Royal Dutch Shell Group .com Rotating Header Image

July 7th, 2005:

Freedom setback for jailed Shell pipeline protesters

Ireland OnLine: Freedom setback for jailed Shell pipeline protesters

Posted Thursday 7 July 2005

Five men jailed for their opposition to a Shell gas pipeline in Mayo cannot rely on the quashing of the injunction against them to secure their release, a court heard today.

Micheal O’Seighin, Vincent McGrath, his brother Philip, Willie Corduff and Brandon Philbin are being held in Cloverhill prison in Dublin for refusing to obey the injunction taken out by Shell.

It prevents them from obstructing the construction of the pipeline through their land in Rosscourt, Co Mayo. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Independent: Alarm bells

Irish Independent: Alarm bells

Thursday July 07, 2005

Sir – I believe it is important to note that the minister responsible for the negotiations with Shell at Rossport, Co Mayo was none other than the disgraced Ray Burke.

Is it any wonder that the people of Mayo are alarmed that their beautiful landscape is about to be ruined forever? Peggy Hamill, Castleknock, Dublin 15

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Times: Shell appeals to pipeline objectors for ‘calm’

Irish Times: Shell appeals to pipeline objectors for ‘calm’

“Shell E&P Ireland has appealed for “calm” and for “reasoned and constructive dialogue” with objecting landowners in north Mayo concerning the Corrib gas pipeline. The company made its appeal as it confirmed that operations at its terminal site at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo, remain suspended due to protests.”

Thursday July 07, 2005

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent

Shell E&P Ireland has appealed for “calm” and for “reasoned and constructive dialogue” with objecting landowners in north Mayo concerning the Corrib gas pipeline.

The company made its appeal as it confirmed that operations at its terminal site at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo, remain suspended due to protests. It said it welcomed this week’s publication, by Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey, of a new safety review of Shell’s quantified risk assessment (QRA) of the pipeline. The Minister will base his consent for the high-pressure pipeline on the findings of this review and other reports, according to his department. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Times: Mayo pipeline contempt case

Irish Times: Mayo pipeline contempt case

“The Rossport five and their families have one demand only. They require that normal international technical standards be adhered to in the siting of this pipeline complex. Nothing more but nothing less.”

Thursday Jul 07, 2005

Madam, – Your Editorial of July 5th on the Mayo contempt case asserts that “the Health and Safety Authority accepted that the pipeline met international standards.” In fact the Shell pipeline was never subjected to the planning process: by Ministerial fiat, it was exempted from planning. An Bord Pleanala was not involved. The HSA have no function in this pipeline and has refused to carry out a safety analysis, even when requested to do so on a commercial basis. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Australia’s Gorgon LNG project partners say talks with China’s CNOOC continue

AFX Europe (Focus): Australia’s Gorgon LNG project partners say talks with China’s CNOOC continue

“In October 2003 CNOOC and the Gorgon partners, Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell, signed an agreement that called for the parties to “place a significant volume of Gorgon LNG for use in the growing Chinese market.”

Thursday July 07, 2005

SYDNEY (AFX) – Officials from the Chevron Corp-led Gorgon project, off Australia’s north-west coast, have denied a newspaper report that China National Offshore Oil Company has pulled out of negotiations for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply contract.

Gorgon partners spokesman Scott Walker, an employee of Chevron, told XFN-ASIA that “confidential discussions are on-going with CNOOC and have been since 2003.”

Walker said rumors that CNOOC had pulled out could have originated an interview that CNOOC chairman Fu Chengyus gave to The Wall Street Journal on July 6. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Oil chiefs differ on strategy for global warming

Financial Times: Oil chiefs differ on strategy for global warming

“I’m convinced that [climate change] will have a huge impact on our industry,” says Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s Dutch chief executive.”

Thursday 7 July 2005

By Thomas Catan

Published: July 7 2005

Perhaps more than any other industry, oil companies are having to get to grips with the issue of climate change – one of the top items at the Group of Eight summit. They are also more divided than other industries, with Shell appointing a “Mr or Mrs CO2” and ExxonMobil dismissing such initiatives as public relations.

ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company, has drawn the ire of environmental campaigners by opposing the Kyoto agreement to curb carbon dioxide emissions and for investing almost nothing in renewable energy. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A Deft Balance in Orchestrating China’s Oil Offer

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A Deft Balance in Orchestrating China’s Oil Offer

“Mr. Fu said the withdrawal of Shell and Unocal had no bearing on the decision to buy Unocal.”

Thursday July 7, 2005

He has cultivated a Western image, telling visitors that he prefers coffee to tea for the extra caffeine jolt it gives him and hinting that he thinks like a maverick, not a politically correct steward of one of the country’s influential businesses.

Asked about his relations with Chinese leaders, he jokes that there are few he can talk to.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in the government who understands our business,” he said.

Yet whether or not they understand, there are signs that they care. Cnooc has followed a path set by the Politburo and repeated by President Hu as recently as last week, when he told a Politburo session on energy, “We must enthusiastically push ahead with international cooperation to develop energy resources and fully make use of international markets.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Canadian Press: Shell Canada appoints Brian Straub to head Canadian oilsands operations

Canadian Press: Shell Canada appoints Brian Straub to head Canadian oilsands operations

Thursday, July 07, 2005

CALGARY (CP) – Shell Canada has appointed international oil executive Brian Straub to head the company’s Canadian oilsands operations.

The Calgary-based integrated oil company announced late Wednesday that Sraub will take over as senior vice-president for the oilsands business, effective Oct. 1. He will succeed Neil Camarta who has headed Shell’s oilsands division since 1996 and is taking another executive position this fall.

Straub grew up in Alberta and joined Shell Canada in 1977 with a petroleum engineering degree from the University of Wyoming. He has held various drilling and operating, technical and commercial management positions in Shell Canada’s oil and natural gas businesses. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The G8 Business Debate: Aid community cannot make poverty history

THE TIMES: The G8 Business Debate: Aid community cannot make poverty history

By Kurt Hoffman: “Kurt Hoffman is the director of the Shell Foundation, an independent, grant-making charitable organisation that is separated from Shell’s commercial interests”

Thursday 7 July 2005

Business plans – not millions of crossed fingers – are needed to solve the Africa aid debacle

TOMORROW, Tony Blair will announce pledges on behalf of the other G8 leaders that will amount to the doubling of annual aid flows and the total cancellation of debt owed by the poorest countries.

Now, this might prove eventually to be good news for the world’s poor, but it’s even better news for the aid agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), consultants and academics who constitute the international community’s development supply chain. If the billions of dollars are forthcoming, chief executives around the globe will look on in awe at the ability of the aid industry to almost double its $50 billion (£27 billion) annual budget overnight. Which other industry can boast such impressive growth stats? As this newspaper put it on Monday, “a tsunami of fresh money is in the aid pipeline” and the aid business is “waiting with open arms”. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Oil retreats from record highs

Times Online: Oil retreats from record highs

“Oil prices fell today after hitting record high levels this morning before a series of explosions was reported across London.”: “By Separately, Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, has signed an asset-swap agreement with Gazprom, the state-owned Russian energy company.”

Thursday 7 July 2005

Oil prices fell today after hitting record high levels this morning before a series of explosions was reported across London.

August-dated Brent futures contracts were down $2.21 at $57.64, off this morning’s earlier record of $60.70 a barrel set just after 9am.

In early afternoon trade, US benchmark August-dated contracts were down $2.18 at $59.20 of an earlier record high of $62.10 a barrel.

“The spike was an irrational knee-jerk reaction to a series of explosions, which all point towards a terrorist attack,” said Bruce Evers, an analyst at Investec. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Guardian: The MPC might as well get on with it

The Guardian: The MPC might as well get on with it

“Exxon half-truths”: Its easy to caricature Lee Raymond, the Exxon boss, as a dinosaur, as his environmentalist critics so often do.”:”Now most modern moguls in the oil industry – think John Browne at BP or Lord Oxburgh at Shell – talk about carbon emissions as much as they do about oil refineries. They also speak the politically correct language of corporate social responsibility, even if they still build controversial pipelines from Azerbaijan and flare off gas in Nigeria. Not Mr Raymond.”

Thursday July 7, 2005

Economic data is universally gloomy

Don’t be surprised if the Bank of England cuts interest rates today. There is a far greater chance of lower borrowing costs by tonight than the City’s finest economists believe.

The consensus among these economists was that the earliest a cut might come was August. Until a few weeks ago some were still forecasting end-year rates of 5% or higher as the Bank continued to rein in consumer spending and the housing market .

The economy, though, has turned around far more quickly than the Bank and many in the City had expected or assumed. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Reuters: Royal Dutch/Gazprom in Sakhalin-2 asset swap

Reuters: Royal Dutch/Gazprom in Sakhalin-2 asset swap

“Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch/Shell signed on Thursday an asset swap deal with Russia’s Gazprom under which Shell will give up part of one of its most valuable oil and gas projects.”

Thursday July 7, 2005

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch/Shell signed on Thursday an asset swap deal with Russia’s Gazprom under which Shell will give up part of one of its most valuable oil and gas projects.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that industry sources said the deal would be announced today.

In a statement Shell said Gazprom will acquire up to 25 percent plus one share in Sakhalin-2, the world’s largest liquified natural gas project, while Shell will obtain a 50 percent stake in the Zapolyarnoye Neocomian field. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Belfast Telegraph: Five jailed for trying to stop Shell laying pipeline

Belfast Telegraph: Five jailed for trying to stop Shell laying pipeline

“A David and Goliath-style struggle which has pitted five farmers from the west of Ireland against Shell has tarnished the image of the energy giant after the landowners were jailed indefinitely for obstructing the laying of a gas pipeline.”

Thursday 07 July 2005

By David McKittrick

A David and Goliath-style struggle which has pitted five farmers from the west of Ireland against Shell has tarnished the image of the energy giant after the landowners were jailed indefinitely for obstructing the laying of a gas pipeline.

The five men from Co Mayo were jailed for contempt of court over their opposition to plans by Shell to run a major pipeline ashore from the Corrib gas field, off Ireland’s west coast.

The men claim a high-pressure gas pipeline, which is to be laid close to their homes, poses a major safety hazard. They remained in Cloverhill Prison, Dublin, yesterday during the latest court hearing on the issue. The case returns to court next Wednesday. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

AFX News Limited: Nigerian protesters occupy Shell oil pumping station, gas plant

AFX News Limited: Nigerian protesters occupy Shell oil pumping station, gas plant

Thursday 7 July 2005

LAGOS (AFX) – Protesters briefly shut down an oil pumping station and nearby gas plant, Royal Dutch/Shell said, underlining the risks to production in the Niger Delta as world oil prices surged to record new highs.

Officials of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant said youths from the village of Bille drove workers away from the Awoba oil flowstation and a gas plant in mangrove swamps 35 kilometres southeast of Port Harcourt yesterday.

Shell spokesman Simon Buerk said that the protesters later left the area and were now in discussions with the company about their community’s grievances. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Business Standard (India): Shell may set up refinery in India

Business Standard (India): Shell may set up refinery in India

“The company plans to set up 2,000 petrol pumps in the country over the next three to five years.”

Thursday July 07, 2005

Press Trust of India /New Delhi

Royal Dutch/Shell today said it may set up a petroleum refinery in India, a country to which it attaches highest priority.

“Oil refining and marketing is a priority. There is no reason to say we won’t be looking at a manufacturing asset,” Vikram Singh Mehta, Shell’s India country manager said at business meet today.

Shell currently operates three petrol pumps in India for which it sources fuel from domestic refiners.

The company plans to set up 2,000 petrol pumps in the country over the next three to five years. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

How It Became Safe to Embrace Global Warming

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: How It Became Safe to Embrace Global Warming

“With the oddball exception of Lord Oxburgh, the retiring chairman of Shell, who overlearned the lesson and has taken to predicting planetary disaster, Mr. Browne and his copycats have largely restricted themselves to acknowledging the inevitability of carbon regulation”

Posted 7 July 2005

It’s been hard not to feel a sneaking admiration for George Bush and a bit of involuntary embarrassment at the same time. It’s the same feeling inspired by a seven-year-old who keeps insisting on the improbability of one guy and some reindeers delivering gifts to every house on Christmas night. He expects a pat on the head for this triumph of reason and practicality. Instead, the grown-ups in the room mutter about his poor social skills.

Mr. Bush is finally getting the message about being more agreeable if he’s going to be a member of the club. At this week’s G-8 summit at the Gleneagles golf resort in Scotland, he’s expected to accede gracefully to the need to worry about carbon dioxide in the name of “climate change.” On British TV on Monday night, Mr. Bush did not exactly endorse the view that the planet is warming. Instead, he merely called the output of CO2 — whose concentration in the atmosphere has increased from 0.028% to 0.036% since the advent of industrial civilization — “a significant, long-term issue that we’ve got to deal with.”
[George W. Bush] read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Oil Refining

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Oil Refining

“This has prompted speculation that big integrated oil companies like Royal Dutch/Shell Group or BP PLC might float their refining and marketing portfolios. After all, Shell has already started a big program of disposals in other areas, including its liquefied-petroleum-gas business.”

Thursday 7 July 2005

Downstream has long been the poor relation of upstream in the oil and gas industry. Exploration and production was always far more glamorous-and profitable-than oil refining. Indeed, downstream has underperformed upstream in 12 of the past 13 years, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Forbes: Royal Dutch/Shell, Gazprom agree asset swap

Forbes: Royal Dutch/Shell, Gazprom agree asset swap

“Royal Dutch/Shell Group said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Russian group Gazprom regarding the swap of certain assets in Russia.”

Thursday 7 July 2005

AMSTERDAM (AFX) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Russian group Gazprom regarding the swap of certain assets in Russia.

Under the deal, Gazprom would acquire up to a 25 pct stake plus one share in the Sakhalin-II liquid natural gas venture offshore east Russia. Shell owns 55 pct of Sakhalin-II, while Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd and Mitsubishi Corp own the remaining 25 pct and 20 pct.

Shell would acquire a 50 pct stake in Gazprom’s Zapolyarnoye Neocomian hydrocarbon field in West Siberia. Shell is already active in the region with its Salym project. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.