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Invitation to the Oilwatch Europe S



Subject: Re: Invitation to the Oilwatch Europe Strategy Session

HELLO OILWATCH, this looks like a most interesting conference and we
encourage that the oil companies TOTAL, Unocal, Premier, Nippon,
investing in Burma be on the agenda, if there is anyway to arrange this,
please contact us here at EuroBurmanet, 

TOTAL is now the number one company by capitalisation on the Frnch stock
market, and the number one French company here in France. And the worlds
forth largest oil company, following the recent Elf takeover.

thank you, dawn star


> From: oilwatch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> -----
> 
>                    Invitation to the Oilwatch Europe Strategy Session
>                               November 1-2, 1999, Amsterdam
> 
> Dear friends/colleagues,
> 
> We are inviting you to participate in a strategy session on oil and
> gas exploration
> and related issues that the Oilwatch Europe secretariat is organising.
> With this
> meeting we aim to strengthen the cooperation between different NGOs in
> Europe
> working on issues related to fossil fuel exploration.
> 
> The meeting will take place in Amsterdam the November 1 and 2. Please
> have a
> look at the preliminary program below and let us know if you would be
> interested
> to come. If so, we will forward you at a later stage the definite
> program, the reader
> and the logistics.
> 
> If you have any suggestions for the program or if you would like to
> give a
> presentation of your, or your organisations work please let us know a
> soon as
> possible. Your are free to pass this invitation on to organisations
> that might be
> interested,
> 
> greetings,
> 
> Aart van den Hoek, Yehudi van de Pol,
> Oilwatch Europe Secretariat
> 
> Minahassastraat 1,
> Pb 92066, Amsterdam
> 1090 AB Amsterdam
> Netherlands
> Tel.  31 20 668 22 36
> Fax. 31 20 668 22 75
> oilwatch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> www.antenna.nl/aseed
> 
> PS.  until October 1. please send your reactions to
> yehudi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> ____________________________________________________
> 
>                             Oilwatch Europe Strategy Session
> 
>                    November 1-2 1999, Amsterdam, Preliminary program.
> 
> NOTE: Although below mainly speakers are listed the meeting is
> basically meant
> for discussion and brain storming and the program will provide space
> for this
> whenever necessary. Breaks, lunch and drinks are not indicated but
> will be
> available.
> 
> Day  1
> 
> Morning program 10.30 ?13.30
> 
> - The expanding oil frontier and its implications for nature,
>         Introduction by the Oilwatch Europe secretariat
> 
> - Who is who? Short presentations of participants and projects they
> work on.
> 
> - Examples and possibilities of law cases against oil companies.
>         Sam Zia-Zarifi, Erasmus Unversity Rotterdam
> 
> - The Changing Climate: floods and negotiations,
>         Kirsty Hamilton, Greenpeace International
> 
> Afternoon program 14.00-18.00
> 
> - Developments around the Caspian Sea,
>          Olga Berlove from the Social Ecological Union. Also video
> presentation.
> 
> - The pros and cons of consulting multinationals,
>         Wouter Veening, Dutch Committee of IUCN
> 
> - Resistance against oil companies in Latin America
>         Esperanza Martinez, Oilwatch International Secretariat
> 
> 18.00 dinner
> 
> 19.30- 20.30
> 
> - Video about U?wa in Colombia
>         Introduction by somebody from the Colombia Committee
> 
> Day 2:
> 
> Morning session:
> 
> 10.00 ?11.00  Overview of recent developments in Africa
> 
> - Isaac Osuoka, Oilwatch Africa, on situation in the  Niger
> Delta/African
> cooperation
> 
> - Susan Breitkopf, Urgewald, Germany, the on the Chad-Cameroon
> pipeline
> 
> 11.30 ? 13.30 European perspectives
> 
> - Elisa Peter, Taiga Rescue Netwerk, Sweden
> 
> - Marc Gavalda, Campaign against  Repsol, Spain
> 
> - Leo van Vlist, Dutch Committee for Indigenous Peoples
> 
> 14.00- 18.00
> 
> Strategy Sessions
> 
> ___________________________________________________________
> 
> BACKGROUND
> 
> In 1997 the investments of oil companies in oil and gas exploration
> and exploitation
> (OGEE) reached an all time record of $156 billion . The Asia crises
> caused an all
> time low in oil prices and investments to go down slightly, but the
> general view
> among the annalists and CEOs seems to be that after the merger wave
> and a
> subsequent business shake out have past, prices will rise and business
> will be
> profitable as ever.
> 
> These developments and expectations are incompatible with the notion
> that burning
> a quarter of the fossil fuel reserves already found will probably be
> the maximum we
> can afford if we take into account the ecological limmits set by
> global warming.
> 
> Continuing exploration and exploitation, with its direct and indirect
> negative
> consequences for forests, indigenous peoples and biodiversity seems -
> in spite of
> so called best practises - to be an activity that does not make any
> sense from a
> global long term perspective.
> 
> The short term interests of companies and governments of developed as
> well as
> developing countries are however the deciding factor in relation to
> fossil fuel
> production.
> 
> Recently many new areas have been newly or further opened for
> exploration: The
> Peruvian, Bolivian and Ecuadorian Amazon; the Colombian Plains; the
> Orinoco
> Delta in Venezuela; the Guatemalan Petén; the Western Coasts of
> Africa; East
> Timor, the Malucas Islands, Irian Jaya and Natuna in Indonesia; the
> Palawan
> Islands in the Philippines; the Burmese, Vietnamese and Cambodian
> coasts, the
> northern coast of  Alaska and in Russia eastern Siberia and the island
> Sakhalin.
> 
> No international body with any power or capacity is overlooking or
> monitoring the
> process as a whole and NGOs are left to engage in damage control on a
> project
> basis.
> 
> Recently the public attention for some grave injustices
> (Texaco/Ecuador,
> Shell/Nigeria, Burma/Total) have led to the realisation within some
> companies that
> environmental and human right concerns need to be managed by their
> public
> relation departments. This does not mean however that those companies
> refrain
> from investing in projects that carry a high risk to severe
> environmental
> degeneration and human right abuses.
> 
> The codes of conduct and the commitment to best practices that have
> been put
> forward by companies as a bid to keep their license to operate leave
> much room
> for manoeuvring on the ground. They clearly do not stop mayor players
> as Shell,
> BP Amoco and Exxon-Mobil from dealing with military dictatorships or
> from
> entering nature reserves and rainforests. Reasons enough for NGOs to
> brain-storm
> on how to use their limited time and resources as effective as
> possible.