August 1st, 2006:

Foreign-Access Plan
For Wholesale Market
Is Vague, Firm Says

By DAVID WINNING
August 2, 2006

BEIJING — Draft rules for China’s domestic oil trade are prompting concern about whether the country will make good on a commitment to open the sector to foreign companies this year, executives at French energy company Total SA said.

China committed to letting foreigners into its oil market as part of its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. The retail business was opened at the end of 2004, allowing foreign companies like Total to run a small number of filling stations on their own or to operate larger networks with Chinese partners. By the end of this year, according to its WTO deal, China is to let foreigners into the wholesale market — the business of distributing gasoline and other oil products from refiners to filling stations. That sector has long been dominated by two state-owned companies: China Petrochemical Corp., or Sinopec, and China National Petroleum Corp., parent of U.S.-listed PetroChina Co. read more

EXTRACT: Unipetrol owns 51% of the refinery while the remainder is divided between units of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Eni SpA of Italy and ConocoPhillips of the U.S., which each holds 16.3%.

THE ARTICLE

By SEAN CARNEY
August 2, 2006

Polish oil refiner PKN Orlen SA is shaking up its Czech subsidiary, Unipetrol AS, in a quest to become central Europe’s leading oil refining and petrochemicals business.

Overhauling the formerly state-owned Czech petrochemical holding company is a test of PKN Orlen’s mettle. The Polish group is divesting Unipetrol’s noncore units, making personnel changes and confronting legal disputes, Unipetrol Chief Executive Francois Vleugels said in an interview. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
August 1, 2006 9:10 p.m.

Crude-oil futures rose again Tuesday, settling at nearly $75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as supply-disruption worries continued to dominate trading, fueled in part by continuing violence in the Middle East and a tropical storm in the Caribbean. Here is Tuesday’s roundup of energy-related news:

* * *
ADM’S ETHANOL BOUNTY: Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., the nation’s largest maker of ethanol, said net income doubled during the fourth quarter. Although the Decatur, Ill., processor of corn and soybeans generates a relatively small part of its revenues from making corn-derived ethanol fuel, soaring demand and strong prices for the product has turned it into a big source of new profits. ADM said today that its Bioproducts business — which is mostly ethanol — generated an operating profit of $174.0 million, up from $25.2 million. read more

Published: Aug 02, 2006

Shell has placed two key contracts for the world’s largest gas-to-liquids facility just days after formally launching the project, writes Tony Gray .

Qatar Shell GTL signed a letter of intent with Chiyoda for the engineering, procurement and construction for the feed gas preparation works of the Pearl GTL Project in Ras Laffan Industrial City.

This project for two trains of gas processing units, with a total capacity of 1.6bn cu ft of gas a day, will send feed gas to the GTL core unit for daily production of 140,000 barrels of products. read more

Royal Dutch Shell hopes to complete a deal by the end of the year, which will result in Gazprom receiving 25 percent, plus one share in the Sakhalin-2 project, and the Anglo-Dutch company receiving 50 percent plus one share in the Zapolyarnoye-Neocomian project, reported Interfax.

“I hope that by the end of 2006 the exchange will be completed. It is already July,” Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said in an interview with the Russian daily Vedomosti. However, he noted that talks on the exchange with Gazprom would not be simple. read more

LONDON • Oil rose above $74 a barrel yesterday after a small leak on a spur of Russia’s largest oil export pipeline to Europe added to concerns about supply losses in Nigeria and violence in the Middle East.

A branch of Russia’s Druzhba pipeline supplying Lithuania suffered a leak at the weekend but had since resumed operations. Renewed tension over major oil exporter Iran’s nuclear programme also pushed prices up.

“Today’s a good illustration of what the market’s been driven by recently, which is actual supply disruptions and fears of disruptions,” said Craig Pennington, global energy portfolio manager at Schroders. “It’s just nervous.” read more

EXTRACT: There are techniques to enable organisations to plan for the unknown. Possibly the most well-known is scenario planning, credited with helping Royal Dutch Shell get through the 1970s oil price shocks and making it one of the world’s richest companies. The company had considered scenarios where a range of what were then considered unlikely events were actually contemplated and it then developed strategies for dealing with these. Insiders from Shell have since disputed how much scenario planning actually affected decision-making, but the technique itself has been used widely in many other industries to great effect. read more

The crude production in Nigeria has been cut by 675,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 26 percent of the country ‘s normal daily output, local leading daily This Day reported on Monday.

“The cut is a result of recent militant attacks in the Niger Delta and a pipeline leak there last week, ” the report said.

Royal Dutch Shell, which produces half of Nigeria’s oil, said last Tuesday a leak of an oil pipeline in south Nigeria had cut output there by 180,000 bpd. As a result of the leak whose reason remains unclear, the contracts of Shell might not be honored in July and August. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE

Crude futures rose Monday as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah raged on, keeping traders tense about a possible Mideast supply disruption. Light sweet crude for September delivery rose $1.16 to $74.40 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil traders have been focused for nearly three weeks on the violence between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, fearful of possible supply interruptions in the region. Here is Monday’s roundup of energy-related news: read more

By Tom Stevenson

(Filed: 01/08/2006)

What is the most important number in the world? Fans of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will know that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42, but that is not what I mean.

The most important number in the world was 73.39 yesterday lunchtime. Last month it reached 79.86, while in the run-up to Christmas 1998 it was just 10.75. Lord Browne thinks it will be 40 again while Goldman Sachs believes it will hit 100. It is, of course, the price in dollars of a barrel of oil. read more

EXTRACT: Other organisations like Shell LiveWIRE – which is aimed specifically at the 16-30 age group – provide online support.

THE ARTICLE

By Kate Hilpern

Over two-thirds of students say they would consider setting up on their own or with others in the future, according to Barclays Bank research. Even student debt is not a deterrent, the study found. Lorna Collins, director of the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship’s Flying Start Campaign, is pleased this entrepreneurial spirit is growing. “NCGE was set up 18 months ago to encourage more graduates to consider starting up in business,” she says. “It was Gordon Brown’s decision after he discovered that 35 per cent of graduates in the States set up their own businesses straight from university, whereas here that figure was less than eight per cent.” read more

EXTRACT:  These projects and Shell’s Bonga FPSO development that started late 2005, help to offset falling onshore production levels because civil unrest and pipeline leaks have closed down more than 800,000 bpd of production and closed three or four export lines.

THE ARTICLE

US oil company is optimistic over shallow water oil project, writes Martyn Wingrove, Lloyds List

Published: Aug 01, 2006

EXXONMOBIL will be ramping up its Nigerian oil production and exports this year after starting the shallow water East Area oil project. read more

EXTRACT: BP is a partner in several Shell-operated future projects in the Gulf of Mexico, including Ursa phase II, Mars South, Dorado and Great White.

THE ARTICLE

Published: Aug 01, 2006

BP’s GULF of Mexico projects hold one of the keys to the company’s growth in production but two important projects are facing delays and cost overruns.

In the first quarter of next year, BP expects both Thunder Horse and Atlantis platforms to come on line, way behind their schedules and beyond their original budgets. read more

Published: Aug 01, 2006

Company must produce documents being sought by residents, court rules

THE full hearing of a challenge to the construction of the controversial gas pipeline near Rossport in Co Mayo is to go ahead in the next legal term.

High Court judge Ms Justice Mary Laffoy ruled yesterday that Shell E and P Ireland Ltd must produce a range of documents sought by the Rossport residents for the hearing.

The judge also made orders of discovery against the Minister for Marine and Natural Resources for several documents, including the petroleum lease granted by the State to Shell. read more

Published: Aug 01, 2006

A High Court judge has directed that a a range of documents must be produced by both energy giant Shell and the State to a number of residents in relation to proceedings arising from the residents’ opposition to the construction of the gas pipeline at Rossport in Co Mayo.

Those documents include the petroleum lease granted by the State to Shell, unless the company is able to prove that the lease is a document covered by legal privilege.

The full hearing of the legal action is unlikely to take place until late this year at the earliest. read more

By Roman Olearchyk

Published: August 1 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 1 2006 03:00

Royal Dutch Shell has reached a marketing accord with Moscow’s Alliance Group, which has agreed to re-brand some of the 100 petrol stations it operates in Ukraine under the Shell name.

The trademark licensing agreement will bring Ukraine its first petrol filling stations operating under the brand of a western oil major. Ukraine’s petroleum market is dominated by Russian oil giants, which supply Kiev with a majority of its crude needs and control the largest oil refineries in the country. read more

The East African (Nairobi)

July 31, 2006
Posted to the web July 31, 2006

Staff Writer, the Eastafrican
Nairobi

Following the naming of new members of the Monopolies and Price Control Tribunal, the stage has been set for a battle between Shell BP and Finance Minister Amos Kimunya over his decision to block plans by British Petroleum Africa (BP) to sell shares in its local subsidiary, Shell BP Ltd, to its long term partner in Kenya, Shell Petroleum Company of the Netherlands.

In May last year, Mr Kimunya, purporting to act in accordance with anti-monopoly laws, published a gazette notice rejecting the proposed acquisition. read more