December 15th, 2007:

December 16, 2007
Matthew Goodman

THE Asian entrepreneur Zuber Issa and his family are in line to collect a £90m windfall after putting up for sale the chain of petrol stations they have built up over the past six years.

Issa, 35, founded Euro Garages in 2001 when he bought his first three filling stations, and has steadily grown the operation to the 70 sites it encompasses today. The business is believed to be one of the top three independent groupings.

The company, which featured in last year’s Sunday Times Fast Track survey of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies, generated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of about £10.5m. read more

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt – 16.12.2007

The people of Belema community in Akuku-Toru local government area of Rivers state have called on the state governor, Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to intervene in the face-off they are having with the multinational oil company, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to avert likely crisis.

The community, which had issued a 21-day ultimatum to the company to withdraw its current Community Relations Officer from the Ekulama Oil Field, in which it is a co-land owners or face heat from the community. read more

  
The proposed pipeline would run through the Mackenzie Valley. HO/AFP/Getty Images

Published: Saturday, December 15, 2007

MONTREAL — Proponents of Imperial Oil Ltd’s proposed $16.2-billion Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline have submitted a financial plan for the project, which Canada’s Industry Minister said he will review as quickly as possible.

Government officials declined to divulge financial details of the plan, which calls for the construction of a 1,220-km pipeline and gas-gathering system, and the development of three gas fields in the Northwest Territories. read more

Shell reserves fraud documents published on weekend of 15/16 December 2007

Transcript of Deposition of Videotaped Deposition of Lorin Brass, Director Shell International Exploration and Production, taken in Washington D.C. on November 8, 2006

Exhibit 53: Start of Lorin Brass Deposition (240 pages)

http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/ex53_344_6.pdf

Exhibit 54: Lorin Brass Deposition plus Shell internal email correspondence involving Phil Watts; plus EP ExCom Minutes of Meeting held 31 January 2000; 23 February 2000 Shell letter to PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Shell letter dated 1 February 2001 to KPMG Accountants N.V.; Committee of Manager Directors Note dated 11 February 2002: ALL CONFIDENTIAL ITEMS (60 pages) read more

Exhibit 50 (75 pages) from the Shell reserves fraud class action litigation contains part of the Sworn Deposition of Matthias Bichsel, plus his CV and confidential email correspondence.

Of more interest is the PERSON OVERVIEW assessments for Bichsel and other senior Shell Executives from the “Executive Talent Book.”

Following the publication of these assessments a Shell high level insider known to us posted on our Live Chat facility their own more forthright opinions on the relevant individuals…  read more

By Alistair Osborne, Business Editor
Last Updated: 2:56am GMT 15/12/2007
   
Airmiles, the British Airways-owned travel rewards scheme, will next week introduce a simplified pricing model featuring all-inclusive fares in a bid to outflank rival loyalty card operators, such as the recently sold Nectar business.

For the first time in its 20-year history, all taxes, fees and charges – such as Air Passenger Duty and fuel surcharges – will be included in Airmiles fares for flights with BA and other airlines. At present, passengers have to pay these extras in cash. read more

By Sheila McNulty
Published: December 15 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 15 2007 02:00

Beneath a vast conifer forest in Canada lies the biggest proven oil reserve outside Saudi Arabia. With the cost of crude sky-high, what price the trees? By Sheila McNulty

It is 3pm on a Thursday, and the carpark at the tiny airport on the edge of Alberta’s boreal forest is crammed. Gary Stewart has been coming here for years, and mutters about how busy the area has grown as he circles slowly in his hire car, searching for a space. The 57-year-old has encouraged a photographer and me to come to this western slice of Canada for a bird’s-eye view of the area, the world’s largest remaining unspoiled forest and wetland ecosystem. But it’s not just the beauty of the trees that Stewart will be pointing out. Buried under the canopy lie 140,000 sq km of oil sands – black, grainy tar that is quickly turning into Canada’s cash crop. read more

EXTRACT: The TRS staff has identified 13 companies in which the system invested as of Nov. 30 that have ties to Iran. The investments totalled more than $951 million. Topping the list was Royal Dutch Shell of the United Kingdom, with TRS holdings of $211 million.

By PEGGY FIKAC
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
Dec. 15, 2007, 12:12AM

AUSTIN — The Teacher Retirement System board voted 8-1 Friday to stop investing in companies doing business with Iran and Sudan and to consider pulling funds from companies that do. The policy included caveats meant to balance state leaders’ call for such divestment with the board’s responsibility to those with a stake in the $114.8 billion pension fund. read more

15 Dec 2007 | 03:06 AM ET

GREATER NATURAL BUTTES, Utah (AP) – Technological advances and Americans’ hearty appetite for natural gas have given Anadarko Petroleum Corp the opportunity to break new ground — literally and figuratively — in this remote, rugged region of the Rocky Mountains.

On a cliff several hundred feet above the White River, Texas-based Anadarko is drilling 17 wells from a single location — a dozen more than it’s drilled from a single site in the past. read more

Cash transactions have taken off in Letchworth. Photograph: David Sillitoe

Miles Brignall takes to the high street in leafy Letchworth to see how people are coping with an explosion of bank card fraud. The answer? Ditch cards and go for cash
 
Miles Brignall,
Saturday December 15 2007 

It’s a middle England commuter town where the chief topic of conversation is usually the weather or train delays. But now the Hertfordshire town of Letchworth is coping with an explosion of identity theft, the victim of gangs of fraudsters who target one community, siphon as much money as possible out of bank accounts then move, locust-like, to neighbouring areas. read more

Sat Dec 15, 2007 7:37am GMT 

TOKYO, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabian Oil Co is open to the idea of raising its stake in Japan’s Showa Shell Sekiyu KK (5002.T: Quote, Profile, Research) if the oil distributor wants to expand its operations, the Nikkei business daily quoted the vice president of the Saudi refiner as saying.

In an interview published on Saturday, the Nikkei quoted Saudi Aramco Vice President Adil Al Tubayyeb as saying he planned to increase the firm’s stake in Showa Shell in the future. read more