pipeline wars

Algeria sends troops to Niger

A surprising outcome of the failed coup against Niger's military junta was the arrival, a day later, of an Algerian air detachment, including four SU-30 fighter jets. The deployment was a clear signal that Algeria is breaking from its non-interventionist stance and wants its troubled southern neighbors in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger—to take note. Algeria was not involved in the quashing of the putsch against Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani. That was down to the presidential guard, backed by Russia's paramilitary force, the Africa Corps. But Algeria does fear state collapse in the Sahel amid Islamist insurgencies that have their roots in its own internal violence of the 1990s. Algeria's new-found interest also coincides with the start of construction on a Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline that will stretch from Nigeria to the Mediterranean coast. (Map: PCL)

Shell documents reveal ‘negligence’ in Nigeria oil spills

Amnesty International called on Shell PLC to answer for decades of pollution in the Niger Delta following release of a report detailing how oil pollution has damaged water, farmland, fisheries, health and livelihoods, while the company continued to profit and deny responsibility. The report, titled "Lifting the Lid: Internal documents expose Shell’s negligent oil operations," examines company records that appear to confirm the long-standing complaints of residents of the Niger Delta. Amnesty reports that the documents also loan weight to concerns raised by the Nigerian army over neglectful conduct and "complicity" in oil theft that has led to spills. Amnesty is the first group to report on these disclosed documents following legal proceedings in the UK last summer. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

BC court upholds conviction of Indigenous land defender

The Court of Appeal for British Columbia unanimously upheld the criminal contempt conviction against Chief Dsta'hyl (Adam Gagnon), finding him in breach of a court injunction by protesting against a pipeline project in the territories of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation. In 2019, the British Columbia Supreme Court issued an injunction banning protests in the construction area of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project. Defying the injunction, Chief Dsta'hyl organized a blockade in an attempt to block the construction in 2021. At trial, he contended that the protests were necessary to uphold the traditional Wet’suwet’en law of trespass and fulfill his duties as a chief to preserve and protect their yintah (territory). The trial judge rejected the defense, holding that it was an impermissible "collateral attack" on the injunction. Amnesty International declared Chief Dsta'hyl Canada's first prisoner of conscience. (Image: Front Line Defenders)

Ecological devastation in Great Game for Russian oil

A $106 billion EU emergency loan is now on its way to Ukraine, following the fall of Hungary's strongman Viktor Orban, who was holding it up. However, as a condition of the loan, Kyiv is obliged to re-open the war-damaged Druzhba pipeline, which sends Russian oil through Ukrainian territory to Hungary, Poland and Germany. Kyiv is cooperating in getting the pipeline operational again—but is meanwhile drone-bombing Russian oil facilities on the Baltic and Black seas, in hopes of diminishing how much petrol Moscow will have to export through that pipeline. The strikes have caused "apocalyptic scenes" in the Black Sea port of Tuapse—air thick with toxic fumes, a huge column of smoke blotting out the sun, black rain falling from the sky. Russia, unwilling to sacrifice its own oil revenues but seeking to punish Europe for backing Ukraine, has announced that it will cut off the flow of oil from Kazakhstan through the Druzhba pipeline. (Image: Soviet postage stamp celebrating oil pipeline. Via Wikipedia)

Peru: pipeline failure triggers nationwide gas shortage

Peru has been hit with a shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (GLP) and compressed natural gas (GNV) following a "deflagration" on the Camisea pipeline in Megantoni district of Cuzco department. The explosion and fire caused major property damage in the rainforest settlement of Megantoni, according to Transportadora de Gas del Perú (TGP), the company responsible for the pipeline connecting the Camisea gasfields to a processing plant at Pisco on the coast. The incident resulted in an immediate rise of GNV and GLP prices, in turn leading to an internal energy crisis, with citizens nationwide standing in endless lines for a gas cylinder or a gallon of fuel. Taxi drivers and urban transport operators have raised fares and threatened a nationwide strike, demanding a government subsidy to continue working. (Photo: Ministerio de Defensa del Perú via Wikipedia)

Nigeria: pardon for Ogoni Nine ‘far short of real justice’

Amnesty International said that the Nigerian government's pardon for the Ogoni Nine falls "far short of real justice." The rights group published the statement in response to the government's decision to posthumously exonerate the Nine. The Ogoni Nine were a group of environmental activists who campaigned against Shell oil company and the Nigerian central government for the destructive impacts of oil production in the Ogoniland region of the Niger Delta. After brutally suppressing protests in the region, the government accused the Ogoni Nine of murder. The nine men were convicted after what rights groups called an unfair trial and executed in 1995. Amnesty International Nigeria welcomed the decision to pardon the activists but noted that much more needs to be done for the local communities, asserting that Shell's activities in the region have left toxic pollution, affecting the health and livelihoods of many of the 30 million people living in the Niger Delta. (Photo: 101LastTribes)

BP accused of Gaza war crimes complicity

A group of Palestinian-British individuals took initial steps to bring British Petroleum (BP) to court, accusing the company of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The action led by Bimdman's LLP asserts BP's complicity through the continuous supply of crude oil to Israel, facilitated by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, amidst ongoing military operations in Gaza since October 2023. The claimants, backed by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), aim to hold BP responsible for their suffering and press for the company's immediate cessation of activities they say expedite the conflict. (Photo: Fossil Free London via MEMO)

Russia, Mongolia hold joint military exercise

The Russian and Mongolian militaries completed the main phase of a joint exercise—marking the first time Mongolia has hosted drills involving a foreign army within its territory. The maneuvers, dubbed Selenga 2024, were centered around the eastern city of Choibalsan, near the border with China. Armaments including drones, MiG-29 and Su-25 warplanes, Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, and Grad rocket launchers were deployed in the main phase of the drill, which simulated a "joint Russian-Mongolian group of troops" retaking a settlement that had been seized by "illegal armed groups," according to the Russian military. The exercise comes as Moscow is seeking Mongolia's approval of the strategic Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline through the country, which would link fields in Russia's far north to Chinese markets. (Photo: Russian MoD via The Moscow Times)

Pipeline goad of Ukraine’s Kursk incursion?

One day into their unprecedented cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast, Ukrainian forces captured the Sudzha gas metering station—a key node of the last remaining Russian pipeline still sending gas to Europe through Ukraine. The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline, built by the Soviets in the 1980s, sends natural gas from Siberian fields through Ukraine to Slovakia, the Czech Repubic, Hungary and Austria. Despite the capture of the Sudzha station, Gazprom hasn't halted the flow of gas through the station—nor has Ukraine shut the pipeline over the past two and a half years of war, apparently due to pressure from Europe. EU sanctions have only gradually started to affect Russia's massive hydrocarbons sector. (Image: Soviet postage stamp celebrating the Urengoy-Uzhgorod pipeline. Via Wikipedia)

Podcast: Tim Walz and the struggle in Minnesota

In Episode 238 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock of the Democratic ticket's new vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and the role he played as Minnesota governor in two of the major activist struggles in the North Star State over the past years—the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprising, which began in Minneapolis; and the fight against Line 3, which delivers Canadian shale oil to US markets, and imperils the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe indigenous people. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: Stop Line 3)

Uranium at issue in Great Game for Sahel

The ruling junta in Niger revoked the operating license of French nuclear fuel producer Orano at one of the world’s largest uranium mines. Russian companies have meanwhile indicated interest in picking up the lease for the giant Imouraren mine. However, exports are stalled by closure of the border with Benin, the vital sea corridor for landlocked Niger, as tensions mount between the two countries. The uranium dispute comes as French and US troops have been forced to withdraw from Niger, and Russian forces have moved in. The Pentagon's AFRICOM commander Gen. Michael Langley has acknowledged that the US is seeking to establish new bases in neighboring West African countries, including Benin. (Map: Wikivoyage)

Syria

Gaza: flashpoint for regional war? (redux)

The Pentagon carried out air-strikes on Iran-backed militia forces in Iraq in retaliation for a drone attack on a US airbase in Erbil, while a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed in a presumed Israeli strike in Syria. Israel continues to trade cross-border fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah, while Yemen's Houthi armed movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks targeting the Israeli port city of Eilat. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is now fighting on "seven fronts"—Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen. (Image: Pixabay)