New Emails and Company documents have emerged that implicate Schlumberger Ltd. in bribery for contracts as well as protection. In 2008 Schlumberger employees raised concerns about possible bribery when they reported that Schlumberger was paying nearly six times the market value for cars from the Yemeni government as well as with a customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co., who had ties to the Yemeni governments. All of this comes at a bad time for Schlumberger who just last month fell under investigation from the U.S. Justice Department for giving improper payments to the nephew of the Yemeni President.
While bribery is never an acceptable option, company documents reveal that Schlumberger felt it had no choice. The company tried to cancel some of its contracts that they felt were in violation of U.S. Bribery laws however once they cancelled the contracts one of their trucks was hijacked in a volatile area of Yemen. The truck had three tons of explosives; however the truck and explosives were all recovered. When Schlumberger did an investigation into Dhakwan they revealed that Dhakwan had close ties to the government. With this new information they tried to cancel all contracts through Dhakwan however once they did that they found that all of their imports in to the country had been stalled so they felt they had no choice but to continue dealing with Dhakwan
All of this plays in to the volatile nature of the oil industry in that most oil exporting countries that allow foreign companies to operate in their borders are hostile and/or corrupt places. Factors like these show that companies cannot operate fairly unless, unfortunately, they act unfair to level the playing field. This fact about the nature of the oil industry will help to move the energy industry as a whole away from the oil industry and towards alternative energies.
-Tom Langevin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704166204575608580089662298.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines
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