Local "oil giants" are mainly pigmies

EVERY time Spigot sees local subsidiaries of international oil companies described in the media as "Giants" ( Oil giant Shell this week ....Oil giant BP .. etc) he despairs at the blind ignorance and lazyness of local scribes. The fact is that the only fuel company operating in South Africa that deserves this cliche is Sasol. The rest are simply local subsidiaries of their, admittedly large, parent companies. Does this sloppiness matter? Well, yes it does, because by persisting in describing Shell SA, BPSA, Total SA and the rest as "Giants," journalists are perpetuating a myth. The local subsidiaries of international oil companies are just that -- subsidiaries. In most cases they are limited liability companies which, as the word "limited" implies, sink or swim on their own. Shell Zimbabwe Limited can hardly be described as a giant. The same applies to local oil companies like Shell and BP. The trouble is -- and it is worse outside South Africa in sub Saharan Africa -- the giant myth poisons perceptions of oil company staff, the public and the governments who continue to think that all oil companies, regardless of the local realities, have more money than God. One obvious result is the self-defeating wage demands of unionised workers of these companies which can only result in loss of jobs through outsourcing and mechanisation.