Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power
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6. Moscow to Washington, June 3, 2002.
7. Don Evans’s conversations with Russian counterparts: Interviews with former Bush administration officials familiar with the energy dialogue.
8. All quotations from an interview with Leonard Coburn.
9. All quotations from an interview with a former ExxonMobil executive involved in the Sakhalin negotiations.
10. April flight, rehearsing for negotiations with Vladimir Putin: Interviews with ExxonMobil employees. Bush visit timed to coincide with deal announcements with ExxonMobil and Chevron: Moscow to Washington, June 3, 2002, op. cit.
11. ExxonMobil’s $140 million contract: International Oil Daily, May 23, 2002. Joint Statement: Office of the Press Secretary, White House, May 24, 2002.
12. Moscow to Washington, June 3, 2002.
13. The summary of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s rise is drawn from Goldman, Petrostate, op. cit.; Hoffman, The Oligarchs; and Baker and Glasser, Kremlin Rising.
14. Interview with Vladimir Milov conducted by Miriam Elder.
15. Interview with Bruce Misamore.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. All quotations, Browne, Beyond Business, p. 145.
19. Interview with Bruce Misamore.
20. Washington Post, November 3, 2003.
21. Library of Congress: Ambassador Alexander Vershbow to Washington, November 7, 2002. Table one at the prayer breakfast: Interviews with former Bush administration officials.
22. The PowerPoint and a video of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s presentation are available on the Web site of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/2003-02-07-khodorkovsky-presentation.pdf.
23. Moscow to Washington, November 7, 2002.
24. Interview with Bruce Misamore.
25. Interview with former Bush administration officials involved in the dialogue.
26. Interview with Bruce Misamore.
27. Interviews with executives familiar with the negotiations.
28. All quotations from Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s presentation at the Carnegie Moscow Center seminar on global energy, June 17, 2003, from author’s files.
29. Interviews with executives familiar with the negotiations.
30. The author David Hoffman conducted an interview with a Yukos executive in Moscow on July 1, 2003, as the Kremlin began to ratchet up pressure on Mikhail Khodorkovsky; Hoffman generously shared his notes.
31. Moscow to Washington, July 14, 2003.
32. All quotations from interviews with an executive familiar with the detailed account of the conversation briefed to ExxonMobil afterward.
33. All quotations, interview with Bruce Misamore.
34. Goldman, Petrostate, pp. 111–12, and an interview with a former ExxonMobil executive involved in the negotiations.
35. Interview with Bruce Misamore.
36. Interview with Leonard Coburn.
37. “Absurd . . . enforcement system”: U.S. embassy in Moscow to Washington, October 29, 2003.
38. Moscow to Washington, October 23, 2003.
39. Interview with Vladimir Milov conducted by Miriam Elder.
40. “Everyone ought . . . long-term industry”: Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, November 10, 2003. “There are some things there”: Charlie Rose, PBS, May 6, 2004.
41. Moscow to Washington, May 14, 2004.
42. Vladimir Putin’s job offer to Don Evans, the Russian president’s conversation with John Snow, and all quotations from interviews with former Bush administration officials.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “ASSISTED REGIME CHANGE”
1. Theresa Whelan’s biography, all quotations: Interview with Theresa Whelan. Deborah Avant, a political science professor at George Washington University, reported a brief summary of some of Whelan’s remarks at the November 19 dinner in written testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, April 25, 2007.
2. Roberts, The Wonga Coup, p. 79. Roberts’s superb book provides the definitive account of Greg Wales, Simon Mann, and their activities in Equatorial Guinea, and is a foundation of the narrative in this chapter. Wales provided some of the contracts and other documents to Roberts, who was helpful to the author.
3. Interview with Theresa Whelan.
4. All quotations, ibid.
5. Roberts, The Wonga Coup, p. 83. The author’s efforts to locate Greg Wales for comment in Britain and South Africa were unsuccessful.
6. Reuters, July 8, 2008, from coverage of Simon Mann’s trial in Malabo. Restless in 2003: Roberts, The Wonga Coup, p. 15.
7. Text of joint appearance: The Guardian, March 17, 2003.
8. Roberts, The Wonga Coup, pp. 140–41.
9. “The advance group . . . government”: From a State Department cable declassified in response to the author’s request under the Freedom of Information Act, Yaounde to Washington, March 11, 2004. That cable attributes to Du Toit the assertion, during his appearance before diplomats, that he would “receive $5 million” for his assistance in this plot. Other sources such as Roberts’s The Wonga Coup (p. 76) put the figure at $1 million. Du Toit had been imprisoned for several days in the notorious Black Beach prison at the time he made his statement, but the March 11 cable, approved by U.S. ambassador George Staples, reported that “Du Toit showed no signs of abuse or coercion when relating his story.”
10. Meetings and quotations from memos and minutes in the Riggs documents (see chapter six, note 9).
11. Interview with J. R. Dodson.
12. Ibid.
13. Roberts, The Wonga Coup, p. 184.
14. “Problems had arisen”: Yaounde to Washington, September 3, 2004. The cable is based on reporting of Nick du Toit’s trial in Malabo.
15. Yaounde to Washington, March 11, 2004.
16. Roberts, The Wonga Coup, pp. 195–99.
17. Riggs documents, op. cit.
18. Interview with Teodoro Obiang Nguema, op. cit.
19. All quotations from interviews with advisers to Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
20. Interview with Theresa Whelan.
21. These and all other quotations from the Colin Powell meeting are from SecState to Yaounde, June 26, 2004.
22. The road map, meetings: Interviews with former Bush administration officials and advisers to Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Talking point quotations: SecState to Yaounde, October 5, 2004.
23. All quotations from interviews with former Bush administration officials and advisers to Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
24. Ibid.
25. Malabo to Washington, March 12, 2009.
26. “Money Laundering and Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the Patriot Act,” hearing of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, United States Senate, July 15, 2004.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “INFORMED INFLUENTIALS”
1. Interviews with four former Bush administration officials who worked on energy policy during this period.
2. Bloom to Hutto, e-mail released under F.O.I.A., April 14, 2005.
3. All quotations from “ExxonMobil 2005 Media Brief,” Universal/McCann, as referenced in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ 2007 report: “Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Change.”
4. “A Conversation with Lee Raymond,” Charlie Rose, PBS, November 8, 2005.
5. “We cannot forecast the price . . . fundamentals are right”: Interview with Peter Townsend, former chief of investor relations at ExxonMobil. Also, interviews with other ExxonMobil executives. Rex Tillerson continued this forecasting practice; he told Fortune in 2007, “We tell the organization, ‘Folks, we really don’t have a clue what the price of oil is going to be, and so given that, how should we run this business?’”
6. Interviews with ExxonMobil executives. Also, “The Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030.” ExxonMobil has published revised versions of this forecast each year since 2004; the details of the forecast as it was published and briefed early in 2005 are derived from
transcripts of presentations by ExxonMobil executives at that time.
7. “The Outlook,” ibid., and interviews with ExxonMobil executives.
8. Independent, February 21, 2005.
9. Pacala and Socolow, “Stabilization Wedges.” Also, Robert H. Socolow and Stephen Pacala, “A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check,” Scientific American, September 2006.
10. Oreskes, “Behind the Ivory Tower.”
11. Freudenburg, “Seeding Science, Courting Conclusions.”
12. All quotations, ibid.
13. Lunch, succession, Palm Springs: Interviews with current and former ExxonMobil executives.
14. Interview with a former ExxonMobil director.
15. Fortune, September 15, 2003.
16. Interview with Lee Raymond.
17. Economist, December 24, 2005.
18. “Energy Prices and Profits,” U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, November 9, 2005.
19. Associated Press, March 26, 2002; interview with Spencer Abraham.
20. All quotations from the full “Energy Prices and Profits” hearing record, op. cit.
21. Abu Dhabi to Washington, September 28, 2005 (W). Abu Dhabi to Washington, February 17, 2003 (W).
22. “What in the hell”: Interviews with ExxonMobil executives. “Major Outstanding Issues” and “ExxonMobil would prefer”: Abu Dhabi to Washington, November 7, 2005 (W). “Mostly about money”: Abu Dhabi to Washington, September 28, op. cit. “Exxon’s technical”: Abu Dhabi to Washington, November 21, 2005 (W).
23. “Lee Raymond Retires: The Lessons of History,” brief by Adam Sieminski and Paul Sankey for Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc., December 29, 2005.
24. ExxonMobil Annual Report, 2005. Interview with Mark Gilman.
25. Interview with Mark Gilman. Amy Myers Jaffe: “Is Wall Street Quite Wrong When It Comes to Big Oil?” New York Sun, February 10, 2005.
26. ExxonMobil Annual Report, 2005.
27. Interviews with former ExxonMobil executives. Estimate of the total retirement package, including restricted stock and options, is from Jad Mouawad, New York Times, April 14, 2006.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “ON MY HONOR”
1. Interviews with ExxonMobil executives familiar with the transition planning. “Remains unchanged”: ExxonMobil Corporation Analyst Meeting, New York, March 8, 2006. “It’s true . . . bum rap”: Remarks at the Northwest Texas Council, Boy Scouts of America, 100th Anniversary Dinner, November 11, 2010, in response to a question from Ann O’Hanlon. “Let me assure you”: Dallas Morning News, May 31, 2007.
2. The author is indebted to the biographical research on Rex Tillerson and his family carried out for this book by S. G. Gwynne. This section draws on and incorporates language drafted by Gwynne in a research memo.
3. Gwynne, ibid., and research in Wichita Falls by Ann O’Hanlon.
4. Gwynne, ibid. Fraternity hazing: Author’s interview with a participant. Ayn Rand: Scouting Magazine, September 2008.
5. Gwynne, op. cit.
6. Interview with a former ExxonMobil manager.
7. Fortune, April 30, 2007.
8. The account of the committee’s appointment and review work is from interviews with five current and former managers involved. ExxonMobil has referred only obliquely to the work in public.
9. MIT News, May 19, 2009.
10. Interview with an individual familiar with the K Street office.
11. Interviews with five current and former managers involved.
12. “In terms of showing . . . equaled again”: Remarks at the Northwest Texas Council, November 11, 2010, op. cit.
13. “They have a self-righteousness” and “tobacco industry”: Fortune, April 17, 2006. The author is indebted to Ann O’Hanlon’s thorough review and analysis of oil corporation campaign filings between 2000 and 2008, from which these comparisons are drawn. Walter Buchholtz: Washington Post, September 1, 2004.
14. Interviews with individuals familiar with the ExxonMobil Washington office.
15. Theresa Fariello biography: Meridian International Center Board of Directors.
16. Louis Finkel: New York Times, December 2, 2006.
17. The account in this section of the Airlie Center Dialogue is drawn from interviews carried out by Ann O’Hanlon with seven participants, as well as e-mails and notes taken during the meetings.
18. All quotations, ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. “U.S. Climate Change Policy,” e-mail from Kenneth P. Cohen, January 11, 2007. “We know our climate is changing”: Fortune, April 30, 2007.
21. “ExxonMobil’s Top Executives on Climate-Change Policy,” euractiv.com, February 14, 2007. This extensive interview with Cohen and Stuewer provides a very thorough account of the policy and communication strategy that emerged from the 2006 climate policy work.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “CHAD CAN LIVE WITHOUT OIL”
1. 368 wells in 2006: “Chad/Cameroon Development Project, Project Update no. 21, 2006,” Esso Exploration & Production Chad, Inc. Landscape: Author’s travel to southern Chad. Rules, Guantánamo, entombed: Interviews with employees and other individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s operations in Chad. Twelve thousand square miles, nine camps, 450 oil production sites: N’djamena to Washington, June 5, 2007 (W).
2. N’djamena to Washington, ibid.
3. Author’s travel and local interviews. About 2,500 security guards: Interviews with two executives at a company involved in the security operations.
4. Ibid.; N’djamena to Washington, op. cit.
5. Interviews with U.S. officials and other individuals familiar with ExxonMobil’s operations in Chad. PowerPoint slides: “Benefits to USA from Chadian Crude Oil Operations,” circa 2008.
6. Land payments, price rises, micro lending: Interviews with Catholic Church monitors in Doba who were involved with the World Bank’s micro lending project. Wages skimmed, settlement: Interviews with Doukam Ngartandoh and Djim Ngaro Michel of the Association for the Defense of the Interests of Former Esso Workers, in Doba. “Regarded as a model”: N’djamena to Washington, February, 8, 2010 (W). “The influx . . . before the oil”: “Interagency Support on Conflict Assessment and Mission Performance Planning for Chad,” March 20, 2006, courtesy of Ian Gary, Oxfam.
7. Author’s travel to village and local interviews. N’djamena to Washington, 2007, op. cit.
8. ExxonMobil demurs when asked for infrastructure support: Interview with Adoum Younousmi, Chad’s minister for national infrastructure. Blaming World Bank: Interviews with ExxonMobil executives.
9. Interview with Boukinebe Garka.
10. Flint and De Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War, pp. 114–15.
11. The numbers here are U.S. government estimates of Chad’s defense capabilities, obtained from interviews with U.S. officials who asked not to be further identified.
12. “Chad/Cameroon Development Project, Project Update no. 24,” 2008, p. 77, Esso Exploration & Production Chad, Inc.
13. Interview with Mahamat Hissène.
14. N’djamena to Washington, February 6, 2006 (W).
15. Paul Wolfowitz’s thinking about Africa, “wasn’t helped . . . failing place it is”: Remarks at American Enterprise Institute, “Does Africa’s Future Depend on Global Financial Institutions?” April 24, 2009. “Chad has a sovereign right”: Wolfowitz described what Déby said to him during their phone call during a conference call with reporters, New York Times, January 7, 2006.
16. N’djamena to Washington, January 31, 2006 (W).
17. N’djamena to Washington, February 6, 2006 (W).
18. N’djamena to Washington, January 9, 2006. This and other cables, as indicated, were released to the author under a Freedom of Information Act request. Some of these cables were written around the same time as cables released by Wikileaks, but are not in that online collection.
19. N’djamena to Washington, July 12, 2006.