav%3FLeftNavState%3D0&FC3=%2Froyal-en%2Fhtml%2Fiwgen%2Fabout_shell%2Four_performance%2Fenvironmental_performance_charts.html&FC4=%2Froyal-en%2Fhtml%2Fiwgen%2Fimpulse_sgbp_barriquitas.html&FC5=>
SHELL IN NIGERIA
Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer and
is the country's main natural resource and accounts for 80% of its revenue
and 95% of its export earnings. Shell Companies in Nigeria use
approximately 400 square kilometres of the total 70,000 square kilometres
that operations in Nigeria are mainly based. Shell companies in Nigeria
have made a huge commitment to studying how the energy industry needs to
conduct itself in order to develop Nigeria's energy resources in a more
sustainable way and to bring positive, long-tem benefits to the people of
Nigeria.
<Top> General Information About the Oil Industry:
Picture Source: <http://www.uneptie.org/outreach/wssd/docs/
sectors/final/oil-gas.pdf>
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