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May 11th, 2007:

New Zealand Herald: Shell cannot commit to maintaining Aust refining operations

5:00AM Saturday May 12, 2007

MELBOURNE: Royal Dutch Shell says it cannot commit to maintaining its Australian refining operations, and it’s possible Australia may end up importing all its refined fuel needs.

“When it comes a time for a major investment of hundreds of million of dollars then there’s a decision to be made, do you invest it in an old sub-scale local refinery or do you invest it in a big modern refinery in India or Singapore or somewhere and import,” Shell’s Australian chairman Russell Caplan said. 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.

Houston Chronicle: Tesoro Closes $1.76B Shell Purchase

May 11, 2007, 3:48PM
© 2007 The Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO — Oil refiner Tesoro Corp. said Friday it completed its acquisition of a Los Angeles-area refinery and 278 retail sites previously owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

Under a long-term agreement between the companies, all of the purchased stations will remain Shell-branded while being supplied by Tesoro.

The total price of the transaction is $1.76 billion, including $213 million for estimated inventories.

Shares of Tesoro Corp. rose $2.34 Friday to close at $119.25 while Royal Dutch Shell shares rose 88 cents to close at $71.62. 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.

Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia: Shell going well

Mandi Zonneveldt
May 12, 2007 12:00am

SHELL earned more than $1.7bn from Australian operations last year, but the company’s chairman has failed to guarantee the future of its refineries here.

Shell Australia chairman Russell Caplan said yesterday the oil giant was competing with large refineries in Asia and could consider importing its products rather than producing petrol, jet fuel and diesel in Australia.

“Our refineries in this country are very small by world scale,” he said. “The total refining capacity is equal to the size of just one of these Asian refineries. 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.

New York Times: Gunmen Kill 2 Police in Southern Nigeria

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 11, 2007
Filed at 2:39 a.m. ET

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen wearing military fatigues jumped from their vehicles in Nigeria’s southern oil center and killed two police officers Thursday in the latest violence to strike the petroleum-producing region, officials and witnesses said.

The attack in the city of Port Harcourt took place near the offices of major international oil and construction companies, said Rivers State police spokeswoman Irejua Barasua. 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: Pressure on ABN chief mounts

An important Shell shareholder says that it is undecided on whether to re-elect Rijkman Groenink to the Shell board

May 11, 2007
Rhys Blakely and agencies

Doubts over the future of Rijkman Groenink, the embattled chief executive of the bank ABN Amro, increased after ABP, one of the largest Dutch pension funds, acknowledged that it was undecided on whether to vote on his reappointment as a non-executive director of Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant.

The Dutch media reported that ABP, one of Shell’s largest shareholders, was planning to vote against Mr Groenink’s reappointment at Shell’s annual meeting on Tuesday, citing internal ABP documents. 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: As BP trims oil trade risks, Shell’s appetite grows

Fri May 11, 2007 10:25 AM BST

By Jonathan Leff

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – When Royal Dutch Shell’s senior oil traders gather for their annual meeting next week, they may speculate on a topic that’s not on the agenda: challenging BP’s reputation as the industry’s top trading firm.

Some traders say that’s unlikely for now. But most agree a shift is underway that may change the shape of the oil market.

Besieged by bad publicity over its U.S. trading, BP seems to have lost some of its risk appetite, key assets and a few traders. Emboldened by growing success, Shell looks ready to play a bigger role, and pay better for those who can help it. 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.

USA TODAY: Shell Oil tries different path to engage public opinion

By David J. Lynch

RICHMOND, Va. — A few dozen strangers mill awkwardly around the hotel ballroom, fortified by the open bar and a buffet table laden with stuffed mushrooms and melt-in-your-mouth beef carvings.

This could be the early moments of a dance, a bar mitzvah or a self-help seminar. But instead, it’s an unusual event hosted by a representative of “Big Oil,” deep into a long-shot mission to repair the industry’s rapacious image and, not so incidentally, advance its political agenda. 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: Oil and gasoline rise on supply concerns

By Mark Shenk
Bloomberg News
Friday, May 11, 2007

NEW YORK: Crude oil and gasoline prices rose Thursday on concern that U.S. motor-fuel inventories were not sufficient to meet demand during the summer driving season.

Inventories of gasoline rose by 372,000 barrels in the week ended May 4, the first gain in 13 weeks, but supplies were still down 8 percent from the five-year average for the date, the Energy Department said Wednesday.

“It’s only a few weeks before driving season, and gasoline supplies are more than 15 million barrels below normal,” said Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading in Chicago. “A gain of under 400,000 barrels isn’t a lot.” 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: Sri Lankan Economy Threatened by Tamil Rebel Air Wing (Update2)

By Ed Johnson and Anusha Ondaatjie

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Sri Lanka’s fastest economic growth in 30 years is threatened by a Tamil rebel air wing that attacked oil and gas plants near the capital, Colombo, and forced the international airport to close at night.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, flying light aircraft 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the north of the island, evaded air defenses and bombed Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Indian Oil Corp. plants and an air force base in two raids since March. 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: Shell Australia May Decide Against Refinery Spending (Update1)

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Australian unit may decide against “major” further investment in its two refineries because of competition from larger plants in Asia, said Chairman Russell Caplan.

Shell Australia will have to consider whether it’s better to invest in larger refineries overseas when the next “major” investments are required at the Geelong plant in Victoria and the Clyde plant near Sydney, Caplan told reporters today in Melbourne. Australia’s other three refiners face similar decisions, he said. 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: Background

Published: May 11 2007 03:00 | Last updated: May 11 2007 03:00

The 45 oil blocks on offer in Nigeria’s latest licensing round include 11 in deep water offshore, 10 in shallow water, 13 onshore in the hostile Niger Delta and 11 in inland basins that have attracted limited interest. Most of the blocks have either been revoked from companies that have failed to develop them or received no bids in previous rounds.

Shell, Nigeria’s largest producer, is challenging the offer of two of the blocks and a court ruling on the case is scheduled for May 17. 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: Diesel ready to make the big switch over to gas

May 11, 2007

Richard Yarrow

It seems that our love affair with the diesel car knows no bounds. From taking only 15 per cent of the European market in 1986, sales nudged through the 50 per cent barrier last year, according to JATO Dynamics, the industry research company.

But are we all using the wrong type of diesel? The oil industry thinks so, which is why it is investing billions of dollars in a new version of the fuel called GTL, which is effectively diesel Mk II. Until recently, all diesel has been made from crude oil, but GTL is made from natural gas – the acronym stands for “gas to liquid – and it is hugely important to the future of motoring for one reason. 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: Head office sale marks the end of Yukos

May 11, 2007
Steve Hawkes

The final chapter in the demise of Yukos, once Russia’s biggest oil producer, comes today when its Moscow head office is put on the block.

The sale will mark the end of the business founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oligarch now serving ten years for fraud and tax evasion in a Siberian prison.

Rosneft, the Kremlin-backed oil group, picked up Yukos’s last major assets, including three refineries, in a £3.2 billion auction yesterday and a little-known Russian company called Yuniteks fought off bids from Shell and TNK-BP, BP’s Russian joint venture, for more than 500 Yukos petrol stations. 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.