July 20th, 2007:

Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:44pm ET

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, July 20 (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) to suspend oil exploration operations in the Beaufort Sea off the north coast of Alaska pending a legal challenge being brought by environmental activists and Alaska native groups.

The ruling deals a serious blow to Shell’s plan to drill up to four exploration wells during the brief Arctic summer to test a $44 million bet the company placed on the region in 2005. Oral arguments in the case are set for Aug. 14. read more

By Karen Gullo and Tony Hopfinger

July 20 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s plan to drill for oil off the Arctic coast of Alaska was halted by a court to allow consideration of the project’s effect on bowhead whales and other animals.

The federal appeals court in San Francisco yesterday ordered the company’s vessels to stop operating pending the resolution of a request by environmental groups and Eskimo villages to require more research on marine wildlife. The court put on hold the U.S. Minerals Management Service’s approval of the plan and scheduled a hearing for Aug. 14 to hear arguments. read more

GENEVA (Thomson Financial) – An independent scientific panel has expressed concern over a decision by oil and gas companies developing Russia’s Sakhalin II offshore fields to ignore noise limits aimed at preserving whales, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) said.

The international panel set up by the IUCN said the decision by the Gazprom led consortium including Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell, Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi to reject construction noise criteria on technical grounds could jeopardise western grey whales. read more

By Gonzalo Vina and Sebastian Alison
 
Gordon Brown with Nicolas Sarkozy July 20 (Bloomberg) — U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown justified expelling four Russian diplomats, saying he won’t tolerate “assassinations,” even as Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to defuse tensions.

The Russian government expelled four British diplomats yesterday, three days after the U.K. said it would send home four Russian envoys over Putin’s refusal to extradite ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, wanted in the U.K. for the murder of fellow former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London. read more

Times staff
Article Launched: 07/20/2007 05:40:14 AM MDT

El Pasoans will have an opportunity to meet and talk with John Hofmeister, President of Houston-based Shell Oil Company, today.

Hofmeister will lead a town hall meeting at 3:30 p.m. today in the Undergraduate Learning Center Grand Hall.

Business and community leaders, as well as UTEP students, faculty and staff, will discuss some of the most pressing issues facing the energy industry.

The meeting is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required. Call 747-8244 to RSVP. read more

EXTRACT: In related news, the Times reported Shell, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank could face punitive sanctions over investments in Iran from American authorities, under proposed legislation expected to be approved by Congress in the coming months.

Fri 20 Jul 2007, 7:15 GMT
By Michael Taylor

LONDON (Reuters) – The FTSE 100 of Britain’s leading shares edged up early on Friday as miners and M&A activity continued to support despite a lack of corporate and economic data.

At 0730 GMT the UK’s main share index was 26.4 points, or 0.4 percent, higher at 6,666.6 with investors looking to preliminary UK second-quarter economic growth data due at 0830 GMT for further market direction. read more

By Halia Pavliva

July 19 (Bloomberg) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defended the government’s policies of regaining control over energy industry from foreign investors and said energy resources help Russia pursue its foreign policies.

“Russia does consider energy to be a strategic sector that helps safeguard independence in its foreign relations,” Lavrov said in an article written for Foreign Affairs magazine and published on the ministry’s Web site today. “The Russian government’s energy policy reflects a global trend toward state control over natural resources.” read more

© AP
2007-07-20 10:12:29 –

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) – A Lebanese businessman was shot dead in his home early Friday in oil-rich southern Nigeria, police said.

State police spokeswoman Irejua Barasua called the 3 a.m. attack in central Port Harcourt an attempted kidnapping, but did not say why police believed the assailants were trying to abduct the man.

Barasua said a nearby police station was attacked shortly afterward and three officers were wounded in the gunfire. It was not immediately clear whether the incidents were related. Barasua did not provide further details. read more

By Greg Walters

July 20 (Bloomberg) — The Chevron Corp.-led Caspian Pipeline Consortium received a $290 million back-tax claim from Russian authorities for 2004 and 2005.

The venture is challenging the claim alongside similar back-tax claims for previous years in the Moscow City Court, Olesia Kuznetsova, a spokeswoman for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, said by phone in Moscow today. The claim was levied by Russia’s Federal Tax Service, she said.

The venture operates a pipeline that transports Kazakh crude-oil exports through Russia to markets in the rest of the world. read more

EXTRACT:It soon grew to be one of the biggest sellers for Dow and Shell Oil Co., the two major producers of the chemical. An Occidental Petroleum Corp. subsidiary mixed DBCP with other ingredients at its factory in Lathrop, Calif.

THE ARTICLE

The food company used a product by the chemical maker that made Nicaraguan workers sterile, lawyer says. The firms deny it.

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer
July 20, 2007

Nearly three decades of legal struggle came to a head in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday, as a trial began in a case pitting impoverished Latino field hands against two of America’s largest corporations. read more

20 July 2007

Dear Mr Donovan,
 
I have passed your email to the company secretariat of Shell International Limited. I am sure that they will in due course answer if and as appropriate. There is no general email address for the company secretariat of Shell International Limited and I suggest that you use the email address.
 
 
Best Regards,
Michiel Brandjes
Company Secretary and General Counsel Corporate
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Registered office: Shell Centre London SE1 7NA UK
Place of registration and number: England 4366849
Correspondence address: PO Box 162, 2501 AN  The Hague,
The Netherlands read more

06:41 PM CDT on Thursday, July 19, 2007
By Lee McGuire / 11 News

What else is there to do on a soggy summer Thursday, than stand outside Shell’s US headquarters, and speculate about the future of the oil industry?

AP

“The merger of Shell and BP has been rumored for at least five years that I know of and people think that it could be a super oil company,” said Andy Lipow with Lipow Oil Associates.

As usual, the rumors are coming from London.

On one day this month the Daily Mail mentioned “red hot rumors,” and the Times of London wrote “the City is awash with talk” of a merger between Shell and BP. read more

Jul 12th 2007 | ABERDEEN
From The Economist print edition

Offshore production has spawned a high-tech cluster of British businesses with global ambitions

“EVERYONE else in Britain hangs on what the Bank of England does with interest rates,” says one proud Aberdonian. “Up here, we don’t care about that. We’re much more interested in what OPEC does to the oil price.” An exaggeration maybe, but Aberdeen is the Houston of an offshore industry that has long made Britain a big oil and gas producer. read more

Jul 17th 2007
From Economist.com

But talk of a “new cold war” is overblown
Tim Marrs

“THE Russian government,” David Miliband, Britain’s new, young foreign secretary, told Parliament on Monday July 16th, “has failed to register either how seriously we treat this case or the seriousness of the issues involved, despite lobbying at the highest level.” The case is the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent who was murdered by radioactive poisoning in London last November. Russia’s failure to treat it with due seriousness, said Mr Miliband, would result in the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from London, the first such evictions since 1996—prompting widespread if hasty talk of a “new cold war”. read more

By Jimitota Onoyume
Posted to the Web: Friday, July 20, 2007

Port Harcourt—AN appeal has gone to the Anglo Dutch oil giant, Shell to shut down its Trans Niger pipeline in Ogoni area in Rivers State.

In a statement the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said the action would rescue communities hosting the facility in Gokana local government from environmental hazards and pollution that often arises from damage on the facility.

According to the statement since Shell said the facility no longer contributes to its oil production then it should be shut down for the safety of the area. Meanwhile, MOSOP has also dismissed as untrue reported allegations by the oil firm that Ogoni youths were barring its staff from putting out the inferno on theTrans Niger Pipeline. read more

July 20, 2007
Tom Baldwin in Washington

British businesses with investments in Iran face punitive sanctions from American authorities under proposed legislation expected to be approved by Congress in the coming months.

Companies that could be hit include Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil group, as well as British banks such as Standard Chartered and HSBC.

The Bill is causing deep concern among diplomats in Washington who have sent officials to Capitol Hill warning about the possible consequences of igniting a transatlantic trade dispute. read more

July 20, 2007

Moscow’s decision to expel four British diplomats and to suspend cooperation on counter-terrorism will come as no surprise. Russia had already announced that it would retaliate for the expulsions and visa restrictions announced by David Miliband, who was responding to the refusal to extradite the main suspect in the Litvinenko case. There were fears that an angry Kremlin would go farther, hitting out at the British Council (which has already suffered harassment), British business people and broader international cooperation. The revelation of a bizarre plot by a Russian hitman to murdera Russian exile in London last month made Moscow’s reaction particularly unpredictable. read more

David Rothnie
20 Jul 2007
 
Europe’s supermajor oil companies may be forced to merge under pressure from shareholders to generate growth after more than two years of flat performance.

 Ian Howat, a managing director in energy and power investment banking at Merrill Lynch, said: “Finding ways to grow is one of the biggest challenges to resources companies and M&A is an optimal route.”

The sector has been transformed with the emergence of a new generation of national oil companies from China, the Middle East and Russia. read more