April 20th, 2007:

By John Donovan

In view of the news reports over the past 24 hours featured below, it appears that some may wish to add the term “porn peddler” to Shell’s extensive list of sins in the USA.

Shell Oil Company seems to have got itself in an embarrassing mess as an activist group claims that a Shell executive responded to their email by telling them that the two well known magazines – Playboy and Penthouse, were no longer considered to be pornography. However, Shell apparently takes issue with this account. Three salient articles are accessible below. read more

By Felicia Loo and Jonathan Leff
REUTERS

5:04 a.m. April 20, 2007

SINGAPORE – Oil major Royal Dutch Shell is working hard to gain a foothold in China’s refining sector after hopes for taking a share in a new CNOOC refinery was dashed, a top company executive said on Friday.

But its eagerness to own a share of capacity in the world’s second-largest oil consumer is not matched in India, where a huge wave of new refining capacity should provide more than enough fuel to supply its plans to expand into the retail sector. read more

Current Publication Date: 20/04/2007

Shell E&PI has been allowed to drop long-running legal action against four Rossport people opposed to the Corrib gas pipeline.

However, the company now faces a bill of around €1 million to cover most of the legal costs of the defendants Philip McGrath, Bríd McGarry, James Brendan Philbin and Willie Corduff.

The High Court heard this week that Shell E&PI wanted to discontinue its legal action, without having to meet the costs of the four defendants. The company said its action aimed at restraining the interference of the defendants with the pipeline, was no longer necessary because the pipeline was to be re-routed. read more

April 20 2007 at 12:08PM 
 
Abuja – Gunmen attacked a vessel supporting a Transocean oil drilling rig in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, abducting three Nigerian staff and seizing weapons and equipment, security sources said on Friday.

Six people injured during the attack late on Thursday were airlifted out and the Trident 8 rig has been shut down, the sources said. No oil flow was affected.

“A security vessel, Mike One, supporting Trident 8, a Transocean rig drilling for Conoil in Brass, was attacked by armed men yesterday,” said a security expert working for a major Western oil company operating in the Niger Delta. Conoil is a Nigerian company. read more

Brian O’Connor
20 April 2007

Shares in Russian oil producer Imperial Energy slumped again as it came under fresh attack from aggressive Russian regulator Oleg Mitvol, who also savaged five other UK oil and mining companies.

Imperial fell a further 135p to 1092p on Thursday, from a peak of 1508p early on Wednesday. The London Stock Exchange has had a close look at the heavy share dealing over the two days.

Mitvol broadened his attack last night to investigate whether five other UK groups’ statements of reserves might be misleading. read more

Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:54 PM BST

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s top downstream executive said on Friday he hoped a $5 billion project to more than double the capacity at its Motiva joint-venture refinery in Texas will be granted final approval this year.

Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco, has been considering expanding its 285,000 barrels per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery to as much as 600,000 bpd, which would make it the largest in the United
States. read more

Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:00 PM BST

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) – The agreement of powerful French unions is key to oil major Royal Dutch Shell’s possible plan to sell off three refineries in the country, the company’s top downstream official said on Friday.

Shell has said it is reviewing a number of refining and petrochemicals feedstock assets, including the three French sites, amid moves by a number of oil majors including BP to cut exposure to the cyclical business for fear that new plants in Asia and the Middle East will drive down margins from 2010. read more

APRIL 30, 2007
 
A BP venture is the latest target as Moscow muscles in on producers

It’s one of John Browne’s biggest personal triumphs. In September, 2003, the CEO of oil giant BP (BP ) sealed a deal to create TNK-BP, a joint venture that would become Russia’s fourth-largest oil company and which today accounts for a quarter of the British company’s global production.

Now Browne’s designated successor, Tony Hayward, is surely counting on the project to keep the oil—and profits—pumping, particularly after a year that saw BP’s reputation and stock hammered because of repeated missteps in production and safety. One sign of TNK-BP’s importance: Browne and Hayward met with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin at his dacha outside Moscow in March to discuss the venture.  read more

By Eduard Gismatullin

April 20 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose on speculation violence in Nigeria will hurt the country’s exports and supplies from OPEC will decline.

Presidential elections are being held tomorrow in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, where militant attacks have already cut about a quarter of crude output. Exports by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may fall 0.4 percent in the month ending May 5, according to Oil Movements, a consulting firm.

Oil prices “increased before the weekend because of elections in Nigeria,” said Thina Saltvedt, an analyst at Nordea Bank AB in Oslo. OPEC “will wait and see how demand for crude turns out. They seem to be following the cuts they promised.” read more

Trust acquires assets in $350M deal
ASHOK DUTTA

Penn West Energy Trust plans the construction of a 300 kilometre pipeline to deliver Athabasca oilsands output via Nipisi through to Edmonton, a senior trust official said Thursday.

“We are scoping out an additional sales pipeline of capacity in excess of 100,000 barrels per day to serve multiple users,” William Andrew, Penn West’s president and chief executive acknowledged.

“As oilsands development proceeds in the province, there will be a need to transport additional volumes of products to be produced in the coming several years. The new pipeline will target existing refineries in Edmonton, in addition to new ones planned. Besides, Edmonton is expected to be the hub for oil pipelines planned to run from northern Alberta to markets in the U.S.” read more

Established firm’s ‘green’ credibility

SHAUN POLCZER

Shell Canada Limited on Thursday began the task of formally unwinding almost a century as a public company with the retirement of its CEO, Clive Mather.

Mather, a 38-year veteran of the parent company and its various affiliates, will be stepping down later this summer, Shell said in a statement.

Mather took over the company’s reins in August 2004 until it was taken private by majority shareholder Royal Dutch Shell.

Earlier this month, Royal Dutch completed the $8.7billion buyout of Shell Canada’s minority shareholders. read more

Mary Carolan,
Published: Apr 19, 2007

Shell E&P Ireland is facing a legal costs bill of more than 1 million after the High Court yesterday agreed to allow it end its long-running legal action against four opponents of the controversial Corrib gas pipeline.

The court allowed the company to discontinue its action on certain conditions, including that the company pay most of the legal costs of the defendants.

However, counterclaims by some residents against the company and the State which challenge the validity of ministerial consents for the pipeline are to continue. read more

Aine Ryan,
Published: Apr 20, 2007

Blame for the Corrib gas controversy was firmly laid on the doorstep of Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey and former minister Frank Fahey by an An Taisce member at the fourth day of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) oral hearing into the issuing of an integrated pollution prevention licence (IPPC).

Leo Corcoran, a former Bord Gais engineer, argued that the issuing of “dodgy consents” was the biggest mistake, and that the manner in which the project has been handled would never have been countenanced by Bord Gais. read more

Published: Apr 20, 2007

Reporting the EPA oral hearing into the pollution control licence for the Corrib Gas Terminal, Aine Ryan states that “the Garda presence at the hearing was a matter raised by an objector to the granting of the licence (Irish Independent, April 17).

Indeed there was a Garda presence on duty for the hearing and it was necessary and very welcome and reassuring.

I was present and heard the objection to the Garda presence.

I saw two uniformed Gardai outside the hotel and two plain clothes members inside. That to my mind is not very significant given what has happened in the area up to now in regards to this project. read more

Published: Apr 20, 2007

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Sibir Energy PLC said the oil reserves estimates of its Siberian fields were calculated based on Russia’s own standards.

“Sibir would like to state for the record that the reserves figures reported by the company are the Russian standard reserves as reported by the Russian State Committee on Reserves,” the company said in a statement.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Sibir’s reserves and those of the Russian State Committee on Reserves are one and the same,” it said. read more

By Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: April 19 2007 11:35 | Last updated: April 19 2007 11:35

Oleg Mitvol’s calls yesterday for Imperial Energy’s licences to be revoked are not the first time the gruff Russian official has tangled with foreign resource companies, writes Catherine Belton in Moscow.

Mr Mitvol, who heads the Russian government’s environmental watchdog, hit the headlines when he ledthe state campaign last year against Royal Dutch Shell’s$22bn (£11bn) Sakhalin-2 oiland gas venture. read more

By Dino Mahtani in Abuja
Published: April 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 20 2007 03:00

From where a group of haggard western oil workers are sitting in the gloomy environs of a half-empty bar in Port Harcourt, tomorrow’s presidential elections in Nigeria look unlikely to make life much safer.

For the last year they have lived with constant reports of gun-toting gangs kidnapping their colleagues for ransom and holding them in the surrounding swamps. Locked into gated compounds, they have also had to digest news of car-bomb attacks and a spate of violent robberies. read more

By Stephen Fidler andRoula Khalaf in London and Guy Dinmore in,Washington
Published: April 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 20 2007 03:00

The Bush administration faces a growing dilemma over the pressure it is placing on European companies to suspend investment in Iran, with some US lawmakers dissatisfied with the effort and European allies worried about its tactics.

The US Treasury and State Department have sent officials across Europe, stepping up pressure on international oil and gas companies in particular not to go ahead with investment plans in Iran. They are seeking to turn the economic screws on Tehran over its nuclear programme, which has already attracted limited United Nations sanctions. read more

By Hal Weitzman in Lima
Published: April 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 20 2007 03:00

Bolivian armed forces have occupied important gas installations after violent clashes between troops and protesters left one man dead and 11 others injured.

The incidents, sparked by a dispute between residents from two rival provinces over who will receive most of the royalties from the gas fields, have turned into a political hot potato. “I cannot understand why two provinces in the same state would be fighting constantly,” President Evo Morales said on Wednesday. “I ask our brothers and sisters in the region to quit fighting over internal problems or money.” read more

By Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: April 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 20 2007 03:00

Russia has extended PwC’s licence to operate in the country for another five years, the finance ministry said yesterday, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether the audit firm could lose its licence over its role as auditor of the bankrupt Yukos oil group.

The firm’s standing had been thrown into doubt when a court ruled in March that it had colluded with Yukos in producing false accounts between 2002 and 2004 while closing its eyes to tax avoidance schemes by the company. read more

By Neil Buckley
Published: April 20 2007 11:20 | Last updated: April 20 2007 11:20

In the vast Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory in the Urals, sparks fly from the welding guns. The equipment may be decades old, but with orders pouring in from former Soviet republics and Asia, sales for the first quarter were up 60 per cent over a year earlier.

This Stalin-era behemoth might stand as a metaphor for Russia itself. In 1998 – just before Russia defaulted on $40bn of domestic debt and pitched into financial crisis – the plant was officially bankrupt. But as record oil and gas prices have spurred Russia’s economic revival, so a rescue operation by the management saw the factory climb back on its feet. read more

By Igor Yurgens
Published: April 20 2007 11:20 | Last updated: April 20 2007 11:20

Russian companies’ expansion into world markets has been notable in the past year. It is a sign of maturity and growth.

At the beginning of restructuring, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, capital flight was a way of safeguarding money from inflation, and political and other risks. Now, we see benign export of capital into areas of strategic interest or higher margins.

In some cases, companies are building on Russia’s advantage in markets where the Soviet Union was strong. We had fantastic industrial, political and diplomatic ties with the developing world. Their temporary loss for 15 years after the Soviet collapse was due only to lack of resources and internal restructuring. read more

By Catherine Belton
Published: April 20 2007 11:20 | Last updated: April 20 2007 11:20

When BP’s Russia venture TNK-BP gallantly lost to state-controlled Rosneft in the recent cut-price auction of remaining assets of the Yukos oil group, its participation helped legitimise a process criticised by Yukos shareholders as expropriation, analysts say.

Italian energy majors Eni and Enel swiftly followed – winning a second Yukos assets auction only to hand control of their winnings to Russia’s state gas monopoly, Gazprom. read more

Last Updated: 8:24am BST 20/04/2007: A round-up of headlines from across the financial sectors, provided by Bloomberg News

• Shell Canada said chief executive Clive Mather will retire following the takeover of the Canadian oil company by parent Royal Dutch Shell.

• Shares in Imperial Energy plunged as much as 18pc after a Russian regulator filed to revoke oil-exploration licences from three of the company’s units in western Siberia.

• Gazprom may build a power plant in Britain as the Russian company seeks opportunities to expand in Europe. read more

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 2:39am BST 20/04/2007

The chairman of Imperial Energy, Peter Levine, has held emergency talks with the authorities in Russia after the oil company’s shares tumbled for a second day following threats to revoke some of its licences to operate.
 
Imperial’s shares fell 11pc yesterday following a 15pc plunge on Wednesday, after the deputy head of Russia’s environmental inspectorate, Oleg Mitvol, suggested the company was one of several operators that had falsified its reserves. read more

April 20, 2007
Steve Hawkes

Imperial Energy, the oil explorer, is poised to delay a £550 million move to the main stock market after seeing its shares tumble over fears about its future in Russia.

The AIM-listed group last night admitted that its time-table “could slip” from next week in the first recognition that a concerted attack by Oleg Mitvol, the Russian environmental regulator, is disrupting its expansion.

A spokesman told The Times: “The company is still moving ahead with its plans to join the main market. read more

By CSD Staff

Group protests sale of pornography in area stores.

A Shell-branded Circle K store is on the wrong side of an activist group’s wrath after the marketer issued a statement categorizing magazines Playboy and Penthouse as “Adult Sophisticates” as opposed to pornography.

This statement came days after the Florida Family Association, a pro-family activist group, demanded that the Circle K stores (which carries Shell-branded fuels) discontinue selling the publications, according to WorldNetDaily.com. read more

Matt C. Abbott
April 20, 2007

According to an April 18, 2007 story on WorldNetDaily.com, “Shell Oil Co. has determined Playboy and Penthouse no longer are pornography, but instead are ‘adult sophisticates,’ according to a company statement….”