Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

by Steve Coll

  20. Robert Zoellick telephoned Wolfowitz: Secretary of State to N’djamena, January 19, 2006. The document provides a redacted account of a meeting among Zoellick, other State Department officials, Chad’s foreign minister Ahmad, Allam-mi, and other Chadian officials, January 10, 2006. “The government brought . . . revenues to date”: World Bank, “Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project: Overview,” December 2006.

  21. Pascal Yoadimnadji communiqué: N’djamena to Washington, April 15, 2006. Wall’s meeting with Déby and Ito, all quotations: N’djamena to Washington, April 15, 2006, and N’djamena to Washington, April 16, 2006.

  22. N’djamena to Washington, April 26, 2006.

  23. N’djamena to Washington, August 7, 2005.

  24. Interview with Mahamat Hissène.

  25. Ibid.

  26. N’djamena to Washington, August 30, 2006.

  27. All quotations, N’djamena to Washington, September 6, 2006. The embassy cable describing Barack Obama’s meeting with Idriss Déby was marked sensitive but unclassified when it was written; its contents were cleared at the time by Obama’s staff; and it was released without redactions in response to the author’s Freedom of Information Act request.

  28. Interview with Mahamat Hissène. $281 million, lump sum within seven days: N’djamena to Washington, October 9, 2006, F.O.I.A. N’djamena to Washington, October 9, 2006 (W).

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “I PRAY FOR EXXON”

  1. Jeff Alban et al. v. ExxonMobil Corp., 03-C-06-0101932OT, Baltimore County Circuit Court, Maryland, pleadings and trial testimony.

  2. Quoted in plaintiffs’ opening statement, Alban v. ExxonMobil, ibid. Also, trial testimony of Dean Jerome, written logs from Jacksonville Exxon of January 13, 2006.

  3. “A very big majority” and “working properly”: Trial testimony of David Schanberger, Alban v. ExxonMobil, op. cit.

  4. All quotations, trial testimony of Russell Bowen, Alban v. ExxonMobil, ibid.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Trial testimony of Steven Polkey, ibid.

  7. Talking points: Testimony of Russell Bowen, op. cit. Sign: Quoted in plaintiffs’ opening statement, op. cit.

  8. Remediation sites: Cited in plaintiffs’ closing statement, Alban v. ExxonMobil, op. cit. That Exxon alone operated 62,000 sites three decades earlier: Fortune, April 23, 1990.

  9. D. L. Clarke to Carmine DiBattista, bureau chief, Bureau of Air Management, state of Connecticut, January 27, 2003.

  10. School grades, “I don’t think you could hire me”: “The Amazing Snyder-Man,” in Maryland Super Lawyers, 2008.

  11. “How did I do?”: To author, Maryland Special Court of Appeals, January 3, 2011. “I just wish . . . never enough”: Baltimore Sun, April 29, 1999.

  12. Baltimore Sun, ibid. Maryland Super Lawyers, op. cit.

  13. Steve Tizard: Maryland Daily Record, March 30, 2009.

  14. Plaintiffs’ opening statement, Alban v. ExxonMobil, op. cit.

  15. All quotations, ibid.

  16. All quotations, defendants’ opening statement, ibid.

  17. All quotations, transcript of trial testimony, ibid.

  18. All quotations, plaintiffs’ closing statement and defendants’ closing statement, ibid.

  19. Baltimore Sun, March 12, 2009.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: “WE WILL NEED WITNESSES”

  1. Remains and identity card discovered near Cluster II in 2005: Interviews with Kaharuddin’s widow and other relatives. Landscape and relatives searching: Author’s travels in Aceh and interviews with human rights researchers there and in Jakarta.

  2. Interview with Hendra Fadli, the Banda Aceh–based coordinator for Kontras Aceh, a human rights research group that photographed and investigated the bones at the time of their discovery. The Indonesian magazine Tempo on June 21, 2007, quoted an Acehnese man, Saiful Bahri, as saying that he and his brother had been detained at the Supply Chain Building and that his brother remained missing. “We will need witnesses” is from the Tempo account.

  3. “If we keep . . . bury everything”: Frontline, “Indonesia: After the Wave.” Documentary aired June 26, 2007. See “Extended Interviews” at http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/indonesia605/interview_darmono.html.

  4. See Chapter Four.

  5. Size of Indonesian military deployments: Jakarta Post, September 9, 2002. Human rights violations: See annual U.S. State Department reports, as well as “Aceh Under Martial Law: Inside the Secret War,” Human Rights Watch, December 2003.

  6. Author’s interview with Baharuddin.

  7. Interview with a former employee familiar with the campaign.

  8. All quotations, ibid.

  9. Interviews with lawyers involved with the case: “It’s another one of those pesky . . .” E-mail from David P. Stewart to Frank M. Gafney, May 17, 2002, released under a Freedom of Information Act request.

  10. Letter from William H. Taft IV, July 29, 2002, John Doe I et al. v. ExxonMobil Corporation et al., 01-cv-01357 United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

  11. All quotations, transcript of status hearing, May 24, 2005, ibid.

  12. All quotations, transcript of status hearing, May 1, 2006, ibid.

  13. Kevin Murphy, ExxonMobil’s rollout of the O.I.M.S.-based new rules: Interviews with ExxonMobil executives involved. See “Framework on Security and Human Rights,” published after 2006 by ExxonMobil on its Web site. “It’s like implementing”: Interview with Arvind Ganesan.

  14. “They wanted to grind us . . . two people”: Interview with Agniszka Fryszman.

  15. Bill Scherer at the White House, what he was told: Interview with Terry Collingsworth (BVH).

  16. All quotations from interviews with participants.

  17. Memorandum & Opinion, July 18, 2008, Doe I v. ExxonMobil, op. cit.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN: “THE CASH WATERFALL”

  1. The account of the dueling art exhibitions is from interviews with a former ExxonMobil manager involved.

  2. Caracas to Washington, March 4, 2004 (W).

  3. All quotations, Caracas to Washington, August 11, 2004 (W).

  4. Ibid.

  5. BBC News, Hard Talk, June 14, 2010.

  6. Associated Press, February 12, 2003. As of that time, Hugo Chavez had fired 11,917 out of 37,942 P.D.V.S.A. employees, according to a former executive, Juan Fernandez.

  7. Losses and loan amounts: “Freezing Injunction,” Mobil Cerro Negro, Ltd. v. Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., Claim no. 2008, Folio 61, January 24, 2008, High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, Commercial Court, Great Britain.

  8. Caracas to Washington, January 12, 2005 (W). Associated Press, January 8, 2007.

  9. Lee Raymond: Fair Disclosure transcript, ExxonMobil Corporation Analyst Meeting, March 10, 2004, New York. Rex Tillerson: “A Conversation on Energy Security,” Council on Foreign Relations, March 9, 2007. The quotation is in direct response to a question about Mexico, but follows similar comments about Venezuela and global energy security in general.

  10. Ibid.

  11. George W. Bush to Rex Tillerson: Interview with an individual familiar with reports of the conversation and ExxonMobil’s response.

  12. Rex Tillerson, “A Conversation on Energy Security,” op. cit.

  13. All oil and gasoline price statistics cited are from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

  14. Simmons, Twilight in the Desert.

  15. Morse, “Low and Behold.”

  16. Slides: Presentation by Stuart McGill, Goldman Sachs Global Energy Conference, January 11, 2005. Rex Tillerson: ExxonMobil Annual Shareholder Meeting, May 27, 2009.

  17. $3 trillion windfall: Christof Ruehl, chief economist, British Petroleum, address at the World Bank, March 3, 2009. Oil expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product: Henry Lee, “Oil Security and the Transportation Sector,” in Gallagher, Acting in Time on Energy Policy.

  18. Associated Press, January 13, 2007.

  19. Caracas to Washington, January 24,
2007 (W).

  20. Interviews with former ExxonMobil executives and State Department officials. Also, Caracas to Washington, March 29, 2007 (W).

  21. Caracas to Washington, May 25 and June 26, 2007 (W).

  22. Interview with a former ExxonMobil manager.

  23. Declaration of Hobart E. Plunkett, Mobil Cerro Negro v. PDVSA Cerro Negro, ibid.

  24. Rex Tillerson: Fair Disclosure transcript, ExxonMobil Corporation Analyst Meeting, March 5, 2008, New York.

  25. Interview with a former ExxonMobil manager.

  26. “Complaint for Order of Attachment,” Mobil Cerro Negro. v. PDVSA Cerro Negro, op. cit.

  27. Joseph D. Pizzurro, “Memorandum of Law of Defendant PDVSA . . . ” January 24, 2008, Mobil Cerro Negro v. PDVSA Cerro Negro, op. cit.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Declarations of Steven K. Davidson and J. R. Massey, December 27, 2007, Mobil Cerro Negro v. PDVSA Cerro Negro, op. cit.

  30. Attorneys for ExxonMobil and P.D.V.S.A. provide slightly contradicting accounts of the minute-by-minute sequence of the bond repurchase closing and the service of freezing order papers; the account here is from a declaration of Mitchell Seider, of the ExxonMobil law firm Latham & Watkins, who was present in the Curtis conference room during the afternoon of December 28.

  31. Pizzurro, “Memorandum of Law of Defendant PDVSA,” op. cit.

  32. All quotations, “Oral Argument,” February 13, 2008, Mobil Cerro Negro v. PDVSA Cerro Negro, op. cit.

  CHAPTER TWENTY: “MOONSHINE”

  1. Text as delivered, CQ Transcript Wire, Washington Post, February 1, 2006.

  2. In 2003, according to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumed just under three gallons of gasoline per person per day. The rest of the industrialized world—mainly Europe—consumed less than half as much per person. Poorer countries consumed even less per person. American relative overconsumption has persisted since then—only the oil-rich, lightly populated emirates of the Persian Gulf come close, and even their profligate consumers guzzle less gasoline per person than Americans.

  3. Rex Tillerson: Fortune, April 17, 2006.

  4. Interview with a former Bush administration official.

  5. Remarks by Rex Tillerson, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., January 8, 2009.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Interviews with multiple ExxonMobil executives and former executives. It is not clear which year ExxonMobil first incorporated an assumption about carbon pricing in the United States into its forecasts, but it appears to have been around 2007, after the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives and began to gather momentum in anticipation of the 2008 presidential election.

  8. “The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers and R&D Needs,” National Academy of Sciences Press, 2004.

  9. Interview with Sally Benson.

  10. “Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Opportunities and Challenges,” slides presented in Brussels, Belgium, November 25, 2003, author’s files and www.exxonmobil.com/files/PA/Europe/Blewisfinal_Amcham.pdf.

  11. Lee Raymond: Fair Disclosure transcript, ExxonMobil Corporation Analyst Meeting Overview, March 4, 2003. Michael B. McElroy, “The Ethanol Illusion,” Harvard Magazine, November–December 2006.

  12. Appearing at a Cambridge Energy Research Associates conference in February 2007, Rex Tillerson said, speaking of ethanol, “I don’t know how much technology I can add to moonshine.”

  13. Transcript of conference call with Emil Jacobs and genetic researcher J. Craig Venter, July 14, 2009.

  14. Ken Cohen quotations: Interview with EurActiv, February 14, 2007. “We just ignored it”: Interview with an ExxonMobil executive.

  15. All quotations, interview with the ExxonMobil executive, ibid.

  16. All quotations, ibid.

  17. Interview with a second executive involved.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: “CAN’T THE C.I.A. AND THE NAVY SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?”

  1. Eket landscape: Author’s research travel, 2009. ExxonMobil’s Nigerian production in 2006: Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Kidnapping narrative: Aberdeen Evening Express, Aberdeen Press and Journal, The Scotsman, Sunday Express, Daily Mail, October 4, 2006 to October 23, 2006.

  2. Energy Information Administration import statistics, 2006–2008.

  3. Chaplin perspective and quotations: Lagos to Washington, December 7, 2004; September 9, 2005; February 26, 2006; and March 12, 2007 (W).

  4. Lagos to Washington, March 12, 2007, ibid.

  5. Interview with John Campbell. Also Abuja to Washington, June 17, 2008 (W).

  6. This Day (Nigeria), March 10, 2006.

  7. Lagos to Washington, March 17 and March 31, 2006 (W).

  8. Interviews with Chief Samingo Etukakban and Chief Nduese Essien in Akwa Ibom. Lagos to Washington, May 3, 2006 (W).

  9. Graeme Buchan spoke at a press conference in Scotland after his release, as reported in the Daily Telegraph, October 23, 2006. “Uneasy”: Interview with a State Department official. “Fidgety”: Lagos to Washington, May 3, 2006 (W).

  10. Interview with Victor Attah.

  11. Sunday Express, October 22, 2006.

  12. Interview with Victor Attah.

  13. Interview with a senior State Department official.

  14. Paula Smith: Sunday Express, op. cit. Paul Smith: Press conference, as reported in the Aberdeen Evening Express, October 23, 2006.

  15. http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2006/.

  16. Washington Post, February 12, 2009. Also, United States of America v. Jason Edward Steph, United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, H-07-307, indictment filed July 19, 2007.

  17. All quotations, author’s interview with a Western diplomat in Nigeria.

  18. From the outstanding report on Delta militancy authored by Stephen Davis for the Coventry Cathedral: “The Potential for Peace and Reconciliation in the Niger Delta,” February 2009.

  19. Interview with an American official.

  20. Interviews with two senior security consultants in Lagos who serve the international oil industry.

  21. Estimates from participants in “Nigeria: Prospects for Peace in the Niger Delta,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, June 15, 2009.

  22. Abuja to Washington, September 9, 2005.

  23. All quotations, remarks by Rex Tillerson, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, January 8, 2009.

  24. Azaiki, Oil, Gas and Life in Nigeria, p. 51.

  25. When I traveled to conduct research in Akwa Ibom during 2009, I was hosted by Nigerian House of Representatives member Esseme Eyiboh. We shared the protection of a single Mobil Police gunman for several days. The policeman had a flying Pegasus emblazoned on the breast pocket of his uniform.

  26. Godswill Akpabio supporters, Qua Iboe landscape: Author’s travels. Spy police lawsuit: Globe and Mail, November 22, 2004.

  27. Interviews with Esseme Eyiboh and Nduese Essien.

  28. Interviews with Victor Attah and Nduese Essien.

  29. Remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center, op. cit.

  30. Godswill Akpabio: “Words That Build a Nation,” op. cit. U.S. official and Esseme Eyiboh: Author’s interviews.

  31. Jendayi Frazer, Keynote address, Gulf of Guinea Maritime Safety and Security Ministerial Conference, November 15, 2006, Cotonou, Benin.

  32. Interview with Connie Newman.

  33. Lagos to Washington, March 31, 2006; May 12 and June 18, 2007.

  34. Interviews with U.S. officials.

  35. Lagos to Washington, February 23, 2010 (W).

  36. Interview with a security consultant in Lagos.

  37. All quotations, history of U.S. aid, piracy statistics: From author’s interviews with multiple U.S. officials and corporate security specialists who worked on the subjects described after 2006.

  38. Lagos to Washington, June 3, 2008, and January 15, 2009. Abuja to Washington, November 26, 2008 (W).

  39. Interview
s with U.S. officials.

  40. Ojo Maduekwe: Center for Strategic and International Studies event, op. cit. Theresa Whelan: Testimony before the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, July 15, 2008.