Flame Conference

Don’t believe the industry hype: gas ain’t clean it ain’t green. It’s just greenwashing business as usual, capitalising on the climate crisis.

 

The Flame conference in Amsterdam will be opening its doors for the 25th time to the gas industry’s biggest climate criminals. The likes of Shell, BP, Anadarko, RWE, ExxonMobil and Fluxys will be in town for three days to lobby decision makers and secure more gas deals, keeping us hooked on dirty fossil fuels while trashing communities and the climate. Ooh, and don’t forget the cocktail parties!

Top sponsorship opportunities

Climate criminals with cash to spare (all of them!) can raise their profiles at the conference by:

• Hosting the speaker zone and getting backstage access to the elite of the gas world

• Hosting a breakfast meeting, lunchtime briefing, champagne roundtable or gala networking event with their delegates of choice

• Sponsoring the coffee house, smoothie bar or water bottles for attendees

• Buying a meeting suite in ‘Flame Village’ with early access to the delegate list

• Sponsoring the wifi stand (everyone will stop by for the code!)

• Sponsoring an e-newsletter or webinar, or making a personalised Flame video hosted by a BBC TV presenter with a soft spot for the gas industry

Shell and the Dutch gas addiction

It’s no accident that Flame takes place in the Netherlands, a country whose wealth is linked to gas extraction by Royal Dutch Shell.

Gas in Groningen

Discovered in 1959, the Groningen gas field in the north of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. Operated by NAM, a joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil, it supplies local homes as well as neighbouring countries. Years of community protest due to the resulting earthquakes and damaged houses finally forced the Dutch government to announce a production stop in 2030. Yet NAM continues to insist that “the Netherlands needs oil and gas, now and in the future.”¹

See you in court, Shell

Like ExxonMobil in the US, Shell is being sued for misleading the public about climate change despite knowing the truth since the 1960s.² Dutch organisations and 500 co-plaintiffs have taken the company to court on behalf of more than 30,000 people from 70 countries.³ 40,000 Nigerian villagers are also taking Shell to the UK’s Supreme Court for refusing to clean up the oil pollution that has destroyed their land and waters.⁴ Court cases are quickly piling up for the oil and gas giant, which is also on trial in Italy (together with ENI) and likely soon in the Netherlands over alleged corruption in its Nigerian oil deals.⁵

Dutch government smooths the way

Despite the mounting court cases, the Dutch government continues to lend a hand to Shell’s criminal oil and gas extraction activities. Recently released documents show that the Dutch embassy in Mozambique was instrumental in helping Shell to win a public tender for the construction of a $5 billion gas-to-liquids plant in the country.⁶

Shipping fossil gas around the world

Flame’s Global LNG Summit on 13 May gives a platform to some of the world’s worst climate criminals – including Italian Eni, French Total, US Anadarko, Dutch Gasunie and Belgian Fluxys – all of which are trying to expand the use of ‘liquified’ natural gas (LNG).

Mozambique LNG

The LNG terminal that Anadarko is attempting to build on the northern coast of Mozambique will displace communities and destroy homes and livelihoods.⁸ The government backs the $20 billion project, although only a fraction of the revenues are predicted to stay in the country and the promise of jobs has not materialised.⁹ Despite widespread signs of corruption and malfeasance, the project is also supported by numerous export credit agencies.¹⁰ Oil giants ExxonMobil, Shell and Eni are also planning to build LNG facilities here so they can exploit the Rovuma Basin gas discoveries.¹¹

EU pushing LNG

The EU gives political and financial support to numerous LNG projects by awarding them the status of ‘Projects of Common Interest’. In Croatia, local communities are fighting one such scheme, a proposed floating LNG terminal off the island of Krk. As there are no buyers for the gas,¹² this is yet another useless, publicly-funded mega project (like the 28 other EU terminals that have been used at 23% of their total capacity since 2012).¹³ Although the EU claims that Krk in particular and LNG in general will reduce reliance on Russian gas, Russia became the EU’s biggest LNG supplier in February.

Worst climate criminals at Flame

Shell - $21.4 billion profit in 2018

• The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas corporation is an ‘Associate Sponsor’ of Flame.

• Spent the last 50 years destroying the livelihoods and health of local people in the Niger Delta.

• Its gas extraction has caused earthquakes and damaged housing in Groningen.

• Spent over €40 million since 2011 lobbying EU policymakers and has met 63 times with the European Commission’s elite since November 2014.¹⁴

• Knew about climate change since the 1960s,¹⁵ but opted to keep pushing fossil fuels to protect its profits.¹⁶

BP - $12.7 billion profit in 2018

• The British oil and gas ‘supermajor’ will present daily at Flame.

• Temporarily re-branded itself ‘Beyond Petroleum’ and invested in solar energy before ditching the name to keep the focus on fossil fuels, including toxic tar sands in Canada.¹⁷

• Building the controversial Southern Gas Corridor to transport gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe together with Azerbaijan’s state-owned SOCAR.¹⁸

• Alongside Shell, Exxon, Total and Chevron has spent more than $1 billion on misleading PR and lobbying against the Paris Agreement since it was signed in 2015.¹⁹

Anadarko - $5.74 billion profit in 2018

• VP Andrew Seck of this Texan oil and gas company will speak at two sessions.

• Involved in land grabbing and the forced relocation of thousands in northern Mozambique in connection with its new $50 billion LNG terminal.

• Forced to pay more than $5 billion in 2015 for environmental clean-up after being sued by the US government.²⁰

• Spent around $2 million lobbying Washington in both 2017 and 2018, and contributed some $500,000 during the 2018 midterm elections.²¹

Fluxys - €54.5 million profit in 2018

• The publicly-owned Belgium gas transporter will take the floor twice at Flame.

• Major shareholder in the controversial Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the last leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, for which it has lobbied the EU alongside the authoritarian Azerbaijani government.²²

• Its LNG terminals receive fracked gas from the US and gas from the Russian Arctic.

• Chairman Daniël Termont is a Flemish Socialist Party politician who claimed to be a climate champion while Mayor of Ghent.

What now?

Join the fight against gas and corporate impunity! Get in touch with Corporate Europe Observatory and the Gastivists for more information. Let’s make sure there’s no Flame Conference #26!