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Let's be friendsTake Action to stop RBS investing in conflict zones
RBS has investmented in Tullow Oil since the banks’ 2008 bail out by the Treasury, which means that public money has been lent to a company linked with an oppresive regime. People & Planet are taking the Treasury to court for allowing this to happen. You can take action to support this legal challenge by emailing the Treasury and by lobbying your MP.
In March 2009, RBS was part of a consortium of 14 banks that lent $1,890 million to the Irish company Tullow Oil - providing in the region of $100 million itself. In January 2009, RBS placed shares for Tullow Oil and helped raised £402 million.
Despite marketing itself as “a responsible partner, a careful operator and a good neighbour”, Tullow Oil fuels conflict by exploring for and drilling oil in highly unstable parts of Central Africa and South Asia. It has recently been expanding its operations along the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In early 2009, Tullow Oil announced the discovery of 400-1000 million barrels of oil by Lake Albert in Uganda, on the border with the DRC. Tullow also holds oil exploration rights across the border in North Kivu in the DRC, which continues to be torn by strife after more than a decade of resource-driven civil war. The region holds 1.4 million internally displaced people, whilst it is the boarder area which has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting between rival armies and militias. An additional 30,000 refugees were displaced in North Kivu during two weeks of fighting in March, just as RBS provided funds for further drilling.
Displaying RBS-NatWest’s true colours
DRC and Uganda officially ended warfare in 2003 after a decade of conflict involving eight African nations and leaving an estimated four million people dead. Diplomatic relations have not fully resumed, whilst the two governments continue to dispute the boarder, particularly the ownership of Lake Alberta’s Rukwanzi Island. Both the Ugandan and Congolese armies were deployed heavily around Lake Albert following the discovery of oil beneath the lake, whilst renewed fighting and militia attacks around the lake was sparked during late summer and autumn of 2007. The discovery of oil within an area of contested land has only exacerbated conflict.
More recent militia attacks appear to be a response to joint operations between the Congolese and Ugandan armies within Congo. In early March 2009 Presidents Museveni of Uganda and Kabila of DRC signed an agreement to continue military co-operation and to work together in exploiting oil discovered by Lake Albert. This marks a change from 2008, when Congo revoked Tullow’s exploration rights, accusing the company of enlisting the Ugandan army in violating its borders. Despite the shifting alliances, attempts to control oil and natural resources continue to drive military conflict in Eastern Congo.
Tullow also owns a significant stake in offshore oilfields on the Bangladeshi-Burmese border, which have led to recent naval escalation over maritime boundaries. The company has further been criticised for re-using single-hull tankers (which are widely phased out under environmental safety regulations) as floating production and storage vessels in its Ghana offshore operations.
