March 19th, 2007:

Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:18pm ET

NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) – Shell International Finance B.V., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) (RDSa.AS: Quote, Profile , Research), on Monday sold $1.25 billion of notes in two parts, joint lead manager Goldman Sachs said.

The sale included $500 million of 4.95 percent five-year notes priced at 99.908 to yield 4.97 percent or 0.48 percentage point more than comparable U.S. Treasuries.

Also included were $750 million of 5.20 percent 10-year notes priced at 99.669 to yield 5.243 percent or 0.68 percentage point over Treasuries. read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:21 PM GMT

March 19 (Reuters) – Shell International Finance BV, a subsidiary of oil company Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) (RDSa.AS: Quote, Profile , Research), on Monday sold $1.25 billion in a two-part note sale, joint lead manager Goldman Sachs & Co. said.

Morgan Stanley was the other joint lead manager for the sale. BORROWER: SHELL INTERNATIONAL FINANCE BV FIRST TRANCHE: AMT $500 MLN COUPON 4.95 PCT MATURITY 3/22/2012 TYPE NOTES ISS PRICE 99.908 FIRST PAY 9/22/2007 MOODY’S Aa1 YIELD 4.97 PCT PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL S&P DOUBLE-A SPREAD 48 BPS MAKE-WHOLE CALL 10 BPS FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS MORE THAN TREAS SECOND TRANCHE: AMT $750 MLN COUPON 5.20 PCT MATURITY 3/22/2017 TYPE NOTES ISS PRICE 99.669 FIRST PAY 9/22/2007 MOODY’S Aa1 YIELD 5.243 PCT PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL S&P DOUBLE-A SPREAD 68 BPS MAKE-WHOLE CALL 15 BPS FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS MORE THAN TREAS read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:08 PM GMT

CALGARY, Alberta, March 19 (Reuters) – Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd. will tender its 29.5 million Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.TO: Quote, Profile , Research) shares to Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) buyout offer for the minority of its Canadian unit, the money manager’s chief investment officer said on Monday.

Jarislowsky Fraser had opposed the C$45 a share offer, arguing it undervalued Shell Canada. However, after 53 percent of the company’s minority shares were tendered to the bid last week, the firm conceded defeat. read more

Terry Macalister in Moscow
Monday March 19, 2007

BP has warned western investors that it could soon be forced to share control of its highly profitable Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, with a Kremlin-controlled energy group such as Gazprom or Rosneft.

The change could come after the end of a “lock-in” period in December when its local private partners, the Alfa and Access/Renova groups, can sell their 50% stake in Russia’s third largest oil producer. The other half is owned by BP.

BP’s warning comes after the forced sale of part of Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas development in eastern Russia to Gazprom at the end of last year. read more

Reuters
Monday, March 19, 2007

LONDON — Canadian oil company Western Oil Sands (TSX:WTO) said on Monday it had not received any bid approaches, despite the company being the subject of takeover rumours.

“We haven’t been approached by any parties at this point,” Chief Financial Officer David Dyck told Reuters in an interview.

The company has hired Goldman Sachs and TD Securities to advise on strategic options, including the possible sale of the company, but there was no time schedule for any deal, Dyck told Reuters. read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:04PM EDT

CALGARY, Alberta, March 19 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), fresh from acquiring most of its Canadian unit’s minority shares in a going-private bid, is certain it will scoop up the rest in the second quarter, the oil major said on Monday.

Royal Dutch Shell said on Saturday investors holding more than 53 percent of the minority shares of Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) had accepted its C$45 a share offer, meeting the minimum condition for the C$8.7 billion ($7.4 billion) bid. read more

By Jean-Pierre Séréni:

States claim back their energy reserves

In the race to secure access to the world’s remaining oil, international companies are being left behind by national companies and states. Venezuela is renegotiating concessions and Russia is taking back the gas industry it sold off during the 1980s. State interests are on the rise.

Petrochina, China’s leading oil company, which is quoted in Hong Kong and on Wall Street, may be no more than a subsidiary of the major state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), but last December it overtook Shell to become the world’s sixth-largest company by market value. Two other Chinese companies follow closely: the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). These companies now operate in 40 countries; in 1999 they were present only in Venezuela, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Burma and Indonesia. read more

CALGARY, Alberta, March 19 (UPI) — Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell may be considering deals or takeovers of Canadian oil sands players that need access to refining, the National Post reports.

Last Friday, Royal Dutch took over Shell Canada Ltd. and analysts quoted by the newspaper as saying its next logical target could be Western Oil Sands Inc., a partner in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project.

Royal Dutch’s ownership of Shell Canada climbed from 78 percent to 89.6 percent over the weekend after Canadian shareholders accepted its $8.7 billion, or $45 a share to turn Shell Canada private, the newspaper reported. read more

NOTIFICATION OF TRANSACTIONS OF DIRECTORS AND CONNECTED PERSONS
Name of Issuer: Royal Dutch Shell plc
Date of transaction (“DATE”): 14 March 2007

Notification relating to a transaction notified in accordance with: DR 3.1.4 R (1)(a) and DR 3.1.4 R(1)(b) (a disclosure made in accordance with Section 324 (as extended by Section 328) of the Companies Act 1985).

Nature of the transaction: Rollover of dividends into Royal Dutch Shell plc shares RDSA, RDS.A, RDSB and RDS.B (as given below) under the Long-Term Incentive Plan and the Deferred Bonus Plan. read more

By Bunny Nooryani

March 19 (Bloomberg) — Dansk Undergrunds Consortium, which accounts for more than 80 percent of Denmark’s petroleum output, said oil and condensate production dropped 1.7 percent in February from a month earlier.

Production averaged 270,500 barrels a day in February, compared with 275,100 barrels a day a month earlier, Maersk Oil, which operates the venture, said on its Web site today. The group’s natural-gas output fell to 777 million standard cubic meters in February from 853 million cubic meters. read more

By Bryan Keogh

March 19 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil producer, plans to sell five- and 10-year notes, according to three people familiar with the offering.

The benchmark notes may be sold as soon as today, according to the people, who declined to be identified because terms haven’t been set. Investors typically consider a benchmark sale to be at least $500 million.

Shell, based in The Hague, is rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor’s, both investment grade. read more

Nigeria – 19 March 2007 – The $1.1billion 1000km West African gas pipeline
(WAGP) has been completed and may be commissioned this month, according to
the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), Funsho Kupolokun. The commissioning ceremony will be performed by
President Obasanjo.

The pipeline traverse 1,000km onshore and offshore from Nigeria’s Niger Delta region to its planned terminus in Ghana.

Four nations, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin signed a 20-year agreement on the implementation of the pipeline which provides for a comprehensive legal, fiscal and regulatory framework, as well as a single authority for the implementation of the project. read more

By Lynn Thomasson and John Kipphoff

Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC CN): Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it acquired through a tender more than half the shares of Shell Canada that it didn’t already hold, giving it enough to proceed with its plan to take full ownership of the affiliate. Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, already owned about 78 percent of Shell Canada stock. With the tendered shares, that rises to 89.6 percent.

Royal Dutch Shell said in a statement on March 17 that the purchase meets a requirement that 50 percent must be tendered before it can extend the offer for the rest of the shares until March 30. Under Canadian law, once a buyer in a tender acquires at least 90 percent of all outstanding shares, any holdouts must agree to tender their shares. Shell Canada shares added 8 cents, or 0.2 percent, to C$44.68. read more

Planning drags on for 17 years after Valdez

By ROBERT McCLURE
P-I REPORTERS

After the Exxon Valdez gushed 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Congress vowed that the next time a tanker got into trouble in U.S. waters, two things would happen: Help would arrive soon to prevent spills. And if oil did get loose, it could be cleaned up.

A lot has been done to assure that oil-spill cleanups can be launched. But the idea of ensuring that a rescue ship will show up to keep spills from happening in the first place still has not been made into a rule — more than 17 years after the Valdez disaster. read more

By Upstream staff

Gazprom has been in talks with ExxonMobil regarding possible tie-ups between the US supermajor’s Sakhalin 1 and the nearby Sakhalin 2 development, in which the Russian gas monopoly took the majority stake last year, according to reports.

“Sakhalin 2 can expand business to building new [LNG] facilities and procuring gas produced at neighbouring gas fields,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller told Japan’s Nikkei business daily.

Gazprom was interested in improving the business efficiency of Sakhalin 1 rather than directly investing in the project, Miller said. read more

Last Updated: 6:20am GMT 19/03/2007

Philip Aldrick examines the possibility of ABN Amro providing the perfect fit for the British bank

Bankers have been aching for Barclays to do a major deal. With its rapidly growing investment bank, highly respected management and well-known brand, the British bank has long been considered the ideal partner for an American or European rival.

Rumours of a potential merger with Société Générale and BNP Paribas, probably stoked by impatient bankers, have been doing the rounds for the past year. Memories of reported talks in 2004 with Bank of America are still fresh – resurfacing as recently as last December.
 
For all its British past, Barclays is a bank with global ambitions. Seven years ago, the international operations accounted for just 20pc of profits. Today, more than half come from overseas. But for all that ambition, Barclays has yet to unveil itself as a dominant presence on the global stage. It has crept into the world’s top ten by market capitalisation but there are still vast holes in its portfolio including a glaring lack of a US retail presence. read more

Vanguard (Lagos)
March 19, 2007
Emma Arubi, Warri

SHELL Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), have been given a 14-day ultimatum by the Dale-Oketa Itsekiri community in Warri North Local Government Council to arrange for a round table negotiation to address the alleged deliberate neglect of the community or face the wrath of the community in their Otumara and Olero oil field operations.

In a petition signed by Mr. Victor Bawo Okonedo, representative of the community and addressed to Mr. Harriman Oyofo, Manager, External Relations, SPDC, and Odumabo A.O., General Manager, Government and Public Affairs, CNL, on behalf of the management committee of Dale-Oketa community, they accused the SPDC of deliberately omitting their community as an impacted one in the “Trans-Escravos Pipeline Replacement and Otumara Integrated Oil and Gas Project, IOGP, against evidence by the Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, profile confirming Dale-Oketa as one of the communities within the field.
 
They also accused Chevron of deliberately refusing to recognize them in the Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMOU, in their Olero Field Operations while Jakpa, their next door neighbour has since been accorded due recognition. read more

By Dan Lonkevich and Ian McKinnon

March 18 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it acquired through a tender more than half the shares of Shell Canada Ltd. that it doesn’t already hold, giving it enough to proceed with its plan to take full ownership of the affiliate.

A total of 97 million shares were tendered at C$45 ($38.26) each, representing 53.1 percent of the shares Hague-based Shell didn’t already own, the company said in a statement yesterday. That met Shell’s requirement that 50 percent must be tendered, so the company will complete the purchases and extend the offer for the rest of the shares until March 30. read more

DAVID EBNER

CALGARY — Royal Dutch Shell PLC is poised to take over Shell Canada Ltd. after it scored a significant victory in its $8.7-billion takeover bid.

Royal Dutch, which already owns about 78 per cent of Shell, said late Friday that 53.1 per cent of the minority shares had been tendered to its $45-a-share bid, increasing its Shell stake to 89.6 per cent.

The company is now in the position to conduct an amalgamation to take full control of Shell, though dissenting shareholders could challenge the $45 valuation in court. read more

The Supreme Court has relaxed rules against price fixing. Coming up: a big case for retailers.

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
March 19, 2007

WASHINGTON — With a push from the Bush administration, the Supreme Court is in the midst of steady, if little noticed, retreat from enforcing the antitrust laws that for decades have guarded against monopolies and price fixing.

In the last year, the court has relaxed or repealed several rules designed to prevent anti-competitive schemes, and later this month will hear another widely followed case that could dramatically change the rules of the retailing business. read more