June 20th, 2006:

Jun 20, 2006

HOUSTON (MarketWatch) — A House subcommittee has subpoenaed Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA) after the company balked at participating in a hearing this week on the government’s troubled royalty program for the Gulf of Mexico.

The hearing, scheduled for Wednesday morning, features executives from Chevron Corp. (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP) Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Kerr-McGee Corp. (KMG). But Shell’s appearance was an open question after the company indicated it was unwilling to appear, a House committee aide said Tuesday. The subpoena went to John Hofmeister, the head of Shell’s U.S. division, the aide said. “We assume they’re going to show up tomorrow,” said the aide. “They’ve been issued a subpoena to show up.” read more

Raymond J. Learsy
Mon Jun 19, 6:30 PM ET

Yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” we were treated to a heavy dose of oil patch pablum by the likes of the chairmen of ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp., and the president of Shell Oil. We “learned” a great deal.

Mr. John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil informed us that “If we didn’t have this level of profitability, I don’t think we could get supplies to where they need to get to.” The clucking noise of acknowledged contentment you heard in the background, was that of Lee Raymond, erstwhile chairman of Exxon-Mobil, counting his $400 million retirement package for having personally pumped gas into your car. read more

DALLAS — Lawmakers and consumers can help make energy more affordable and plentiful by tapping into additional resources, Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister said.

“Energy security in this country is a sure bet, and energy security in this country will come from diversity,” Hofmeister told business leaders during the start of a 50-city nationwide tour to discuss energy policies on Friday.

He said energy supplies would improve and prices would drop if more domestic resources _ about 100 billion barrels of oil nationwide _ were tapped, particularly from places like the eastern Gulf of Mexico. read more

By Alfred Donovan

Ogoni class action lawsuit against Shell
 
A United States Magistrate Judge, Henry Pitman, has dismissed a motion filed by Royal Dutch Shell for a court appointed official (a Master) to investigate alleged perjury by witnesses who have given testimony prior to the pending trial.

We have only just received from the National Union of Ogoni Students International, a copy of the relevant court order of Judge Henry Pitman, dated 31 March 2006 (printed in its entirety at the foot of this article). read more

Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:08 PM ET

NEW YORK, June 19 (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co. said Monday the release of benzene-rich pyrolysis gas from a storage tank at its Deer Park, Texas, refinery is now under control, with no reports by employees or local residents of health problems.

As a result, Deer Park has lifted the “shelter-in-place” alert for the surrounding community and reopened Highway 225 at Deer Park.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, but there has been no effect on production at the joint venture, which is a 340,000 barrel-per-day refinery, according to a statement from Shell. read more

Bloomberg
 
TOKYO — Gazprom may invest in a 300 billion yen ($2.6 billion), 850-kilometer pipeline to transport natural gas from Sakhalin Island to northern Japan, the head of the Japanese project said.

Japan Pipeline Development Organization, based in the northern island of Hokkaido, is in talks with Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas monopoly, Chief Executive Hideo Ogawa said. The pipeline may link to Exxon Mobil’s Sakhalin-1 project or Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-2 venture, he said.

“We’re seeking Japanese investors for about half the funding,” he said. “For the other half we’re talking with Gazprom and several other U.S. and European companies.” read more

(Published 13 June 2006)

SHAN ROSS

A NORTH Sea oil platform where two workers died after being overcome in a massive gas leak has had two gas escapes in the past fortnight, it emerged last night.

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the leaks on Shell’s Brent Bravo platform, 116 miles north-east of Lerwick.

Keith Moncrieff and Sean McCue died on the installation in September 2003 after being sent to inspect a pipe repair in the platform’s utility leg where there was a massive cloud of hydrocarbon gas leaking from a broken valve. read more

MARTIN FLANAGAN
CITY EDITOR

RUSSIAN gas monopoly Gazprom and British-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell are thinking about building a gas-to-liquids plant in western Siberia in a project potentially worth $8 billion (£4.3bn), Gazprom said yesterday.

“We are considering building a 12 billion cubic metre gas-to- liquids [GTL] plant in Nadym together with Shell,” Gazprom’s deputy chief executive, Alexander Ryazanov, told a news conference.

Shell confirmed it had entered into preliminary talks with Gazprom, but declined to put a potential value on the project. read more

By REUTERS
Published: June 20, 2006
Filed at 2:41 a.m. ET

DARWIN (Reuters) – U.S. oil major Chevron (CVX.N) said on Tuesday it still expected to secure environmental approval for its Gorgon gas project in the third quarter of 2006, despite concerns expressed by state authorities.

Chevron, which does not now expect to deliver first gas from Gorgon until after 2010, still expects to sign binding sales and equity agreements with Japanese customers before the end of 2006.

Western Australia state’s Environmental Protection Authority said earlier this month it would advise the state government to reject the proposed project off the state’s coast. read more

By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
June 20, 2006

OAO Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are thinking about building a gas-to-liquids plant in Western Siberia in a project potentially valued at $8 billion, Gazprom said.

The Russian gas monopoly is considering building a 12 billion-cubic-meter gas-to-liquids plant in Nadym with Shell, said Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Ryazanov.

Shell confirmed it had entered talks with Gazprom, but it stressed that discussions were at an early stage and declined to put a potential value on the project. read more

By MATT CHAMBERS
June 20, 2006; Page B9

DARWIN, Australia — ConocoPhillips may spend as much as US$10 billion to nearly triple capacity at its Darwin liquefied natural gas plant, a senior official said.

The recently-finished Wickham Point plant, which gets gas from the Bayu-Undan field in the Timor Sea, can produce 3.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas a year but has environmental approval to increase that to 10 million tons if it can find the gas.

ConocoPhillips is looking to either the Greater Sunrise fields, in which it has a 30% share, or the newly discovered Caldita field, near Bayu-Undan, said Laura Sugg, president of the U.S. oil company’s Australian unit. read more

Tim Radford and Michael White, the Guardian, 20.06.95
By: TIM RADFORD AND MICHAEL WHITE
Published: Jun 19, 2006

In this weekly series, we look back through the Guardian’s reporting and contemporary photography at the events that changed the world

Greenpeace last night claimed its most sensational victory in 25 years of environmental campaigning, after the international petrol giant Shell was forced to abandon its decision to dump an oil rig in the Atlantic Ocean. After harassment at sea by helicopter-borne campaigners, condemnation by several governments, and the threat of a petrol station boycott that could have cut profits by pounds 5m a week, the two tugs towing the Brent Spar, Shell’s 66,000-ton rig, last night turned round 180 degrees en route from its North Sea field. read more

By Vanessa Houlder

Published: June 20 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 20 2006 03:00

No company wants to risk a serious blow to its share price. So one of the main concerns for a big company considering moving its headquarters overseas is how to avoid the risk of falling out of the widely-tracked FTSE 100 index.

This issue shaped the decision of Royal Dutch Shell to opt for a parent company that was incorporated in the UK but had Dutch headquarters and tax residency when it embarked on its radical restructuring to create a single parent company in 2004. It informed shareholders: “The steering group was advised the use of a UK-incorporated entity should allow its shares to be in the FTSE All-Share and FTSE 100 indices.” read more