Linking Cambridge to SLB’s devastation in the world. Scroll to find out more about some of their destruction.
If you found this intriguing, interesting, or inspiring, come join us at the Stop Rosebank rally on September 7th 2025, 1pm, in front of the Guidlhall.
Niger
In the Niger delta, Schlumberger (later renamed to SLB) has been critical to enabling the oil exploitation by Shell. This exploitation has devastated the region, polluting water sources and making agriculture virtually impossible.
For example, Shell, with SLB as its contractor to drill, operated one thousand oil wells in Nigeria and thousands of kilometres of pipeline. They have a history of major oil spills and pollution of land in the area since the 50s, with the Ogoni people being particularly affected by their toxic actions.
When the movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MSOP) began large scale non-violent resistance against Shell’s actions, Shell was accused of using paramilitary violence, and collaboration with the Nigerian government to suppress the people and execute their leaders.
Shell now plans to divest itself of its operations in Nigeria, without cleaning up the affected areas. After gaining billions in profits from the exploitation of Nigerian land, they plan to sell off their assets and go, leaving a legacy of poisoned land and dead activists.
All of this was made possible by SLB, which provided the technology and infrastructure Shell needed to operate in the region, and continues to provide those same resources to them today.
In Colombia, Schlumberger has been instrumental in the exploitation of oil. They have partnered with Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest oil company, to “optimize and adjust [their] production process”.
This is the same Ecopetrol that has consistently polluted the lands surrounding its operations with over 800 oil spills between 1989 and 2018. The areas damaged by their actions include wetlands that house endangered species, and rivers that provide food and water to millions of people.
SLB also helped Ecopetrol determine the potential for future oil extraction at its sites in the Llanos Basin. Allowing them to find the ideal spot to extract more oil and continue to pollute the rivers and wetlands of the region
Since SLB’s involvement in 2019, the company has continued to cause hundreds more oil spills. SLB are truly optimizing pollution and environmental devastation.
Colombia
Palestine
SLB is involved in the Pipelines fueling Israel. They have received multiple contracts to work on Israel’s Leviathan gas field, a major natural gas platform off Israel’s coast, which is part of a recent $35 billion export deal with Egypt.
Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its crimes against the Palestinian people have been going on since the 50s, but Schlumberger was more than happy to work with them on Leviathan.
Sources: slb.com technological.co.il
North Sea and Rosebank
Schlumberger is heavily involved in exploitation of oil and gas in the north sea, notably through its subsidiaries SubSea7 and OneSubsea. They provide key infrastructure to various oilfields already exploited in the North Sea, such as BP’s exploitation of the Murlach oil field. In the Rosebank project, they would participate in the construction a critical piece of the exploitation: an gigantic platform, on which oil and gas would be processed and stored just after getting out of the oil rig, and before it is shipped to shore. They would also provide various engineering and design services for the project. SLB is once again critical in the exploitation of oil fields in the North Sea, participating in a project that would benefit an Israeli oil corporation, Ithaca Energy.
Sources: slb.com, akersolutions.com, offshore-technologies.com.
If you found this intriguing, interesting, or inspiring, come join us at the Stop Rosebank rally on September 7th 2025, 1pm, in front of the Guidlhall.
About
Stinky doors is a multi-group project involving activists from different groups on the SLB Out campaign. Each door represents a different region of the world damaged by Schlumberger’s actions.
SLB likes to operate in the background, letting its customers take all the blame for the destruction they cause while continuing to make billions providing the infrastructure and software those customers need to operate.
SLB has lurked in Cambridge for a long time, funding research, PhDs, and professorships, then using the influence this partnership gives them to greenwash their activities and gain increased access to academics and graduate researchers to further their destructive work.
The SLB Out campaign is about opening the closed doors Schlumberger operates behind and showing the wider community what’s going on just out of sight in their city.
Together we can pressure the university to cut all ties with this destructive, callous, evil corporation and stop letting SLB operate unchallenged in a world increasingly devastated by the climate crisis that their business practices are accelerating.