Category Archives: Oil and gas exploration

Luxembourg pension fund blacklists six firms over Saharan imports

Published Western Sahara Resource Watch: 19.11 – 2014

A Luxembourg government fund has excluded six companies from its portfolios due to “association to illegal exploitation of natural resources (Western Sahara)”.
On 15 November 2014, the Fonds de Compensation commun au régime général de pension (FDC), published the list of 61 companies that it has decided to blacklist. No less than six of those companies have been rejected because they purchase phosphate from Moroccan occupied Western Sahara.
Two Australian companies, Incitec Pivot and Wesfarmers, are complicit in this exploitation of Saharawi resources and are included in the FDC blacklist

January 2015 New online newsletter about all things Saharawi

Western Sahara Update
January 2015

A new online newsletter about all things Saharawi is now available. It is being distributed to 3500 organisations and individuals and is produced by Zain Atfaak in partnership with Sahrawi young people in the Tindouf camps and is sponsored by the Province of Antwerp (Belgium).

To subscribe to the free online newsletter:
email [email protected]

Scottish oil firm Cairn drills amid repression and fear in Western Sahara

Newsnet.scot, 23 January 2015
by Joanna Allan and John Hilary

“You mean you haven’t heard of the roast chicken?” asks Shaykh, a young Saharawi activist, whilst we discuss Moroccan repression tactics in the relative safety of a street side café. Shaykh comes from Western Sahara, a country that has been illegally occupied by neighbouring Morocco for almost 40 years. It seems the Sunday dinner staple is a useful metaphor for the savage manner in which Saharawis are suspended from bars, limbs bound, and beaten in the pursuit of information. The young Saharawi tells us he has experienced “the roast chicken” many a time, in retribution for protesting against foreign governments and corporations that plunder his country’s natural resources.

Statement of the Saharawi Republic concerning Incitec Pivot Limited and the trade in phosphate rock from occupied Western Sahara

In 2013 IPL imported two shipments of phosphate mineral rock from occupied Western Sahara, valued at approximately $ AUS 12 million. Such shipments have been routinely protested by the SADR, and despite them, continue to arrive in Australia. Western Sahara remains illegally occupied by Morocco, contrary to declarations of the United Nations General Assembly and a 1975 determination of the International Court of Justice. No state recognizes Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara and all countries are under a positive duty to support the self-determination of the Saharawi people. As the original inhabitants of the territory until its invasion, the Saharawi people have exclusive sovereign rights to phosphate, a non-renewable resource, and have continuously called for an end to its taking. Continue reading →

Press Release: Incitec Pivot continues plunder in Western Sahara

The Australian Fertiliser company, Incitec Pivot (IPL), has been involved in the exploitation of Western Sahara phosphates for many years in violation of international law.
IPL latest shipment of phosphates from Western Sahara is due to arrive at Geelong on 12 June 2014 on board the Cypriot flagged bulk carrier Western Fedora vessel.
The cargo is estimated to be worth about US $4 million.
The Polisario Front (Western Sahara independence movement) Representative to Australia, Fadel Kamal, “deplored IPL illegal and unethical exploitation of phosphates from Western Sahara through deals made with the authoritarian regime in Morocco which illegally occupies the Territory and oppresses its people.” Continue reading →

What is Total doing in Western Sahara?

by Olivier Petitjean
25 April 2014

The French company Total, along with other multinationals, has recently started oil and gas exploration off Western Saharan – a territory which has been under Moroccan occupation for almost forty years. These activities raise ethical issues about consultation with local communities and fair distribution of potential revenues. Saharawi activists have spoken up their concerns for years….

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Reuters: Simmering Saharan conflict stirred by offshore oil search

Mon Jan 13, 2014
By Lin Noueihed

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Oil firms stepping up plans to drill off the coast of disputed Western Sahara could be diving into murky legal waters and risk exacerbating one of Africa’s oldest territorial disputes.
Morocco has issued exploration licenses for blocks in the Atlantic waters off Western Sahara, a desert tract that it mostly controls but that is also claimed by an Algerian-backed independence movement that deems those contracts illegal (cont.)

15 September : Sydney film evening provokes interest and discussion

Over 60 Sydneysiders attended an evening of film and discussion organised by the Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) in partnership with the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts on Thursday 15 September 2011, under the title, “Western Sahara: The untold story”.
El Problema, a multi-prize winning documentary which tackles the situation of human rights abuses in the occupied areas was screened,
Continue reading →

Cate Lewis, vice-president of AWSA, presents petition to the IVth UN Decolonization Committee

Cate Lewis, Vice President of Australia Western Sahara Association (AWSA) has presented a petition to the IVth UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee from Western Sahara Resource Watch & on behalf of the Australia Western Sahara Association. Read full petition>>

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Declaration confirms exclusive rights to offshore resources

The declaration on 21 January 2009 of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the sovereign authority for Western Sahara, confirms its exclusive rights to the oil, gas and fisheries resources offshore of the territory of Western Sahara. Already recognized by over 80 countries, the SADR’s declaration of an EEZ is a further step toward full statehood, consistent with international law.
Continue reading →