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December 27th, 2006:

Daily Telegraph: To the point: Russia, China and India are now setting the global capitalist agenda

EXTRACT: Shell has just discovered that quirky can swiftly become impossible. Last week’s agreement to sell control of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project to Russian state-controlled Gazprom will have felt like a body blow. And yet, squeezed by environmental complaints which as good as disappeared the minute the deal was concluded, Shell apparently had nowhere else to turn. Russia, as China, is big enough and now commercially savvy enough to make its own rules. And hard-nosed enough to enforce them. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Moscow Times: 2007: The Year of the Inspector

Thursday, December 28, 2006. Issue 3569. Page 6.
 
The Prosecutor General’s Office has made it clear that it’s not pleased with the work of Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency head Anatoly Ledovskikh, saying that it is not preventing the infringement of environmental regulations. It says that the agency should use its powers more often to revoke the licenses of resource companies that have broken the conditions of their contracts.

The Natural Resource Ministry’s environmental inspectorate got its warning at the beginning of December, when Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev criticized its boss, Sergei Sai, for the fact that the number of inspections carried out in 2006 was half that of 2005. The criticism led to a battle within the inspectorate between Sai and his deputy, Oleg Mitvol. It is clear that the main weapons in this battle in 2007 will be inspections, inspections and more inspections. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE: Oil News Roundup: December 27, 2006 4:55 p.m.

Crude-oil futures fell to a one-month low of nearly $60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as warm seasonal weather in the U.S. Northeast showed no signs of letting up, damping winter demand for heating oil.

Here is Wednesday’s roundup of oil and energy news:

* * *
CHINA SUBSIDIZES SINOPEC AGAIN: Underscoring Beijing’s continued reluctance to fully liberalize domestic fuel prices, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. got a surprise government subsidy of about $639 million. This is the second time that Asia’s largest refiner by capacity, known as Sinopec, has received a government cash injection to compensate for domestic fuel-price caps that have forced it to sell fuel at a loss after buying high-priced crude oil. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Shell Hires Gale Norton As In-House Lawyer

Gale Norton (WSJ image)

Posted by Peter Lattman
December 27, 2006, 3:42 pm

Royal Dutch Shell announced today that it has hired former Interior Secretary Gale Norton as an in-house lawyer. Norton, who stepped down from her White House post in March, will be based primarily out of Colorado, where she served as the state’s attorney general from 1991 through 1999. At Shell, she will serve as general counsel for the company’s unconventional resources division, which deals with extracting oil from sources such as oil shale and extra heavy oil. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

TradeArabia.com: Iran ‘ready to use oil in nuclear dispute’

Tehran

Iran has repeated threats that it was ready to use its massive oil exports as a weapon to defend itself if it felt necessary in an international dispute over its atomic programme, the semi-official Fars news agency said.

‘If necessary, Iran will use any weapon to defend itself,’ said Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose sanctions on Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology, in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material to be used in bombs. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bloomberg: Gazprom Plans to Pay for Sakhalin Stake by April (Update1)

By Yuriy Humber

Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, will pay Royal Dutch Shell Plc and two Japanese companies $7.45 billion in cash by April for half of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project off Russia’s east coast, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev said.

The payments will be made by the end of the first quarter, Medvedev told a conference call with investors today. The cost of righting environmental damage “were considered and included in our payment when we entered the Sakhalin project,” Medvedev said. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

New Scientist: Smoke and mirrors

Don’t be fooled by oil and car companies’attempts to appear green. They are still a major obstacle to tackling climate change, warns George Monbiot

27 December 2006

IF YOU were the chief executive of an oil company hoping to defend your business against environmental campaigners, there are several ways you might go about it. The most direct approach, as adopted by ExxonMobil, would be to fund groups that claim climate change isn’t happening and urge the White House to remove the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Washington Times: Securing energy needs

By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 27, 2006
www.washingtontimes.com
 
Seemingly unrelated events of last week suggest considerable trouble ahead for U.S. vital interests. As President Bush puts the finishing touches on his plans for a new strategy for waging the War for the Free World, he had best make sure he focuses not only on Iraq and Iran (as recommended in this space last week) but on energy security, as well.

Consider the following developments:

On the eve of last week’s United Nations Security Council vote on sanctions supposed to isolate Islamofascist Iran over its nuclear weapons ambitions, Communist China agreed to invest an additional $16 billion in the Iranian North Pars natural gas fields (on top of the more than $100 billion already committed by the PRC to other energy projects in the country). The latest memorandum of understanding, signed by Tehran and CNOOC, China’s biggest offshore oil producer, would involve the exploitation of the North Pars fields and the construction of Iranian liquefied natural gas facilities, whose products would then be exported to China. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

AFX News Limited: Shell says Nigerian ops unaffected by pipeline blast

12.27.06, 7:44 AM ET
 
LONDON (AFX) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC (nyse: RDSA – news – people ) has assured its operations in Nigeria were not affected by the explosion of an oil pipeline in Lagos that killed over 200 people.

‘It’s not our pipeline. (The blast) has not affected our operations at all,’ said a Shell spokesman at the company’s headquarters in London.

The Nigerian Red Cross has confirmed that at least 260 people were killed and dozens were injured from Tuesday’s explosion and fire at a vandalised pipeline. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

New York Post: HIT IRAN WHERE IT HURTS (‘In October, Shell diversified its terror portfolio’)

EXTRACT: Gaffney’s targets include Royal Dutch Shell, the multinational oil conglomerate. It has extensive holdings in the key Iranian offshore oil fields Soroush and Nowruz, where its investments have been pivotal in raising oil output by 190,000 barrels per day – about an 8 percent increase in total Iranian output. (In October, Shell diversified its terror portfolio – winning contracts to search for and pump oil in Syria.)

THE ARTICLE

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN Mc GANN
 
December 27, 2006 — THE sanctions adopted by the United Nations are too weak, too puny and too late to have any deterrent effect on Iran’s drive to build a nuclear bomb. But there is something the U.S. government, state governments, labor unions, pension funds and each of us as individuals can do: We can stop investing in companies that help Iran exploit the oil and gas resources on which its economy depends. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The New York Times: Putin’s Assertive Diplomacy Is Seldom Challenged

Van Der Veer in Moscow

(“Thank you very much for your support,” Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, told President Vladimir V. Putin)

December 27, 2006
Memo From Moscow
By STEVEN LEE MYERS

MOSCOW, Dec. 26 — Inside the Kremlin last week, the executives of three major international companies — Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui — heaped praise on the man whose government had effectively forced them to cede control of the world’s largest combined oil and natural gas project.

“Thank you very much for your support,” Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, told President Vladimir V. Putin during a meeting that ended a six-month regulatory assault on the project, Sakhalin II, but only after the companies surrendered control of it to the state energy giant, Gazprom. “This was a historic occasion.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Times: Putin wins the hearths and minds of Europe

December 27, 2006
Tony Halpin: Analysis

Vladimir Putin is entitled to take immense satisfaction from 2006. The year opened with Russia cast as the great gas ogre, embroiled in a bruising “cold war” over supplies to Ukraine that also threatened to dim the lights from Poznan to Paris.

As 2006 closes, the state monopoly Gazprom has become the energy giant that ate Europe, extending the Kremlin’s influence from the corridors of power to the kitchens of consumers. Add in his success in forcing Shell to hand control to Gazprom of Sakhalin-2, the world’s largest private oil and gas project, and Mr Putin can reflect on a year well spent. 
 
Europe depends on Russia for a quarter of its gas supplies, so Mr Putin can fairly claim to be responsible for warming the homes of millions of citizens across the continent. Hence his tone of injured surprise at international criticism of Moscow’s energy strategy, which he argues is based on mutual self-interest. Russia needs the markets, Europe needs the gas. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Shell/Sakhalin

COMMENT FROM breakingviews 
December 27, 2006

The Russian airbrush is back. In Soviet times, it was normally used to remove a “nonperson” from a photograph and so create a more politically convenient version of reality. Now it’s being used to airbrush someone in. That, in essence, is the deal that Gazprom has just struck with Royal Dutch Shell and its Japanese partners to take control of Sakhalin II, the world’s largest single integrated oil-and-gas project. Gazprom has taken a 50%-plus-one-share stake, and in return is paying the proportionate share of its investment costs — as if it had been there from the start. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Small Companies Make Big Splash In U.K.’s North Sea Oil Reservoirs

By JAMES HERRON and LANANH NGUYEN
December 27, 2006

Despite being one of the most heavily explored and exploited hydrocarbon basins in the world, energy-industry observers say the United Kingdom’s long-developed North Sea has riches to be extracted. In many cases, it is small independent oil and natural-gas companies that are proving them right.

Taking advantage of high oil-and-gas prices and improved exploration-and-drilling technology, an influx of small and dynamic independent-oil companies could improve prospects for future production of the U.K. continental shelf. Industry observers say the thorny issue of who is responsible for decommissioning costs of aging offshore pipelines and platforms could stop the independents in their tracks and lead to valuable resources being abandoned forever beneath the sea. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Totaled

EXTRACT: It hasn’t stopped Russia from targeting its Khariaga project with the same sort of “environmental” complaints that saw Shell driven out of the country last week.

THE ARTICLE

BUSINESS WORLD
By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR.  
December 27, 2006; Page A9

The coming year is likely to be a case of good news/bad news for one of the world’s prominent oil executives. Christophe de Margerie is slated to become the new chief executive of France’s Total SA, the world’s sixth-largest oil company, succeeding the steely Thierry Desmarest (who will remain as chairman). In the coming year, Mr. de Margerie is also likely to learn his fate under a French criminal investigation into oil-related bribery in Iraq, Iran and Russia that saw him detained and questioned for 48 hours in October. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE: Oil News Roundup: December 26, 2006 4:53 p.m.

Crude-oil futures fell for a third straight session, tumbling to nearly $61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, pressured by unseasonably warm weather in the Northeast and Midwest.

Here is Monday’s roundup of oil and energy news:

* * *
DEADLY PIPELINE EXPLOSION: A pipeline carrying petroleum products exploded in Nigeria’s largest city of Lagos, leaving at least 200 people dead. Witnesses said people had rushed to the ruptured pipeline to collect fuel when the flames ignited. Nigerians often tap into pipelines carrying refined fuel, scooping up the raw product in buckets or plastic bags. Spilled fuel spreading in pools sometimes ignites, immolating people nearby. In May, more than 150 people died in a similar explosion in Lagos. Monsters & Critics says this is a particularly bitter example of how Nigeria’s oil wealth is not enriching the country’s people. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Reuters: Shell reports California refinery problem

Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:20pm ET

HOUSTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Shell Oil Products US (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) reported its Wilmington, California, refinery suffered a sulphur recovery problem that forced the flaring of sulphur-dioxide gas, state records showed Tuesday.

The Los Angeles-area refinery on Monday “lost an SCC (sulphur recovery) unit. The gas compressor went down. They had to depressurize the unit,” a report on the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

International Herald Tribune: Russia strong-arms West

By Steven Lee Myers
Tuesday, December 26, 2006

MOSCOW can afford to ignore its critics

Inside the Kremlin last week, the executives of three major international companies — Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui — heaped praise on the man whose government had effectively forced them to cede control of the world’s largest combined oil and natural gas development.

“Thank you very much for your support,” Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, told President Vladimir Putin during a meeting that ended a six- month regulatory assault on the project, Sakhalin II, at the cost of ceding control to the state energy giant, Gazprom. “This was a historic occasion.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.