Syriana Comes to Town

The George Clooney movie, Syriana opens in cinemas across Europe this week. Some oil campaigners believe that any film that tries to portray the deep-rooted web of connections between oil companies and politicians is a worthwhile exercise. Others think that it is conspiratorial nonsense.

So what did the Financial Times energy correspondent, Carola Hoyos think of the film? Not much it seems. She called it “unbelievably confusing and, well, crude”.

She seems to think that governments and oil companies are NOT that bright to be involved in a conspiracy. “I am not saying that oil companies are responsible, transparent, generous organisations, and that moral conviction, rather than vanity and greed, informs their decisions, or those of governments. I am not saying that Big Oil and politics don’t mix. All I am saying is that neither are organised or clever enough to hatch the vast, successful international campaigns we often credit them with”.

Hoyos argues that the oil industry is not sophisticated, transparent or organised at all. She claims that the industry is “so bent on secrecy and so disorganised, that it often doesn’t know itself what is going on”.

What do you think?