February 23rd, 2007:

Fri Feb 23, 2007

The western oil majors’ have gradually moved toward accepting that burning oil and gas is a main cause of climate change but views on global warming and what to do about it still vary across the industry. Almost all scientists agree that a rise of CO2 in the atmosphere is heating the planet and that the rise is likely primarily caused by human activity, especially burning hydrocarbons.

Environmentalists want governments to force cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases.

Some business leaders oppose capping companies’ emissions. Others support caps, providing they are accompanied by mechanisms that allow firms which exceed their targets to buy credits from businesses that undershoot their caps. read more

Possible sale still in play
SHAUN POLCZER 

Western Oil Sands Inc. on Thursday reported lower fourth-quarter results while it continues to consider options that could result in a sale of the company.

Despite the setback, blamed on falling crude prices, CEO Jim Houck described 2006 as an “excellent year” characterized by the first full turnaround of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in which Western holds a 20 per cent stake.

Houck told analysts Western continues to pursue a transaction with a downstream partner that could result in an acquisition, merger or sale of the company. read more

Journal Staff EDMONTON

A former Shell Canada executive who owns millions of dollars of company stock options will stay on a panel looking at Alberta’s shareof oil and gas revenues, Finance Minister Lyle Oberg said Wednesday.

Sam Spanglet, a former executive with Shell Canada, was named to Oberg’s review panel last Friday. Spanglet, who retired last year, has said he has a couple of million dollars worth of stock options in the company.

Opposition parties have said Spanglet’s involvement represents a conflict because the panel’s findings could affect his financial future. Both Liberal Leader Kevin Taft and NDP Leader Brian Mason have called for Spanglet’s dismissal. read more

EXTRACT: Ledum Mitee, head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), said the underlying cause of the tension between Mogho and Bodo was a dispute over the award of contracts by oil major Shell for cleaning up oil spills in the area.

THE ARTICLE

ABUJA, Feb 23 (Reuters) – At least seven people have been killed in clashes between fighters from two communities in the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria sparked by the murder of an elderly woman, human rights activists said on Friday. read more

By Celestine Bohlen

Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush’s campaign to turn Iran into an economic pariah is being rebuffed from Spain to Malaysia as countries and companies pursue long-term agreements to tap into the world’s second-largest reserves of oil and gas.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, and Spain’s Repsol YPF SA — which last month signed a new agreement on a three-year-old gas production project, estimated at more than $10 billion — are among those who can ill afford to give up oil and natural-gas projects in Iran, said James Bell, president of Gas Strategies, a London-based consulting firm. read more

Andrew Clark in New York
Thursday February 22, 2007

BP has won the support of its rival Exxon Mobil in an effort to stave off a six-hour cross-examination by American lawyers of its chief executive, Lord Browne, which is due to take place in London tomorrow.

A judge in Texas has ordered Lord Browne to submit to questioning about his knowledge of safety cutbacks made before the explosion of BP’s Texas City oil refinery, which killed 15 people in 2005.

Brent Coon, a lawyer representing workers injured in the blast, is preparing to fly to London tonight to grill the chief executive who earns £3.3m a year. BP is vigorously opposing the all-day deposition, which is due to happen at a Covent Garden law firm, and has made a last-ditch plea to Texas’ supreme court to block it. read more

(Delta militants have carried out a series of attacks and abductions)

Unknown gunmen have killed a Lebanese construction worker on his way to work in Nigeria’s oil-rich city of Port Harcourt, say security sources. They opened fire on two Lebanese workers, although other details of the attack remain sketchy.

Industry sources describe the attack as “unusual” as it seemed deliberate.

The shooting is the latest in a growing number of incidents targeting foreign workers in the Niger Delta region which has seen oil exports cut by a fifth. read more

There is plenty of optimism among the deal-making community in the upstream oil and gas sector. Much is in the pipeline and some deals and refinancing initiatives are already in the public domain.

Stephen Phillips, head of banking at Dundas and Wilson, points out that Melrose Resources, the Edinburgh oil and gas exploration company, with interests in Egypt, Bulgaria, France and the US, successfully carried out a GBP300m refinancing via a syndicate of banks led by Bank of Scotland.

As Phillips observes, the price of oil might have come down from the highs of a year ago, but in comparison to the days when the price was languishing at less than US$10 a barrel, the current price looks good. One of the stumbling blocks in the deals being done is the still-unresolved issue of abandonment. read more

Shell Oil Co. is the world’s best oil company when it comes to sustainability, social responsibility, corporate governance and ethics and transparency, according to an oil and gas industry ranking compiled by Spanish research and rating firm Management & Excellence.

The annual ranking, now in its fourth year, measures oil and gas companies’ compliance with 386 relevant international standards such as those of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, national laws, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, industry benchmarks and standards and reserves accounting. read more

[Opinion] Occupiers trying to sell off Iraqi resources 
By Kathlyn Stone  

According to British media, the U.S. and U.K. governments are on track to achieve a March victory in Iraq. This victory will not be publicized, nor will it mean an end to the occupation.

Written by Bush and Blair’s big oil business partners who serve as the leaders’ advisors on foreign policy, the new Iraq hydrocarbon law opens the door for international investors, led by BP, Exxon and Shell, to siphon off 75 percent of Iraq oil wealth for 30 years. This unique economic model is called a “Production Sharing Agreement.” But is a 75/25 split, with bloated oil companies taking 75 percent of the country’s wealth and leaving just 25 percent for the devastated Iraqis, a sharing agreement or armed robbery? read more

By Fiona McGarry
23/02/2007

The Environmental Protection Agency has just begun considering twelve objections and calls for an oral hearing on the issue of an operating licence for the proposed €200m Corrib gas terminal.

Last month the EPA gave its interim decision on the granting of an integrated pollution prevention and control licence to Shell E&P. The agency said it was likely to grant the licence, subject to 85 conditions, and opened a period for public comment on the matter. Now Shell to Sea and environmental watchdog An Taisce have asked the EPA to hold an oral hearing. Other objections to the IPPC licence have come from the Erris community and local priest Fr Michael Nallen. read more

As the Kremlin’s dominance grows, it uses energy more for political gain
By ELIZABETH DOUGLASS

If gasoline prices have you muttering curses at OPEC during each fill-up, maybe you should just say nyet.

The big-time producers in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have plenty of clout, but with global oil output barely covering demand, countries outside the cartel are wielding more sway, affecting the price of oil and everything made from it.

Indeed, when world energy leaders gathered in Houston last week to dissect industry issues, their remarks were translated from English into only two other languages — Russian and Chinese. read more

By RUSSELL GOLD
February 23, 2007; Page A2

The rush to build a new industry that turns natural gas into an ultraclean transportation fuel is stumbling over rising costs, showing how tough it is for emerging fuels to compete with crude oil.

This past week, Exxon Mobil Corp. backed out of plans to build an enormous gas-to-liquids, or GTL, plant in Qatar. Yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC broke ground on its own similarly sized GTL plant in Qatar, but said the cost might have tripled to as high as $18 billion. read more

Published: Feb 23, 2007

Current Account: SHELL E&P Ireland is not known to be shy when it comes to the press – particularly since its extensive shake-up of public relations over a year ago after the 94-day jailing of the Rossport Five. However, one detected a slight coyness within the company this week about the future of its “external communications support”.

Up to now this combination of public relations and backroom lobbying has been provided for the troubled Corrib gas project by lobbyists Financial Dynamics (FD), headed by Paul MacSharry, and Powerscourt Media, co-founded by Irish journalist Rory Godson. However, FD’s three-year contract is up, and Shell confirmed to Current Account that the PR company had asked “not to be considered” for any new consultancy arrangement. read more

Last Updated: 12:14am GMT 23/02/2007

Shareholders prefer higher dividends to windfalls and, as the UK payout ratio hits a historic low, increasing profit distribution would boost share prices, writes Tom Stevenson

The grudging response to Anglo-American’s $3bn (£1.53bn) share buyback promise this week illustrated the City’s voracious appetite for cash. The miner’s shares fell 66p to £25.36 after investors, who had been looking for $4bn, shrugged at the company’s largesse.
 
Anglo is not alone in failing to satisfy shareholders with the promise of an apparently generous one-off return of cash. BP has spent £21bn over the past six years buying back one share out of every six in issue. In theory that should have raised the value of the stock, but the shares are lower than when they started. read more

By Dennis Webb

RIFLE — Unexpected delays have pushed back Shell’s time line for possibly beginning commercial oil shale development in western Colorado.

Meanwhile, the company’s new oil shale test project in Rio Blanco County could result in the creation of 500 to 600 new jobs.

Shell representatives provided an update on its oil shale efforts during an open house in Rifle Thursday.

Company spokesperson Jill Davis said Shell previously had hoped to switch from research and development to a commercial phase by the end of this decade. Now it’s shooting for early in the next decade, assuming its testing continues to produce positive results. read more

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 22, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Alaska Natives and several environmental groups are protesting Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s plan to conduct offshore exploration drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

The groups say U.S. federal officials should have allowed a more thorough public evaluation of the potential impact on the environment and the North Slope’s indigenous people before allowing any drilling.

“We have tried to have questions answered about these activities and they haven’t been answered adequately,” Robert Thompson, a member of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands, said Thursday. “This is our culture… We don’t want to see it end because Shell Oil wants to make some money here.” read more

Web posted at: 2/23/2007 8:31:10

Doha • The technology applied to Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) project to convert natural gas into clean fuels can later be utilised to produce hydrocarbon fuels and even biomass, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Jeroen Van der Veer said here yesterday.

For the long term, this technology can be very promising for energy consumers, Van der Veer told reporters on the sidelines of the stone-laying ceremony at Ras Laffan Industrial City.

Linda Cook, Shell Executive Director for Gas and Power, noted: “The technology is also very important for Qatar, because it allows the diversification and utilisation of its natural resources and accessing new markets for the natural gas. read more