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October 13th, 2007:

Bloomberg: Shell Stops Gas Pumping in Nigeria After Fire on Pipeline

By Eduard Gismatullin

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, shut natural gas pumping at one of its Nigerian fields following a fire on a pipeline in the south of the country.

Nigerian unit Shell Petroleum Development Co. reported the fire on the Utorogu-Ughelli gas condensate pipeline in the Delta state yesterday, Alexandra Wright, a London-based company spokeswoman, said today. Shell had to declare force majeure on deliveries to the nation’s gas pipeline network, she 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.

ZeeNews.com: Greenhouse gas emissions already beyond worst-case scenario

Sydney (Australia), Oct 09: Strong worldwide economic growth has accelerated the level of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere to a dangerous threshold scientists had not expected for another decade, according to a leading Australian climate change expert.

Scientist Tim Flannery said a report by the United Nation’s inter-governmental panel on climate change due to be released in November will contain new data showing that the level of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere has already reached critical levels. 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 Week: A Kinder, Gentler Shareholder Activist

OCTOBER 22, 2007

Corporate gadfly Eric Knight wants HSBC to focus on Asia–and he’s enlisting other big investors to help

Eric Knight is gearing up for a fight. In the garden of Zurich’s staid Baur au Lac Hotel, the 48-year-old activist investor digs into his 79-page report on HSBC, which dissects everything from executive compensation to retail branches. Now he’s using that briefing book–part of the usual intense research on his targets–to enlist other big investors in his battle. Knight wants the world’s second-largest bank to drop its global, “unfocused” strategy and concentrate instead on fast-growing regions like Asia, where it has a “clear competitive advantage.” Says Knight: “Telling the emperor he doesn’t have any clothes on is discomforting, but someone has to do 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.

Petroleum News: ARCTIC ENERGY SUMMIT: High Arctic: industry’s last oil and gas frontier

Petroleum News 

Vol. 12, No. 41  Week of October 14, 2007
Ray Tyson

There’s one thing industry hopefully can look to when the Earth’s offshore oil and gas resources south of the giant Arctic icecap are exhausted. Many geologists now believe this vast and frigid region, as it melts away purportedly due to global warming, could expose drilling access to as much as a quarter of the planet’s remaining hydrocarbons.

For years offshore exploration and development have been limited to the 200-mile “economic” zones of the five nations — United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark — that border on the Arctic icecap. However, these endeavors have met with limited success. 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: Kazakh authorities may buy back shares on LSE of banks hit by squeeze

October 13, 2007
James Rossiter in Astana

Kazakhstan may buy back shares in some of its largest national companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, including Kazcommertsbank and Alliance Bank, as the country grapples with a financial crisis.

President Nazarbayev said yesterday that he had ordered his Government to consider intervening directly in international markets and he has instructed Kazakh authorities to offer $4 billion of emergency funding to the country’s banks that have been crippled by the global credit squeeze. 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: Market report: Hope of slick turnround at BP lifts blue chips

By Ben Bland
Last Updated: 1:28am BST 13/10/2007

Troubled oil and gas behemoth BP ended the week well as investors digested chief executive Tony Hayward’s plans to turn round the underperforming business by cutting costs and simplifying the structure.

The shares rose 25½ to 619p, up 8pc on the week, helped by positive broker comments and a ”short squeeze”, with hedge funds who had shorted the stock accepting the future is starting to look brighter for the major.

Analysts believe that Mr Hayward is starting to show that he might have what it takes to transform the business. 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 New York Times: Rights Case Against 50 Companies Is Reinstated

By ALAN FEUER
Published: October 13, 2007

A divided federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a human rights lawsuit filed against 50 major corporations that did business in South Africa under apartheid should be revived and reconsidered by the lower court that dismissed it.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated the suit, which was filed in 2002 by three separate groups of plaintiffs in eight federal courts across the country. They argued that the corporations, most of which are American, violated international law by aiding and abetting the apartheid system in South Africa. 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: BP Critic Says Alaska Facility Fire Wasn’t Reported At Time

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
October 12, 2007 10:57 a.m.

LONDON (Dow Jones)–A BP PLC (BP) critic said Thursday that a “serious” turbine fire at the company’s Alaska operations on Oct. 3 went unreported at the time.

In a letter sent to George Miller, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’s Education and Labor Committee, and to the media, Chuck Hamel, who has long been the voice of concerned workers at BP’s Alaska operations, said: “BP supervisors elected to keep (the accident) secret from the regulators and the public since it would not cause an immediate ‘noticeable’ impact on crude oil production.” 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: Rumours Royal Dutch Shell and Gazprom of Russia could go head to head in a battle to buy BG

By Robert Orr and Neil Hume
Published: October 13 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 13 2007 03:00

BP rose 4.3 per cent to 619p with dealers reporting short sellers closing positions. Some analysts have taken the view that plans by Tony Hayward, chief executive, to reorganise the oil giant and cut jobs could be a starting point for a rally in the shares. Evolution Securities was among the bulls, raising the stock from “add” to “buy”.

“History suggests that when BP and Royal Dutch Shell undergo changes to the way they work it can be an inflection point for share price performance. [This] announcement could be another inflection point for BP’s shares as it was in 1992-93 and 1997-98,” wrote Richard Griffith, analyst. 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: Investors welcome BP’s plans

By Ed Crooks and Kate Burgess
Published: October 13 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 13 2007 03:00

Investors and analysts yesterday welcomed the plan to reshape the structure and corporate culture of BP set out by Tony Hayward, the new chief executive who took over in May.

On Thursday Mr Hayward signalled a radical change from the era of Lord Browne, his predecessor, saying he wanted “a fundamental shift in how BP works”.

Helped by the rise in the price of oil to a new record high yesterday, BP’s shares closed up 25½p at 619p. It was their biggest one-day increase since March 2003. 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.

Vanguard (Nigeria): Fresh pipeline fire rages in Delta

By Emma Amaize
Posted to the Web: Saturday, October 13, 2007

*Unknown number burnt to death siphoning product

*Shell declares ‘force majeure’

WARRI —  THE Shell  Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)’s 10 -inch Utorogu-Ughelli Pumping Station condensate trunkline in Delta state exploded, yesterday evening while condensate thieves who used the product to contaminate kerosene were busy siphoning product from the pipeline.

The SPDC shut down the Utorogu gas plant, which feeds the line, and declared a Force Majeure on gas supplies to the national grid while efforts were being made to evacuate the condensate. Condensate is a by-product of gas and the company  must evacuate the product if it is to continue to produce gas. Some 300 million standard cubic feet of gas has been deferred as a result of the fire explosion. 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.