March 22nd, 2007:

A Nigerian Senate committee has indicted the president and his deputy for corruption over an oil fund.

The committee recommends both President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar be prosecuted.

The committee resigned after pressure to block the report. The Senate will now consider the report but not until after general elections next month.

Mr Obasanjo stands down after two terms in office, but Mr Abubakar has been barred from running.

It is the first time a Nigerian Senate committee has accused President Obasanjo of corruption. read more

2007-03-22 13:30:56 –

ZAGREB, Croatia, March 22 /PRNewswire/ — CROSCO Integrated Drilling & Well Services Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce the recent commencement of drilling services for Gulfsands Petroleum PLC in Syria. Drilling services are being provided with CROSCO’s 2000 HP drilling rig EMSCO 602 (Emsco C-2 II). Currently CROSCO is drilling the Khurbet East exploration well KHE 1. The total drilling depth of the KHE 1 well is expected to be approximately 3,700 meters.

Vedran Buratovic, General Manager of CROSCO’s Syrian Branch stated, “CROSCO is pleased to be providing drilling services for the second time to Gulfsands Petroleum. During 2006 CROSCO drilled the Suwaidiyah North 1 Well also in Block 26 with CROSCO 1500 HP drilling rig MIDCO 501. CROSCO drilling rig EMSCO 602 recently completed a successful long term engagement for Shell lead Al Furat Petroleum Company. Upon completion of the Gulfsands project, the EMSCO 602 drilling rig will be mobilized to Egypt for a two year contract with RWE Dea Nile. Prior to commencing drilling services for RWE Dea, the EMSCO 602 drilling rig will be serviced and completely retrofitted with new Caterpillar 3512 diesel engines as well as new silicon controlled rectifiers, new motor control center and new shale shakers.” read more

Michael Meacher
March 22, 2007 1:30 PM

The recent cabinet agreement in Baghdad on the new draft oil law was hailed as a landmark deal bringing together the warring factions in the allocation of the country’s oil wealth. What was concealed was that this is being forced through by relentless pressure from the US and will sow the seeds of intense future conflict, with serious knock-on impacts on the world economy.

The draft law, now before the Iraqi parliament, sets up “production sharing partnerships” to allow the US and British oil majors to extract Iraqi oil for up to 30 years. While Iraq would retain legal ownership of its oil, companies like Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP that invest in the infrastructure and refineries would get a large share of the profits. read more

By David R. Sands
March 22, 2007

Iranian leaders yesterday vowed to defy a U.S.-led drive to halt the country’s nuclear program, warning that proposed United Nations sanctions will not work and promising to “strike the enemies” trying to pressure the country.

As the U.N. Security Council debated a new round of sanctions in New York, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said in a nationally televised address in Tehran that Iran would not be deterred from pursuing its nuclear programs. read more

Published: Mar 22, 2007

FRENCH unions and the port authority remained locked in negotiations yesterday as a strike continued at the Fos-Lavera oil and gas terminal at Marseille, writes Sandra Speares.

French union the Confederation Generale du Travail has put a draft proposal to its membership to end the dispute, which has been going on for more than a week, over whether port employed stevedores will be used to unload LNG cargoes at a new Gaz de France terminal due to commence operations later this year. read more

The U.S. is enlisting foreign companies to help cut off petro revenues to its nuclear adversary

Published: Mar 22, 2007

WASHINGTON – For all its efforts to apply economic and political pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, the United States has never used a potentially potent tool in its arsenal — penalties on foreign companies that assist Iran in producing oil and natural gas.

That may be about to change. The Bush administration has quietly been warning energy companies, including Shell, Repsol and SKS, the Malaysian oil company, as well as the governments of China, India, Pakistan and Malaysia, that penalties are possible if they pursue energy deals with Iran. read more

Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:29AM GMT

OSLO (Reuters) – BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) has filed a plan for further development of the Valhall oilfield off Norway, including planned investments of 14 billion Norwegian crowns (1.15 billion pounds), Norwegian energy officials said on Friday.

The Valhall field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea has been in operation since 1982 and produces around 70,000 barrels of oil per day. Now BP plans to build a new platform to replace three old platforms, the ministry of petroleum and energy said. read more

By Vibeke Laroi

March 22 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, and partners plan to spend about 14 billion kroner ($2.3 billion) on a new platform in the North Sea Valhall oil field to extend the field’s production life to 2049.

Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy received a plan for developing the Valhall field from London-based BP, the operator, and its partners Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Hess Corp. and Total SA, the ministry said in a statement today. read more

By Fred Pals

March 21 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Europe’s biggest oil company by market value, said that its Berre oil refinery in Berre l’Etang, France, has been shut for maintenance.

The maintenance works started March 14 and will last about five weeks, Shell said on the Web site of the Berre petrochemical refinery complex. The project is the first major turnaround in six years, the company said on the Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Pals in Amsterdam at [email protected] read more

Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:21 AM BST

LAGOS, March 22 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) has completed repairs to a big Nigerian oil pipeline that broke open on March 4, forcing the company to reduce output by 187,000 barrels per day, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The company is now performing integrity tests on the pipeline with a view to resuming production from the Nembe Creek area, which pumps crude oil to the Bonny export terminal in the Niger Delta.

“The pipeline has been clamped and we are doing integrity testing to be able to reopen the flow-stations,” spokesman Bisi Ojediran said. read more

(Reuters) – Dutch bank ABN AMRO , which is in exclusive talks to merge with Barclays , would not be the first major company to be jointly managed or listed in the Netherlands and Britain.

The following is a list of major Anglo-Dutch corporate alliances:

For the day’s news on ABN, click on [ID:nL21397388].

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC

The global’s second-largest energy company has its roots in the Shell Transport and Trading Company and Royal Dutch Petroleum, which joined forces in 1903 to oppose U.S. oil giant Standard Oil. read more

Contact:  Carla Vigue, Office of the Governor, 608-261-2162
Company’s Complaints of “Discrimination” Hard to Swallow, Morgan Says

MADISON – The Doyle administration today responded to complaints by Shell Oil that it is unfair to ask oil companies to give relief to taxpayers and help pay for transportation needs.

Instead of raising taxes on consumers or forcing residents to pay tolls, Governor Doyle has proposed an oil company assessment of 2.5 percent per barrel, with criminal penalties if oil companies try to pass along the fee to consumers.  This morning, speaking at a forum on energy issues, Shell Oil Company President John Hofmeister said that the Governor’s proposal amounts to “corporate discrimination.” (Wispolitics.com News Summary)  read more

EXTRACT: “Why can a company like Shell have a gas station on every corner in the US while simultaneously investing in Iran?”

By Guy Dinmore
Published: March 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 22 2007 02:00

With a stroke of the pen and a tick of the box, the US public is being urged to help bring down enemy regimes by going “terror-free” with investments.

Foreign companies doing business with Iran are the main target of the campaign, which aims to persuade US investors to sell stocks in such companies, valued at billions of dollars. read more

Posting in response to our article…

Do you have grounds for a lawsuit against Shell? Have you, your firm or family been cheated or injured by Shell?

March 21st, 2007 23:45

For 13 years now Southern Farmers a group of Black farmers in the great island of Barbados in the West Indies have been fighting SHELL ANTILLES LTD, a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum over an underground leak which has contaminated a 186 acres of our glorious island, including our water irrigation not to mention our soil which is prime agricultural land. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 21, 2007
Filed at 5:10 p.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Biotechnology was first applied in medicine, then farming. Today, dozens of lifesaving drugs are on the market, while many crops are genetically engineered to withstand weed killers.

Now, a 2-year-old push to develop alternative fuels is driving biotechnology’s growth into the industrial sector.

Thousands of corporate executives and scientists gather this weekend in Orlando, Fla. for an industry trade show specifically aimed at touting biotechnology’s so-called third wave, industrial applications. The word on everyone’s lips: ethanol. read more

By REUTERS
Published: March 21, 2007
Filed at 1:19 p.m. ET

Skip to next paragraph  SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) – Thirty-three states have informally agreed to create a registry for companies and organizations to log early actions on cutting output of gases linked to global warming — and possibly get credit for them if future limits on the gases are passed — state officials said.

The log, known as The Climate Registry, could spawn a wider national registry and perhaps help pressure the federal government to regulate heat-trapping gases, the sources said. read more

Terry Macalister
Thursday March 22, 2007

The current and future heads of BP are to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, tomorrow amid mounting expectation that the Kremlin will make moves to buy out the 50% stake in TNK-BP now in the hands of local Russian investors and hand it over to one of the state energy firms, such as Gazprom or Rosneft.

Lord (John) Browne, the chief executive, and Tony Hayward, his designated successor, will visit Moscow at a time of great uncertainty for foreign and private firms in the Russian energy sector. Gazprom is already negotiating to buy its way into TNK-BP’s Kovytka gas export project, having earlier taken a stake in Shell’s Sakhalin gas scheme. read more

LCG, March 21, 2007–Shell WindEnergy has submitted an application to the Humboldt County Planning Department to construct the Bear River Wind Power Project in Northern California. The proposed project consists of up to 35 wind turbines with a total electric generating capacity of 70 MW.

The proposed wind turbines are to be installed along Bear River Ridge, approximately six miles south of Ferndale. The project would be connected via new, underground cables to a new substation.

In addition to the review by the Humboldt County Planning Department, an environmental review is expected per the California Environmental Quality Act. Once approved, the project could be constructed in eight months. read more

Platts
Washington
Petroleumworld.com 03 22 07

The US State Department has held discussions in recent weeks with top officials of Shell, and companies from Malaysia and China to warn them against moving forward with energy investments in Iran, State Under Secretary Nicholas Burns told a Senate panel Wednesday.

“We’ve gone to the CEOs and major financial officers to say this [potential investment] is a bad idea,” Burns told the Senate Banking Committee, which was holding a hearing on the effectiveness of US sanctions on Iran. “We’ve been jawboning them. We have told them they will be subject to our law,” the Iran Sanctions Act, which threatens reprisals against foreign companies doing energy deals worth more than $20 million with Iran. read more

EXTRACT: Last October, environmental inspectors threatened to cancel permits for a Royal Dutch Shell Plc project on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s far east. Two months later, Shell and its Japanese partners agreed to cede control of the project to Moscow-based Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer. Partly because of the Sakhalin takeover, Russia was ranked 63rd of 70 countries in a survey of property rights released March 6 by the Washington-based Property Rights Alliance. The study placed Russia between Pakistan and Nigeria. read more