Iran Being Supported by Shell Oil, OMV and Many Others…
Two major global energy companies are supporting and promoting Iran by sponsoring a conference being held in Tehran. The goal of the conference is to promote “gas export opportunities and potentials of the Islamic Republic of Iran“. The conference is being held under the backing of The National Iranian Gas Export Company and is scheduled for October 4th through 5th.
Multi-National company Shell Oil, and Austrian based OMV, are sponsoring the event. Stop the Bomb, an Austrian non-partisan activist coalition and the U.S. Anti-Defamation League are gaining international coverage for their strong stance against these major energy companies participating in this event.
There has been a world wide effort to “isolate Iran” due to their being the “leading state-sponsor of terrorism and human rights violations”. The EU and UN have both planned to cut back business ties with Iran. The Austrian government owns 31.5 percent of the OMV company and Stop the Bomb is furious about OMV’s involvment in this Iranian event. As an EU member state and a UN member nation, Austria is undermining the effort of the EU and UN in regards to Iran.
Both OMV and Shell have corporate human rights pledges (OMV, Shell). Neither company will comment when asked if supporting Iran through this event violates their prospective human rights pledges. Haaretz reports the OMV deal was signed in April 2007, and was met with criticism from Austria.
But Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, asked by the Austrian daily Die Presse how the deal squares with his Social Democratic Party’s tradition of “human rights before business,” responded: “The tradition never held true.”
The Iranian company that is holding the event is state owned making this event and participation in it direct support of the the state of Iran, not merely an economic or energy event.
A Far News Agency report states that China, Italy, France and Spain are all involved with Iran and the exploration for oil and gas. Shell and OMV are currently in the spotlight however there are many other countries and companies making plans to work with Iran regarding oil and gas exploration. How far will this go? Empowering Iran for the purposes of obtaining oil.
As we prepare to elect a new president here in the U.S., an important issue is our own dependence on foreign oil and our pursuit for energy independence. As we watch countries and companies defy their own agreements regarding human rights and pursue relationship with Iran, we can turn our thoughts to our own situation. Will we remain at a stand still arguing over oil or will we embrace a balanced approach to pursue our own resources in combination with alternative energy options? I believe we have the ingenuity and competence as a country to responsibly pursue energy independence.
Related Posts:
- Alternative Energy, the Solution to Terrorism-Peres
- A U.S. Blockade of Iran Would Cause and Energy Crisis
- Oil’s Use in Electrical Power in the US Largely Replaced by Nuclear
Photo Credit: Hamed Saber via Flickr Creative Commons License
I will push my van a mile before I ever buy Shell gasoline!
Great article!
Admittedly, companies like Shell and OMV are not at the top of Noruz-card list
Even so, you are at best helping to spread NeoCon agitprop, almost verbatim, about the “evils” of Iran. Embargo against Iran has itself been a human rights issue, part of a long cascade of acts against the Iranian people conducted by the US and UK governments systematically since 1953, in efforts to leverage it as a geopolitical pawn.
Some of us who read this blog are proud to be Iranian. I have a hunch that more than a few of us come from families who’ve suffered from the actions of countries which, for example, proclaim their own self-innocence while demanding leverage such as embargo in the name of “human rights”. Which is to say, most. Not particularly unlike what has happened to Cuba and for that matter much of Latin America.
If your intent is to Stop The Bomb, why not target an actual nuclear power — not merely one with nuclear rhetoric — such as, say, Israel? Which, oh by the way, happens to have ignored the NPT and has been busily stockpiling fission weapons for more than four decades. But I digress.
Meanwhile, tell me, how does it feel to be manipulated by the likes of Kissinger, Rove, and Cheney?
Great article. Multi-National company Shell Oil, and Austrian based OMV, are sponsoring the event. Boy I did not that I should go fuel at Shell and also buy there stock!!!!! Great News all thanks. I will tell all my friends and family to gas up at shell gas station. We all have to support shell wo also supports the great counttry of Iran.
TO the author do you have a prove of Iran being “leading state-sponsor of terrorism and human rights violations”.
Thanks. A good reason to boycott Shell Oil, cease using their gasoline and services and a Good REASON TO INDICT THEM? Wake Up Americans, don’t let the industrial Nation sell us out for fossil fuel. IRAN OIL IS NOT WELCOME IN USA!! NOR IS VENEZUELAN FUEL WELCOME.
Thanks for the article, and we will immediately put Shell on our boycott list. This information will be passed to Churches all over the USA, AMERICAN PATRIOT ORGANIZATIONS and we are sending it to a local news publication. Hope to hear more about his in the MEDIA.
Thanks for this - very interesting. And brilliant comment from Paco Nathan above.
The only reason anyone in the West knows anything about Iran is because we have a history of relying on it’s oil.
Iran pursuing nuclear power options for both domestic and military use is entirely logical, if indeed slightly scary.