Kosmos and Cairn have renewed their licence - but did San Leon Energy abandon one of its licences? A new map from ONHYM suggests changes to the highly controversial oil exploration in the occupied territory.
Cairn Energy consistently includes occupied Western Sahara as part of Morocco.
Scotland's Cairn Energy states that its joint venture with American firm Kosmos Energy has dropped the oil exploration licence in occupied Western Sahara, but ... that it is now reapplying for part of the very same area.
"A hostile act likely to perpetuate the conflict and colonialism in Western Sahara". The Peace and Security Council of the African Union reiterates its position on the illegal exploitaiton of Western Sahara's natural resources.
"No oil drilling should take place in the territory until the Saharawis have had the chance to exercise their right to self-determination and have freely and fairly decided the political status of their homeland", the appeal to the Security Council writes. Read the full letter, and list of signatures, here.
Any further oil exploration in Western Sahara is illegal unless the Saharawis want it themselves, according to the UN. The companies involved do not care.
No oil exploration can take place in Western Sahara unless people consent to it. Today Kosmos announced will to continue searching in Western Sahara despite condemnations from the people of the territory See Saharawis mobilise.
Former UN Legal Counsel Hans Corell urges in an article yesterday the EU to revise its Fisheries Partnership Agreement due to the Moroccan King's recent statement on Western Sahara. He also states that the oil exploration is in violation of the legal opinion he wrote for the UN Security Council.
On 19 December 2014 , the American oil company Kosmos Energy began to drill for oil in occupied Western Sahara, through an illegal deal with the occupying regime, Morocco. "The company is adding fuel to the fire", stated WSRW.
The drillship Atwood Achiever - which is to undertake drilling in waters of occupied Western Sahara - is no longer in Las Palmas and has vanished into thin air.
The drillship 'Atwood Achiever' has today entered the port of Las Palmas, Canary Islands. There it will do its final adjustments before starting the drilling in occupied Western Sahara.
The oil platform ‘Atwood Achiever' late last night entered the waters of occupied Western Sahara. “Kosmos Energy is to undertake the first drilling in Western Sahara ever. It is hard to imagine a more brutally unethical oil drilling, anywhere in the world”, WSRW states.
A group of women this week protested the drilling plans of Kosmos Energy in occupied Western Sahara. Their leader is serving lifetime in Moroccan jail for such protest.
The oil plattform 'Atwood Achiever' could arrive occupied Western Sahara Friday 15 November. There it will do the first drilling in occupied territory, ever.
A demonstration against the Scottish company Cairn Energy took place yesterday in front of its offices in Stavanger, Norway.
The 21 Saharawi political prisoners that are still imprisoned on the back of the Gdeim Izik mass protest camp, have today appealed to the church communities in Texas to denounce Kosmos Energy's plans in occupied Western Sahara. Read their full letter here.
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The Atwood Achiever, the oil rig charted by Kosmos Energy at a rate of over US $ 500,000 per day, arrived yesterday noon in the harbour of Walvis Bay, Namibia. It did it last bunkering before arriving in the occupied territory.
Kosmos Energy claims its oil exploration is in accordance with the 2002 UN Legal Opinion. If the company has failed to seek the consent of the Saharawi people, that it would not be the case, according to the author of that opinion, quoted by UN info centre today.
14 October, women in El Aaiun, Western Sahara took to the streets to protest the upcoming drilling of Kosmos Energy in occupied Western Sahara.
Western Sahara Resource Watch has today launched a report on Kosmos Energy’s unscrupulous plans for test well drilling in occupied Western Sahara. In a few weeks time, the company may permanently damage the Saharawi people's aspirations and rights to freedom and independence, as it commences unethical and illegal oil drilling in Africa's last colony.
The vessel 'Atwood Achiever' which will drill in occupied Western Sahara is getting closer. After some ten days under the radar, crossing the Indian Ocean, the vessel has now appeared off the coast of Madagascar.
The “on-the-ground” partners of oil company Kosmos Energy in occupied Western Sahara do not base their work on local expertise. Far from it. They are led by directors with a clear pro-Moroccan approach to the conflict. Kosmos Energy is looking for the answers they want to hear - from the wrong people.
The oil rig Atwood Achiever is only a few weeks away from arriving Western Sahara. After a stop-over in Singapore, it is now heading towards the occupied territory.
Kosmos Energy's supply vessel Geo Service 1 was observed yesterday in occupied Western Sahara.
Two of the vessels used by Kosmos Energy for its final exploration programme were last week observed in Dakhla, occupied Western Sahara.
The rig ship 'Atwood Achiever', which will drill in occupied Western Sahara in a few months, is soon to travel to the territory. Now it is testing offshore Korea.
At the Spanish government owned harbour of Las Palmas today, Geo Service 1 is bunkering supplies for the illegal Moroccan oil studies offshore occupied Western Sahara. The studies take place not too far away from Spanish waters.
The director of a handicap institution in Western Sahara was attacked by police as he went out to the street with this poster.
A subsidary of the Chinese national oil company CNPC this month started a new study offshore occupied Western Sahara on behalf of Kosmos Energy. "Severely undermining the UN peace efforts for the occupied territory", stated WSRW, condemning the operation.
Yesterday evening, dozens of Saharawis gathered in Zaragoza, Spain, to protest against Kosmos Energy - the American oil company that has announced it will commence to drill for oil in occupied Western Sahara later this year.
"Dear chairman of Kosmos Energy. Today I tried to film a friend holding a banner objecting to your company’s activities in my occupied country, Western Sahara. The Moroccan police responded by hitting me. Here you see how my eye looked like afterwards. How should we protest against your presence in our country?", asked 18 year old Elfayda Khayya from Boujdour in a letter to the chairman of Kosmos today.
Saharawis demonstrated 26 February against Kosmos Energy's oil plans in occupied Western Sahara. Find high resolution images here.
The people of Western Sahara continue to speak out against US oil firm Kosmos Energy's plans to drill in their occupied homeland in October 2014.
Check out this image from yesterday. Saharawis in Western Sahara are increasingly frustrated over the US oil company Kosmos Energy's plans to drill in the occupied territory of Western Sahara on behalf of the occupying power Morocco.
The US company Kosmos Energy is going to drill in Western Sahara for the first time since the Moroccan occupation. In six months time, it might be too late to stop the company.
US oil firm Kosmos Energy plans to start exploration drilling in occupied Western Sahara in October or November this year, writes Upstream Online today.