Posts tagged under oil
ASEAN energy: weekly review (Nov 06-12)
US President Obama meets with Indonesia’s PM Yudhoyono, sign cooperative deals on various energy and climate projects
A tad hyperbolic about the country’s nuclear status, Napocor spokesman says international investors are interested to support industry’s growth
Southeast Asian countries already gearing up for the gas revolution; tight and shale gas formations to fuel LNG’s rise
German-based renewable energy expert says Malaysia would experience significant cost-overruns and delays if it pursues the nuclear path
Norway’s Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) opens S$2.5 billion plant in Singapore, marks country’s largest clean-tech investment
Indonesia’s national oil company PT Pertamina sets production target of 200,000 barrels of oil per day for 2011
France finances $100 million in 520-MW hydropower project in northwestern Vietnam
Podcast: Luke Patey on Asian oil security and corporate responsibility
Luke Patey
“Is Asian oil security a counter-weight to corporate responsibility?”
That has been the driving question for Luke Patey, a project researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, and his research on ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) operations in Sudan. OVL, a subsidiary of the state-owned Indian oil company ONGC, began operating in Sudan in 2003, filling a void created by the exit of the Canada-based multinational Talisman. Despite several years of resisting pressure, Talisman eventually ceded to international activists and the US government and packed up their bags. Considering that OVL entered and still occupies the same socio-political space in Sudan, what accounts for the difference in how corporate responsibility is expressed by Talisman, an IOC, and OVL?
Patey uses a 4-stage schematic to depict how companies get ‘socialized’ to corporate responsibility. First there is a (1) norm violation which results in (2) discursive debate that anybody who has any opinion enters. Some form of (3) structural reform occurs which sets the stage for (4) an instrumental change in future operations. He alluded to the Deepwater Horizon incident as an example of this sequence, which can then be used to understand how Talisman’s response to international activism generated the instrumental change of selling its assets and disclaiming its connection to the Sudanese civil war and social unrest.
Avoiding the resource curse: offshore oil in Cambodia
145 kilometres off this coast lies vast reserves of hope and salvation, if used wisely.
In January 2005, Chevron announced successful oil discoveries in 4 of 5 test wells 145km off the coast of Sihanoukville. Production is not expected until 2011, at the earliest, but speculation and concern over who would benefit from the newfound wealth already began years ago. In this country of 14.5 million where 68% live on less than US$2 (PPP) a day and more than 80% of all households lack access to electricity, oil and gas revenues used wisely could be the solution to poverty alleviation. Mismanagement, on the other hand, could steer the country towards the ‘resource curse’ which often occurs with the introduction of extractive industries like oil, gas, diamonds, and gold.