June 7th, 2006:

LAGOS -(Dow Jones)- Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN), has shut down its Cawthorne Channel gas plant in the eastern Niger Delta following an attack by armed men early Wednesday morning, a company official told Dow Jones Newswires.

“A gang of armed men attacked the plant between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. local time this morning,” the official said. “There are reports of casualties but we cannot confirm the numbers now.”

He said the gas plant has capacity of 150 million cubic feet of gas a day. read more

Wed 7 Jun 2006 7:44 AM ET

June 7 (Reuters) – Militants attacked a natural gas plant operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria’s southern delta on Wednesday, killing at least four soldiers and kidnapping five South Korean contractors.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which launched a series of attacks earlier this year that forced the closure of a quarter of Nigerian oil output, threatened strikes on crucial oil facilities in the next few weeks.

Following is a chronology of some major attacks on the Nigerian oil industry in 2006. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 7, 2006
Filed at 8:32 a.m. ET

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices fell Wednesday on signs Iran was responding somewhat positively to a package of incentives by world powers hoping to curb its nuclear program.

But uncertainty over the outlook will keep a floor under oil prices, analysts said.

”These geopolitical concerns are going to drive a lot of the movements on the short-term basis,” said Lorraine Tan, director of research at Standard & Poor’s Investment Services in Singapore. Tan estimated that prices still included a risk premium of about $15 per barrel. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 7, 2006
Filed at 7:47 a.m. ET

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen kidnapped five South Koreans in an overnight raid on a gas plant in southern Nigeria owned by Shell, the militants and officials from the company and Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Several Nigerian soldiers and one of the assailants were killed in a firefight during the raid, according to the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta, which claimed responsibility.

MEND, the main militant group in Nigeria, has been responsible for a wave of attacks and abductions this year in the country’s oil-rich southern delta. The militants say impoverished southern Nigerians aren’t getting enough of the oil revenue. read more

ROBERT D. STENSLAND

June 7, 2006

The year was 1956, and the head of Shell Oil Companies’ research lab, M. King Hubbert, made a prediction that peak production of oil in the United States would occur in the year 1972. He was wrong. Peak oil production in the United States occurred in 1970.

Kenneth S. Deffeys in his 2005 book “Beyond Oil” has utilized the same techniques that Hubbert used, and predicted that global oil production would peak in late 2005. Whether the year is 2005 or 2010 at the latest, the fact is oil is a nonrenewable resource and global production will peak one day. There is a crisis because as production declines, demand continues to grow at a rapid rate. read more

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

THE Corrib gas project took yet another of its bizarre twists at the weekend when it emerged that An Bord Pleanála had mistakenly issued an order against Shell E&P Ireland on Thursday evening.

The planning appeals board had ruled that a beach valve station already installed on the infamous gas pipeline was not an exempt development and was subject to normal planning guidelines.

However, twenty- four hours after the story had been reported in the national media, An Bord Pleanála retracted its original ruling, claiming it had erroneously inserted the word ‘not’ in its written verdict. The Board said it had meant to state that the beach valve was exempt from planning permission. read more

By Austin Ekeinde

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) – Militants attacked a Shell-operated oil facility in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria on Wednesday, killing at least five soldiers and kidnapping five South Korean contractors.

The attack comes just three days after eight foreign oil workers were released by a different group of kidnappers, and is the latest sign of rising militancy across the oil heartland of Africa’s top producer.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which launched a series of attacks earlier this year that forced the closure of a quarter of Nigerian oil output, threatened strikes on crucial oil facilities in the next few weeks. read more

By PATRICK BARTA and RUSSELL GOLD
June 7, 2006; Page A10

A surprise decision by Australian environmental regulators to try to block Chevron Corp.’s huge Gorgon natural gas project highlights how even the most reliable gas-producing nations may not be able to deliver new supplies as quickly as expected — a development that could drive up gas prices in the years ahead.

Western Australia state’s Environmental Protection Authority said it had rejected the proposed $8 billion offshore liquefied-natural-gas, or LNG, project on the grounds that Chevron and its partners couldn’t satisfactorily mitigate some of its environmental risks. The agency cited concerns including potential damage to flatback turtle nesting areas near the proposed LNG processing plant Chevron and its partners plan to build on an island off Australia’s west coast. read more

Gazprom move 
 
Gazprom, the Russian gas group that wants to become a big distributor in Britain, is to take a stake in Gasunie’s 142-mile Balgzand-Bacton pipeline, which will pump up to 16 billion cubic metres of gas a year from the Netherlands to Britain from next year. Gazprom secured the stake in return for offering Gasunie equity in its Baltic Sea pipeline, which will run from Russia to Germany.

GM investor revolt

General Motors shareholders took a stand against the board of the ailing carmaker by demanding the right to more control over the way in which directors are elected. Under a measure called “cumulative voting” that investors voted for yesterday, shareholders would be allowed to withhold votes for certain directors and use them to give another proposed director extra support. read more

By Michael Binyon
Business leaders reveal their agenda for action pre-2025 
 
TOP business leaders pressed Tony Blair yesterday to avoid uncertainty for companies and investors over carbon emissions targets by telling them urgently what ministers propose.

Companies should be told as soon as possible the targets for emissions in 2025 so that they could plan ahead and invest in promising low-carbon technology, the 14 businessmen representing the Corporate Leaders’ Group on Climate Change said in a face-to-face meeting with the Prime Minister. 
 
Otherwise, they said, there would be uncertainty beyond 2012, the current deadline for significant reductions under the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EMS). Unless the Government undertook to promote new technologies that cut carbon emissions, business would be unable to exploit Britain’s competitive advantage in this area. read more

• About 200 contractors at a liquefied natural gas terminal in Wales will return to work, regaining their jobs after being fired for going on strike last month.

• Shares of Ramco Energy, a Scottish oil and gas explorer, rose by 38pc after the company said it won an appeal in a Texas court.

• Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said it plans to expand its liquefied natural gas facilities in Nigeria to take advantage of the country’s location for supplying the fuel to North America. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
 
Shell E&P Ireland believes planning difficulties identified by An Bord Pleanala for the Corrib gas project may be resolved by simply narrowing a road access route in north Mayo.

The company has also denied that it has re-evaluated the size of the gas field, after it published a graphic marking additional wellheads in a briefing document on the 900 million project.

Copies of the document were made available at Shell’s annual general meeting in May and included a graphic with three “future wellheads”, in addition to the six associated with the field. read more

By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: June 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 7 2006 03:00

A group of businesses including an oil company and manufacturers lobbied the prime minister yesterday to set tougher targets for greenhouse gases under the European Union emissions trading scheme in order to tackle climate change.
 
The 14 business chiefs, known as the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, presented Tony Blair with a list of seven proposals ranging from extending the EU’s emissions trading scheme to strengthening building regulations. They also mooted road pricing, congestion charging and reduced business rates for energy efficient buildings. read more

By Virginia Marsh in Sydney
Published: June 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 7 2006 03:00

The Australian authorities yesterday pledged to work with Chevron to help it overcome environmental objections to one of the country’s biggest resources projects.
 
Chevron’s planned A$11bn (US$8.1bn) Gorgon liquefied natural gas project was thrown into doubt yesterday after the environmental protection agency in Western Australia said it was “unacceptable” in its current form.

But Alan Carpenter, the state’s premier, moved quickly to allay business concerns over the agency’s findings, stressing his government would have the final say over whether the high-profile project progressed. read more

Wed Jun 7, 2006 8:21 AM GMT
 
LAGOS (Reuters) – Militants attacked a Shell-operated oil facility in the Niger Delta on Wednesday, setting house boats on fire and kidnapping five foreign workers, industry sources said.

The five workers were believed to be working for South Korea’s Daewoo, under contract to oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, but details of the attack were still sketchy, the sources said.

AMSTERDAM (MarketWatch) — The future of the global natural gas industry is “relatively strong”, but companies must keep the price of the fuel competitive, Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Joroen van der Veer said at a conference in Amsterdam Tuesday.

Van der Veer said global gas consumption will continue to be “relatively strong,” noting he expects it to grow more than 2% a year.

He said gas is still increasing its market share faster than other generating fuels, but noted the global gas market faces many changes, including the increasing need for it to cross borders in order to reach end users. read more

Michael Duffy

THE saga which unfolded last week in relation to the An Bord Pleanála decision on An Taisce’s concerns relating to the Corrib Gas Project has afforded Shell an opportunity to take a fresh look at the whole project, according to Dr Mark Garavan, spokesman for the Shell to Sea Campaign.

An Bord Pleanála this week apologised to Shell for the ‘serious error’ it made in the case which led to what Shell said was ‘a storm of negative headlines and comment for the developers of the Corrib Gas Project’. read more

LEADERS of some of Britain’s biggest firms – including Shell, Tesco and Vodafone – yesterday went to 10 Downing Street to demand tougher targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

They believe stronger government action will encourage industry to develop the new technologies needed to tackle climate change.

James Smith, the chairman of Shell UK, said: “Climate change is a challenge that we all have to step up to and that requires significant measures deploying the technologies that are going to make a difference.” read more

Gazprom and Netherlands’s Gasunie reached a tentative agreement yesterday on Gasunie’s possible joining the consortium, set up to build the North European Gas Pipeline. Gasunie may secure a 9 percent stake in the project. The deal will help to extend the pipeline’s route to the Netherlands and supply gas from Russia to Great Britain via the BBL pipeline.

N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie’s head Marcel Kramer, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and director general of Gazexport Alexander Medvedev held talks yesterday. Unofficial sources report that the parties agreed to sign a memorandum of intentions between Gasunie and current shareholders of the North European Pipeline project, Gazprom, E.ON Ruhrgas and BASF, for the Dutch company to buy 9 percent of stocks in NEPGC, the operator of the pipeline. read more

AMSTERDAM — Dutch companies should have greater access to Russian energy production projects amid plans by Moscow to boost its energy investments in Europe, the Netherlands’ economic affairs minister, Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, said Tuesday.

The Netherlands wants greater access for companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s second-largest oil company, to produce Russia’s oil and gas reserves in return for granting Russian companies access to the Dutch energy market, Brinkhorst said. read more