Oh, it just gets better and better.

So, even the Republican leadership felt that Rep. Joe Barton went a little overboard yesterday and forced him (by threatening to take away a powerful position he holds) to apologize. Which he did - sort of. He apologized for using the term "shakedown".

Why is this man so intent on defending the indefensible? Well, aside from the $27,500 BP has paid him over the years, he's gotten enough from other oil companies to total out at about $1.5 million.

And - and - he owns a gas well - which has already earned over $100,000 from his investment. At a hearing in January (2010) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Barton said he was "a small, small partner in a natural gas well in Johnson County in the Barnett Shale that is probably my 4-year-old son's college education." Uh, huh. In an interview, he also said, "I'm trying to provide a little bit of financial security for my family and do it honestly, ethically and openly". Okay . He purchased his interest from longtime friend and Texas businessman Walter G. Mize.

Mize had been a longtime cattleman, when he suddenly bought out Lothian Oil (based in Texas) which at that time had assumed all debt for United Heritage Corporation. Mize immediately became the CEO and Chairman of the board for UHC - which owns land in Texas and New Mexico which had an  aprox. 275 million barrels of oil underneath it --- and lots and lots of Natural Gas.

For his part, Rep. Barton acknowledges paying somewhere between $15,000 and $50,000 for his interest in the wells. All this just happened to occur in 2007 (Mize died in 2008) when  the price of natural gas skyrocketed from about $7 to nearly $11 per thousand cubic foot.  Gee, that's the same time frame that BP (out of its Texas offices) manipulated the price of natural gas, for which they paid a $303 million + fine.

Ah, sweet mysteries of life.

Very Deep Water - Part 2, or The Curse of a Curious Mind

It's been a week since I started this Deep Water thread. I really did mean to have Part Two up before now. The problem is that every time I go to check a fact, I find myself running off on a related but entirely different direction. And every time I dig, the rabbit hole gets deeper. (Well, of course it gets deeper if I'm digging...) And I have to say that this isn't exactly the blog I'd been wanting to write. I mean heck, the Morris Dancers were in town and I didn't take any pictures, or scowl at them, give them the old Celtic middle finger, nothing. I was digging.

This all started because I read Greg Palast. And he's not even all that scary. If you want scary, check out Michael Rupert's "From the Wilderness" blog. He's currently posting links to "World Currency Unit Intended to Rival Dollar". This one has caught my attention as I was told by someone in the financial investment arena that a World Currency was coming as the first step to a One World Government... It's so easy to get distracted looking this stuff up. Sometimes, I wish I had taken the blue pill.


SO, if you remember, we'd just journeyed thru a small bit of Standard Oil's history and it's relationship to British Petroleum. BP, by the way, is the third largest energy company, and the fourth largest company in the world. It is easily the largest Corporation in the UK.

William Knox D'Arcy had become extraordinarily wealthy thru a gold mining syndicate. In 1901, he backed a search for minerals and oil in Persia (which became Iran) after the Shah of Iran gave him a 60 year concession to hunt for oil - with rights to all but a small portion of the country for an initial sum and an annual 16% of the profits. In 1903, the search started - financed by D'Arcy. As his funds dwindled, he sold a significant portion of his rights to the Burma Oil Co, Ltd. In 1908, on the verge of pulling the plug on the project, oil was finally discovered. And so, the Anglo Persian Oil Company (APOC) was formed. In 1913, APOC started negotiations with a new customer, Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. With WWI starting, Churchill convinced the British Government to secure oil for its ships by injecting a major amount of money into APOC. The British Government thus became the hidden power behind the oil company. In 1923, APOC gave £5,000 to Churchill to lobby the British government to allow APOC to monopolize Persia's oil resources (Standard Oil had started sniffing around from its base in Burma). And thus, in 1935, APOC became the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (AIOC). For its part, Burma Oil took on markets in Burma (now Myanmar), Pakistan, and parts of India, with Shell Oil taking the rest.

In the meantime, APOC had joined with Royal Dutch/Shell and started the Turkish Petroleum Company. TPC had deals going to explore for oil in Iraq but WWI intervened. In a conference after the war, the US muscled in via its Near East Development Co.(the major player being Standard Oil). The rest is, as they say, another story.

Things perked along until 1951, when the pro-western Iranian Prime Minister was assassinated. The Iran Parliament elected a new PM, and nationalized the oil industry. The AIOC was replaced by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Needless to say, the British, Churchill, and the US were not pleased.

In 1953, US President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to organize a coup against the Iranian government - with support from the British Government and financed by the AIOC. The Shah was returned to power, and kept it via his brutal SAVAK police force, trained by the US's CIA and Israel's Mossad. The NIOC renegotiated and agreed to split profits 50-50 with the Iranian Government - but not to let the Iranians have a look at the books. The NIOC gave up its monopolization of Iranian oil, and agreed to a 40% share in a new International Consortium. Another 40% was to be split between the five major American oil companies, with the remaining 20% going to (ta-dum) Royal Dutch Shell (formed to compete with Standard Oil, Royal Dutch Petroleum got 60%, with 40 % going to the British Shell Transport and Trading Company). In 1954, the AIOC became the British Petroleum Company. In 1978, BP either bought or merged with Standard Oil of Ohio.

Shell, by the by, became heavily involved with the natural gas market, and eventually had a nuclear project going with the USA's Gulf Oil. In the 1980's, Gulf merged with Standard Oil of California, which gave birth to Chevron. Shell's USA subsidiary was one of the first companies to leave the Global Climate Coalition. Shell also became heavily involved in Nigeria, and eventually agreed to a $5.5 million legal settlement as long as they took no responsibility for Nigerian beheadings, torture & etc. (With a tip o'the hat to old John D's Nazi connections, no doubt.)

Meanwhile Gulf has become a "new economy" business employing few people but holding intellectual property, brands, and expertise. Gulf Oil LTD is now a subsidiary of Cumberland Farms and its 2,100 US service stations. Gulf had/has a long term investment relationship with the Mellon family and the Mellon Bank. In the 1950's and ear;y 60's, Gulf had production operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Canada, and Kuwait, where it had a "special relationship" with the Kuwaiti government (which also does bad things to human beings). In 1984, Gulf became a part of he Kuwaiti Oil Company along with British Petroleum. In the 1960's Gulf was a primary sponsor for NBC News.

By the way, remember BP with its take from Iran? Well, after the Shah was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq war destroyed the oil refineries, and Iran became a supplier of raw oil. There were negotiations with the Ayatollah Kohmenini. BP got 90%, with 10% going to the Ayatollah and his cronies.

In 1998, BP merged with AMOCO (formerly Standard Oil of Indiana). In 2000, BP acquired ARCO (Atlantic Richfield), and Burma Oil. BP has recently become involved with a Russian company (getting 50% with the rest divided amongst three Russian billionaires)

In 2002, the then Chief Executive of BP Lord Browne, renounced the process of corporate campaign contributions. He set to retire in Feb. 2008, with Tony Hayward taking on the job. Browne, however, abruptly retired in May 2007 when an injunction against the Associated Newspapers (The Daily Mail, etc.) was lifted, allowing them to print details about his private life (keeping a young man whom he introduced quite proudly in social circles).

Coming up : how all this fits together (I think).

a Very Deep Water contribution from Ricola

In a response to my most recent post (Very Deep Water) a friend on the West Coast wanted to post this video. I  liked it so much, I figured it ought to be here where more people will see it. Thanks Ricola! It also saves me a bit of time, as I'm not finished writing about this, BP, Standard Oil, & etc. yet...

Very Deep Water

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Laura sent me a link to an article by Greg Palast which noted British Petroleum's responsibility in the Exxon Valdez disaster, and its very similar actions in the Gulf of Mexico. This little bit of information, along with BP's dismal safety record, never seems to hit the mainstream media - which has only just discovered that BP has numerous fines for deceptive practices over the last 5 years. So, with a day off, I got curious and started a little digging via the Internet.

Remember the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline? Well it's barely been mentioned in the news that the pipeline has a storage tank that has been overflowing and spilling crude oil for three days now - causing an almost complete shutdown  ( 8% of normal) of the pipeline. The company which owns the pipeline claims that all of the oil spilled has been caught in a containment area. And there are no hazardous fumes involved. The pipeline carries crude oil from Alaska's North Slope to an intake station in Prudhoe Bay. From there, the pipeline carries the oil to the shipping point at Valdez. Does that name sound familiar  - as in Exxon Valdez?

The company which built and manages the pipeline is the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. The crude oil it carries is produced at the North Slope thru the auspices of BP, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil, who, as partners, just happen to own  95 % of the Alyeska Pipeline Service.

Back in 1989, the Exxon Valdez was carrying 54.1 million US gallons of BP's oil when it ran aground on a reef, spilling at least 11 million gallons into Prince William Sound. (Some groups maintain that that estimate was "under reported".) That spill spread to cover 1,300 miles of coastline and 11 thousand square miles of ocean. The first attempt at a cleanup was through the use of a dispersant, surfactant and a solvent. There was also an attempt to burn off the oil. The mechanical cleanup involved booms and skimmers, but they were not available until over 24 hours after the accident. Then they tried high pressure hot  water, which killed the plankton and microorganisms which were part of the coastal marine food chain. Does this sound somewhat familiar? If it reminds you of the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico, then I guess it's time to note that (as per Greg Palast) the company behind the Exxon Valdez cleanup was (drum roll, please) British Petroleum - and I'll add that it was via Aleyska, whose 2nd biggest stockholder after BP is Exxon Mobil.

Oh, by the way, as of 2007, it was estimated that more than 26,000 gallons of oil still remain in the sands of the Prince William Sound shoreline... In litigation over the spill, Exxon was ordered to pay 5 billion dollars in punitive damages (one year's profits at the time). Exxon appealed, and to protect themselves just in case, they arranged a 4.8 billion credit line through JP Morgan & Co. In order that they not have to keep so much money in reserve, Morgan created the modern credit default swap. After many appeals, the US Supreme Court reduced Exxon's punitive damages to 575.5 million.

How deep does this rabbit hole go? Well, once upon a time there was an old man who had a lot of good press for handing out shiny new dimes to kids. His name was John D. Rockefeller. He was responsible for creating and running an oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company named Standard Oil.
He bought and/or crushed his competition through dirty tricks, secret deals, and underselling his competition.
Standard Oil basically became the world's first multinational corporation. In one deal, a division of the New York Central Railroad gave Standard Oil a 71% discount on shipping provided Standard ship 60 carloads of oil daily. Smaller companies complained, but  were still priced out of the market (not unlike Walmart's deals today). In 1911, the US sued Standard Oil under monopoly regulations and broke it into 34 companies. Standard Oil of New Jersey became Esso (S.O. get it?) which became Exxon which became Exxon Mobil. (Mobil was originally Standard Oil of New York.) Standard Oil of California Became ChevronTexaco. Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) was acquired by - British Petroleum. Standard Oil Atlantic went to BP as well, although there were some leftovers which became Sunoco. In 1941, Standard Oil hooked up with I.G. Farben (a German Chemical Conglomerate). I.G. Farben then built a plant to manufacture synthetic petroleum. The plant was located at Auschwitz. At its peak, the plant used 83,000 slave laborers from the camp. Oh, by the way, IG Farben also held the patent for Zyklon B, which was the gas used in the extermination camps.

I mention all these connections to point out the high cost of oil, and to give an idea of the kinds of folk we're dealing with in BP's Gulf/Deepwater disaster. Not long ago, BP was fined a paltry $373 million to avoid prosecution for breaking U.S. environmental and safety laws, and committing outright fraud. In the last 3 years, BP has had 760 "egregious, willful" safety violations. In 2005, there was an explosion at a BP refinery in Texas which killed 15 people and injured another 180 more. The Justice Dept. found that the explosion occurred due to "improperly released vapor and liquid.". BP paid a whopping 50 million for that one. Last October, BP paid another 67 million for failing to correct the problems at the Texas plant. In 2007, a BP oil spill poured 200,000 gallons of crude into the Alaskan wilderness. Investigators found that BP was aware of corrosion in the pipeline where the failure occurred, but had done nothing about it. That was another 12 million in fines. The US Dept of Justice fined BP 353 million for conspiracy to manipulate the propane gas market. Seven million people in the US heat with propane. Additional cost to the consumer $53 million.

In 2009, BP reported profits of $14 billion.

I keep seeing this image in my mind:

Fire on the Water. That used to be enough to bring out the soothsayers. Isn't it one of the signs of the Apocalypse? If you look it up in the I Ching : Fire on the Water - the image of opposition... there is a need to look beneath the exterior to learn the lesson.

...and I've barely scratched the surface...