Dirty Cargo (Ready-made)

Current Affairs, Nature

READY-MADE

Dirty Cargo

Trafigura - a Norwegian company - is linked to a major environmental scandal in the Ivory Coast.

Production year: 2008

Duration: 1*52

Genres: Current Affairs, Nature

Origin country: Norway

Production company: NRK Norsk Rikskringkasting AS

Original title: Mitt skip er lastet med

We tell the story of how commodity trader Trafigura used a small tank facility in Western Norway as part of a shady production of low quality gasoline bound for West Africa. The gasoline was so bad, that it was illegal to sell in Europe.

Trafigura is linked to a major environmental scandal in the Ivory Coast. In 2006 more that 100 000 people fell ill after a ship, chartered by Trafigura , brought toxic waste to the country. We uncover that this was neither a one off incident, nor a unique kind of waste. Such waste is regularly generated from Trafigura’s own large scale production of extremely low quality gasoline.

At the same time as the toxic waste was dumped in the Ivory Coast, Trafigura entered a contract with the Norwegian company Vest Tank. They used a tank facility in a small village in Western Norway as part of the production of bad gasoline. This operation was illegal to do in Norway, but the Norwegian authorities had no idea what went on in the village.

On May 24th 2007 a tank blew up at the site. The explosion generated an intense sulphurous stench that caused illness among the population. The authorities did not understand why people fell ill, and they did not know what was in the tank prior to the explosion.

We made the connection with the illness in the Ivory Coast, and started to investigate. We uncovered a large scale production of bad gasoline, involving several European countries. We discovered what Norwegian authorities did not know, that due to total absence of control Norway became part of a dubious industry.

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