December 4th, 2006:

Published by wordworks2001 December 4th, 2006

Ah, spring comes to the Niger Delta. The smell of cordite wafts from the swamps, the bumblebee like whine of MEND’s (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) speedboats navigating through the mangroves, the steady “whop, whop, whop, whop, whop,” of the Nigerian Army helicopter gunships patrolling the skies over the Ijaw’s lands. Gee, it’s great to be an expat, working in Nigeria!

That definitely was not the attitude of most expatriates living and working in the oil fields of Nigeria this past April. The abductions were increasing, hostages were becoming greater in number and the days they were being held were sometimes quite long. Those living in the environs between Port Harourt and west toward Ekit and Warri and east to Onne Port, were beginning each day getting on-line to check the local expatriate message board, Oyibos On Line. There loved ones across the globe were doing the same thing, making the website very popular. read more

RBC, 04.12.2006, Moscow 14:44:53.

The final results of the comprehensive audit of the Sakhalin-2 project will be revealed in December 2006, Oleg Mitvol, head of Russia’s Federal Nature Management Supervision Service, told RBC today. The audit was completed on November 27, he elaborated, and the report has been drafted already, with only one component, the interpretation of aerial surveys, still missing which is to be ready by mid-December. Once all is completed, the results would be passed over to the project’s operator, Sakhalin Energy. read more

By JIM KRANE Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
Dec. 4, 2006, 11:08AM

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The chief executive for Shell berated Washington on Monday for spurning the United Nation’s Kyoto agreement on global warming, saying U.S. backing for a global regulatory framework would create incentives for oil companies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

“For us as a company, the debate about CO2 is over. We’ve entered a debate about what we can do about it,” Royal Dutch Shell PLC chief Jeroen Van Der Veer told a gathering of hundreds of political and business leaders from the Middle East and elsewhere. read more

December 4th, 2006

I WORKED IN SEIC PROJECT FINANCE. IN SUMMER 2004 THE COST ESTIMATE WAS INCREASED AFTER A GROUP REVIEW TO $12B. BY END OF YEAR SEIC KNEW COST WAS REALLY ABOUT $20B BUT SENIOR MANAGEMENT DIDN’T FORMALLY REPORT THIS BECAUSE SHELL DIDN’T WANT ANY MORE BAD NEWS THAT YEAR AFTER RESERVES REPORT.

SO, IN EARLY 2005 SHELL STARTED A ‘BOTTOM UP’ COST REVIEW TO FINALISE THE NUMBER WHICH WAS FAMOUSLY RELEASED AFTER GAZPROM SIGNED UP. FACT WAS KERST TROOST, DAVID GREER AND IAN CRAIG KNEW THE NUMBER WITHIN A FEW MILLION 7 MONTHS EARLIER. read more

Japan
Dec 5, 2006  
By Hisane Masaki

TOKYO – Qatar is expected to emerge as a country that holds the key to Japan’s future energy security as it becomes the country’s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) around 2010.

During his recent visit to Tokyo, the Qatari energy and industry minister said the Persian Gulf state plans nearly to double LNG exports to Japan by 2010. This news has come as a godsend for Japan at a time when Indonesia, its current No 1 supplier of LNG, is considering cutting in half shipments to the country from 2010. At the same time, Japan and Russia remain at odds over the Sakhalin-2 oil-and-gas project in the Russian Far East. read more

Sam Fleming,
4 December 2006

A top Kremlin official has warned western oil giants their money is no longer needed for the development of Russia’s huge energy reserves.

President Vladimir Putin’s deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s decision to exclude US and European companies from the development of a massive Arctic field earlier this year would not be the last.

While Russia will honour deals struck in the 1990s when the country was economically enfeebled, the days of offering foreign firms such generous terms are over, he said. read more

By: Alison Healy and Conor Lally, Irish Times
Published: Dec 04, 2006

Shell to Sea campaigners have said they would consider halting their protests against the Corrib gas project if Taoiseach Bertie Ahern or Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey met with them.

Willie Corduff, a member of the Rossport Five, said it would be “a big, big help” if Mr Ahern intervened.

“They are fighting in Northern Ireland for the last 25 to 30 years. It didn’t solve anything. He should know that. Why not make peace here and talk to us before it gets too late?” read more

By Sheila McNulty in Houston: Published: December 4 2006 02:00 | Last updated: December 4 2006 02:00

In the office of Greg Kelleher, Devon Energy’s manager of Gulf of Mexico exploration, is a bookshelf lined with binders tagged Caterpillar, Koala, Flying Squirrel, Sleeping Bear, and so on. It does not quite sound like the reading matter one might expect of a man responsible for exploring the ocean for billion-dollar drilling prospects. But that is precisely the point.

Each binder represents a prospective drilling field – or “drilling prospect” – and, in keeping with industry tradition, they have been given names that make it impossible for those outside the company to identify the field or the block number that denotes its location on a map of the Gulf. read more

CARACAS
4 December 2006

Venezuela has hit Royal Dutch Shell with a $17.7 million tax tab, the nation’s Seniat tax authority said.

The Seniat said in a statement that the charge related to “transfer prices,” part of a broad investigation into income tax payments. Shell was not immediately available to confirm or explain the bill.

A Seniat official said the agency had found irregularities in interest payments on loans from branches of Shell outside Venezuela.

Shell is partnered with state oil company PDVSA in a joint venture that operates the Urdaneta Oeste crude field in western Venezuela. read more