How Mobil pushed its oil agenda through 'charitable giving'

The Mobil Foundation funded universities and civic groups in the 90s, documents reveal, but largesse was not disinterested

A two-foot-wide pipe connecting the Mobil oil company's Idoho offshore platform to a terminal near Nigeria's eastern border ruptured in January 1998, spewing crude oil directly into the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr David Page visited Nigeria after the spill and offered his views of its impact to the New York Times, which were published in special report dated 20 September that year. Page's arrival on the scene was anticipated years earlier in Mobil's plans, internal Mobil Foundation documents newly obtained by the Guardian reveal.