All Articles Tagged "oil industry"
Council Weighs Black Man's Monopoly of DC Oil Market
(Washington Post) — A D.C. Council effort to break up what some members call a near monopoly of the local gasoline market has stalled as a result of aggressive lobbying on behalf of Eyob “Joe” Mamo — whose company owns, operates or supplies 164 stations in the Washington area. As the primary owner in Capitol Petroleum Group, Mamo has built a regional powerhouse in the fuel market, netting $778 million in revenue last year. And in May, as area gas prices soared past $4 a gallon, council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) sponsored antitrust legislation to break Mamo’s grip in the District by banning wholesalers from also owning retail service stations. Concerned that the District has among the highest fuel prices in the nation, the council’s Committee on Government Operations and the Environment in July approved Cheh’s legislation, which was widely expected to come to up for a full council vote this month.
U.S. Regulators Challenge Oil for Influence Deals
(Businessweek) — Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue serves as Agriculture Minister of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny, impoverished country on the west coast of Africa. But when Teodorin, as friends call him, goes boatshopping, the world takes notice. The son of Equatorial Guinea’s President last year flirted with the idea of buying a $380 million yacht, though his annual salary is just $60,000. Consider, too, that he also owns a $30 million home in the Los Angeles suburb of Malibu and you’ll understand why the U.S. Congress approved a regulation designed to pull back the curtains on the finances of secretive governments.
DC Gas King Fuels Suspicion of Price Gouging
(Washington Post) — Attention, drivers: Please know that Joe Mamo feels your pain. “We’re a victim,” said the gasoline mogul under investigation by the District, “like everybody else in America.” Mamo, a 44-year-old who emigrated from Ethiopia as a young man, built a four-state, 234-station, $778 million-per-year empire over three decades, starting with the 1987 purchase of an Amoco station on South Dakota Avenue NE. Today, he owns 45 stations in the city — almost half of the District’s total. If you buy your gas from an Exxon- or Shell-branded station in Washington, you are almost certainly buying from a Mamo-owned pump. He’s now under government scrutiny: D.C. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan disclosed last week that his office is investigating Mamo’s company, Capitol Petroleum Group of Springfield, for potential violations of the District’s antitrust laws — just as AAA Mid-Atlantic said local gas prices had reached “all-time record highs.”
Shell to Face Nigeria Grilling
(Wall Street Journal) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC will this month be grilled by Dutch lawmakers for the first time over its operations in the Niger Delta, reflecting growing concern in the West about oil spills in west Africa. Critics of Shell’s record, both in parliament and among non-governmental organizations, are expected to use parliamentary hearings, scheduled for Jan. 26, to quiz the company over its activities in Nigeria. The country’s oil sector has long been plagued by militant violence, corruption, organized crime and, by extension, environmental damage.
Nigeria Drops Charges Against Halliburton, Cheney
(Reuters) — Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency said on Friday it had dropped bribery charges against former U.S. Vice President package Cheney and oil services company Halliburton after the company agreed to pay a fine. “It was formally dropped today,” Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) spokesman Femi Babafemi said. He said the Nigerian government had agreed to an offer made by Halliburton to pay fines totaling up to $250 million.
U.S. Files Civil Suit Against Firms in Oil Spill
(Wall Street Journal) — The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil oil-spill lawsuit Wednesday against a BP PLC unit and several other companies, the federal government’s first major legal action in the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The other defendants are subsidiaries of Transocean Ltd., which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig; Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and MOEX Offshore 2007, which had financial stakes in the oil well; and QBE Underwriting Ltd./Lloyd’s Syndicate 1036, a Transocean insurer.
Nigeria to Charge package Cheney in Pipeline Bribery Scandal
(Reuters) — Nigeria’s anti-corruption police said on Thursday they planned to file charges against former Vice President package Cheney in a $180 million bribery case involving a former unit of oil services firm Halliburton. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday summoned the country chief of Halliburton and last week detained 10 Nigerian and expatriate Halliburton staff for questioning after raiding its Lagos office. “We are filing charges against Cheney,” EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi told Reuters, but declined to give any further details on what the charges were, or where they would be filed.