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April 26th, 2007:

The Moscow Times: Shell Made to Pay Out Dividends

Friday, April 27, 2007. Issue 3646. Page 5.
Bloomberg

LONDON — Shell and its Japanese partners will make annual payments to the government as part of an agreement that brought Gazprom into their Sakhalin-2 oil and natural gas project, a Shell spokesman said Thursday.

“There have been minor adjustments to fiscal terms while keeping the [production sharing agreement] intact,” Shell spokesman Adam Newton said in London.

The changes “give the Russian government more access to revenues when oil and gas prices are higher and take the Russian government’s view on cost-recovery allowances.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

IndiaTimes: ONGC plans to pick 33% in Shell’s Egyptian gas block

AGENCIES[ FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2007 12:00:00 AM] 

NEW DELHI: Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is firming up a proposal to buy up to 33% in an Egyptian deepwater gas block from operator Royal Dutch Shell, sources said on Thursday.

“Talks are at an advanced stage. Very soon a high-level government panel will take a decision whether to allow ONGC to go ahead with the offer or not,” a source involved in the planned deal said. The value of the possible transaction was not known.

The deal for a stake in Shell’s North East Mediterranean Deepwater (NEMED) block is not being opened to bidding, and no swap arrangement between the two firms is involved, said sources. Shell has announced the block, in which it holds 84%, has probable reserves of 15 trillion cubic feet, according to a US Department of Energy website. The block holds initial in-place reserves of more than 1 tcf with “sizeable upside”, added sources. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

timesnews.co.ke: Monopoly fears as Shell acquires BP

By Kariuki Ndung’u

Shell Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, has officially taken over the 50 per cent stake of the British Petroleum (BP) shareholding at the Shell/BP venture in the country.

The move follows plans by BP to exit from the local market citing reducing profits margins in the local oil industry due to heavy competitions and strict government policies on the oil industry.

The takeover means Shell will acquire the 50 per cent stake currently being held by BP Africa Limited in Kenya Shell Limited, BP Kenya Limited and Shell/BP (Malindi) Kenya Limited (the JV companies) making them wholly owned subsidiary of the Shell Petroleum company Limited. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

environmental-finance.com: ABN Amro slammed for $1 billion Sakhalin deal

London, 26 April: ABN Amro has reportedly provided $1 billion to Gazprom to finance its purchase of a controlling share in the controversial oil and gas project Sakhalin II.

Sakhalin II is located on the island of Sakhalin, off the pacific coast of Russia. Environmental campaigners have long opposed its development, because it is sited in the only known breeding ground of the rare Western Grey whale. Onshore construction is also alleged to impact on the population of wild salmon that breed in the island’s network of rivers. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

UpstreamOnline: Statoil moves on Shell Norway stakes

By Upstream staff

Norwegian giant Statoil has taken on some of Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell’s stakes in a number of Norwegian Sea exploration licences.

Statoil struck a deal with Shell which will see it take on Shell’s stake in Production Licence 281, dubbed Midnattssol, in the Norwegian Sea from 1 January this year.

Statoil now has a 50% stake in Midnattssol. One exploration well, Elida, has already been drilled in the licence. Elida-2 is set to spud in May or June.

The other Midnattssol licensees are E.ON Ruhrgas (20%), Petoro (20%) and ConocoPhillips (10%). read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Reuters: Shell wraps up buy of Canadian unit, delists stock

Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:35 PM EDT
 
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote) wrapped up its C$8.7 billion ($7.8 billion) acquisition of the minority stake in Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.TO: Quote) on Thursday and delisted the shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Shell said it now owns all of Shell Canada after a compulsory acquisition, allowed under Canadian law, of the remaining shares that did not tender to the C$45 a share offer.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major now has exclusive control of Shell Canada’s operations, including three refineries, a nationwide chain of gas stations, conventional oil and gas production, and the company’s controlling stake in the Athabasca oil sands project. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Times Online: Shell faces £138m charge to stay in Sakhalin

Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay an annual dividend to the Russian government to keep its stake in the lucrative Sakhalin II offshore project, it emerged today. The payment could be up to $275 million (£138 million).

April 26, 2007
Steve Hawkes

Anglo-Dutch giant has agreed to pay Kremlin an annual dividend to keep its stake in lucrative offshore project.

Shell and its partners in the field agreed the deal last week when the Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom formally took a majority shareholding in the project. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Globe & Mail: Latest oil patch takever rumours are All-Canadian

Andrew Willis, today at 7:01 AM EDT

Speculation on oil patch monster deal has taken a new twist, with talk of a Canadian-buys-Canadian deal pushing aside foreign takeover speculation.

Domestic energy companies have long been seen as targets for cash-rich global players that want to lock in reserves. The Royal Dutch Shell purchase of its Canadian subsidiary is expected to mark the first step in a larger consolidation.

In the past week, talk has shifted from ‘who will BP and Chevron buy?’ to ‘Is there a Canadian team with the moxie to create a national champion?’  (Chevron, by the way, filed the paperwork needed for a massive financing a few months back.) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Times-Picayune: Secret legal fee division appealed

Judge won’t release details in Shell case

Thursday, April 26, 2007

From staff reports

A federal judge should not be allowed to secretly divide up nearly $7 million in legal fees among 79 attorneys who filed suit against Shell Oil Co. in 2004, The Times-Picayune is arguing in an appeal of an unusual confidential court decision.

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle secretly allocated cash to some law firms described by one lawyer as claiming hours that were “grossly excessive.” Two firms received a “substantial award” even though they “didn’t do anything for the common benefit,” according to a transcript of a January hearing before the judge. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

thebusinessonline: Yeltsin dismantled the Soviet Union but Putin is building a new empire

EXTRACT: A consortium led by Royal-Dutch-Shell ceded half of the $21.4bn (£10.7bn, e15.7bn) Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project to Gazprom earlier this month, following months of bullying by the state on spurious environmental grounds.

25/04/2007

A free, democratic and prosperous Russia closely associated with the West – that was the vision the country’s former president, Boris Yeltsin, who died this week, so splendidly incarnated when he defiantly stood on that tank in Moscow in August 1991. But Yeltsin’s dream of a liberal Russia died long before him. While he deserves eternal gratitude for ending the Soviet Union with minimal bloodshed and for all his unstinting work in the earlier defeat of communism, Yeltsin’s great tragedy was that he also laid the seeds for the return of authoritarianism. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Reuters: Shell agrees to pay Russia more of Sakhalin income

Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:12 AM BST

LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) and its partners have agreed to pay an annual dividend to the Russian government as part of a deal to salvage its Sakhalin-2 project, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday.

The dividend will be paid from 2010 onward and linked to the price of oil, the newspaper quoted an unidentified person familiar with the situation as saying.

“It’s going to be something under a billion dollars every year,” the person was quoted as saying. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Le Monde Diplomatique: Hydrocarbon nationalism

EXTRACT: Today the financial markets are full of rumours of new mergers, with BP the likely prey since the surprise resignation, early this year, of its president. A merger between Shell and BP, the second- and third-largest, is possible.

by Jean Pierre Sereni

28-03-07 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. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Guardian: Letter from Nigeria

EXTRACTS: For angry residents of the delta, Shell has become synonymous with poverty and pollution. Shell Nigeria has brought social, spiritual and ecological impoverishment to the delta.

Robert Lacville

Tensions were running high at election time in the Niger delta. Some western oil companies sent families home and shut down all travel for three weeks. “Don’t get kidnapped,” a friend emailed. More than 200 kidnappings have been recorded since October last year. “Beware of hijackers,” a Nigerian woman told me in London. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Times: Statoil rejects investigative commission

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent,
Published: Apr 26, 2007

Norwegian energy company Statoil has said that it cannot support political calls for an independent commission to evaluate the entire Corrib gas project in north Mayo.

The company was commenting after a meeting between four of its senior executives and a seven-strong delegation of Labour, Green Party, Socialist Workers Party and Independent TDs in Dublin yesterday over the controversial project.

Statoil is partner with Shell E&P Ireland and Marathon in developing the Corrib field some 65km off the Mayo coastline. An integrated pollution licence for the onshore refinery is the subject of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oral hearing in Belmullet, Co Mayo. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Times: Corrib gas hearing warned on bias

Aine Ryan,
Published: Apr 26, 2007

The “demonisation and vilification” of the people of Erris, along with the continued large presence of gardaI, militated against the Environmental Protection Agency’s oral hearing forming an objective decision, the hearing was told yesterday.

On the seventh day of the hearing into the issuing of an integrated pollution prevention licence for the Corrib gas refinery, Sean Harrington – who is objecting to the licence – suggested to the chairman, Frank Clinton, that since he was “only human”, he was bound to be influenced by such factors. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Financial Times: Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’

By Fiona Harvey and Stephen Fidler in London
Published: April 25 2007 22:07 | Last updated: April 25 2007 22:07

Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits.

A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.

Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and in some cases for clean-ups that they would have made anyway. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

food-business-review.com: Shell to install Jimmy’s food stands in Bulgarian petrol stations

25th April 2007
By Clare Watson

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is reportedly installing food corners in 58 of its 102-strong network of Bulgarian petrol stations in partnership with Bulgarian ice cream company Jimmy’s, according to local publication Dnevnik.

The five-year agreement will see Jimmy’s install food stands to provide ice cream, sandwiches, snacks and beverages to Shell’s fuel retail customers, Dnevnik said.

The publication cited Teodora Koleva, the oil giant’s commercial director, as saying that the move comes as part of Shell’s aim to focus on its fuel retailing activities by passing on the management of the non-core operations across its fuel network to outside companies. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Denver Business Journal: Comments accepted on Shell’s Western Slope plan

State regulators are accepting public comment through May 16 on Shell Frontier Oil and Gas Inc.’s plan to get oil shale locked in rocks on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Shell is researching how to get vast oil resources out of oil shale rocks in western Colorado by heating the rocks and melting the oil.
 
The company received federal approval for leasing acreage to conduct the research in 2006 and is now working on getting the necessary state permits for operations related to the research. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: DEAL OR EXILE

DEAL OR EXILE: Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its partners reached an agreement to pay a substantial annual dividend to the Russian government as part of a deal to salvage the $20 billion Sakhalin-2 project. The move demonstrates just how far major Western oil companies apparently must go to remain in the good graces of oil-producing countries such as Russia, as governments tighten control over natural resources.

The previously undisclosed agreement was part of a settlement that ended months of pressure from Russian regulators who had threatened to shut down Sakhalin-2, a huge oil and natural-gas project in Russia’s remote Far East. The pact essentially changes the terms of the Sakhalin-2 agreement, while avoiding the legal complexities that would be involved in formally revising the contract. In addition to ceding a controlling stake in their flagship Sakhalin-2 project to the Russian state gas company last week, they will pay to the Russian government from 2010 onward a so-called priority dividend that will be linked to the price of oil. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Russia to Get Dividend in Sakhalin-2 Deal

By GUY CHAZAN
April 26, 2007; Page A3

MOSCOW — In addition to ceding a controlling stake in their flagship Sakhalin-2 project to the Russian state gas company last week, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its partners also agreed to pay a substantial annual dividend to the Russian government as part of a deal to salvage the $20 billion venture, according to people familiar with the situation.

The previously undisclosed agreement was part of a settlement that ended months of pressure from Russian regulators who had threatened to shut down Sakhalin-2, a huge oil and natural-gas project in Russia’s remote Far East. The pact essentially changes the terms of the Sakhalin-2 agreement, while avoiding the legal complexities that would be involved in formally revising the contract. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.