February, 2007:

Jimitota Onoyume, Vanguard (Nigeria)

Yet to be identified gun-men in Rivers State, yesterday, opened fire on two Lebanese workers, killing one.

The duo were driving in their company’s (a construction firm) car to inspect a project at Isiokpo when they unexpectedly came under attack.

The one died on the spot while the other and the diver, a Nigerian were severally injured.

They were subsequently rushed to an undisclosed hospital.

Also yesterday two Italian technicians were yesterday abducted during a shootout near Port Harcourt according to Italy’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Franco Daureli. read more

There have been further protests in Co. Mayo over the construction of an onshore gas terminal.

Over 100 ‘Shell to Sea’ activists successfully penetrated security at the site of the controversial Corrib gas terminal yesterday.

As usual there was a strong presence of Gardai (caustically referred to be some protesters at a previous demonstrations as Shells Cops) and eventually the group left the site after a peaceful protest.

The protesters were pleased about the ease with which they successfully penetrated the perimeter fence of the Co. Mayo site. read more

EXTRACT: The Kremlin recently provided a particularly audacious example of how it sees its role as an ‘energy superpower’: Royal Dutch Shell, which had invested billions of dollars to develop the world’s largest oil-and-gas field, Sakhalin II, in the Russian far east, was forced by the government to sell its controlling stake in the project. The company had endured a year of regulatory harassment – including ludicrous threats that the pipeline would not meet Russia’s environmental standards. The moment Shell surrendered to Gazprom, however, those environmental concerns vanished. And what was Shell’s response after its holding in the project was reduced from 55 to 25 per cent? ‘Thank you very much for your support,’ the company’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, told Putin at a meeting three weeks ago. ‘This was a historic occasion.’ read more

Business comment
By Sylvia Pfeifer, Deputy Business Editor, Sunday Telegraph

No one has seen Jorma Olilla, the former head of Nokia, since he took over as chairman of Royal Dutch Shell some nine months ago. The appointment of the Finnish entrepreneur, who transformed a little-known manufacturer of rubber boots and paper products into a household name, was greeted as a sign that the famously bureaucratic Anglo-Dutch oil giant was embracing a new era of openness.

He was an outsider, not British or Dutch, who would lead the company after the damaging reserves scandal that led to the departure of Shell’s three most senior executives and paved the way for the historic merger of its two subsidiaries. Some investors I spoke to last week were unhappy about his lack of communication with the City. He has held no meetings with shareholders since his appointment. The mood among investors is one of déjà-vu that Shell is returning to its old ways of keeping investors at arm’s length. More worryingly, the message that has come back so far is that Olilla doesn’t meet investors – instead, Lord Kerr, Shell’s likeable deputy chairman, who helped recruit Olilla, is put forward as a substitute. read more

The site of the proposed Corrib gas refinery and pipeline near Rossport in County Mayo is the focus of a bitter dispute.

Locals who have gone to jail in opposition to the project and their supporters remain firmly against it, while Shell, its partners and the Irish government says it is vital to Ireland’s national interest. Diarmaid Fleming reports on the different views.

Rossport is as quiet and remote a place as one can find in Ireland, set in stunning wild scenery in the Irish-speaking Gaeltacht beside the Atlantic Ocean sweeping into Broadhaven Bay.
 
Shell wants to pump gas through a pipeline read more

Saturday 24 February 2007

Around 500 hundred supporters of the Shell To Sea campaign marched in Dublin this afternoon in protest at the energy giant’s plans for a gas terminal and pipeline in Co Mayo.  

Among those participating are members of the Rossport Five, who spent 94 days in prison in 2005 for refusing to give an undertaking to stay away from protests at the site of Shell E&P Ireland’s proposed gas terminal in Bellinaboy, Co Mayo.

There have since been a number of violent protests at the site. read more

Public Hearing Scheduled to Hear Community Evidence of Police Brutality, Shell and Government Actions – Monday, February 26, 2007 – 6-9 PM
Glenamoy Community Hall

(San Francisco, USA- Amsterdam, Holland) An International Fact Finding Delegation will travel to County Mayo, Ireland to investigate a possible Human Rights Case regarding police, government and corporate actions at the controversial Shell Refinery/Pipeline Project in the area.  Delegates from five nations will travel to various sites in the Rossport area next week to conduct an independent investigation which may lead to possible legal cases before international human rights commissions and courts. read more

(The Texas City blast killed 15
people and injured over 100)

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 1:15am GMT 24/02/2007

US lawyers pursuing BP over the Texas City refinery explosion said there would be no let-up in their campaign, after the oil giant made an 11th-hour out-of-court settlement in another two claims brought by workers injured in the fatal blast.  
 
A Houston court was to hear the latest compensation claim on Monday, but BP said yesterday that it had agreed an undisclosed financial settlement with the two workers. read more

Saturday Feb 24, 2007

Headline: Rush to rouse a sleeping giant

W E ARE about to find out if the invasion of Iraq really was a war for oil.

The country is on the verge of passing a petroleum law, which will set down rules for investing in its oil industry. That will set off a race among the foreign oil giants, scrambling for their slice of Iraq’s vast oil riches.

Britain’s two world-leading oil companies, BP and Shell, both say they want to enter Iraq. Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Total, Russia’s Lukoil and the Chinese will also form part of the rush. read more

Published: Feb 24, 2007

The courage of a young woman who twice faced a gunman in separate armed raids where she worked was praised by a judge yesterday.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane said 22-year-old garage forecourt cashier Deborah Mooney had shown great courage in her job.

Dublin Circuit Civil Court was told that Shell Ireland Ltd had decided to settle Ms Mooney’s damages claim for post-traumatic stress injuries following assaults by different gunmen on March 23rd and May 4th in 2003, in the Kilnamanagh filling station in Tallaght. read more

By Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent
Published: February 24 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 24 2007 02:00

Development of the world’s most important new oilfield will be delayed by a further three years and require almost double the investment initially anticipated, Eni, the Italian oil group operating the field, said yesterday.

Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan oil field will now produce its first oil at the end of 2010 and hit peak production by 2019, according to Paolo Scaroni, chief executive of Eni, Europe’s fourth largest listed international energy group. read more

Advocate staff report
Published: Feb 24, 2007

Thanks to a grant from Shell Oil Co., 45 commercial fishermen received $5,000 each in recovery aid during a Friday event in Baton Rouge.

Organizers said this is the first step in the Back to the Dock program designed to help fishermen recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

More than 800 applications were received for this first round of funding. The money is supposed to go toward replacing and repairing fishing equipment.

The money from Shell is meant as a first step, said Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board. read more

From The Associated Press –
Fri 02/23/2007 10:00PM MST

RIFLE — A decision by Royal Dutch Shell on whether to begin commercial oil shale development won’t happen by the end of this decade as planned because the permit process has taken longer than expected.

Jill Davis, spokeswoman for an experimental project in western Colorado, said they’ll decide shortly after 2010 whether to proceed.

“We just need a little more time to get our test projects going on the federal leases,” she said. “Those leases took a little more time than we thought.” read more

Fri Feb 23, 2007

The western oil majors’ have gradually moved toward accepting that burning oil and gas is a main cause of climate change but views on global warming and what to do about it still vary across the industry. Almost all scientists agree that a rise of CO2 in the atmosphere is heating the planet and that the rise is likely primarily caused by human activity, especially burning hydrocarbons.

Environmentalists want governments to force cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Some business leaders oppose capping companies’ emissions. Others support caps, providing they are accompanied by mechanisms that allow firms which exceed their targets to buy credits from businesses that undershoot their caps. read more

Possible sale still in play
SHAUN POLCZER 

Western Oil Sands Inc. on Thursday reported lower fourth-quarter results while it continues to consider options that could result in a sale of the company.

Despite the setback, blamed on falling crude prices, CEO Jim Houck described 2006 as an “excellent year” characterized by the first full turnaround of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in which Western holds a 20 per cent stake.

Houck told analysts Western continues to pursue a transaction with a downstream partner that could result in an acquisition, merger or sale of the company. read more

Journal Staff EDMONTON

A former Shell Canada executive who owns millions of dollars of company stock options will stay on a panel looking at Alberta’s shareof oil and gas revenues, Finance Minister Lyle Oberg said Wednesday.

Sam Spanglet, a former executive with Shell Canada, was named to Oberg’s review panel last Friday. Spanglet, who retired last year, has said he has a couple of million dollars worth of stock options in the company.

Opposition parties have said Spanglet’s involvement represents a conflict because the panel’s findings could affect his financial future. Both Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and NDP Leader Brian Mason have called for Spanglet’s dismissal. read more

EXTRACT: Ledum Mitee, head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), said the underlying cause of the tension between Mogho and Bodo was a dispute over the award of contracts by oil major Shell for cleaning up oil spills in the area.

THE ARTICLE

ABUJA, Feb 23 (Reuters) – At least seven people have been killed in clashes between fighters from two communities in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria sparked by the murder of an elderly woman, human rights activists said on Friday. read more

By Celestine Bohlen

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush’s campaign to turn Iran into an economic pariah is being rebuffed from Spain to Malaysia as countries and companies pursue long-term agreements to tap into the world’s second-largest reserves of oil and gas.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, and Spain’s Repsol YPF SA — which last month signed a new agreement on a three-year-old gas production project, estimated at more than $10 billion — are among those who can ill afford to give up oil and natural-gas projects in Iran, said James Bell, president of Gas Strategies, a London-based consulting firm. read more

Andrew Clark in New York
Thursday February 22, 2007

BP has won the support of its rival Exxon Mobil in an effort to stave off a six-hour cross-examination by American lawyers of its chief executive, Lord Browne, which is due to take place in London tomorrow.

A judge in Texas has ordered Lord Browne to submit to questioning about his knowledge of safety cutbacks made before the explosion of BP’s Texas City oil refinery, which killed 15 people in 2005.

Brent Coon, a lawyer representing workers injured in the blast, is preparing to fly to London tonight to grill the chief executive who earns £3.3m a year. BP is vigorously opposing the all-day deposition, which is due to happen at a Covent Garden law firm, and has made a last-ditch plea to Texas’ supreme court to block it. read more

(Delta militants have carried out a series of attacks and abductions)

Unknown gunmen have killed a Lebanese construction worker on his way to work in Nigeria’s oil-rich city of Port Harcourt, say security sources. They opened fire on two Lebanese workers, although other details of the attack remain sketchy.

Industry sources describe the attack as “unusual” as it seemed deliberate.

The shooting is the latest in a growing number of incidents targeting foreign workers in the Niger Delta region which has seen oil exports cut by a fifth. read more

There is plenty of optimism among the deal-making community in the upstream oil and gas sector. Much is in the pipeline and some deals and refinancing initiatives are already in the public domain.

Stephen Phillips, head of banking at Dundas and Wilson, points out that Melrose Resources, the Edinburgh oil and gas exploration company, with interests in Egypt, Bulgaria, France and the US, successfully carried out a GBP300m refinancing via a syndicate of banks led by Bank of Scotland.

As Phillips observes, the price of oil might have come down from the highs of a year ago, but in comparison to the days when the price was languishing at less than US$10 a barrel, the current price looks good. One of the stumbling blocks in the deals being done is the still-unresolved issue of abandonment. read more

Shell Oil Co. is the world’s best oil company when it comes to sustainability, social responsibility, corporate governance and ethics and transparency, according to an oil and gas industry ranking compiled by Spanish research and rating firm Management & Excellence.

The annual ranking, now in its fourth year, measures oil and gas companies’ compliance with 386 relevant international standards such as those of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, national laws, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, industry benchmarks and standards and reserves accounting. read more

[Opinion] Occupiers trying to sell off Iraqi resources 
By Kathlyn Stone  

According to British media, the U.S. and U.K. governments are on track to achieve a March victory in Iraq. This victory will not be publicized, nor will it mean an end to the occupation.

Written by Bush and Blair’s big oil business partners who serve as the leaders’ advisors on foreign policy, the new Iraq hydrocarbon law opens the door for international investors, led by BP, Exxon and Shell, to siphon off 75 percent of Iraq oil wealth for 30 years. This unique economic model is called a “Production Sharing Agreement.” But is a 75/25 split, with bloated oil companies taking 75 percent of the country’s wealth and leaving just 25 percent for the devastated Iraqis, a sharing agreement or armed robbery? read more

By Fiona McGarry
23/02/2007

The Environmental Protection Agency has just begun considering twelve objections and calls for an oral hearing on the issue of an operating licence for the proposed €200m Corrib gas terminal.

Last month the EPA gave its interim decision on the granting of an integrated pollution prevention and control licence to Shell E&P. The agency said it was likely to grant the licence, subject to 85 conditions, and opened a period for public comment on the matter. Now Shell to Sea and environmental watchdog An Taisce have asked the EPA to hold an oral hearing. Other objections to the IPPC licence have come from the Erris community and local priest Fr Michael Nallen. read more

As the Kremlin’s dominance grows, it uses energy more for political gain
By ELIZABETH DOUGLASS

If gasoline prices have you muttering curses at OPEC during each fill-up, maybe you should just say nyet.

The big-time producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have plenty of clout, but with global oil output barely covering demand, countries outside the cartel are wielding more sway, affecting the price of oil and everything made from it.

Indeed, when world energy leaders gathered in Houston last week to dissect industry issues, their remarks were translated from English into only two other languages — Russian and Chinese. read more

By RUSSELL GOLD
February 23, 2007; Page A2

The rush to build a new industry that turns natural gas into an ultraclean transportation fuel is stumbling over rising costs, showing how tough it is for emerging fuels to compete with crude oil.

This past week, Exxon Mobil Corp. backed out of plans to build an enormous gas-to-liquids, or GTL, plant in Qatar. Yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC broke ground on its own similarly sized GTL plant in Qatar, but said the cost might have tripled to as high as $18 billion. read more

Published: Feb 23, 2007

Current Account: SHELL E&P Ireland is not known to be shy when it comes to the press – particularly since its extensive shake-up of public relations over a year ago after the 94-day jailing of the Rossport Five. However, one detected a slight coyness within the company this week about the future of its “external communications support”.

Up to now this combination of public relations and backroom lobbying has been provided for the troubled Corrib gas project by lobbyists Financial Dynamics (FD), headed by Paul MacSharry, and Powerscourt Media, co-founded by Irish journalist Rory Godson. However, FD’s three-year contract is up, and Shell confirmed to Current Account that the PR company had asked “not to be considered” for any new consultancy arrangement. read more

Last Updated: 12:14am GMT 23/02/2007

Shareholders prefer higher dividends to windfalls and, as the UK payout ratio hits a historic low, increasing profit distribution would boost share prices, writes Tom Stevenson

The grudging response to Anglo-American’s $3bn (£1.53bn) share buyback promise this week illustrated the City’s voracious appetite for cash. The miner’s shares fell 66p to £25.36 after investors, who had been looking for $4bn, shrugged at the company’s largesse.
 
Anglo is not alone in failing to satisfy shareholders with the promise of an apparently generous one-off return of cash. BP has spent £21bn over the past six years buying back one share out of every six in issue. In theory that should have raised the value of the stock, but the shares are lower than when they started. read more

By Dennis Webb

RIFLE — Unexpected delays have pushed back Shell’s time line for possibly beginning commercial oil shale development in western Colorado.

Meanwhile, the company’s new oil shale test project in Rio Blanco County could result in the creation of 500 to 600 new jobs.

Shell representatives provided an update on its oil shale efforts during an open house in Rifle Thursday.

Company spokesperson Jill Davis said Shell previously had hoped to switch from research and development to a commercial phase by the end of this decade. Now it’s shooting for early in the next decade, assuming its testing continues to produce positive results. read more

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 22, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Alaska Natives and several environmental groups are protesting Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plan to conduct offshore exploration drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

The groups say U.S. federal officials should have allowed a more thorough public evaluation of the potential impact on the environment and the North Slope’s indigenous people before allowing any drilling.

“We have tried to have questions answered about these activities and they haven’t been answered adequately,” Robert Thompson, a member of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands, said Thursday. “This is our culture… We don’t want to see it end because Shell Oil wants to make some money here.” read more

Web posted at: 2/23/2007 8:31:10

Doha • The technology applied to Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) project to convert natural gas into clean fuels can later be utilised to produce hydrocarbon fuels and even biomass, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Jeroen Van der Veer said here yesterday.

For the long term, this technology can be very promising for energy consumers, Van der Veer told reporters on the sidelines of the stone-laying ceremony at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Linda Cook, Shell Executive Director for Gas and Power, noted: “The technology is also very important for Qatar, because it allows the diversification and utilisation of its natural resources and accessing new markets for the natural gas. read more

Published: Feb 22, 2007

Tokyo, Feb. 22 (Jiji Press)–Japan Bank for International Cooperation Governor Kyosuke Shinozawa indicated Thursday the government affiliate will continue to assist the Sakhalin II oil and gas exploration project in the Russian Far East even after Russia’s Gazprom assumes a controlling stake.

The project remains significant for Japan in securing stable supplies of natural gas, Shinozawa said at a press conference.

He said the JBIC is waiting for requests from the operator of the project concerning what kind of assistance is needed. read more

Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:53 AM GMT
By Odai Sirri

RAS LAFFAN (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it was sticking to its maximum cost estimate of $18 billion (9.2 billion pounds) for its Pearl superclean fuel plant in Qatar after a local official said the cost would exceed $20 billion.

“We stick to our guidance of $4 to $6 per barrel, and for total output of 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent,” Shell’s Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told Reuters at a ceremony to break ground at the 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) gas-to-liquids project. read more

By Sam Vaknin Ph.D.
February 22, 2007

“Sustainable Development” is a worn out cliché – but not where it matters the most: in developing countries. There, unconstrained “development” has led to inter-ethnic strife, environmental doom, and economic mayhem. In the post Cold War era, central governments have lost clout and authority to their provincial and regional counterparts, whether peacefully (devolution in many European and Latin American countries) – or less so (in Africa, for instance). As power shifts to municipalities and regional administrations, they begin to examine development projects more closely, prioritize them, and properly assess their opportunity costs. The multinationals, which hitherto enjoyed a free hand in large swathes of the third world, are unhappy. read more

EXXON SCRAPS QATAR PLAN: Escalating prices of labour and steel taking toll

BY JANET MCBRIDE AND PEG MACKEY
Reuters

LONDON • Multi-billion-dollar energy projects are under threat from rising steel and labour costs — and the more ambitious the scheme the more vulnerable it is.

Exxon Mobil Corp. abandoned its plans yesterday for a US$15-billion plant to turn Qatari gas into ultra-clean fuel. Qatar’s Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said budget overruns lay behind the decision to scrap the gas-to-liquids scheme. read more

By Upstream staff

Shell said today that to date it has handed out contracts worth a total of $10 billion for construction work on its Pearl gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar.

Shell’s project is facing rising costs that may push the final price tag to more than $20 billion. Original estimates put the project’s cost at $5 billion.

The contracts cover all the engineering, procurement and construction work, Shell said.

Shell and Qatar were holding a ceremony to break ground at the Pearl gas-to-liquids project today. Actual construction began in the third quarter last year and Shell aims to start production of clean fuels from gas at the plant by the end of the decade, the company said. read more

Bby Veronica Smith
Wed Feb 21, 5:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Microsoft, backed by the US government and heavyweight corporations, took its patent battle with telecommunications giant AT and T to the Supreme Court Wednesday, in a case that has wide implications for US firms doing business abroad.

The nine Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in the case that hinges on whether patented US-made software code is subject to US patent law overseas.

AT and T holds a patent on voice-recognition software that Microsoft licensed to use for US sales of its Windows operating system, which runs more than 90 percent of the world’s personal computers. read more

Web posted at: 2/22/2007 9:15:40
Source ::: Agencies

Dubai • Royal Dutch Shell Plc is pressing ahead with a scheme to turn Qatari gas into superclean fuel even after soaring costs forced ExxonMobil Corp to drop a similar project.

Exxon’s withdrawal leaves Shell as the only large international oil company with such plans in the Gulf. Shell’s project is facing rising costs that may push the cost to $10bn from an earlier estimate of $5bn.

Inflation through the oil and gas industry globally has exacerbated rising costs in Qatar. Shell said it had incorporated higher costs when it gave the go-ahead for its Pearl GTL project last year. “Nothing has changed,” said Andy Brown, Shell’s manager of operations in Qatar. “All the cost information was included in the final investment decision.” read more

By BOBBY MAGILL
Thursday, February 22, 2007

A meeting Wednesday night in Grand Junction that Royal Dutch Shell billed as a chance to hear the public’s concerns about the company’s Piceance Basin oil shale research projects and “definitely implement” public comments turned out to be something a bit different.

Shell neither solicited public comments nor took any effort to write them down.

The meeting was the third of four public open-house sessions presenting information about Shell’s four Piceance Basin oil shale research and demonstration projects, including its private Mahogany Research Site and three other proposed projects on public land. Those three sites are now beginning the state permitting process, which could take about a year. read more

By BOBBY MAGILL
Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Club 20 Oil Shale Task Force is keeping an eye on a proposal for a federal study of the availability of water for energy development in the Piceance Basin — a study in which oil shale development company Royal Dutch Shell plans to provide information.

The task force agreed Wednesday it will invite a representative of the U.S. Geological Survey to its next meeting in late March to update the group on a groundwater monitoring project for the Piceance Basin that will study how energy development, including oil shale, will affect water quality there. read more

Published: Feb 22, 2007

QATAR has dumped plans for building a gas-to-liquids export plant in favour of supplying gas to its own industrial facilities thanks to soaring costs, writes Martyn Wingrove.

Qatar Petroleum and US super-major ExxonMobil decided to halt their GTL plans, as costs have spiralled out of control, to pursue development of the Barzan gas project instead.

Both companies intend to develop the Barzan section of the giant North gas field in several phases, with the first scheduled to supply 1.5bn cu ft of gas per day to local industrial plants from 2012. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent,
Published: Feb 22, 2007

Shell and its Corrib gas partners and An Taisce are among 12 objectors to the Environmental Protection Agency’s preliminary licensing approval for the Corrib gas refinery in north Mayo.

The 12 objections include at least four requests for an oral hearing into the preliminary decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency has at least four months, and perhaps longer, to rule on the hearing applications before making a final decision on the licence. read more

By Carola Hoyos,Chief Energy Correspondent
Published: February 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 22 2007 02:00

Oil and gas companies have faced similar questions to miners about whether they are returning too much cash to shareholders instead of investing it in new production.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP, the UK’s largest energy groups, have returned a total of $120bn (£61.32bn) in cash to shareholders in the past three years, raising fears that their largesse reflects an inability to grow their business by finding and producing more oil and natural gas. read more

By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: February 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 22 2007 02:00

Back in the 1980s, the Gulf of Mexico was viewed as the “Dead Sea”, according to Larry Nichols, the chief executive of Devon Energy.

The area close to shore already had been picked over and limitations with technology made it impossible to move further out and drill in the 6,000-10,000-foot depths known as the “Deepwater”.

Yet, since 2000, Mr Nichols says, technological advances have enabled the energy industry to not only see below salt formations that had once left oil companies with blind spots below the ocean floor, but also explore in water depths of 10,000ft and drill 30,000-foot wells in those depths. read more

EXTRACT: Already, other foreign multinationals have begun to take their cues from Beijing. Royal Dutch Shell has, along with Spain’s Repsol, just concluded a preliminary agreement with the Iranian regime worth an estimated $4.3 billion for the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant and port terminal in the Islamic Republic. 

THE ARTICLE 

By ILAN BERMAN
February 22, 2007; Page A14

Financial pressure by the U.S. and other Western governments in recent weeks is beginning to have a real impact, chilling investment into Iran’s energy sector and ratcheting up the costs of the regime’s atomic effort. But these gains are in danger of being erased, thanks to the growing economic partnership between Tehran and Beijing. read more

By Joe Carroll

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Donnie Lewis says he’d quit the coldest, dirtiest job he’s ever known — drilling in Canada’s oil-rich bogs for Suncor Energy Inc. — if it wasn’t for the free private room, maid service and five-course meals.

“I wouldn’t do it if I had to share a room with six other fellows, all snoring and making a racket when you’re trying to get a few winks,” says Lewis, 41, who doubled his wages from his last job. “The oil companies really take care of you and do everything they can to make your time here easy.” read more

Published: Thursday, 22 February, 2007, 09:23 AM Doha Time
By Odai Sirri

COSTS have soared above $20bn at a Royal Dutch Shell project to turn Qatari natural gas into superclean liquid fuel, a senior Qatari official said yesterday.

That would be up from an original budget of $5bn in 2003 and above even the highest estimate of roughly $18bn that Shell has indicated for its Pearl gas-to-liquids plant.

Rising prices for materials such as steel and shortages of manpower are boosting costs in the oil and gas industry. ExxonMobil Corporation pulled out of a similar project in Qatar on Tuesday because of rising costs. read more

21:39 | 21/ 02/ 2007 

MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) — Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] and Sakhalin Energy, operator of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific Coast, are working to remedy environmental damage caused by the project, a Gazprom official said Wednesday.

The ambitious project, formerly led by Shell, was subjected to months of intense pressure last year from Russian authorities, who accused it of causing serious environmental damage to Sakhalin Island, including deforestation, toxic waste dumping and soil erosion. read more

Bangalore, Feb 21: Shell, a chemicals major will have its third technology hub in Bangalore, focusing on cutting edge technology in energy by 2010, a top official said.

“We will have a research and development campus spread over 40 acres of land, hopefully by 2010. This will be Shell’s third technology centre besides the ones in the Netherlands and Houston,” Bob Firth, president Shell Technology India, said.

“Our application for land is already before the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB)”, he told reporters here today. read more

Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:39PM EST
By Robert Campbell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. regulators have approved Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s plan to drill up to four exploration wells in Arctic waters off the northern coast of Alaska this summer.

The Minerals Management Service, which manages federal offshore waters, approved the plans February 15 following an environmental impact study conducted by the MMS.

The exploration wells will test the multimillion-dollar bet Shell made on the area in 2005, when it snapped up the bulk of the offshore drilling rights offered by the MMS in its Beaufort Sea lease sale. read more