August, 2006:

Monday, August 28, 2006

Royal Dutch Shell plc said that it welcomes Shell Canada’s formal proposal to expand the Athabasca Oil Sands Project.

Shell Canada Limited announced that it has issued a formal proposal to proceed with Expansion 1 to the other Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) joint venture owners. They have 90 days to respond.

“We have received our Board’s support to take the next step on this important growth project,” said Clive Mather, president and CEO of Shell Canada Limited. “Issuing this proposal to the other owners is a key milestone in our strategy to grow mining production from the Athabasca region to 550,000 barrels per day (bpd).” Shell’s share of this production is 330,000 bpd. read more

ENERGY:An industry group says the cost to change pumps is an “undue burden” not worth the “negligible” benefit to customers.

BY STEVE EVERLY
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

OAHU, Hawaii – Idyllic weather, pounding surf and a warm, welcoming culture help make Hawaii unique in this nation.

So does its gallon of gas.

The Hawaiian gallon contains nearly 234 cubic inches of fuel — about 3 cubic inches more than is dispensed in the rest of the United States.

The extra volume, required by state law, helps offset the higher temperatures in this tropical climate, which cause the gasoline to expand. If the gallon weren’t adjusted for temperature, Hawaiians would receive less energy per gallon than called for under the government standard. That’s because for nearly a century, gasoline and diesel have been measured across America as if they were being dispensed at a temperature of 60 degrees — a more condensed gallon of 231 cubic inches. read more

By Tom Cahill and Gavin Evans

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil snapped a two-day advance on signs a Caribbean tropical storm won’t pack the same punch as Hurricane Katrina, which ripped into Gulf of Mexico platforms and refineries a year ago today.

Tropical storm Ernesto weakened as it swept over Haiti yesterday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said yesterday in an advisory at 11 p.m. New York time. Ernesto is expected to regain strength and speed as it moves toward Cuba and Florida, where hurricane warnings are in effect. The storm carried winds of about 50 miles per hour, just over a third of Katrina’s 140 miles per hour winds. read more

By MATT CHAMBERS
August 28, 2006; Page C3

Driven by a growing desire to lower dependence on foreign oil, the U.S. is set to help two of the world’s biggest energy companies seeking to extract oil from stone in the Rocky Mountains — a venture that previously has been polluting and prohibitively expensive.

The prize for success for energy majors Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Chevron Corp. is commercial access to U.S. oil-shale resources, which the Bureau of Land Management says could total more than twice Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves. read more

Brutal Honesty
By Jeff Purcell
Aug 27 2006

Some argue that the Estados Unidos and the U.K. overthrew Saddam Hussein because his regime sat on top of one of the world’s largest reserves of petroleum. Looking at Nigeria’s experience with guns and gas can help us understand the idea of going to war for oil.

If we multiplied the price of crude oil by Nigeria’s estimated reserves, the country should be one of the richest in the world. Oil makes up over 95 percent of the country’s exports, and provides over 60 percent of the country’s budget. The most populous country in Africa has enough oil under its southern and eastern delta for its citizens to enjoy free schools, health care and basic services. But for that to happen, Nigerians would have to share in the benefits of Nigeria’s wealth. And for over a century, that prospect has been assiduously and violently avoided. read more

Published: Aug 28, 2006

3. Denis Rebrov article saying that Sakhalin Energy, the Shell subsidiary implementing the Sakhalin-2 offshore oil and gas project, has suspended construction of part of the project’s onshore pipelines. This is likely a response to the Russian environmental regulator, Rosprirodnadzor, claims concerning the environmental safety of the project. The regulator’s claims may be being used as an argument in Shell’s negotiations with Gazprom, which wants a 25-per-cent stake in Sakhalin Energy; p 1. read more

By Sheila McNulty in Houston

A Texas judge is to decide on Monday whether to compel Lord Browne, BP’s chief executive, to be formally questioned before a court to decide claims against the UK oil giant arising from last year’s fatal refinery explosion.

BP has refused a request by the plaintiff’s attorney, Brent Coon, to question Lord Browne, forcing the decision into the court’s hands.

“We are opposing the request because Lord Browne has no unique knowledge of the incident that is not available from other people within BP,’’ a spokesman for BP said. “The head of BP’s worldwide refining operations has participated in the discovery process,” referring to the questioning of potential witnesses ahead of a US trial. read more

Web posted at: 8/28/2006 2:6:3
Source ::: Agencies

RIYADH • Saudi Aramco said yesterday it had no plan to raise its holdings in Showa ShellSekiyu KK, Japan’s fifth-largest refiner, after Saudi state media reported that Aramco would buy a strategic stake. “There are no new developments in the Showa Shell joint venture,” a spokesman at state-run Aramco said. Aramco already owns a 15 per cent stake in Showa Shell.

By Alfean Hardy

Shell Malaysia sees the Malaysian government’s stance on biofuels as a move in the right direction but does not see the use of crude palm oil as a viable feedstock for biodiesel in the long term, its chairman Saw Choo Boon said.

“We support biodiesel and the government’s move on biodiesel and we will do whatever the government wants to do to promote biofuels. Having said that, our Shell group’s stand on biofuels is that we are looking more into the long term.

“Our belief is biofuels made from food sources are not sustainable in the longer term because they compete with the food chain. We believe biofuels made from cellulose waste and biomass are the fuels of the future,” he told Financial Daily recently. read more

Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:03am ET

MOSCOW, Aug 28 (Reuters) – The Shell-led (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) Sakhalin Energy project on the Russian island of Sakhalin has stopped work on building two onshore pipelines after criticism in an environmental report, Kommersant newspaper said on Monday.

Kommersant said the $20 billion project had stopped building a gas pipeline and an oil pipeline on the 1,572 km (977-mile) route between its field and its liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and oil export terminal on the south of the island. read more

Issue 3484. Page 5.
By Lucian Kim
Bloomberg

The Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin Energy venture rejected a report that it had failed to respond to a list of environmental violations.

The company, which operates the Sakhalin-2 project, has provided the authorities with all the necessary information, Sakhalin Energy spokesman Ivan Chernyakhovsky said in a statement Friday. He was responding to an earlier report by Interfax that Sakhalin Energy had not responded in time to a 2005 violation of water pollution standards. read more

Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:59pm ET

HOUSTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Oil majors BP Plc. (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Shell Oil Co. and ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) all said on Sunday they were pulling nonessential workers from U.S. Gulf of Mexico rigs and platforms in preparation for Hurricane Ernesto.

No company reported cuts in oil and natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf, which produces 25 percent of U.S. supply.

BP said 300 workers would be evacuated from deepwater drilling rigs and nonproducing platforms on Sunday. read more

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil conglomerate, plans to buy up to 14.95 percent in Japan’s fifth-largest refiner Showa ShellSekiyu K.K. <5002.T>, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Saturday.

A spokesman for Saudi Aramco could not confirm the SPA report. Aramco already owns a 15 percent stake in Showa Shell.

SPA said the transfer of a 9.96 percent stake in Showa Shell, a Royal Dutch Shell affiliate , would be completed in August, subject to regulatory approval. read more

July 2006

Bilderberg’s big oil boys come up trumps again while we pay through the nose.

This week has seen every major player in the oil industry announce record profits despite prices being at all time highs and production levels decreasing.

Surging oil prices helped drive quarterly profits for US energy giant ExxonMobil to 10.36 billion dollars, revenues have exceed $1bn a day, the first time in history for a US company. The second-quarter profit was up 36 percent from a year ago and approached the company’s all-time record profit of 10.71 billion dollars that was believed to be one of the biggest for any company. read more

EXTRACT: Unlike Royal Dutch Shell, which was hit three years ago by a scandal about its reserves accounting, Exxon has replaced more than it has produced for the past 12 years.

THE ARTICLE

(Filed: 27/08/2006)

Exxon’s Tillerson ‘disappointed’ by BP shutdown of Prudhoe field

The new head of the world’s largest quoted oil group is confident he can steer it to greater success, he tells Sylvia Pfeifer

advertisementIn the next few days, a station in the far east of Russia will begin pumping oil through a pipeline to an export terminal 140 miles away on the Tartar Strait. read more

EXTRACT: Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell, its London-quoted rival, has only just managed to emerge from a scandal over the accounting of its oil and gas reserves and BP is being probed over its own safety record in Alaska.

THE ARTICLE

The Sunday Telegraph: Inexorable Exxon

Tillerson’s hand on Exxon’s tiller

Its petrol stations are as familiar to most of us as branches of Starbucks or McDonald’s but the phenomenon that is ExxonMobil still remains a mystery.
 
Part of the reason is Exxon’s sheer scale. Last year the company surpassed General Electric to become the most valuable company in America by market capitalisation; it pumps almost twice as much oil and gas as Kuwait; it generated profits of $36.1bn (£19.2bn) last year – more than any US company in history – and has paid dividends continuously for more than 100 years. read more

Saturday, August 26, 2006
John Funk
Plain Dealer Reporter

Shell Oil Co. wants you to become a conservationist.

The American division of the European-based oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is sending its president and top leadership team to 50 U.S. cities to help foster a “culture of conservation” – a change in your values about energy use at home, on the road and in the workplace.

But you don’t have to scrap your SUV – unless you don’t like paying so much to fill the tank. That would be the marketplace in action. read more

12:45:42 EDT Aug 26, 2006
Canadian Press: JAMES STEVENSON

CALGARY (CP) – A wild pace to the final four months of 2006 is guaranteed in the Canadian oilpatch as an unprecedented list of multi-billion dollar projects from the Alberta oilsands to the North Sea face key milestones.

With the price of oil showing no signs of departing from near-record highs, nearly every major Canadian energy company is going flat out to complete expensive long-term new operations, acquisitions and strategic partnerships. read more

EXTRACT: Oil companies BP and Royal Dutch Shell, for example, both made around £200,000 per each member of staff. Shell employs 109,000 people and made pre-tax profits of £215,600 per individual.

THE ARTICLE

The Observer: FTSE top 20 make £96k per worker

But the average profit in each job conceals huge differences. British Gas heads the list with £445,200 a head. Tesco collects £7,000

James Robinson
Sunday August 27, 2006

The 20 largest quoted companies in the UK make an average of over £96,000 pre-tax profit per employee, according to research carried out by The Observer.
The figures, based on the latest available annual reports and publicly available data from Reuters, show a huge discrepancy in the amount each group makes per member of staff. read more

THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS IN THE ARTICLE BELOW ARE BY MR DAVID C RICHMOND IN RESPONSE TO A RECENT NEWS REPORT ENTITLED: Press & Journal (Aberdeen): CAIRNS DEFENDS HSE, AMID CRITICISM FROM OFFSHORE UNIONS: RELEVANT EXTRACTS FROM NEWS REPORT: Scotland Office Minister David Cairns defended the performance of the Health and Safety Executive in UK waters. Mr Cairns, who was attending an ONS press conference yesterday, was asked if the HSE was up to carrying out its role, in light of recent criticism. He replied: “I have no reason at all to doubt the competency of the HSE.”)  read more

6/08/2006 

(MENAFN) Saudi Aramco will acquire a 9.96% strategic shareholding in Showa Shell, a publicly traded Japanese refining and marketing company, SPA reported.

The transfer of shares is expected to be completed in August this year, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals.

Saudi Aramco has also agreed in principle to acquire an additional 4.99% of Showa Shell from the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, subject to satisfaction of certain commercial conditions.

This is an outcome of an accord signed recently by The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco). read more

EXTRACT: The Penn West leases are adjacent to properties acquired by Shell Canada earlier this year in a C$2.43 billion takeover of BlackRock Ventures. The purchase gave Shell 268,000 net acres with more than 1 billion barrels of estimated oil initially in place and has given the company enough confidence to aim for 100,000 bpd of production once it decides how to upgrade the heavy crude into refinery-ready synthetic crude.

THE ARTICLE

By Gary Park

Penn West Energy Trust, the largest producer among Canadian trusts, is gearing up to become a big-time heavy oil player with a possible stake in production, transportation and upgrading. read more

Provincial government and industry launch joint effort to evaluate economics of reducing carbon dioxide emissions into atmosphere

By Gary Park

The Alberta government and its petroleum industry are trying to turn an environmental minus into an economic plus.

A joint study will try to figure out ways to turn a profit from carbon dioxide, which is the worst contributor to greenhouse gases and which some environmentalists have campaigned to have declared a toxic substance.

In an Environment Canada inventory of 324 facilities in 2004, Alberta-based companies took seven of the top 10 spots as the largest sources of greenhouse gases, led by a coal-fired TransAlta power plant and the Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada oil sands plants. read more

Australian company wants to regasify cargoes far off the coast of Los Angeles using special ships; first Shell LNG reaches Mexico

By Allen Baker

Woodside Petroleum Ltd. has filed for permits to build an offshore terminal to bring natural gas to the California market via ships carrying LNG.

The Australian company has tried to meet objections from environmental and other groups opposed to various West Coast LNG importing schemes by offering to unload its long-haul liquefied natural gas carriers more than 20 miles offshore onto two special regasification ships that would be built for Woodside. read more

Western Gulf Lease Sale 200 generates surprising $340.9M in high bids on 381 tracts after MMS prevails against challenges

By Ray Tyson

The U.S. Minerals Management Service, which prevailed against early legal challenges to Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 200, walked away from the traditional August sale with a surprising $340.9 million in high bids. In fact, it was the best Western Gulf showing in nine years for the number of bids submitted and the best performance in eight years for the amount of money bid. read more

August 26, 2006
 
SOME people may be troubled less by the investment risks and more by the ethics of investing in Africa.

After all, it is not long ago that Shell was being pilloried for its treatment of the native Ogoni people in Nigeria.

Those with longer memories will remember the forced withdrawal of Barclays from apartheid South Africa after a student campaign in Britain.
 
Nowadays, investing in the region carries a much more positive image.

David Aird, managing director at Investec Fund Managers, which is owned by one of South Africa’s biggest banks, says: “On the widest description of ethical investing we are seeing interest from pension schemes and local and national governmental bodies, particularly the latter, where trustees want to be seen to be investing in an emerging continent, such as Africa.” read more

(Filed: 26/08/2006)

From this week, BP filling stations will be adorned with a new logo for the company’s new carbon-offsetting initiative, Target Neutral.
  
By registering on the website www.targetneutral.com, you can, says BP, offset the CO2 emissions from your car by paying towards a carbon-neutralising scheme such as windfarms or biomass plants in India or livestock farms in Mexico.

If, for example, you own mid-sized family saloon and drive approximately 10,000 miles a year, thereby producing about four tons of CO2 per annum, it will cost you about £20 to offset your car’s CO2 emissions for a year, according to calculations done on the Target Neutral website. read more

• Changes to working hours in the UK offshore industry could force oil and gas companies to close down “large parts” of their industry, according to the UK Offshore Operators Association.

• Sakhalin Energy, an energy venture led by Royal Dutch Shell in Russia’s Far East, rejected a report that it had failed to respond to a list of alleged environmental violations.

• BP said the head of its Texas City, Texas, refinery, who took over after an explosion last year, will leave in the first quarter and be succeeded by a Royal Dutch Shell executive. read more

By Donna Walter
Friday, 25 August 2006

The federal government and Shell Oil are close to settling a lawsuit related to the cost of cleaning up hazardous materials found at the Great Lakes Container Corp. at 42 Ferry St. in St. Louis.

Under the settlement, Shell would pay $228,630 to the Environmental Protection Agency Hazardous Substance Superfund for past and future costs to clean up lead-related contamination.

The government’s lawsuit against Shell also names Mallinckrodt and Solutia as defendants. The case is pending in U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber’s courtroom. read more

By Kimberly Jacobson – American staff writer 
 
After putting more than $400 million into the facility, it’s time for Shell Puget Sound Refinery to celebrate.

“Employees want to have the public come in to show off all the great things we’ve been doing,” said Tom Wood, human resources and external affairs manager.

Wood said recently there has been an inward focus at the refinery.

“We want to get out there and be a part of the community,” he said.

The refinery will host a community open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26. The event is free. Members of the community are invited to come to the refinery, located at 8505 South Texas Road. The event will feature free food and entertainment for all ages, information booths from several local businesses as well as fun and games for the kids. read more

August 26, 2006

By David Robertson
 
A CRITICAL shortage of skilled workers and of drilling equipment is preventing the oil industry increasing production. With oil prices at near-record levels every producer is working at full capacity and there are insufficient people and rigs to develop fully new projects. 
 
With so much demand for key technical staff and equipment, salaries and costs have been soaring. According to senior executives the cost of hiring a deep-water drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico has doubled to $400,000 (£210,000) a day in the past two years. read more

Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:31pm ET

HOUSTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Shell was preparing to shut the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit at its 99,000 barrel per day Los Angeles area refinery in Wilmington, California, on Friday for unplanned repairs, sources familiar with refinery operations said.

The refinery was reducing feed to the 36,000 bpd unit on Friday morning, the sources said.

Shell notified California public safety and environmental agencies of flaring from the refinery on Friday morning due to an equipment shutdown. read more

Reuters
Published: August 25, 2006
 
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria Nigerian soldiers burned hundreds of slum houses located close to the compound of an Italian oil company where two foreign oil workers were kidnapped and their bodyguard killed overnight.
 
Residents said the soldiers stormed the waterside settlement around the compound of Saipem, a unit of the Italian oil company ENI, poured gasoline over the houses and set fire to them.
 
“I am surprised our own soldiers could do this to us,” said one resident, who gave his name only as James.
 
“They came here, poured petrol and set fire to our property and houses to kill us. What offense have we committed?”
 
At least two foreign oil workers, including one Italian, were kidnapped from a bar in the slum area on Thursday night, residents said.
 
The gunmen who took them also shot and killed an army sergeant who was guarding them and injured another soldier.
 
“The soldiers are asking why we let the militants in to kill their soldier,” said another resident, who declined to be named.
 
Families returned to the area around the Saipem compound on Friday morning, picking over the charred remains of their houses to recover personal items, but were chased away by soldiers brandishing bottles and throwing stones.
 
A helicopter gunship hovered overhead while naval men moved around in pickups.
 
The reprisal came after President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered the security services to use “force for force” against militants who have staged eight separate abductions of oil workers this month alone.
 
In total at least 19 people have been kidnapped, but only three are still in captivity.
 
Government sources say Rivers State government paid 20 million naira, or $156,000, for the release of six foreign oil workers earlier this week.
 
“The Rivers State government has been encouraging this by promptly paying large sums for their release,” said the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, which has taken hostages but says it is opposed to kidnapping for ransom.
 
“Politicians are also using this as a platform to showcase their leverage amongst ‘militia groups’ in the delta. It’s now a booming trade.”
 
The string of kidnappings followed a series of crippling attacks on the oil industry in the world’s eighth largest exporter earlier this year by Mend, which is fighting for greater regional control over the region’s oil wealth.
 
Those attacks forced Royal Dutch Shell to evacuate hundreds of oil workers from oil fields in the western delta in February, reducing output by 500,000 barrels a day or one sixth of the nation’s capacity.
 
One attempted hostage release went wrong on Sunday, when militants bringing a Nigerian Shell worker out of captivity ran into a military convoy, and a gunfight broke out.
 
At least 10 militants were killed and Mend said on Thursday it would avenge their deaths. 
  read more

By Upstream staff

Shell has paused with front-end engineering and design work on the Gulf Landing gravity-base liquefied natural gas receiving terminal pending the completion of environmental impact studies (EIS) of the proposed graving dock sites and for closer alignment with the projected 2011 start-up of the Olokola LNG plant in Nigeria.

The FEED studies, which were projected to last 10 months to a year, could be on hold for three months or more, claimed a source familiar with the project.

A consortium of fabricator Kiewit Offshore Services, Japanese LNG tank builder IHI and engineering group Black&Veatch is performing one FEED while Saipem and its Technigaz subsidiary is engaged in a rival, separate FEED for Gulf Landing. read more

Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:19am ET

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Oil major BP Plc has hired a refinery manager from Royal Dutch Shell Plc to run its troubled Texas City plant, breaking an oil industry taboo against poaching staff from competitors.

BP said on Friday Keith Casey, who is currently the general manager of the Motiva joint venture refinery in Norco, Louisiana, will join BP in September and take over as manager of the 460,000 barrels per day Texas City, Texas plant in the first quarter of 2007. read more

By Upstream staff

The decision by two services companies to pull out of the Niger Delta highlights growing concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Nigeria in the run-up to next spring’s elections.

Shell, the biggest oil operator in the country, has stuck to a consistent line that business remains difficult there but it has no intention of abandoning a key producing area.

However, US engineering company Willbros and German construction group Julius Berger have shown that some foreign businesses are losing patience and pulling out until the security situation improves. read more

By Saeed Shah
Published: 25 August 2006

BP has been hit by further troubles in Alaska, after it was forced to shut down even more production at the Prudhoe Bay oilfield and documents emerged that appeared to show the company was warned about the pipeline corrosion problem that has now crippled output.

The latest difficulties will feed into a growing political backlash in the US, where it has been suggested that BP’s slogan should be “big problem” rather than its advertising line of “beyond petroleum”. A Congressional committee will grill BP’s US executives next month over leaks from its Alaskan pipelines. read more

Last Update: 11:05 AM ET Aug 25, 2006

LITTLE FALLS, N.J., Aug 25, 2006 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — ExxonMobil has overtaken Shell Oil as the number one marketer of finished lubricant products on the global market, according to a recently published study by Kline & Company.

Sales of ExxonMobil’s lubricant products topped 4.5 million kilotonnes in 2005, earning the company a 12% share of the global lubes market and allowing ExxonMobil to edge out Shell for the top spot in Kline’s annual ranking of the world’s top lubricant suppliers. read more

Good morning Mr Molloy

I would like to draw to your attention the results of a survey carried out among BP workers regarding safety.

Houston Chronicle: BP’s own audit finds big lapses in management (*Bill Campbell will be interested in this article)

Is it possible that your union could carry out a similar survey among Shell offshore workers? It would not cost much, but the results could be very revealing (and newsworthy!). All you would need to do is devise a simple survey (perhaps three yes/no questions) which participants could complete and mail to an independent solicitor who could open the envelopes and calculate and verify the results in your presence.  Done in this way, the results would have credibility without costing a small fortune. read more

OUR COMMENT AT FOOT OF THIS ARTICLE: *Headline comment in brackets added by ShellNews.net.  Bill Campbell was formally Group Auditor for Shell International. He has made similar charges of cover-up and indifference at Royal Dutch Shell Plc management in relation to safety lapses at Brent Bravo which cost the lives of workers who put their safety in the hands of Shell.  What’s the betting that a safety survey among Shell offshore workers would produce similar results to those reported in this article i.e. workers ranked “making money” as most important to management and “people” the least…” read more

By TOM FOWLER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle: Aug. 24, 2006, 10:56PM

BP has named a Shell Oil official to take over as manager of the Texas City refinery beginning next year.

Keith Casey, the current general manager of Shell Oil’s Norco Refinery in Norco, La., will replace Colin Maclean as the Texas City business unit leader and refinery manager early in 2007.

Maclean took over the Texas City plant in May 2005, a couple of months after an explosion at the facility killed 15 and injured scores. read more

EXTRACT: …Oil was discovered in the Ogoni region in the late 1950s by the Royal Dutch/Shell Group….by the 1990s an estimated US $30 billion worth of oil had already been extracted, and oil revenues accounted for over 98 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings; the 550,000 local farmers and fishermen who inhabited the coastal land had received little except a ravaged environment. Once fertile farmland had been destroyed by uncontrolled pollution, and virtually all fish and wildlife had vanished. Only a handful of local people were employed by the oil companies or benefited economically in any way…. read more

Friday, 25 August , 2006, 07:50 
 
New Delhi: The State-owned upstream major Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is in talks with Royal Dutch Shell for enhancement of production from its Kalol field in the Western onshore.

Kalol is the highest producing field of ONGC’s Ahmedabad Asset in Western onshore and to further enhance its domestic production of oil and gas, the company requires better technology, an expertise which is available with Shell, sources told Business Line. 

Average crude production of Kalol field is 1,430 tonnes per day (tpd). The field also produces gas. The field comprises several producing blocks. According to sources, the talks between the two companies are at a nascent stage, as modalities are yet to be firmed up on how Shell would participate in the project. The talks with Shell comes in the backdrop of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) inked between ONGC and Shell Exploration Company BV (subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) this January for wide ranging co-operation in the hydrocarbons value chain. read more

By Nesa Subrahmaniyan

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — Oil rose in New York to the highest in more than a week on concern supply may be disrupted as a storm that is forming in the Atlantic may move to the Gulf of Mexico, and three oil workers were kidnapped in Nigeria.

Forecasts show a tropical depression, which may strengthen to become Tropical Storm Ernesto, will pass near Jamaica on Aug. 27 before heading for the Gulf, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Three workers from a Eni SpA unit were kidnapped in Port Harcourt, Italian news agency ANSA reported. An Italian foreign ministry official confirmed the abduction. read more

It’s not just BP’s reputation that is suffering in America. The oil major’s U.S. mishaps are hurting its shares too. BP’s latest setback is another halving of output at its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska. BP stock has underperformed the sector since March — shortly after Prudhoe’s problems first emerged. Two weeks ago the market value of archrival Royal Dutch Shell, at $235 billion, even overtook BP’s for the first time in four years. (See related article below – “Consultant Warned BP Of Pipe-Network Corrosion.”) read more

• The UK, Europe’s biggest consumer of natural gas, may get more of the fuel than expected this winter because new pipelines from Norway and Holland are starting on time, the nation’s energy regulator said.

• Centrica may build its first coal-fired power plant to diversify its sources of power.

• Royal Dutch Shell’s oil and gas exploration programme, the world’s biggest, may suffer from a lack of available drilling rigs in a competitive market, a Shell executive said.

• BP cut production at the biggest oilfield in the US for a second time in less than a month because of a gas compressor breakdown. read more

Last Update: 3:06 PM ET Aug 24, 2006

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (MarketWatch) — Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN), and the United Nations Development Program will spend $18 million on a development program in the Niger Delta, the unit’s chief executive said Thursday.

Shell will contribute $14 million out of the total, Basil Omiyi said at the start of a two-day conference on development in the region.

The conference is a follow-up to the launch last month of a report on development in the Niger Delta, which found that the quality of development there lagged behind that in similar regions with oil and gas resources. read more

Shell executives believe they can now produce oil from shale at a profit
Updated: 11:38 a.m. ET Aug. 23, 2006

We have an energy problem. There’s no argument about it. Of course, the argument lies in how to fix it, whether it’s fixable at all, and when it can be fixed. On Colorado’s western slope, under the big sky, near a town called Meeker, quietly and often secretly, for decades scientists have been probing hundreds of feet into the Earth.

They’re trying to extract what is believed to be the largest oil reserve in the world. More oil than in Saudi Arabia or Iraq. But, there’s just one problem: It’s trapped in rock called shale. read more

Last Update: 11:01 AM ET Aug 24, 2006
Warnings with “*” added by ShellNews.net

HOUSTON, Aug 24, 2006 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Shell has awarded a $1 million research project to the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department of Ohio State University for research in CO2-Hydrogen membrane separation.

This investment is part of a broader Shell strategy to invest and develop technologies that would benefit the commercialization of hydrogen.

This research examines a novel approach to membrane separation technology used in production of hydrogen from fossil fuels. The benefits of this particular technology are that unlike conventional methods, this process allows separation of pure CO2 at a lower cost. This is essential for economical carbon capture and sequestration, which allows zero-emission production of hydrogen. In addition, this technology may lower the cost of producing hydrogen, bringing it closer to commercialization. read more

LONDON (AFX) – Shell Petroleum Development Co has denied accusations by Nigeria’s House of Representatives that the oil group ‘underpaid’ the government around 3.2 bln usd.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC owns 30 pct of SPDC, while state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp controls 55 pct. France’s Total SA and Italy’s Agip hold the remaining 10 pct and 5 pct, respectively.

The lower house is currently looking into allegations that SPDC ‘underpaid’ Nigeria 3.2 bln usd in respect to the crude oil it extracted there in 2000. read more