Ever wondered how Russia pays for the imports it needs to wage war on Ukraine? We did... and it led to some interesting conversations. "Ninety per cent of the customers are those who work with sanctioned goods” www.source-material.org/russia-sanct...

‘There will be no trace’ – SourceMaterial

Undercover reporting reveals a parallel financial system moving illegal payments in and out of Russia—and backed by the Kremlin

source-material.org

In Mozambique, TotalEnergies is building Africa's biggest gas project. But as well as jobs and investment, an unpublished UN report found that the development has brought about a wave of sexual exploitation. www.source-material.org/totalenergie...

TotalEnergies project staff linked to sexual exploitation in Mozambique

Workers at Africa’s biggest energy project ‘offered jobs for sex’ as soldiers paid by French energy giant committed abuses.

source-material.org

"I was finding out who was snitching, who they were working for." Meet the Russian security guards, including ex-combatants of Wagner, who are stationed aboard Russia's shadow fleet ships to control the captain and make sure oil reaches its final port. www.source-material.org/shadow-fleet...

Ex-mercenaries tighten Russia's grip on dark fleet

Former Wagner fighter stationed aboard tankers to prevent captains from co-operating with European enforcement

source-material.org

At the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Essar owed $3.1 billion to VTB, the Kremlin-controlled Russian bank. Our latest story, with the Guardian, reveals that its response to sanctions on VTB was to shift the loans out of the EU from Cyprus to Mauritius. www.source-material.org/essar-stanlo...

UK oil refiner shifted Russian loans offshore – SourceMaterial

Essar shifted billions to tax haven following Ukraine invasion

source-material.org

In Kenya, poor farmers have gone hungry after signing up for a biofuel project with the Italian oil major Eni, SourceMaterial’s investigation has discovered. www.source-material.org/eni-italian-...

How an Italian oil giant's African biofuel project left farmers stranded

SourceMaterial's investigation, based on interviews with 43 farmers, as well as biofuel experts, activists and lawyers, suggests the project is failing.

source-material.org

As part of a flagship biofuel project, the Italian energy major Eni has handed out castor seeds to over a hundred thousand Kenyan farmers. In interviews with SourceMaterial, many farmers said the project has failed them. www.source-material.org/eni-italian-...

How an Italian oil giant's African biofuel project left farmers stranded

SourceMaterial's investigation, based on interviews with 43 farmers, as well as biofuel experts, activists and lawyers, suggests the project is failing.

source-material.org

Seeds of doubt: how the Italian oil giant Eni handed out castor seeds to over a hundred thousand Kenyan farmers to make biofuel from the harvest, before leaving many without income or food. www.source-material.org/eni-italian-...

How an Italian oil giant's African biofuel project left farmers stranded

SourceMaterial's investigation, based on interviews with 43 farmers, as well as biofuel experts, activists and lawyers, suggests the project is failing.

source-material.org

New: Last month, Indonesian authorities arrested 11 people on suspicion of bribery and disguising palm oil as a less strictly regulated byproduct. SourceMaterial can reveal that exporters targeted in this probe supplied major international companies. www.source-material.org/indonesian-e...

Indonesian exporters in palm oil probe supplied European fuel majors

Indonesian exporters targeted in a palm oil bribery probe supplied major international companies, a SourceMaterial investigation has found.

source-material.org

Indonesian exporters targeted in a palm oil bribery probe supplied major international companies, casting doubt on Europe’s ability to prevent fraud in its biofuels market, a SourceMaterial investigation has found. www.source-material.org/indonesian-e...

Indonesian exporters in palm oil probe supplied European fuel majors

Indonesian exporters targeted in a palm oil bribery probe supplied major international companies, a SourceMaterial investigation has found.

source-material.org

Shell yesterday scrapped its sale of $500m of North Sea assets to Viaro Energy, owned by Italian entrepreneur Francesco Mazzagatti. Both parties cited changing market conditions. The move followed our investigation into Mazzagatti's career. www.source-material.org/mazzagatti-v...

North Sea Storm – SourceMaterial

Poised to take control of ‘the backbone of the UK’s energy production’, Franceso Mazzagatti is defending allegations bribery, forgery and fraud

source-material.org

In Mozambique, the French energy company TotalEnergies funded troops responsible for grave human rights violations. @source-material.org and @lemonde.fr showed that TotalEnergies knew the soldiers they funded were accused of torturing, raping and killing — and kept paying them.

'Don't look back or we'll shoot' - SourceMaterial

When Islamist insurgents unleashed terror on northern Mozambique, civilians living in the shadow of Africa’s biggest gas project thought troops paid by the French energy giant would protect them.…

source-material.org

A major Tory donor has been sanctioned in the UK and EU for his alleged role in the Russian oil trade. The oil magnate Murtaza Lakhani was hit with a UK asset freeze and travel ban on the grounds that his activities were assisting Russia. www.thetimes.com/uk/law/artic...

Major Tory donor sanctioned over role in Russian oil trade

The government sanctioning statement alleges that Murtaza Lakhani’s activities in the oil sector have supported the Kremlin

thetimes.com

🎉 Thrilled that SourceMaterial was Highly Commended at the British Journalism Awards for Energy & Environment Journalism! Huge thanks to our amazing team for all their hard work—onto the next story! ⚡🌿

Last year, we travelled to Mozambique to reveal how TotalEnergies funded troops it knew stood accused of rape and murder. Today, after reviewing SourceMaterial’s findings and reporting by Politico, the UK government announced it would withdraw a $1.15 billion loan to the project.

Amazon's environmental impact on France, like other places in the world, is bigger than it has previously acknowledged, leaked figures reveal. We shared these figures with @reporterre.net, who have published this story. reporterre.net/Amazon-explo...

Amazon exploite 924 data centers dans le monde, dont 29 en France

Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, Amazon n’avait jamais révélé publiquement le nombre de centres de données qu’elle exploite. Tout juste étaient-ils estimés entre 100 et 475. Selon des documents exclusifs obtenus ...

reporterre.net

NEW: Leaked documents reveal Amazon's "dirty energy empire". Soaring electricity demand in Mumbai, where Amazon has 16 data centres, has led to crumbling coal power stations being kept open—and fears AI is helping keep the world hooked on fossil fuels. www.source-material.org/amazon-data-...

Leak reveals Amazon’s hidden data centres' impact on emissions

Soaring electricity demand in Mumbai, where Amazon has 16 data centres, has led to crumbling coal power stations being kept open.

source-material.org

NEW: We've seen documents revealing Amazon's hidden data centres—and hidden impact on the environment. The AI giant has twice as many data centres as previously reported, our investigation found. www.source-material.org/amazon-data-...

Amazon has twice as many data centres worldwide as previously reported

Amazon uses far more data centres across the globe—and has a bigger impact on the environment—than previously reported, leaked data reveals.

source-material.org

Nathan Gill has been jailed for accepting bribes to push the Kremlin's agenda. The money ultimately came from Viktor Medvedchuk, a close friend of Putin. In 2022 we took a look at Medvedchuk's relationship with Glencore, the London-listed commodities giant. www.source-material.org/glencore-and...

Glencore and the Order of Friendship – SourceMaterial

The trading giant’s lucrative deals with allies of Vladimir Putin When Vladimir Putin awarded Glencore’s billionaire boss the Order of Friendship it was seen as the Kremlin’s stamp of approval on an a...

source-material.org

We're thrilled to have won the Society of Editors Media Freedom Award 2025 for environment journalism! Our investigation into the millions of UK tyres being dumped in India - and boiled in highly dangerous conditions - with our ace BBC co-reporters had widespread impact.

We are supporting a new project convened by @earthjournalism.bsky.social in Asia Pacific, involving 11 news organisations in the region, looking into the environmental impact of the AI boom. There are more stories to come, but read the first few here: earthjournalism.net/special-repo...

Dark Side of the Boom

earthjournalism.net

Our latest investigation pieces together the career of Francesco Mazzagatti, the 39-year-old entrepreneur poised to become owner of a terminal that supplies a fifth of Britain's gas. A trail that leads from a warehouse in Calabria to London's High Court. www.source-material.org/mazzagatti-v...

North Sea Storm – SourceMaterial

Poised to take control of ‘the backbone of the UK’s energy production’, Franceso Mazzagatti is defending allegations bribery, forgery and fraud

source-material.org

NEW: We've seen a leaked internal strategy document from Amazon Web Services. It shows the company strategising about keeping the true water usage of its data centres secret from the public. www.source-material.org/amazon-leak-...

Leak reveals Amazon plan to keep water use of data centres secret

Amazon strategised about ways to keep the public in the dark over the true extent of its data centres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals.

source-material.org

NEW: Amazon strategised about ways to keep the public in the dark over the true extent of its data centres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals. Our latest investigation with @theguardian.com www.source-material.org/amazon-leak-...

Leak reveals Amazon plan to keep water use of data centres secret

Amazon strategised about ways to keep the public in the dark over the true extent of its data centres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals.

source-material.org

And since we're talking awards... we've been on a roll recently! 🏆 On Tuesday, we won the Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism for another investigation into Russia's shadow fleet, alongside over 40 collaborators from all around Europe.

We're very proud to be shortlisted in the British Journalism Awards alongside many other excellent journalists. Here's a quick 🧵 of the stories included in our submission:

The Shadow Fleet shipping Russia's oil is already leaving trails of oil in its wake, raising the question of who will pay up if the worst is to happen. Our latest investigation with @victorjack.bsky.social of @politico.eu, using data from @skytruth.org. www.source-material.org/shadow-fleet...

Shadow fleet slicks test limits of EU sanctions – SourceMaterial

As the West continues to blacklist ship carrying Russian oil, new slicks near Europe’s shores test the limits of Western sanctions

source-material.org

NEW: Russian-linked vessels are continuing to leak oil off Europe’s shores — despite Western sanctions — underscoring the continent’s inability to rein in Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet. Read our joint investigation with @source-material.org here: www.politico.eu/article/russ...

Russia’s blacklisted tankers keep dumping oil in Europe’s seas

Shadow fleet vessels sailed unimpeded in EU waters after leaving slicks near the continent.

politico.eu

We're delighted that The Shadow Fleet Secrets – a project we worked on with @ftm.nl and a team of international outlets – has been shortlisted for the Daphne Caruana Prize for Journalism. daphnejournalismprize.eu/edition-2025...

We're very pleased to have been shortlisted for the Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards 2025 for our story 'Burning Rubber: the poisonous afterlife of waste tyres', in partnership with the BBC.

We're delighted to have won in the 'Conflict & Climate Change' category at this year's Covering Climate Now awards with a project in partnership with our colleagues at Le Monde 🏆