November 20th, 2006:

Last Update: 2:57 PM ET Nov 20, 2006

DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia (MarketWatch) — Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Aramco, is proceeding with plans to double capacity at the Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, which the company jointly owns with Royal Dutch Shell PLC, a senior Aramco executive said Monday.

“We are going through our own approval process and our partner Shell is going through their own approval process,” Aramco’s Senior Vice President Khalid al-Falah said on the sidelines of the Saudi Energy Forum in Dammam. “We have been granted all the licensing that we need and the project is proceeding.” read more

Accidents and allegations of market fixing destroy environmentalist image

Andrew Clark in New York
Thursday November 16, 2006

BP’s tie-up with its United States rival Amoco was supposed to create an ethical champion at the top of the global oil industry. Negotiated by Lord Browne over a bottle of Puligny-Montrachet in a London restaurant, it was one of the biggest mergers in history. But eight years on, BP’s US arm is becoming America’s most accident-prone business.

Federal regulators have accused BP of price gouging. Its corroded pipelines have been leaking in Alaska. A BP oil spill has polluted the coast of California. Civil rights activists are picketing its petrol stations. read more

David Leppard
 
SAUDI ARABIA is threatening to suspend diplomatic ties with Britain unless Downing Street intervenes to block an investigation into a £60m “slush fund” allegedly set up for some members of its royal family.

A senior Saudi diplomat in London has delivered an ultimatum to Tony Blair that unless the inquiry into an allegedly corrupt defence deal is dropped, diplomatic links between Britain and Saudi Arabia will be severed, a defence source has disclosed.

The Saudis, key allies in the Middle East, have also threatened to cut intelligence co-operation with Britain over Al-Qaeda. read more

November 20th, 2006

Shell to Sea is calling off the Day of Solidarity planned for next Friday.

It is doing so solely in order to protect the health and safety of participants. During the ‘Day of Action’ on Friday, November 10th, Gardaí prevented a peaceful march taking place. Serious disruption was caused by Garda roadblocks to local people traveling to work and school. Subsequently, Gardaí employed an unacceptable level of aggression and force against people engaged in peaceful protest and minor civil disobedience. In these actions a number of people received serious injuries. read more

20.11.2006, 11.55 
 
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, November 20 (Itar-Tass) — The Sakhalin Energy Company has started the removal of defects, which were noted by the Federal Service for the Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), David Grier, Deputy Chief Executive Director of Sakhalin Energy, said at a press conference here on Monday, commenting on the situation around the Sakhalin-2 project.

According to his information, Rosprirodnadzor pointed to numerous deviations from the project, the damage done to the natural environment of salmons and to the illegal felling of trees. For that reason, he continued, a long-term programme of the preservation of the natural environment of salmon and taimen, and of the restoration of forests has been adopted. read more

(Litvinenko published a book of accusations against the FSB)

By Paul Reynolds
World affairs correspondent, BBC News website 

The suspected poisoning by thallium of the exiled former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko has raised suspicions that this might be the work of his old Russian security service colleagues.

Friends of Mr Litvinenko, who is being treated in a London hospital, claim that the Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer, might have sanctioned an assassination. read more

By: AOIFE WHITE
Published: Nov 20, 2006

Seeking to secure and diversify its energy supply, the European Union will hold talks with Russia this week and meet with officials from other oil and gas exporting nations.

Europe’s energy demand is growing as its own supplies of North Sea oil and natural gas dwindle and world prices soar. Facing the prospect of importing 70 percent of its energy over the next 15 years, the EU wants to shore up relations with reliable energy exporters while looking for new partners and new routes. read more

Oil production to grow 2% annually, writes Martyn Wingrove,
Published: Nov 20, 2006

RUSSIAN oil production is on schedule to grow 2% annually for several years as the state pipeline owner Transneft prepares to build more trunk lines, writes Martyn Wingrove.

The world’s second largest oil exporter wants to keep its position by opening up new routes such as the trunk pipeline to the Pacific Ocean over the next five to 10 years.

Russian finance minister Alexei Kudrin told bankers in Melbourne that his government was cutting taxes to attract more investment in the onshore oilfields where production had rapidly declined. read more

Published: Nov 20, 2006

Madam, – The attempts to slight the legitimate concerns of the broad campaign which is seeking the refining of the Corrib gas in the normal offshore way are getting more desperate by the day, it seems.

First we had Michael McDowell’s repeated and nonsensical rants about the supposedly ubiquitous involvement of Sinn Fein in the campaign, completely untrue if one was to actually speak to those in Bellanaboy or elsewhere.

Then we had Enda Kenny’s confused accounts of violence on behalf of the Shell to Sea campaign in Erris on November 10th, when the breaches of the peace were actually carried out by a provocative and completely unaccountable Garda force there. read more

By Hugh Williamson in Guatemala City: Published: November 20 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 20 2006 02:00

Germany and Norway are competing to attract the new headquarters of the international initiative to promote financial transparency in the oil, gas and mining industries.

The battle between Bonn and Oslo, the cities proposed by the two countries to host the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, underlines the success of a project that until a few years ago amounted to little more than a battle cry of non-governmental groups. read more

SHAWN MCCARTHY

OTTAWA — As it moves ahead with a $10-billion plan to expand oil sands production, Shell Canada Ltd. C is looking for government support for an ambitious project that would see it capture carbon dioxide emissions from its Edmonton-area upgrader and inject them into underground storage.

The company’s chief executive officer, Clive Mather, said the carbon capture and storage project represents a key strategy that would allow Canada to dramatically expand oil sands production while reducing — or at least not increasing — its greenhouse gas emissions. read more

Monday, Nov. 20, 2006

Recent events surrounding energy-development projects overseas highlight resource-poor Japan’s vulnerability. They underscore the need for both the government and the private sector to develop a multipronged long-term strategy that will enable the nation to flexibly cope with unexpected changes in the energy-supply situation.

Oil accounts for about 50 percent of Japan’s primary energy. Japan imports most of its oil, with about 90 percent of it coming from the Middle East. Iran alone, in fiscal 2005, provided 13.8 percent of Japan’s oil imports. read more