WikiLeaks: Oil giant Shell 'more powerful than Nigerian government' and infiltrated every office



Mugabe accused of making fortune from illicit diamond trade

Thabo Mbeki described as 'hypersensitive'

Oil giant Shell has a powerful grip on Nigerian politics with staff spying for them in every government department, the latest leaked U.S. diplomatic cables have revealed.

According to documents released by WikiLeaks, the Anglo-Dutch firm's then-top executive in Nigeria Ann Pickard boasted of how it had inserted staff in key positions and knew 'everything that was being done in those ministries'.

Shell staff were also fearful of China and Russia gaining a foothold in the oil-rich Niger Delta, a vital component of the U.S.' energy plans.

Lucrative: Youths walk across a Shell-owned pipeline in Nigeria where an executive claimed to have access to government information according to WikiLeaks

The leaked documents have led critics of the Nigerian regime to suggest Shell holds more power than the government.

'Shell and the government of Nigeria are two sides of the same coin,' said Celestine AkpoBari, of Social Action Nigeria.

'Shell is everywhere. They have an eye and an ear in every ministry of Nigeria.



YEMEN'S PUPPET LEADER

Damaging leaked documents show Yemen's president to be working closely with the U.S. In the battle against the country's Al Qaeda network, Ali Abdullah said he would lie to his people. 'We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours,' Saleh told General David Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command, on January 2, according to one of the cables.

'They have people on the payroll in every community, which is why they get away with everything. They are more powerful than the Nigerian government.'



When asked by U.S. Ambassador Robin Sanders in October last year if Pickard was concerned by China, she said she knew their offers to Nigerian officials were not considered to be good enough but claimed she had access to correspondence between China and Russia.

'Pickard said Shell had good sources to show that their data had been sent to both China and Russia,' the cable said.

'She said the (government of Nigeria) had forgotten that Shell had seconded people to all the relevant ministries and that Shell consequently had access to everything that was being done in those ministries.'

Pickard left Nigeria this year and now serves as country chair of Shell's operations in Australia.

Shell discovered the first oil in the Niger Delta in 1956 and started pumping crude out of the swamps two years later.

It has since been the dominant oil company in the former British protectorate - and has been demonised both by environmentalists and by community activists over pollution and the delta's unceasing poverty.

Comments: Ann Pickard, who was Shell's highest-ranking executive in Nigeria, told a U.S. ambassador that her company had staff in 'all relevant ministries'

During the October conversation, Pickard said Shell was producing 663,000 barrels of oil a day - with about 900,000 barrels unable to be pumped.



Nigeria's oil industry has seen production drop after an insurgency began in 2006.



However, production now stands at 2.2 million barrels of oil a day after a government-sponsored amnesty program last year brought fighters out of the region's winding creeks, pushing the country back to being Africa's top crude producer.



Companies remain concerned about militants. In a September 2008 cable, officials said Pickard asked about militants obtaining anti-aircraft guns.



She also asked what the U.S. knew about Russian firm Gazprom's interest in Nigeria.



In another cable, Pickard also alleged that individuals close to late President Umaru Yar'Adua were demanding bribes and stealing crude from oil company pipelines running through the Niger Delta, a region roughly the size of Portugal.

Another cable recounting a February meeting between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnny Carson and oil company executives shows the U.S.' strong criticism of Chinese interests in the continent's crude supply.

Fears: Shell was concerned by the activities of Nigerian militants in the oil fields, the documents said

'China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals,' the cable quotes Carson as saying.

'China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons. China is in Africa for China primarily.'

Despite oil companies' continued interest in Nigeria, some appear to be hesitant about Nigeria's future growth in the field.

The same February cable quotes Andrew Fawthrop, managing director of Chevron Corp.'s Nigerian subsidiary, as dismissing Nigeria's oil potential.



"The large fields, elephants, have all been developed in Nigeria per Fawthrop,' the cable reads.

MUGABE'S DIAMONDS

Friends and even the wife of Zimbawe's leader Robert Mugabe have become enriched through illicit diamond trading, according to U.S. documents. Thousands died as powerful figures extracted 'tremendous profits' from the Chiadzwa mine in the eastern part of the country.

A British mining executive was quoted as telling U.S. officials how the diamonds were sold to the political elite in return for freshly-printed Zimbabwean banknotes.

The stones are dubbed blood diamonds because of the human rights abuses associated with their extraction and are commonly sold illegally to international traders.

EX-SA LEADER 'SENSITIVE '

Former South African president Thabo Mbeki is described in another diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks as 'thin-skinned' and 'hypersensitive'. 'U.S. government officials meeting with Mbeki should be prepared to recognise his defensiveness and high sensitivity to criticism,' the cable said. His successor Jacob Zuma was singled out for praise for how he handled unproven corruption allegations. One cable said: 'Zuma's rise to the pinnacle of South African politics at the same time that serious questions about his character were headline news is an astonishing political achievement in itself.'



'What remains are fields one-quarter to one-third the size. The same costs are involved in producing the oil but the revenue will be less because there is less oil.'

And ironically, one cable quotes Pickard explaining her hesitancy in talking to U.S. diplomats.



'Pickard has repeatedly told us she does not like to talk to (U.S. government) officials because the (U.S. government) is "leaky",' the cable reads.