November, 2006:

EXTRACT: It is believed that the company’s unhappiness last year over the jailing of the Rossport Five may have influenced Shell’s decision to drop its temporary injunction against the men.

THE ARTICLE

By: Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, Irish Times
Published: Nov 28, 2006

The Norwegian energy company Statoil says it is fully committed to the Corrib gas project, and halting work on the terminal is “not an option”.

However, it says that failure by the original developer to communicate with residents in north Mayo was a significant “error” that has created “misunderstandings”, and the situation is now “very difficult”. read more

Published: Nov 28, 2006

Western Oil Sands Inc.’s main product is oil from the oilsands. But in the past six months, a close second has been rumours.

Haven’t you heard? There have been rumours about a widespread shareholders’ revolt about pressure from key shareholders to sell the company, sell its new business in Iraq, evict the management, convert into a trust.

There have been rumours about Calgary-based Western’s partners in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Northern Alberta — Shell Canada Ltd. and Chevron Corp. — making a takeover offer at $42 or so a share. read more

By Hal Weitzman in Guayaquil and Ed Crooks in London
Published: November 28 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 28 2006 02:00

Bolivia’s government wants to buy a controlling stake in Transredes, the country’s oil and gas pipeline company that is quarter-owned by Royal Dutch Shell, President Evo Morales said on a visit to the Netherlands.

Mr Morales, who yesterday met Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s chief executive, said the company had proposed investing in exploration in his country. He hoped the company would do so. Since coming to power, Mr Morales has backed down from a full-scale confrontation with international energy companies whose assets he initially threatened to nationalise. read more

Published: Nov 24, 2006

HELSINKI – BP PLC chief executive John Browne said yesterday international oil companies should not expect to control Russia’s natural resources.

“We have learned about the importance of oil and gas for national security,” Lord Browne said at the EU-Russia Industrialists Forum in Helsinki. Russian assets “will remain predominantly Russian assets.”

BP’s TNK-BP venture, the second-largest privately owned oil company in Russia, has started becoming an anomaly as Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, increases state control over the energy industry to build the country’s global political and economic power. The government is tightening control over projects led by foreign companies, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. read more

Created: 28.11.2006 10:50 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:05 MSK

Russian state auditor Sergei Abramov said on Monday, Nov. 27, that he expects the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project to accept a change in the terms of its production sharing agreement to bring a compromise deal soon.

“We are expecting the operator to show goodwill. We want the operator to take the initiative to improve the terms for the Russian Federation. I’m sure a mutually acceptable solution will be found. We believe it will be very soon,” Abramov was quoted by Reuters as telling a briefing in Moscow. read more

11.28.2006, 03:08 AM

TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) – Japan Trustee Service Bank, the third-biggest shareholder in oil refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, will sell 9.2 mln shares that it holds in the company, Showa Shell said.

Showa Shell, which is affiliated to Royal Dutch Shell, said this was meant to increase the number of individual investors.

It said the offering price would be decided between Dec 12 and Dec 14.

At present, Japan Trustee Service Bank holds 28.66 mln shares in Showa Shell.

(1 usd = 116.14 yen) read more

Tuesday, November 28, 2006. Issue 3549. Page 5.
By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer

A top Audit Chamber official said Monday that he expected Shell to offer changes to its production sharing agreement for Sakhalin-2 soon to make the project more profitable for Russia, in a bid to end months of pressure against the oil major.

“We expect the project operator to show goodwill,” said Sergei Abramov, the Audit Chamber official charged with compiling an annual report on production sharing agreements, or PSAs. read more

Shell
11/27/2006 1:01:13 PM
 
  WebWire Related Industries  
  • Architecture/Construction/Building  
  • Business Announcements  
  • Environment  
  • Oil/Energy  

27/11/2006 – Shell Erneuerbare Energien GmbH (’Shell’) and Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland GmbH, announce their joint venture to begin solar power panel manufacturing based on advanced CIS (copper indium di-selenide) technology. The joint venture was recently approved by the European Commission.

The new entity AVANCIS KG will commence construction of the production facilities with operations likely to commence in 2008 in line with current notification procedure. The initial annual capacity of the plant will be 20 MW with options for rapid expansion. When built, the plant will manufacture solar panels, which when installed would power an equivalent of around 6,000 European households additional per year with clean energy. Generating the same amount of electricity from a coal-fired power plant would release about 14,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. read more

Published: 28/11/2006 

London: Royal Dutch Shell may take a stake in a three billion barrel Iranian oilfield as part of a deal between Sinopec and Iran that is nearing completion.

A Shell spokesman said Shell had helped Sinopec prepare a development plan for the Yadavaran field and had an option to participate in the project.

“We have supported Sinopec in a technical proposal for the appraisal and development of the Yadavaran field which they have submitted to NIOC (the National Iranian Oil Co),” the spokesman said. read more

Crude-oil futures rallied more than $1 to close at more than $60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on forecasts of a cold front moving into the Northeast and the prospects of further production cuts by OPEC. Here is Monday’s roundup of oil and energy news:

* * *
ATTACKS IN IRAQ, SUDAN: A mortar attack ignited a huge fire at an oil facility in northern Iraq, shutting the flow of crude oil to a major refinery. The fire was burning out of control and could take hours or longer to extinguish, and the flow of oil from all of Kirkuk’s rich fields has been shut down to the massive Beiji refinery to the southwest. Another pipeline south of Baghdad was also attacked, though damage was minimal. Meanwhile, Sudan’s Darfur rebels attacked an oil field in Southern Kordofan, making a rare extension of their campaign eastwards toward Khartoum. read more

Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:49am ET

ASTANA, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov said on Tuesday the government favoured Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) to explore the Nursultan oil block in the Caspian Sea.

He said ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) had also approached the ministry over the project.

“I think a decision will be made on this in the nearest future, probably before the end of the year,” he said. “But we are more likely to favour Shell after all.” read more

Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov praised the Sakhalin II project in a meeting with British Government officials on November 17 but insisted that the project needs to follow the strictest environmental protection guidelines.

While speaking to the British Government’s Export Credits Guarantee Department Chief Executive Patrick Crawford, the governor emphasized the importance of the project to the Sakhalin Region and added that the most serious environmental requirements of the project “aren’t being totally fulfilled.” Mr Malakhov added that the Sakhalin Administration was paying significant attention to the environmental row involving the project and the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources. read more

A Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk court found the head of a South Korean company guilty of smuggling depleted uranium into Russia and fined him 500,000 roubles, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said this week.

“The preliminary investigation and court proceedings have established that Kim Zhong Ho, president of All Nations Co. Ltd., decided to bring the depleted uranium to the territory of the Russian Federation in the Sakhalin region from Tripoli, for use in the Sakhalin II liquefied natural gas production plant,” the release said. read more

– United and stronger
– Support from head of Norwegian oil and gas workers union
– Complaint to RTE

– News updates and events at www.ShelltoSea.com and www.IndyMedia.e

——————————————————————-
Friends,

Following a very intense and disturbing few weeks the Shell to Sea campaign is stronger and more united than ever. Attempts to criminalise us, slander, repress and divide us have failed. read more

11/27/2006

Russia’s environment watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, is talking to Russian and foreign lawyers about filing lawsuits regarding the Sakhalin- 2 project in the Stockholm Arbitration Court, a source in Rosprirodnadzor told Interfax.

“All conflicting issues on production sharing agreements should be reviewed in international courts, that is why we are analyzing such a possibility,” he said.

The lawsuits will concern the damage caused to the environment during the project’s implementation, compensation for lost benefits to Russia and the concealment of important information by contractors, the source said. read more

Mon Nov 27, 2006 11:11am ET

Nov 27 (Reuters) – Russia has turned up the heat on Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) $22 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in Russia’s Far East, Exxon Mobil’s (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sakhalin-1 and BP Plc’s (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) venture with Russia’s TNK.

Following is a list of foreign projects under pressure in Russia.

SHELL’S SAKHALIN-2

One of the world’s biggest energy projects that is expected to cost around $22 billion, double its original budget. read more

27 Nov 2006 14:58:43 GMT
By Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Russian state auditor Sergei Abramov said on Monday he expects the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project to accept a change in the terms of its production sharing agreement to bring a compromise deal soon.

“We are expecting the operator to show goodwill. We want the operator to take the initiative to improve the terms for the Russian Federation. I’m sure a mutually acceptable solution will be found. We believe it will be very soon,” Abramov told a briefing in Moscow. read more

Most questions sent to the online conference with Deputy Head of Rosprirodnadzor (Russian federal nature management watchdog) Oleg Mitvol are about the situation with Sakhalin.

REGNUM readers ask Oleg Mitvol, why media cover only negative features of Sakhalin 2, “most of which are, mildly speaking, exaggerated, starting from dead fish and finishing with the pipeline crossing rivers and seismic dangerous areas.” Authors of such questions stress that activity on Sakhalin 2 Project is assessed by them as populism. read more

EXTRACT: …Diallo won a court decision in 1995 against Zaire Shell. Guinea charges that rather than pay, Zaire Shell teamed up with the other companies Diallo was suing _ Zaire Mobile, Zaire Fina and Gecamines _ to bribe Prime Minister Kengo Wa Dondo to expel him.

THE ARTICLE

By: ARTHUR MAX
Published: Nov 27, 2006

Corruption in the oil trade is the focus of hearings beginning Monday at the International Court of Justice in a dispute between two west African nations.

The case between Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising allegations of massive bribery versus the exploitation of a nation’s wealth, will help define the liability of a successor government for the corrupt practices of its ousted predecessor. read more

By: Miriam Donohoe, Political Staff,
Published: Nov 27, 2006

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has had to view the controversy created by the Corrib gas project from two different perspectives – as a local Mayo TD and as a national political leader. He has been treading a fine line between the pro- and anti-camps and appeared to stay on the sidelines even when the “Rossport Five” were in jail.

Mr Kenny is not alone among Mayo TDs in his caution on the gas controversy. Independent TD Dr Jerry Cowley is a high-profile presence in the protesters’ camp, but Fine Gael’s other Mayo TD Michael Ring, Fianna Fail’s John Carty, and Independent Fianna Fail TD Beverly Flynn are adopting more guarded positions. read more

Published: Nov 27, 2006

The Corrib gas terminal project at Bellanaboy has caused deeper community tensions and divisions than any other issue in Mayo in modern times. Lorna Siggins , Western Correspondent, reports.

“There is a failure in understanding the community and environment into which this large industrial development seeks to be sited . . . This emphasises how out of context the proposal is . . .”

Comments made over three years ago by Bord Pleanala inspector Kevin Moore on the proposed Corrib gas terminal “came back to haunt the Government, Shell and the people of Erris” earlier this month, according to the Mayo regional newspaper, the Western People . read more

By: Olivia Kelly,
Published: Nov 27, 2006

An alliance of left-wing groups, including Rossport Five supporters, anti-bin tax campaigners, and incineration protesters, is to run four candidates in the next general election.

The People Before Profit Alliance, formed last year, is to formally register to appear on the ballot paper next year and will run three candidates in Dublin, all of whom are members of the Socialist Workers Party, and one former Labour Party activist in Wicklow.

Prominent anti-war protester and former general and local election candidate Richard Boyd Barrett is running in Dun Laoghaire. Rory Hearne, involved in several campaigns including the protests against the Corrib gas pipeline and the Poolbeg incinerator, is to run in Dublin South East. read more

By Dino Mahtaniin Johannesburg: Published: November 27 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 27 2006 02:00

The death of a British oil worker taken hostage in Nigeria’s turbulent oil-producing delta region last week has shattered confidence in counter-militant strategies employed by Nigeria’s military.

Armed gunmen last week kidnapped seven foreign oil workers from a large facility off the coast of the Niger Delta. After they came across a naval patrol, a gun battle ensued, in which the Briton and at least two militants were killed and another expatriate seriously wounded. read more

By Carola Hoyos,Chief Energy Correspondent: Published: November 27 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 27 2006 02:00

Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan oilfield will produce 25 per cent more oil than expected once it hits peak production, international companies developing the field have found.

News that the field, the largest and most important discovered in more than 30 years, will yield significantly more than the 13bn barrels forecast is a breakthrough as dwindling world oil supplies and problems accessing oil-rich countries such as Iraq raise doubts about meeting rapidly increasing demand. read more

Nov 26, 2:35 PM ET

Bolivian President Evo Morales arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to meet senior government officials and executives from Shell following his recent legislation to nationalize the country’s oil and gas industry.

He was meeting members of the Dutch Bolivian community Sunday evening before his official duties began Monday with talks with Foreign Minister Ben Bot, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC chief executive Jeroen Van der Veer and chief financial officer Peter Voser. read more

Shell International Exploration & Production – Big changes coming for big oil: The evolving landscape of R & D in the upstream oil and gas industry
Thursday, 30 November 2006
10:30am to 12:00pm

Dr. Robert Perrons is a Smart Fields Consultant in Shell International’s Exploration & Production division. Rob started his career in Shell’s Strategy & Economics team in 1997, and then worked for several years as a production engineer in the company’s overseas operations (offshore and onshore). He then left Shell for three years to work as an Industrial Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, but re-joined Shell again in 2004 to become the company’s Executive Coordinator of R&D. He has a B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from McMaster University in Canada, a S.M. degree in Technology & Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in engineering from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. read more

Sunday, 26 November 2006
 
A group of Christ Church farmers chose an historic Shell-sponsored motor event in Barbados today, to put their case about environmental pollution on their lands to top officials of the international oil giant.

And the company, through Raoul Pinnell, chairman of Shell brands international, promised to meet with them to resolve the issue.

Amidst all the red representing the colours of Ferrari many would have missed this group dressed in yellow at the event sponsored by Shell. read more

11/26/2006

CALGARY – SHELL CANADA is talking about its Enhance™ froth treatment technology for bitumen recovery from oil sands. The technology was developed by Shell Canada with the help of CANMET Energy Technology Centre staff at Devon, Alberta.

The Enhance foam treatment process uses high temperature in the paraffinic froth treatment process to remove more sand, fine clay particles and other impurities than conventional processes can remove from oil sands froth. By treating froth at a higher temperature, Shell says it will be able to use smaller equipment, less water and less energy than low-temperature processes. And, the company says, lower energy consumption will result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Overall recovery efficiency should improve 10%, as well. read more

By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 25, 2006; A01

While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation’s largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.

The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it more likely that the federal government will attempt to regulate emissions. The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in anticipation of the regulation. read more

Posted by Noel Sheppard on November 26, 2006 – 22:32.

On Saturday, the Washington Post effectively demonstrated how the press cherry-pick snippets of speeches that political and business leaders give in order to completely alter their intent (hat tip to NB member crshedd). In an article entitled “Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change,” authors Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin took a few quotes — one of them actually errant — out of a 3,610-word speech that Shell Oil President John Hofmeister gave about a month ago to make it look like he’s totally bought into the myth of global warming (emphasis mine throughout): read more

November 26, 2006

Large corporations are experiencing a boom phase around the world. With profits often at, or very near, record levels, their total stock market value is also rising. Which of the following companies is the only one that ranks among the world’s five most valuable companies, measured by stock market capitalization?

A. Toyota B. BP C. Wal-Mart D. Gazprom

A. Toyota is not correct.

Toyota is on track to become the world’s largest automotive company. It already produces more cars than Ford on a global basis and, given General Motors’ s current troubles and cutbacks, could be producing more vehicles than GM by year’s end. read more

November 26, 2006
By JOHN RATHER

A FEDERAL agency’s finding that the proposed Broadwater Energy floating gas plant in Long Island Sound was needed and would have “limited adverse environmental impacts” has moved the plant closer to approval, but opponents of the project in New York and Connecticut continued to criticize it.

Broadwater, a partnership of the Shell Oil Company and the TransCanada Corporation, said that the finding, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, was a significant advance for the $700 million project, which the company wants to put in operation by 2010. The platform, which would be moored in eastern Long Island Sound about 9 miles from Long Island and 11 miles from Connecticut, would be a terminal for liquefied natural gas. read more

November 26, 2006
Comment: Frank Fitzgibbon 
 
It was never going to be as compelling as the heavyweight rematch between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. But Shell to Sea’s decision to cancel last Friday’s “solidarity day” at Bellanaboy, Co Mayo, has still infuriated the ragtag of troublemakers who have attached themselves to this long-running campaign of protest.

Having been comprehensively defeated in an encounter with the forces of law and order earlier this month, the assorted collection of activists has been itching for a return encounter, working on the dubious premise that nothing will collapse the capitalist system faster than a bit of head-bashing. read more

November 26, 2006
Mark Tighe
 
A BATTLE has erupted for control of the Shell to Sea campaign between activists from outside Mayo and local objectors. The “outsiders”, furious that Friday’s planned “day of action” was cancelled with just five days’ notice, are attempting to wrest control of the group’s agenda. A similar protest on November 10 resulted in violent clashes with gardai in Bellanaboy, the site of Shell’s planned gas terminal.

Campaigners based in a number of counties, including Donegal, Kerry and Dublin, are worried that Mayo activists are caving in to pressure from the gardai who police the daily demonstrations at the Shell site. 
 
“We’d put up a lot of posters for Friday and gone to a lot of effort organising transport,” said a protester who attended a demonstration in Dublin on Thursday, which involved a short occupation of the Department of Marine and Natural Resources’s reception. read more

Posted on Sat, Nov. 25, 2006
JEFF DONN
Associated Press

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – You’d think it was Texas. Dusty roads course the scrubland toward oil tanks and warehouses. Beefy men talk oil over burritos at lunch. Like grazing herds, oil wells dip nonstop amid the tumbleweed – or even into the asphalt of a parking lot.

That’s why the rumor sounded so wrong here in California’s lower San Joaquin Valley, where petroleum has gushed up more riches than the whole gold rush. Why would Shell Oil Co. simply close its Bakersfield refinery? Why scrap a profit maker? read more

Shell to Sea Statement

Shell to Sea deplores the selective and biased account in yesterday’s Irish Independent of the RedC opinion poll. Irish Independent: Pipeline: the people’s verdict

There is an inaccurate and disgraceful manipulation of the opinion poll findings. This represents a new low in media misrepresentation of the issues. It appears that RTE has breached its own guidelines on conducting opinion polls.

Particular care must be taken when joint polls with other organisations are planned. If for example the costs of a poll are shared with a newspaper, programme makers must be aware that the same constraints of impartiality do not apply to newspapers as apply to RTE and that the high-lighting of particular data in the newspapers may reflect on the impartiality of RTE … Programme-makers must be wary of the possibility of data from polling and its interpretation being used in a partisan or propagandist way (RTE Guidelines) read more

November 25, 2006

A battlebus will take the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the environmental campaigner, on the road, says Luke Richards 
 
Forging memorials to the great and the dead has probably never been harder. Few figures are without controversy and, as the debacle over Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth has suggested, figurative art is not as popular as it once was, and most people would rather duck the problem of choosing candidates anyway. Even when a candidate can be found, a celebration in abstract sculpture isn’t always satisfactory, as the Princess of Wales Memorial Foundation has shown. read more

EXTRACTS: The Royal Mail scheme’s top 30 shareholdings include a number of companies that have been criticised by environmental and human rights groups. They include… BP and Shell… criticised by environmentalists for looking for more oil and gas while boasting of their commitment to renewable energy.

The BBC’s pension scheme, with almost 60,000 members, did not fare brilliantly on transparency either …the scheme’s biggest shareholdings include much-criticised companies such as BP and Shell… read more

EXTRACT: Dana Petroleum has also been seen as a potential predator, while Shell was also previously rumoured to be running the slide rule over Premier. A bidding war may also ignite interest in other independent oil companies, such as Cairn Energy and Soco International.

THE ARTICLE

By: James Daley
Published: Nov 25, 2006

The prospects of a bidding war for Premier Oil increased yesterday, as it emerged that India’s state-run petroleum exploration company, Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is considering tabling an offer for the London-listed company. read more

EXTRACT: THE ARTICLE: BP and Royal Dutch Shell have been hit by lower oil prices, concerns over the future of their Russian operations and (in BP’s case) a series of problems in the US.

By Christopher Brown-Humes: Published: November 25 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 25 2006 02:00

When it comes to investing in the UK stock market, big is definitely not beautiful. Mid-cap stocks have been outperforming the large-cap stocks for a long time. But even within the large caps there is a discrepancy; the real underperformers have been companies at the very top of the FTSE 100, megacaps such as BP, GlaxoSmithKline and HSBC. read more

By Mark Odell

Published: November 25 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 25 2006 02:00: Venezuelan tax authorities have hit Royal Dutch Shell with a $17.7m (£9.3m) tax bill.

The claim is thought to cover 2005 after the company settled a $13m tax bill for the 2001 to 2004 period earlier this year but Shell was unable to confirm the exact nature of the latest charge.

“The tax department is currently studying the claim but it is to early to comment,” Shell said last night.

The tax bill comesagainst a backdrop of increasing pressure on international oil companies by the left-wing nationalist government of president Hugo Chávez. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
November 24, 2006 1:33 p.m.

Crude-oil futures rose Friday, joining a broader rally in commodities markets as a major rout of the dollar and deadly car bomb attacks in Iraq combined to create a safe-haven bid. Crude for January delivery was up 54 cents to $59.78 a barrel in electronic trading. The New York Mercantile Exchange was closed Friday for an extended Thanksgiving holiday, so the contract could only trade electronically. Here is Friday’s roundup of oil and energy news: read more

MOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) giant Sakhalin-2 project will go ahead, a Russian senator said on Friday, reacting to attempts by the state environmental watchdog to revoke the venture’s licences on ecological grounds.

Nikolai Kosarev, deputy head of the natural resources and environment commission at the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, said the situation should not be overdramatised and some ecological violations were “a working process”. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Oil rose after a report that Eni SpA halted delivery of some Nigerian crude because of a militant attack and because traders said heating fuel demand will increase in the U.S.

Rome-based Eni declared force majeure at the Okono/Okpoho offshore oilfield, Dow Jones Newswires reported, without saying where it got the information. Heating fuel demand may rise next week in the U.S., according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

“Brent oil seems the leader on the back of the news” from Nigeria, said Kevin Blemkin, a broker with Man Group Plc in London. Less output from Eni “added upside potential, and Brent can reach $60.25” a barrel, he said. read more

Last Update: 7:13 AM ET Nov 24, 2006

CALGARY (MarketWatch) — Shell Canada (SHC.T), the Canadian unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.LN), said Thursday that it’s considering building a new refinery near Sarnia, Ontario.

The refinery would have a processing capacity of between 150,000-250,000 barrels of heavy crude a day, said Shell Canada Chief Executive Clive Mather in a press conference.

“We’re examining how to maximize our potential from our oil sands assets by expanding our manufacturing base in Ontario,” Mather said. read more

By Garfield Reynolds

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Sibir Energy Plc, a U.K.-based oil company that operates in Russia, said production growth has revived after equipment failure slowed output at a field it runs with Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Sibir’s output has grown to 35,000 barrels a day, most of which comes from the Salym field that is run by the company’s Western Siberia venture with Shell, London-based Sibir said today in a Regulatory News Service statement. The field is producing 57,000 barrels a day and should be pumping 60,000 a day by year’s end as planned. read more

By Emma Amaize
Posted to the Web: Friday, November 24, 2006

WARRI —IDUWINI  Volunteer Force (IVF), a militant group in Bayelsa State, which has troubled the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in recent times over alleged non-implementation of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), yesterday, suspended its planned hostilities against the company following the intervention of the Bayelsa State Government.

Self-styled Commander of the IVF, Johnson Biboye in an e-mail message to Vanguard confirming the truce said: “Based on the plea of government as explained to us by the President of IVF, Prince Gift Tare, the SPDC is now given the permission to resume operation in all her installations in Iduwini Kingdom while all issues that led to the face-off are been looked into.” read more

Published: Nov 24, 2006

70pc back Corrib, while majority say protesters ‘intimidating’

IT was always likely that the people of Mayo would baulk at the violent scenes involving protesters and gardai at the gates of Shell’s site at Bellanaboy Bridge.

And now an opinion poll confirms that the vast majority of people (70pc) in the county want the construction of the Corrib gas pipeline to continue without the work being impeded.

Tough

That much is clear from the Red C opinion poll carried out for the Irish Independent/RTE Prime Time on a tough issue that has divided the tiny Erris peninsula community. read more

Published: Nov 24, 2006

THE findings of the RedC opinion poll published today show that people in Co Mayo still agree to differ on aspects of the Corrib gas pipeline controversy, but a vast majority express unequivocal disapproval for intimidation, manipulation and law breaking.

That outcome is no more and no less than we would expect from a cross-section of sane, reasonable, law-abiding citizens.

However, we needed to ask these questions. We needed to separate the truth from the lies, such has been the level of disinformation and bellicose self-justification aired in recent times. read more