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July 6th, 2012:

Shell set to sell Mackenzie stake

July 2 – 8, 2012  Vol. 29, No. 27

CALGARY:
Royal Dutch Shell has put its stake in the C$16.2 billion ($16.8 billion) Mackenzie gas project up for sale, the first crack in the partnership set up to develop vast reserves in Canada’s Arctic and build a pipeline to take the gas south.

Shell is seeking bidders for its 950 billion cubic foot Niglintgak natural gas field in the Mackenzie River Delta, as well as its 11.4 per cent stake in the planned pipeline. The move adds yet more uncertainty to a project that many observers believe suffers from shaky economics. 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.

Barge Flaws Delay Shell Alaska Drilling, Coast Guard Says

By Katarzyna Klimasinska and Carol Wolf – Jul 6, 2012 4:19 PM GMT+0100

A barge Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) plans to use during oil exploration off Alaska’s north coast is being held up by U.S. Coast Guard inspectors, delaying the start of the drilling the company intended to begin this month.

The inspectors said the barge, intended to be part of Shell’s oil-spill response, has deficiencies in fire-fighting and electrical systems that must be corrected before a permit is issued. The agency said the company is seeking to ease the standards the barge will need to meet. 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.

Threatened Arctic Deserves Protection

Posted: 07/05/2012 5:51 pm

The Arctic is one of most pristine and unique regions of our planet, but it is now in crisis from two serious threats — climate change and industrialization. As sea ice retreats, the Arctic has become the “wild wild north” — a last frontier for a failed development paradigm that has ravaged much of the rest of the biosphere. And while governments and industry say they will develop the Arctic “responsibly,” their actions so far suggest otherwise. 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.

Hidden treasure

High commodity prices, receding ice and better technology are spurring a hunt for Arctic resources

Jun 16th 2012 | from the print edition

IN WAINWRIGHT, A tiny village on the Alaskan shore of the Chukchi Sea, scientists from Royal Dutch Shell recently drew a small crowd of Eskimos to the school gymnasium to hear about the company’s summer plans. Between July and October, Shell hopes to drill three exploratory wells in its Burger prospect, 100km offshore of Wainwright. Having found oil and gas there in the 1980s, it is confident it will do so again. Oilmen are usually cagey; the chances of finding commercial oil in a well-charted prospect are around one in 20. But Shell, which in 2005 and 2007 paid $2.2 billion for exploration licences off the shore of Alaska, believes the Burger is a whopper. “This is a big year for the Arctic,” says its regional chief, Robert Blaauw. 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.

Abundant Oil Again?

by Bruce Fisher

Anti-frackers have reason to despair. The New York Times recently editorialized that hydraulic fracturing of deep strata to release their hydrocarbons is “safe.” President Barack Obama looks upon the massive exploitation of shale-trapped fossil fuels as a major national opportunity. And now a new report from a Harvard-based researcher finds that hydraulic fracturing is a key reason why everything that “peak oil” theorists have been saying about the planet running low on oil is absolutely, stupendously wrong. 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.

Shell may be ready for the Arctic, but its oil spill barge isn’t

By Kim Murphy: July 5, 2012, 8:04 p.m.

SEATTLE — A unique ice-class barge designed to clean up any oil spills that might result from Shell Alaska’s upcoming operations in the Arctic Ocean has so far failed to acquire final U.S. Coast Guard certification. Engineers from the oil company say it’s no longer appropriate to require them to meet the rigorous weather standards originally proposed.

Further, sea trials for the Arctic Challenger — a 37-year-old barge undergoing a multimillion-dollar retrofit — have been delayed in Washington state as federal  inspectors insist on improvements to electrical, piping and fire protection systems, a senior Coast Guard inspector confirmed Thursday. 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.

After Motiva glitch, no let-up yet in Saudi-US oil sales

Thu, 5th Jul 2012 22:57

NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia maintained crude oil shipments to the United States in June near their highest level since 2008, data showed, despite a serious glitch that has crippled its newly expanded joint-venture refinery in Texas.

In the four weeks to June 29, the United States imported an estimated 1.44 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi crude, according to calculations based on preliminary Energy Information Administration (EIA) data. That was steady with the 1.45 million bpd imported in the first four months of the year. 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.