Pro-Tibet activists accused oil giants [Shell, ExxonMobil, & Russia's Gazprom] last week of exploiting lands they said were under Chinese occupation, by agreeing to help build a $20 billion gas pipeline in China's Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang. Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the lead partner in the consortium of three oil majors, responded that the project would bring jobs and cash to some of China's poorest areas and help clean up smoggy coastal cities.