EnerGeo has degraded members and the industry by aligning themselves with lying, bribing, money-laundering crooks like Rune Olav Pedersen.
If lawyer Rune Olav Pedersen is not a lying criminal peice of shit as published without dispute within several online articles and images then why is their silence and no action taken?
In fact,PGS ASA agents and stakeholders (such as EnerGeo) can invoke contractual Confidentiality terms that prohibit former employees from publishing disparaging content and sue for damages. However, these same contractual Confidentiality terms protect whistleblowing – or the truthful allegations of criminal behavior.
London Employment Solicitor Philip Simon Landau has never Denied that he defrauded Client SDK for bribes by PGS ASA / PGS Exploration (UK) Limited and Watson Farley & Williams.
On 6 September 2015, SDK published Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) CEO Jon Erik Reinhardsen Should Resign on the LinkedIn Pulse platform. The article was well read, but PGS took no action to enforce the Confidentiality terms of the signed 5 December 2013 termination contract between USA citizen and Tier 2 visa sponsored SDK and PGS Exploration (UK) Limited, 4 The Heights, Weybridge, Surrey, England. SDK received no notice or warning from the solicitor that he was compelled to hire following the submission of a workplace grievance. PGS illegally obstructed SDKs legal and contractual right under English law to address grievances which included harassment, discrimination, fraud, defamation and several other toxic workplace behaviors that made the environment inhospitable to safely work.
There is no reasonable reason to believe that the 5 December 2013 settlement contract is a legitimate legal instrument. It has never been enforced in spite of multiple intentional “breaches” by SDK. This means that there is a coalition of corrupt lawyers and human resources personnel (English and Norwegian) who have cooperated to keep a valid claim out of the English court room. They do not serve justice, but accept bribes to aid and abet corrupt corporations and their agents. These members of The Law Society are criminals. They are a disgrace to any and all professions or professional organizations. The Law Society does nothing to those who violate the published Code of Ethics. This means that “The Law Society” is no such thing. The Law Society has been corrupted to protect the very thing that they are sworn to eliminate through the fair execution of law.
As a USA citizen sponsored by Norwegian Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) to live and work with their English subsidiary PGS Exploration (UK) Limited (PGSUK) with a Tier 2 visa, SDK was a target of workplace harassment and discrimination. PGSUK obstructed my legal and contractual right to launch a complaint / grievance. PGS offered a termination settlement contract to escape having to follow legal procedures. SDK contacted Philip Simon Landau after my sponsor / employer PGS Exploration (UK) Limited Human Resources Manager David Nicholson illegally proffered a termination settlement contract to avoid proceeding legally through the grievance process through required written conclusion by management.
The fact that me and my family were not English citizens allowed PGS, Watson Farley & Williams, and my counsel LZW Solicitors / Landau Law to manipulate the legal process to expel their victim of crimes – including my wife and two minor children – under their legal duty of care by Tier 2 visa sponsorship to illegally use a settlement contract that included removal back to the USA (Houston). PGS, Watson Farley & Williams, and my counsel LZW Solicitors / Landau Law actively deceived immigration services and data protection laws to avoid the English system of justice. SDK believes that several executives of PGS, Watson Farley & Williams, and my counsel LZW Solicitors / Landau Law, as well as other organizations have aided and abeted in this fraud which has damaged several industries and its professionals reputation and value.
Philip Simon Landau received a copy of the formal grievance which had been submitted and should have been easily recognized as legally protected public disclosure or whistleblowing. Nevertheless, Philip Simon Landau recommended to his USA-citizen Tier 2 visa sponsored client an “enhanced settlement termination contract” and not proceed through the legally prescribed grievance procedures. Settlement contracts that prohibit the publication of legally protected public disclosure – whistleblowing – through “gagging clauses” are not enforceable or are illegal under English law. Norwegian law similarly makes such contract terms illegal.
Philip Simon Landau had accepted bribes to conspire with criminals to defraud, defame and blacklist his client. PGS Exploration (UK) Limited used corrupt global law firm, Watson Farley & Williams, to gaslight and proceed through an illegal settlement contract negotion to avoid proceeding through the legal grievance process. Rhodri Thomas, with Watson Farley and Williams, was engaged to negotiate an illegal termination settlement contract on behalf of PGS. Philip Simon Landau and Rhodri Thomas without prejudice communications acknowledged that there was a grievance as well as the disputed performance issues. The intention of this fraud was to deny their sponsored foreign worker and victim of crimes legal due process prescribed under English law and contract.
Philip Simon Landau aid Holly Rushton (now Holly Hobson) was brought in to participate in the fraud and be a buffer to direct questions to Philip Simon Landau who avoided simple and direct responses. It must be understood that as a victim of illegal harassment and discrimination in the work place there was obviously a motivation to escape a toxic and health-harming environment. Also, SDK paid money to Philip Simon Landau for his legal professional services which are required for any settlement contract to be legally enforceable. Under Norway’s Working Environment Act, employee’s are required to report acts of harassment and discrimination. However, PGS Norway Global HR, Terje Bjølseth was allowed to break international laws with support from Legal General Counsel and Compliance officer, and current PGS CEO and President, Rune Olav Pedersen, and protect the wrong-doers by proffering an illegal contract instead.
The priority was to get their victim of crimes out of the reach of justice under English, Norwegian, USA, and Thai law as soon as possible. If the settlement contract is not legal, then multiple crimes were commited, from embezzlement, bribery, fraud, forgery, etc. The perpetrators have been able to perpetrate more crimes and escape accountability simply by uniting on a false narrative, remaining silent, and obstructing SDK from presenting evidence in a court of law. The criminals instead have engaged in social media censorship – teaming up to make sure the truth does not reach principled and competent officers of the law.
by Georgina Crouth and Ed Stoddard, Daily Maverick January 9, 2023
Almost a year after its efforts to conduct marine seismic surveys were thwarted in the Western Cape High Court, Searcher Geodata has received environmental approval which, if unopposed, will enable the company to search for oil and gas off the West Coast of South Africa.
The 3D surveys, which entail sending powerful blasts of sound — a destructive practice, many suggest — below the seafloor, are envisaged to be conducted along a 30,000km2 stretch of coastline from St Helena Bay to Hondeklip Bay.
The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) slipped in the approval on 20 December 2022 after an application was lodged on 1 November by London-based Searcher Geodata’s newly appointed environmental assessment practitioner (EAP), Environmental Impact Management Services (EIMS).
In an environmental assessment notification dated 6 January, EIMS noted that the period between 15 December to 5 January was specifically excluded from the legal timeframes, which is why the notification could only be sent after 5 January 2023.
Interested and affected parties, including local communities and small-scale fishers, now have until 26 January 2023 to lodge objections to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries.
To date, seismic surveys have failed to persuade the courts despite DMRE accommodations to the fossil fuel exploration sector and the Petroleum Agency SA’s extensive apportioning of offshore oil and gas rights to 16 companies, including Impact Africa (nearly half-owned by Hosken Consolidated Investments), Total, Tosaco Energy and Shell.
In March last year, small-scale fishers and civil rights organisation, We are South Africans, obtained an interdict barring Searcher Geodata from conducting the surveys off the West Coast, for lack of public consultation.
In his ruling, Judge Daniel Thulare of the Western Cape High Court wrote: “If Searcher truly wanted to ensure that [small-scale fishers] were included in the consultation process, it would have advertised [notices of the survey] in isiXhosa, English and Afrikaans.”
This time, Searcher and EIMS appear to have heeded the judge’s admonition and consulted more extensively, from local municipalities and provincial authorities to (the fisher-driven social enterprise) Abalobi, Green Connection, Groundwork, various fisheries and the World Wildlife Fund.
The appeal, which was lodged on 8 September 2022, included advertisements in all three languages, including details of the public participation process, the impact assessment matrix, environmental management programme and a rehabilitation, decommissioning and closure plan.
Searcher Geodata had not responded to our queries by deadline.
In September 2022, the Makhanda High Court ruled against Shell and Impact Africa, finding that the exploration rights granted to them along the Wild Coast were unlawful.
This court also found there was no meaningful consultation with interested and affected parties prior to the award of the right, and that DMRE Minister Gwede Mantashe — who has been branded a coal fundamentalist — had failed to take into account community cultural rights and environmental harm, particularly to marine and bird life.
Both the Shell court interdict and the Academy of Science of South Africa’s marine scientists believe that seismic surveys cause real harm to marine life.
Scientific risk advisory
In an advisory published in January 2022, 11 marine scientists from the academy’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergency urged the government to reform marine protection legislation, saying the DMRE’s exclusive power to issue oil and gas exploration permits should be revoked because decisions concerning the marine environment “cannot and should not be made by a single government department, as the complex and integrated nature of marine systems demand more integrative decision-making processes amongst all stakeholders”.
The risk advisory said there was a “reasonable apprehension of real harm to marine life if the respondents are permitted to resume their seismic survey.
“Given a relative dearth of evidence on the impact of seismic surveys on marine life in South African waters, coupled with the uncertainties about the harm that may be suffered if Shell’s survey is permitted to resume, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for refusing or postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. Instead, a precautionary approach is warranted.
“No seismic survey should be conducted in South African waters without a preceding comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA] report based on the latest science.”
The Green Connection — part of a coalition of environmental and civic organisations opposed to seismic surveys — says it will appeal against the granting the latest project.
The NGO’s Liz McDaid said, “This [decision] is not unexpected, but civil society has put in all our comments. We are still looking at it but we will certainly be appealing to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, which we believe is more objective in terms of assessing which projects should be allowed and shouldn’t be.”
Precautionary principle
Asked whether the risk to the marine environment was overstated, McDaid said: “One of the things that we have been raising is the precautionary principle in law, which requires that, if there is a strong suspicion that a certain activity may have environmentally harmful consequences, you must show the scientific evidence — not industry-funded research — that it is harmless. Otherwise, if there’s no evidence, then the precautionary principle would say until you can show that it’s fine, you actually shouldn’t go ahead if there are risks.”
McDaid said the SA scientific community has spoken out strongly about the harm inflicted on specific species by the type of sound, the duration and the extent — even years after the fact — and other impacts which are still unknown.
“Off the West Coast, we have got fantastic sea conditions, which enable plankton to bloom. If you blast and kill off a whole lot of these small creatures — and there’s no doubt that they will be badly damaged and die — it could affect the population, later down the line, and affect others up the food chain.
“It’s these kinds of studies that haven’t been done. So there’s a general concern that we are doing the seismic surveys without really understanding the full impact.”
That is certainly the case in South African waters, and where studies have been done elsewhere, there is no consensus in the peer-reviewed scientific literature on the impact of such surveys on marine life.
Aside from environmental concerns, there are a number of economic factors at play here. On one hand, South Africa needs foreign investment and job creation. On the other, as the global economy decarbonises, any hydrocarbon discoveries that are brought to production risk becoming “stranded assets”.
And oil in Africa has long been linked to corruption and conflict. The ANC is currently talking about “renewal”, but there is a lot of justified scepticism about such rhetoric. Throwing oil into the current political mix seems like a recipe for mischief.
The area of interest for the proposed 3D seismic survey is 30,000km2 in extent, located between 256km offshore from St Helena Bay, extending north to about 220km offshore of Hondeklip Bay. The survey is expected to take about 127 days, including downtime, says the EIMS, using a single survey vessel.
An appeal, including any supporting documentation, must be submitted to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Appeals and Legal Review Directorate, marked for the attention of the Director: Appeals and Legal Review.
It is a perversion of justice. Norway’s PGS has allowed its employees, customers, competitors and the industry to be disparaged and never executed the contractual terms prohibiting such publications. In a true court of justice, the crimes would be easily revealed. This is why no action is taken. Too many corrupt stakeholders have participated in the fraud and have a vested interest in continuing the lie that benefits themselves.
