October 12th, 2006:

(Adds comment, detail on problem, likely length of closures)

OSLO (AFX) – Norway, the world’s third largest exporter of crude oil, could see its daily output cut by up to 200,000 barrels per day for ‘between days and weeks’, after authorities suspended two oil platforms due to safety reasons.

The closure of the Shell-operated Draugen platform and the Statoil-operated Snorre A platform risks cutting off 200,000 barrels of oil per day, a slightly-less-than 10 pct reduction of Norway’s normal daily oil output. read more

October 12th, 2006

A small part of North Mayo is now under occupation by the Irish police who are facilitating multinational corporations in their exploitation of Irish resources and abuse of Irish citizens.

Ordinary decent people are being abused, intimidated, assaulted and arrested. The mainstream media is endorsing Shell spin that seeks to smear and misinform.

Independent news sources including www.Indymedia.ie and www.ShelltoSea.com continue to play a critical role in ensuring the truth is getting out. read more

Indonesia has revoked a contract with US energy giant ExxonMobil to develop the Natuna offshore gas field.

Exxon has spent $350m (£189m) exploring the field but is finding the gas costly to extract and difficult to sell.

Indonesia’s oil minister has said that state energy firm Pertamina could be given the rights to develop the field.

Exxon insists that its contract to develop the site runs until 2009, and that it has made “significant” progress in finding a buyer for the gas.

Dwindling production read more

12:17 | 12/ 10/ 2006 

WASHINGTON, October 12 (RIA Novosti) – The U.S. secretary of commerce has highlighted disturbing trends in the economy and press freedom in Russia, which he said can affect economic growth and the investment climate in the country.

Speaking at the U.S.-Russia Business Council, which represents over 300 American companies working in Russia, in New York Wednesday, Carlos M. Gutierrez also emphasized Washington’s commitment to resolving issues hampering Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. read more

13:26 | 12/ 10/ 2006
(adds paragraphs 3-14)

MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said Thursday it will not revoke the license held by French oil major Total to develop a field in the north of European Russia.

“No action is being taken to revoke the license,” Yury Trutnev said. “Just as with regard to other subsoil users, this is absolutely routine work related to overseeing the implementation of licensing agreements.”

The Ministry said in late September it would start probes into deposits developed by French oil major Total and the Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP. read more

EXTRACT: Some suspect the battle over the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 energy project, which officials accuse of environmental breaches, may be evidence of one bone being fought over.

THE ARTICLE

11 Oct 2006 11:37:19 GMT
By Elif Kaban

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Winston Churchill once likened Kremlin politics to watching two dogs fight under a carpet — you know there’s a furious spat going on but can’t see what’s happening.

Now the carpet is stirring ahead of presidential elections in 2008, and investors are getting out of the way. read more

(Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters: A vessel leaving an oil platform at Sakhalin-1’s Chaivo field on Tuesday.)

Thursday, October 12, 2006. Issue 3517. Page 5.
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
Reuters  

NOGLIKI, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk — Federal authorities are still checking a new oil terminal built by the ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin-1 group and it may take two months before full operations are allowed, project members said Wednesday.

They also said full-scale oil production of 250,000 barrels per day could be delayed to the first quarter of 2007, from the end of this year, as the facilities needed more work. read more

The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006
 
MOSCOW A top government official said Thursday that Russia was not seeking to revoke French company Total SA’s license to tap the Kharyaga oil field, Russian news agencies reported.
 
Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev spoke amid widespread probes of Western-led energy developments that analysts says are an attempt to secure a bigger role for Russian companies.
 
The reports quoted Trutnev as saying that no work was under way to revoke Total’s license. A statement in September by the head of the ministry’s government policy department that said that the license was being officially reviewed for possible cancellation due to underdevelopment.
 
But Trutnev appeared to stress that checks under way at Kharyaga and elsewhere were routine. “General monitoring is being conducted, it is being conducted with many companies and is aimed at making sure the licenses are fulfilled,” he was quoted as saying.
 
Total has a 50 percent interest in Kharyaga, while Norway’s Norsk Hydro has 40 percent. An oil company controlled by the regional government holds 10 percent.
 
Western investors have been rattled by a series of moves by authorities at large oil and gas developments controlled by foreign companies. In September, Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s saw its environmental permit suspended amid allegations of serious environmental violations at its giant Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project.
 
Soon after, prosecutors warned BP PLC’s local joint venture that its Kovykta natural gas field was pumping less gas than agreed in the original 1994 license and the company could see its license pulled. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Sakhalin-1 project is also undergoing an environmental review.
 
The probes provoked an international outcry and have been interpreted as a move by the government to rejig old energy agreements — signed when state coffers were empty and investment was desperately needed — to better suit Russian companies.
 
Russia’s natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom is negotiating to join the Shell project in an asset swap deal. Meanwhile BP needs Gazprom’s permission to send gas from Kovykta to China, which the monopoly has so far refused in what analysts have said is a hardball tactic to secure control of the field.
  read more

(The photograpgh is from the lobby in the Shell Dublin HW during the occupation. There are lots more photos on www.indymedia.ie)

Report from Sea to Shell campaign on protest activities carried out on Wednesday 11 Oct 2006

Mayo:
At 8 a.m. Wednesday morning in Mayo sit down protestors blocked the transport of workers to Shell’s construction site in Ballinaboy, before being moved on by police.

The state thugs, whose official title is “guardians of the peace”, threw one young woman to the ground and trampled on her, she was subsequently hospitalised. read more

The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006
 
LONDON Combating global warming won’t bankrupt Britain’s economy and could be worth billions for business, says an oil company-sponsored report released Thursday.
 
The cost of action will amount to 0.3 percent of Britain’s economic output, but that works out to business opportunities worth 30 billion pounds (€45 billion, US$55 billion) over the next decade, said the report published by Shell UK as part of its Springboard project to encourage business action on global warming.
 
Globally, the report said the market could be worth a trillion dollars (€800 billion) in the next five years, the report said.
 
The report said business opportunities were mainly in developing products and systems to comply with regulations designed to cut energy use. That includes tighter building standards, supplying biofuels for road transport and renewable energy generation.
 
“The cost-benefit equation of action to tackle climate change is favorable. That’s true not just for the U.K. but internationally as well,” Shell UK Chairman James Smith said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
 
To encourage innovation, the report proposed that the government offer prizes — as it did in 1714 when it offered a reward to the person who solved the problem of measuring longitude.
 
“The main value of the prize would not be in the prize money itself, but in having some of the most important problems addressed, and in helping the prize-winner to achieve a reward in recognition of his or her innovation,” the report said.
 
It suggested prizes might be offered in several categories, including energy supply, industry, mobility and buildings.
 
 LONDON Combating global warming won’t bankrupt Britain’s economy and could be worth billions for business, says an oil company-sponsored report released Thursday.
 
The cost of action will amount to 0.3 percent of Britain’s economic output, but that works out to business opportunities worth 30 billion pounds (€45 billion, US$55 billion) over the next decade, said the report published by Shell UK as part of its Springboard project to encourage business action on global warming.
 
Globally, the report said the market could be worth a trillion dollars (€800 billion) in the next five years, the report said.
 
The report said business opportunities were mainly in developing products and systems to comply with regulations designed to cut energy use. That includes tighter building standards, supplying biofuels for road transport and renewable energy generation.
 
“The cost-benefit equation of action to tackle climate change is favorable. That’s true not just for the U.K. but internationally as well,” Shell UK Chairman James Smith said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
 
To encourage innovation, the report proposed that the government offer prizes — as it did in 1714 when it offered a reward to the person who solved the problem of measuring longitude.
 
“The main value of the prize would not be in the prize money itself, but in having some of the most important problems addressed, and in helping the prize-winner to achieve a reward in recognition of his or her innovation,” the report said.
 
It suggested prizes might be offered in several categories, including energy supply, industry, mobility and buildings. read more

LAGOS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Nigerian villagers who overran a Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) facility in the delta have freed all the 60 oil workers and troops they held hostage, officials said on Thursday.

Armed youths from the Oporoma community in Bayelsa state seized the facility on Tuesday, forcing Shell to shut the Nun River flow station, which produces 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, further cutting output from the world’s eighth biggest exporter after a week-long resurgence of violence. read more

12/10/2006 
  
Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (RasGas) made its first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the shores of Qatar to Mexico on October 8, a press release issued by RasGas said yesterday.

This historical event followed a spot sale to Shell Western LNG B V by Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II).

The LNG cargo was loaded on board the LNG tanker Fuwairit, and departed from Ras Laffan, on September 16, the press release added.

The voyage of 22 days over a distance of 9,915 nautical miles was routed through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar to the Terminal de LNG de Altamira, Mexico. read more

(An aerial view of the Yastrev (Hawk) land rig at Sakhalin-1’s Chaivo field, some 1,000km (621 miles) north of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk on Tuesday.)

Published: Thursday, 12 October, 2006, 10:11 AM Doha Time 

When ExxonMobil finishes drilling the world’s longest oil on Sakhalin island next year, it hopes to leave behind something more than just technological innovations. The world’s biggest energy firm hopes that the unique technology it says it brought to Russia will help ease the Kremlin’s pressure on production sharing deals with foreign majors read more

By Tom Whipple    
Thursday, 12 October 2006 

From a peak oil perspective, the last couple of weeks seemed pretty quiet. Oil prices continued to drift down into the $50s amid gloats from peak oil skeptics. The Dow Jones climbed to all-time highs, in part, due to optimism the “oil bubble” had finally burst and there would be lower inflation and lower interest rates ahead. Alaskan oil production returned to normal levels and financial analysts spoke enthusiastically about the “new frontier” of deep-water oil. The geopolitical world was quiet. Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Venezuela— everywhere one looked there were no imminent threats to oil supplies.
Even the SUV dealers were in a better mood with commercials prattling on about the end of high oil prices and the great deals could that could be had. read more

Thursday 12 October 2006

By Upstream staff

Armed villagers who invaded an oil facility operated by Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell in the Nigerian delta have freed most of the scores of workers and troops they took captive, the company and police said today.

The attack by the Oporoma community in Bayelsa state forced Shell to shut the Nun River platform, which pumps 12,000 barrels per day of crude, further denting output from Africa’s top producer after a week-long resurgence of violence.

“So far we have only eight people still left in the custody of the militants,” Bayelsa police commissioner Hafiz Ringim told Reuters. read more

Oil companies are becoming more focused on developing hydrocarbon resources in ever deeper waters, which is also good news for shipyards, writes Martyn Wingrove, Lloyds List
Published: Oct 12, 2006

MORE oil industry capital investment is heading to the ultra-deepwater provinces and basins as energy companies are searching ever deeper for resources.

Major oil groups, plus some national institutions, are pushing into new exploration frontier regions in the search for more reserves, resulting in some large discoveries in areas that have recently been virgin territory to the drill bit. read more

By: Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
Published: Oct 12, 2006

Two chartered engineers have called on Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey to commission a report on the “optimum location” for the controversial Corrib gas terminal, which might help to break the impasse over the 900 million project.

Former Bord Gais official Leo Corcoran and Brian Coyle of Coyle Hamilton in Galway, have also proposed that Shell should suspend any work at Bellanaboy while such a study is undertaken.

Any further activity on the site they state will only “further damage” Shell’s relationship with the community, and will waste resources if the study comes up with an alternative location. read more

Published: Oct 12, 2006

ANTI-Shell activists have pledged to carry out further protests after staging a sit-in at the company’s headquarters in Dublin yesterday.

Seven protesters occupied the reception area of Corrib House on Lower Leeson Street, while six more used a borrowed ladder to climb up on to the roof.

The protest ended peacefully after 11 hours when all the activists left the building. No arrests were made.

The Shell to Sea group said they would be organising sit-ins at Shell’s headquarters on a weekly basis. read more

Published: Oct 12, 2006

MELBOURNE, Oct 12 Asia Pulse – Australia’s largest resources project, The North West Shelf Venture (ASX:WPL), has signed a deal with Chubu Electric of Japan for the ongoing supply of liquefied natural gas.

In a seven-year deal starting in April 2009, the $A14 billion ($US10.37 billion) West Australia-based North West Shelf Venture (NWSV) will supply over 24 trillion British thermal units of liquid natural gas (LNG) – almost 500,000 tonnes – a year to Chubu Electric on an ex-ship basis. read more

EXtract: While Business Link offers face-to-face support, other organisations such as Shell Live WIRE – which is aimed specifically at the 16-30 age group – provide online help. Executive director Duncan Robbie says, “Increasingly, young people are coming up with their business idea while they are still at university, so online support is particularly accessible to them.”

Shell Live WIRE boasts an online business library, as well as a free business tool kit – an interactive CD-Rom which enables people to build a product line from their idea. read more

Associated Press
October 11, 2006 9:06 p.m.

LAGOS, Nigeria — Most of the dozens of troops and oil workers taken hostage in a raid on a navy base and neighboring oil facility in southern Nigeria have been released, police said Wednesday.

The eight remaining hostages — employees of a subsidiary for Royal Dutch Shell PLC — should be freed within hours, said Hafiz Ringim, the police commissioner for Bayelsa state.

Assailants wielding automatic rifles overran the navy base and occupied the nearby oil facility Tuesday. About 60 oil workers were held captive at the oil installation and an unknown number of navy personnel were held at the base. Most of the hostages were released late Tuesday. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
October 11, 2006 7:57 p.m.

Oil prices fell once again, ending the day at the lowest level in 2006, on doubts as to whether the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will significantly reduce production. Here is Wednesday’s roundup of oil and energy news:

* * *
OIL FALLS AGAIN ON DOUBTS ON OPEC: Crude oil closed at its lowest level of the year, even as OPEC said it will cut its crude oil production by 1 million barrels a day. But with cartel members still hashing out crucial details over how much to prune output and how to share the pain of doing so, buyers seem to doubt the organization’s resolve to halt a recent plummet in oil prices. read more

Thursday October 12, 2006

FRANKFURT — The government and companies developing the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project can find a compromise regarding costs and other issues, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said in an article in the Handelsblatt.

The parties to the Sakhalin Island project should be able to reach agreement, Gref wrote in the German newspaper.

Some of the increased spending on the project seems unjustified, while higher ecological standards may necessitate increased investment in other areas, Gref wrote in the article. (Bloomberg) read more

Thursday 12 October 2006

Just before 5:30pm last night, amid rush-hour traffic, a group of protesters lined up outside a city centre shell garage to play samba and alert passers by to the situation in County Mayo, Ireland.

The event formed part of the international Day of Action against Shell which has featured protests in Leeds and other cities. Protesters carried a banner reading “Shell Stop Raping Ireland”, with Shell and Shamrock logos. When the group arrived a few people from the garage and the next door car dealership appeared, and one began shoving protesters out of the way. read more