Better the devil you know

Well that was a fun 24 hours, but then the deliberately provocative headline was kind of begging for it.

Many thanks in particular to Emma Burnell for taking the time to write a more considered response; much more refreshing than some of the hate mail I’ve received.

Let me make one thing clear. I don’t think that oil companies are saints and I am all too familiar with their sins. Having been an energy finance lawyer for the past seven years, I have acted for and with many of the world’s oil companies on many different projects and am familiar with their internal cultures and attitudes. In February, I was working on a Libyan oil matter around the clock when the all stop came on the deal because of the outbreak of war there.

Libya will shortly be a hotbed of investment for many different types of business and its oil industry will be incredibly important to its redevelopment. Libyan law already requires any oil company that wants to invest there to employ a certain number of Libyan nationals and to train and educate them further. I wish that Libya had the internal resources and expertise to develop its assets purely internally but, notwithstanding AGOC and the NOC, it doesn’t. It will need foreign investment and because it has oil, well, I know that the vultures are already circling. If there is any naivety in this debate, it lies with those who pretend otherwise.

The question is simply who will get the contracts? Will it be Western companies like Total, Santos or Dong?  Or will it be companies like Sinopec  or NIOC?

Who? Interesting that all the mail I received referred to the sins of Shell, BP, Exxon. No one referred to the 12 people Sinopec killed last year in China. No one mentioned PT Lapindo Brantas and the Javan mud volcano. Nor did anyone refer to that NIOC’s environmental record, probably because googling “National Iranian Oil Company environmental record” doesn’t really produce anything useful.

We on the left are very effective at pointing at some of the big oil companies and holding them to account for their actions but many of these companies get away with “murder”.  Everything Emma lists is more a reason for preferring these companies to the ones about which we know little or nothing. If it just so happens that companies like Salamander, Tullow or Premier are successful then that is great for the British taxpayer. However I would be just as satisfied with other known companies like Chevron, Maersk or ExxonMobil because we are more able to hold these companies to account for anything that they might do in Libya than say Gazprom.

If Shell wins contracts in Libya and then exploits the Libyan people for their labour, I’m sure Emma would be angry and Shell will not only be forced to listen to her, me and those who shout with us but will actually be willing to listen and engage with the criticism. Having done business with CNOOC in the past, I can’t say the same for them.  If Emma wants to stand with me in trying to ensure that the lesser of two evils becomes a dominant influence in Libya, I would welcome her support.