November 28th, 2006:

· Investor trust put at risk after Litvinenko death
· Kremlin ‘more concerned about asserting its power’

Terry Macalister
Wednesday November 29, 2006

The poisoning in London of a former KGB officer, Alexander Litvinenko, will damage investor confidence in Russia, the primary trade association representing those doing business between Britain and Russia warned yesterday.

The warning comes at a time of unprecedented interest in Russian companies raising money on the London Stock Exchange, and coincides with increased criticism by Moscow of Shell and other western firms operating in Russia. read more

28.11.2006, 13.09
 
MOSCOW, November 28 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) has finished checks of compliance with environment legislation by Sakhalin Energy, an operator of the Sakhalin-2 project.

A source in the service told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday that “these materials are being turned over to the Ministry of Natural Resources in these hours”.

“The 600-page document is a report on all violations that have been made by the operator,” he said, adding that “any extra-new violations have not been revealed”. read more

The ecological impacts of the Sakhalin 2 project were first mentioned in the second half of 2006 after 2-3 years of constant warning by ecologists, says the deputy head of the Rosprirodnadzor (Ecological Control Department) Oleg Mitvol said at the online conference at REGNUM on Nov 27. “In June 2006 we began receiving specific reports from forestries about substantial ecological damage.”

“We began check-ups and revealed mass violations of the legislation and construction norms in different regions. Particularly, as a result of an administrative inspection, we have found out that Sakhalin Energy knew that the project was damaging ecology but wasn’t doing anything about it. Since June we have held many check-ups and have done much.” read more

28.11.2006

The federal service for supervision of natural resource usage finished Sakhalin II project checking. Following the results of the conducted inspection the decision of whether the project operator Sakhalin Energy will be able to keep its production license or not. Additionally the size of penalty charge for violation of environmental legislation will be defined.

The Ministry of natural resources of Russia demanded from the Federal Service for supervision of natural resource usage to prepare a report covering damage ceased by implementation of the project Sakhalin II. According to the results of inspection the operator of the project violated a range of environmental legislation provisions. The Federal service applied for withdrawal of 19 licenses from Sakhalin Energy. The company admitted its guilt partially and consented to pay a fine. First part of money was transferred to the government on November 10, 2006.
     
source:
www.lenta.ru read more

28 Nov 2006 12:15:08 GMT
Nigeria violence
More  By Tom Ashby

LAGOS, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell will soon take a first step to resuming 500,000 barrels per day of Nigerian oil output by sending inspectors to assess pollution and damage to facilities in the western Niger Delta, company sources said on Tuesday.

Shell executives attended a three-way meeting at the weekend with government officials and a militant group from the area. At the talks they agreed to start joint inspections of the facilities shut by a series of militant attacks in February. read more

By Siobhan Hughes
Last Update: 8:11 AM ET Nov 28, 2006

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sir Philip Watts, who resigned as chairman of what is now Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) after an oil-and-gas-reserves overbooking controversy, is tangling with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a court case that may have implications for key tools in the SEC’s regulatory arsenal.

In a legal challenge filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Watts is seeking to force the SEC to respond to subpoenas of the commission and three members of the staff. The SEC has resisted the subpoenas, asserting that its employees are shielded because of the need to ensure frank, open discussions within federal regulatory agencies and to protect the quality of agency decisions. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 28, 2006
Filed at 12:44 a.m. ET

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. is reviewing its legal options in the wake of Alaska’s decision to strip it and other oil companies of their leases in the North Slope’s Point Thomson oil and gas field.

The state said Monday it was revoking the leases after finding Exxon Mobil failed to come up with a viable plan for developing the field’s vast reserves.

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Susan Reeves said the company was disappointed. read more

By: GEORGE JAHN

For the West, the threat from Moscow was supposed to end with the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years ago. But Russia’s growing energy clout is generating renewed cause for anxiety.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, set up in the early days of the Cold War to keep Soviet-led forces in check, has begun speaking out about the potent new energy lever being wielded by the Kremlin in the international struggle for influence.

Noting “added value to NATO discussing energy and security policies,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week that energy security would be high on the agenda at its summit starting Tuesday in Riga, Latvia. read more

By: Offshore Energy is edited by Martyn Wingrove +44 (0)20 7017 4629

[email protected]

Lloyds List: Published: Nov 28, 2006

SHELL has submitted plans to develop the Shamrock and Caravel gas fields in the UK southern North Sea with two unmanned platforms, writes Martyn Wingrove.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major intends to install two Trident-design platforms over the gas fields in block 49’20 next summer to start production in December next year.

Both platforms will be powered from renewable energy sources as there will be solar panels and wind turbines on the topsides. read more

Published: Nov 28, 2006

Gas from the Corrib field, off north Mayo, is not expected to flow until 2009. That may appear to be a long time away but, in terms of the work required in building a pipeline and production terminal, it represents an extremely tight schedule. And with local protests continuing, there is no certainty targets will be met. Because of that, the sooner an alternative pipeline route is agreed with local landowners, the better.

The Government’s initial handling of issues surrounding development of the gas field was as arrogant and incompetent as the stance adopted to local protesters by Shell. No added-value was envisaged for the local economy because the processed gas would be piped directly to Galway and onwards to Dublin. read more

EXTRACT: It is believed that the company’s unhappiness last year over the jailing of the Rossport Five may have influenced Shell’s decision to drop its temporary injunction against the men.

THE ARTICLE

By: Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, Irish Times
Published: Nov 28, 2006

The Norwegian energy company Statoil says it is fully committed to the Corrib gas project, and halting work on the terminal is “not an option”.

However, it says that failure by the original developer to communicate with residents in north Mayo was a significant “error” that has created “misunderstandings”, and the situation is now “very difficult”. read more

Published: Nov 28, 2006

Western Oil Sands Inc.’s main product is oil from the oilsands. But in the past six months, a close second has been rumours.

Haven’t you heard? There have been rumours about a widespread shareholders’ revolt about pressure from key shareholders to sell the company, sell its new business in Iraq, evict the management, convert into a trust.

There have been rumours about Calgary-based Western’s partners in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Northern Alberta — Shell Canada Ltd. and Chevron Corp. — making a takeover offer at $42 or so a share. read more

By Hal Weitzman in Guayaquil and Ed Crooks in London
Published: November 28 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 28 2006 02:00

Bolivia’s government wants to buy a controlling stake in Transredes, the country’s oil and gas pipeline company that is quarter-owned by Royal Dutch Shell, President Evo Morales said on a visit to the Netherlands.

Mr Morales, who yesterday met Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s chief executive, said the company had proposed investing in exploration in his country. He hoped the company would do so. Since coming to power, Mr Morales has backed down from a full-scale confrontation with international energy companies whose assets he initially threatened to nationalise. read more

Published: Nov 24, 2006

HELSINKI – BP PLC chief executive John Browne said yesterday international oil companies should not expect to control Russia’s natural resources.

“We have learned about the importance of oil and gas for national security,” Lord Browne said at the EU-Russia Industrialists Forum in Helsinki. Russian assets “will remain predominantly Russian assets.”

BP’s TNK-BP venture, the second-largest privately owned oil company in Russia, has started becoming an anomaly as Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, increases state control over the energy industry to build the country’s global political and economic power. The government is tightening control over projects led by foreign companies, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. read more

Created: 28.11.2006 10:50 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:05 MSK

Russian state auditor Sergei Abramov said on Monday, Nov. 27, that he expects the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project to accept a change in the terms of its production sharing agreement to bring a compromise deal soon.

“We are expecting the operator to show goodwill. We want the operator to take the initiative to improve the terms for the Russian Federation. I’m sure a mutually acceptable solution will be found. We believe it will be very soon,” Abramov was quoted by Reuters as telling a briefing in Moscow. read more

11.28.2006, 03:08 AM

TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) – Japan Trustee Service Bank, the third-biggest shareholder in oil refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, will sell 9.2 mln shares that it holds in the company, Showa Shell said.

Showa Shell, which is affiliated to Royal Dutch Shell, said this was meant to increase the number of individual investors.

It said the offering price would be decided between Dec 12 and Dec 14.

At present, Japan Trustee Service Bank holds 28.66 mln shares in Showa Shell.

(1 usd = 116.14 yen) read more

Tuesday, November 28, 2006. Issue 3549. Page 5.
By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer

A top Audit Chamber official said Monday that he expected Shell to offer changes to its production sharing agreement for Sakhalin-2 soon to make the project more profitable for Russia, in a bid to end months of pressure against the oil major.

“We expect the project operator to show goodwill,” said Sergei Abramov, the Audit Chamber official charged with compiling an annual report on production sharing agreements, or PSAs. read more

Shell
11/27/2006 1:01:13 PM
 
  WebWire Related Industries  
  • Architecture/Construction/Building  
  • Business Announcements  
  • Environment  
  • Oil/Energy  

27/11/2006 – Shell Erneuerbare Energien GmbH (’Shell’) and Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland GmbH, announce their joint venture to begin solar power panel manufacturing based on advanced CIS (copper indium di-selenide) technology. The joint venture was recently approved by the European Commission.

The new entity AVANCIS KG will commence construction of the production facilities with operations likely to commence in 2008 in line with current notification procedure. The initial annual capacity of the plant will be 20 MW with options for rapid expansion. When built, the plant will manufacture solar panels, which when installed would power an equivalent of around 6,000 European households additional per year with clean energy. Generating the same amount of electricity from a coal-fired power plant would release about 14,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. read more

Published: 28/11/2006 

London: Royal Dutch Shell may take a stake in a three billion barrel Iranian oilfield as part of a deal between Sinopec and Iran that is nearing completion.

A Shell spokesman said Shell had helped Sinopec prepare a development plan for the Yadavaran field and had an option to participate in the project.

“We have supported Sinopec in a technical proposal for the appraisal and development of the Yadavaran field which they have submitted to NIOC (the National Iranian Oil Co),” the spokesman said. read more

Crude-oil futures rallied more than $1 to close at more than $60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on forecasts of a cold front moving into the Northeast and the prospects of further production cuts by OPEC. Here is Monday’s roundup of oil and energy news:

* * *
ATTACKS IN IRAQ, SUDAN: A mortar attack ignited a huge fire at an oil facility in northern Iraq, shutting the flow of crude oil to a major refinery. The fire was burning out of control and could take hours or longer to extinguish, and the flow of oil from all of Kirkuk’s rich fields has been shut down to the massive Beiji refinery to the southwest. Another pipeline south of Baghdad was also attacked, though damage was minimal. Meanwhile, Sudan’s Darfur rebels attacked an oil field in Southern Kordofan, making a rare extension of their campaign eastwards toward Khartoum. read more

Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:49am ET

ASTANA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov said on Tuesday the government favoured Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to explore the Nursultan oil block in the Caspian Sea.

He said ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) had also approached the ministry over the project.

“I think a decision will be made on this in the nearest future, probably before the end of the year,” he said. “But we are more likely to favour Shell after all.” read more

Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov praised the Sakhalin II project in a meeting with British Government officials on November 17 but insisted that the project needs to follow the strictest environmental protection guidelines.

While speaking to the British Government’s Export Credits Guarantee Department Chief Executive Patrick Crawford, the governor emphasized the importance of the project to the Sakhalin Region and added that the most serious environmental requirements of the project “aren’t being totally fulfilled.” Mr Malakhov added that the Sakhalin Administration was paying significant attention to the environmental row involving the project and the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. read more

A Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk court found the head of a South Korean company guilty of smuggling depleted uranium into Russia and fined him 500,000 roubles, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said this week.

“The preliminary investigation and court proceedings have established that Kim Zhong Ho, president of All Nations Co. Ltd., decided to bring the depleted uranium to the territory of the Russian Federation in the Sakhalin region from Tripoli, for use in the Sakhalin II liquefied natural gas production plant,” the release said. read more