Tag Archives: Madagascar

Profit before People – Madagascan Tar Sands Extraction

Madagascar - Unlike RBS and Total, they didn't go there for the oil
Madagascar - Unlike RBS and Total, they didn't go there for the oil

This could be the worst case of Corporate exploitation I’ve ever seen….

Jeremy Williams from Make Wealth History reports that  the contracts for the country’s oil sands lie with a conglomerate called Madagascar Oil. This company co- founded by the notorious Alan Bond, a man who was convicted and jailed for Australia’s biggest ever corporate fraud. Madagascar Oil is administered out of an office in Texas, and registered in the tax haven of Bermuda.

Funders include Credit Suisse, and French oil giant Total will be assisting on the ground and have recieved finance from our very own RBS. Profits will accrue anywhere but Madagascar itself.

Madagascar Oil has negotiated a deal that sees them keep 99% of profits for the first decade, leaving just 1% for the government’s coffers. That increases to a 80/20 split for the second decade, and a 70/30 share for the third.

As is that wasn’t bad enough –  Holly Rakotondralambo, an environmental campaigner from Madagascar, talking to numerous journalists this week says that

“There is growing concern among local communities about the effects that tar sands mining might have on agricultural land, water sources and the unique biodiversity of Madagascar; particularly since we have seen the devastation that has occurred in the Canadian tar sands mining areas.  There is great poverty in Madagascar.  Many people in the tar sands areas in Madagascar are small scale subsistence farmers who have had their land passed down through their families.  They are afraid that they will lose their land or that it will get poisoned.  There are also fears about the machinery and the huge lorries that will pass through this area to get to the mining sites. There are also concerns that water supplies may be contaminated with toxic pollution”

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