The US oil company Anadarko (ex-Kerr-McGee) said they have no role in the development of the Kosmos Energy's block offshore Western Sahara.
The US oil company Kosmos Energy is operator of the controversial Boujdour block offshore occupied Western Sahara. The oil exploration in the territory is in violation to international law, according to the UN.
In a report from April 2008, Kosmos Energy stated that it has a “joint development team with Anadarko” - without specifying which blocks or projects the development team is cooperating on.
Interestingly, Anadarko Petroleum Corp is the same company that acquired the Boujdour block's former operator, Kerr-McGee, in 2006.
In 2011, and again in 2012, the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara asked whether Anadarko cooperates with Kosmos on the development of Kerr-McGees's former block.
Any such cooperation has now been denied by Anadarko.
"We have no interest in that block", replied an Anadarko spokesman to Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara this February.
Anadarko is operating in a number of countries internationally, including in Morocco's neigbougring country Algeria. It has also exploration programme in the southeastern part of Morocco proper.
The French town of Dreux considers ignoring a ruling in the French courts and to engage with a controversial energy operation in occupied Western Sahara.
A German certification scheme for responsible farming refers to Moroccan settler agriculture on occupied land as “responsible”.
The Spanish delegation to the EPP group in the EU Parliament requests that Western Sahara be excluded from the EU-Morocco trade agreement.
Nearly a year after the EU Court struck down the EU-Morocco trade agreement for including occupied Western Sahara, Brussels appears ready to test the limits of international law once again.