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May 9th, 2007:

Reuters: EXCLUSIVE-BP reports on Alaska spill blame cost cuts, execs

09 May 2007 14:08:51 GMT
By Robert Campbell

NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) – Two reports on the cause of Alaska’s worst onshore oil spill, commissioned by BP Plc , blame the giant oil company’s cost cutting and management culture for the accident, people familiar with the reports said.

The reports come after a U.S. congressional committee said documents turned over by BP suggest “draconian” cost cutting at the British company’s Alaska operations led to the March 2006 rupture of a corroded oil pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, spilling at least 200,000 gallons of crude oil onto the Arctic tundra. 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.

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Respect Ruling On Gas Flaring, Group Tells Shell

EXTRACT: “While Shell and its shareholders count their profits all we can count are the early graves that their toxic gas flares keep sending our people. It is morally wrong for Shell to continue with gas flaring despite a ruling that has ordered them to cease it.

THE ARTICLE

This Day (Lagos)
Posted to the web 9 May 2007
Godwin Haruna
Lagos

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has called on the Shell Petroleum and Development Company (SPDC) to respect a High Court judgment which ordered the global group to stop gas flaring in Iwherekan community in Delta State by April 30, 2007. 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.

EastHaven Advertiser: Broadwater boils down to security issue

EXTRACT: Broadwater Energy is an entity of Royal Dutch/Shell Inc. and TransCanada Energy. Broadwater Corporation intends to erect a 1200 foot-long, 80-100 foot-high LNG terminal in the center of Long Island Sound in New York territorial waters, 11 miles off the coasts of East Haven and Branford. Ocean going tankers will deliver foreign supplies of LNG to the terminal, to service the Northeast region. The U.S. Coast Guard will have to enforce a security zone around the terminal and escort tankers delivering LNG supplies. 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: Nigerian gunmen snatch four US workers

By Upstream staff
9 May 2007

Heavily armed gunmen kidnapped four US oil workers from a pipelay barge operating off the Nigerian coast this morning, the ninth attack on western oil interests in the region in as many days.

The attacks come in the wake of April’s general elections which were condemned by observers as fraudulent.

Some militants have stepped up attacks to make clear that they are unimpressed by the looming change in government, despite the election of a state governor from the delta as vice president. 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 Post: Briefs: Probe of Norton’s ties with Shell sought

05/09/2007 03:35:15 AM MDT

ProgressNowAction.org, a Denver-based liberal advocacy group, is calling for a federal investigation of the relationship between former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and Royal Dutch Shell’s oil shale operations in northwest Colorado.

The group alleges that Norton may have used her influence at the federal agency to approve Shell’s leases in Colorado, followed by Shell hiring Norton as a general counsel for the company’s “unconventional resources” unit that includes oil shale development. 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.

International Herald Tribune: As Yukos is whittled to nothing, a state giant emerges from remains

The Associated Press
Published: May 9, 2007

MOSCOW: The bankrupt oil company OAO Yukos will vanish this week, in a flurry of auctions that end more than three years of politically charged legal action that left its former owner jailed and many of its assets snapped up by a state-controlled rival.

Yukos, once regarded as one of Russia’s best-run and most transparent companies, was driven into bankruptcy by back tax bills of some US$30 billion (€22 billion) while former owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion. 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.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Energy firms make room for liquefied natural gas

EXTRACT: Environmental concerns also have flared. On March 28, Shell Oil Co. dropped plans to build a terminal in the Gulf of Mexico after opposition from fishermen, who opposed Shell’s plans to use millions of gallons of seawater in the process. Opponents feared that would kill fish larvae.

THE ARTICLE

Storage terminals are on the rise amid concerns about safety and the environment.

By Alan Syre
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

HACKBERRY, La. — Just down the road from this fishing hamlet in the bayou country of southwestern Louisiana, a massive complex is rising to handle the nation’s growing demand for natural gas. 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.

Bloomberg: Six Reasons to Celebrate Tony Blair’s Departure: Matthew Lynn

EXTRACT: Blair has failed to defend British companies. Look at the way that British businessmen can now routinely be extradited to the U.S. without the right to a hearing in their own country.  Likewise, he has failed to stand up for Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc in their contests with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Those are two of the U.K.’s most important companies. A French or U.S. president would battle hard for national champions. Blair couldn’t be bothered.

THE ARTICLE

By Matthew Lynn 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.

euractiv.com/fr: Résoudre la crise climatique par une coopération renforcée[en]

Publié: mercredi 9 mai 2007

Les représentants d’industries et d’ONG se sont rencontrés lors d’une conférence organisée par Shell à Bruxelles portant sur le rôle de l’industrie dans la crise climatique. Ils ont largement convenu qu’un cadre réglementaire stable était nécessaire à une politique efficace de lutte contre le changement climatique.

Oil major Shell International hosted a conference in Brussels on 8 May with the title ‘Is climate change preventable? The role of industry and governments’. 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 Washington Post: Nigerian Militants Destroy 3 Pipelines In Oil-Rich Delta: Raids a ‘Warning’ to President-Elect

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 9, 2007; Page A10

JOHANNESBURG, May 8 — Militants in Nigeria’s volatile oil-producing region destroyed three pipelines in raids early Tuesday as part of what they said would be a rising campaign of destruction leading up to the inauguration of the nation’s new president on May 29.

Political protests against the election of Umaru Yar’Adua have fizzled in Nigeria since he won the presidency on April 21 in a vote that observers said was profoundly flawed nationwide and, in many places, simply rigged. 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.

MarketWatch: No basis for optimism on Shell’s return to Ogoni: leader

By Vincent Nwanma

LAGOS (MarketWatch) — There’s no basis for optimism on the return to Ogoniland by Royal Dutch Shell PLC soon, a community leader said Tuesday, brushing off a Shell statement posted on its Web site Tuesday.

In the statement, Shell said it was optimistic it could return to Ogoniland, where it stopped operating in 1993 following protests by the locals over the impact of its exploration and production activities.

“I wish I could say what’s giving them that optimism,” Ledum Mitee, president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, or Mosop, said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. 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.

Business Times (Malaysia): Refinery capacity

Published: May 09, 2007

SHELL Refining Co Bhd, the listed unit of Shell Malaysia, aims to operate its refinery in Port Dickson at 87 per cent of capacity this year, ahead of a planned maintenance shutdown in 2008.

Last year, the company achieved a record utilisation rate of 90.6 per cent compared with 76.2 per cent in 2005. The plant processes crude oil into products like diesel and petrol.

Its chairman Saw Choo Boon said he was confident of achieving the target for this year as there would not be any major shutdowns until 2008. 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 Independent: Gripes against gardai to rise under watchdog: ‘complaints… by the Shell to Sea campaigners…’

Published: May 09, 2007

THE number of complaints against gardai is expected to treble in the next year.

The anticipated upsurge in complaints is due to the setting up of the independent Garda Ombudsman Commission, which became operational from midnight.

The outgoing Garda Complaints Board receives about 1,300 a year. But, on the basis of trends in other police jurisdictions in Europe, the commission expects the annual total to reach around 4,000.

Commission members say the number elsewhere averages out at around one for every three members of the police force. 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: Gulf of Mexico: Search for prospects taps into deep water

EXTRACT: Shell is considering doubling the size of its Motiva Port Arthur refinery to make it the largest refinery in the US. “We hope to take a final investment decision on it later this year,’’ says David Sexton, vice president of Shell Oil Products for the US.

THE ARTICLE

By Sheila McNulty in Houston

Gulf of Mexico prospects are so valuable these days that the companies exploring and producing them have started offering the rights to name some of them to employees as a special treat.

In the past year, Dawn Marie Yates, who works in information technology for Chevron, won that right by bidding the highest amount of money in an auction to raise money for the United Way charity. 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: Raised dividends better for stocks than buy-backs

By Chris Hughes
Published: May 9 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 9 2007 03:00

Raising dividends is more effective at boosting a company’s share price than launching a share buy-back, according to research by Morgan Stanley.

The findings follow a bumper year for share repurchases, which totalled £46bn in 2006 against only £28bn the year before and which were pursued by blue-chip stocks including Vodafone, BP and Royal Dutch Shell. Some 58 per cent of UK companies have active buy-back programmes, almost twice the level in 2004. 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: BP ordered to raise safety levels

EXTRACT: In the past 12 months, HSE said it had issued six improvement notices and one prohibition notice to Royal Dutch Shell and six improvement notices to Maersk of Denmark.

THE ARTICLE

By Carola Hoyos and Andrew Taylor in London
Published: May 9 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 9 2007 03:00

The UK Health and Safety Executive has ordered BPto improve safety on its North Sea oil and gasinstallations, issuing 14 notices to the energy group in the past year.

BP confirmed it had been served the notices. The notices included concerns over maintenance of equipment, leaking pipes and valves that were still being manually operated. 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.

FT REPORT – MOTOR INDUSTRY FLEET MANAGEMENT: Greener rules bear fruit

EXTRACT: Biofuels are useable immediately, according to Shell and could reduce CO2 emission by around 15 per cent. The main problem is that they cannot be generated in commercial quantities without displacing food crops.

THE ARTICLE

By Rob Golding, Financial Times
Published: May 09, 2007

The UK government’s pressure on people to use cars that have a lower CO2 rating has worked well, using first benefit-in-kind taxation and now Vehicle Excise Duty.

In London, there is also likely to be a linkage soon between C02 and the congestion charge. 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: Energy: Oil monopoly in finance trap

EXTRACT: Moreover, George Baker, an energy consultant in Houston and an expert on Mexico’s oil sector, says such schemes will never solve the problem because the world’s leading oil companies such as Exxon, Shell and BP only work with joint-association contracts in which they share both the risks and rewards of oil exploration.

THE ARTICLE

By Adam Thomson
Published: May 9 2007 06:02 | Last updated: May 9 2007 06:02

For decades, Lázaro Cárdenas’ decision to nationalise the country’s oil industry has been hailed by Mexicans as one of the most courageous and daring acts of patriotism since independence in 1821. 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: Delta blues: Anyone there, Shell?

From: “Eco soundings” article

By John Vidal and David Adam
Wednesday May 9, 2007

Anyone there, Shell?

In November 2005, the Nigeria’s federal high court found gas flaring to be a “gross violation” of the human right to life and dignity as well as a violation of the Nigerian constitution, and ordered you to immediately stop it in Iwherekan community, Delta state. You were meant to submit a detailed plan of action by April 30, 2007. Perhaps it’s lost in the post, but Eco Soundings notes that last week you announced profits of nearly £38m a day, even as people living in Iwherekan survived on less than $1 a day. 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.

Daily Telegraph: Yukos petrol stations attract big players

Daily Telegraph Yukos Petrol Station

(Bidding for Yukos’ petrol station network is expected to start at about 7.7bn roubles (£150m)

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 12:39am BST 09/05/2007

Royal Dutch Shell and BP’s Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, are expected to join the auction for the petrol station network belonging to the collapsed oil company Yukos.
 
Tomorrow’s auction will revive memories of last month’s heavily criticised sell-off of Yukos’s 9.44pc stake in state-controlled Rosneft. TNK-BP took part in that auction, won by Rosneft, but was accused of only participating to appease the Kremlin. Moscow wanted the stake back in state control but needed another bidder to legitimise the sale process.
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: Gaz de France is off the back burner

EXTRACT: The solution for the NOCs is to get closer to the customers and cut out the middlemen. So they bar the door to Big Oil, denying multinationals, such as Exxon and Shell, the right to drill gas wells, and at the same time they court gas buyers, such as Centrica, GdF and E.ON.

THE ARTICLE

May 9, 2007
Carl Mortished: European Briefing

In the “to do” pile on Nicolas Sarkozy’s desk will be a file marked Suez-Gaz de France, last year’s politico-industrial football.

The merger of the two utilities was suspended by the French courts for procedural reasons until after the presidential elections. Having won the contest, Mr Sarkozy has pressing matters to contend with – legislative elections and mass redundancies at Airbus – but he cannot leave Suez-GdF in the balance for too long because these markets are moving at frightening speed. A big priority for an economic nationalist such as Mr Sarkozy is to ensure that France is at the top table in any carve-up of European energy markets. 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: Need to know

May 9, 2007

Natural resources

Up 1.40%

BP hired its first independent safety expert as the oil group entered a new era by holding its first board meeting after the resignation of Lord Browne of Madingley as chief executive.

Shell and BP are poised to go head-to-head in a controversial 7.7 billion rouble (£150 million) auction of more than 500 petrol stations in Russia.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article1764310.ece

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 and BP poised to enter Yukos auction

Reports in Moscow claim that both UK oil majors will go up against Rosneft for 500 former Yukos petrol stations

Steve Hawkes

Shell and BP are poised to go head-to-head in a controversial 7.7 billion rouble (£150 million) auction of more than 500 petrol stations in Russia, it emerged today.

Both UK oil and gas majors are set to submit bids on May 10 when the latest sell-off of assets formerly run by the Yukos empire takes place.

Kremlin-controlled oil giant Rosneft is also expected to bid for the 500 petrol stations, as well as Unitex, a little-known company with links to Gazprom. 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.

MarketWatch: Shell cautiously optimistic on return to Nigeria’s Ogoniland

By Benoit Faucon
Last Update: 7:34 PM ET May 8, 2007

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC is “cautiously optimistic” over its return to Ogoniland, Nigeria, after local leaders expressed openness on the matter, Shell Nigeria’s chairman said in its annual sustainability report.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major stopped operating in Ogoniland in 1993 after the company was hit by a wave of protests from locals over its operations in the Niger Delta area.

“Overall, I am cautiously optimistic…Government and the traditional rulers both tell us they want us to come back,” Shell Nigeria’s chairman Basil Omiyi said in the report, published Tuesday on its Web site. 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.