March 1st, 2007:

Article: Shell CEO issues LETTER OF CENSURE to Malcolm Brinded

Other ShellNews.net articles… 

ShellNews.net: The inside story of Shell’s Sakhalin II debacle read more

Headline: Short film is central to $100m campaign

March 02, 2007
Steve Hawkes

Shell is spending an estimated $100 million (£55 million) on a global advertising campaign built around a film shot by the director of The Last King of Scotland that is nine minutes long, The Times has learnt.

The film, commissioned from Kevin Macdonald last year, will be shown in cinemas in Britain, Europe, the United States and China and backed by Shell’s biggest online advertising blitz.

Nearly 15 per cent of its budget in its main five markets, including the UK, is being spent on the web in a move that will raise new concerns about the health of traditional advertising platforms. read more

March 02, 2007
Carl Mortished, International Business Editor

A new road fuel made from wood chips and straw will be launched in Europe later this year from a pilot plant developed by Shell and Choren Industries, the German biofuel company.

The synthetic diesel, made using a novel biomass-to-liquids (BTL) process, will shift the biodiesel industry into a higher gear by using waste plant material instead of valuable food crops.

The pilot plant, near Freiberg, will produce 15,000 tonnes per year of synthetic diesel, which Choren has dubbed Sunfuel. Construction of a much bigger plant in Schleswig-Holstein, costing €500 million (£336 million) and capable of producing 200,000 tonnes of BTL, will begin next year in an effort to quickly bring the product up to commercial scale. read more

March 02, 2007

Letters to the Editor

Sir, Why do we stupidly waste money, petrol and time on affinity cards, loyalty cards and air miles?

I had a Sheraton card with many points on it, which I recently tried to use, unsuccesfully, at its Tel Aviv hotel. I have never saved one penny with a hotel affinity card in more than 20 years in the travel industry.

Recently I used £600 of air miles to reduce the cost of a holiday in Taba, Egypt. On arrival, other guests and our travel rep advised us that we could have paid £600 less, without using the air miles. The ones I had just cashed in had been collected over seven years, mainly buying Shell petrol and using a NatWest Visa card. The exclusive use of Shell petrol caused me much extra travelling and a few jams. read more

Jeroen van der Veer drawn into Brent Bravo unlawful deaths scandal

By John Donovan

In August 2006, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek “Open Letter” to Shell CEO, Jeroen van der Veer about the Brent Bravo scandal asking…

ShellNews.net: When is Shell going to sue former Shell International Group Auditor Bill Campbell for defamation?

It appears that I should have addressed the question to Bill Campbell asking when HE would be issuing defamation proceedings against Shell. He is currently preparing to issue a libel action against Shell following the breakdown of a mediation process which has been secretly going on behind the scenes for some time. read more

March 1, 2007, 7:38AM

MOSCOW — OAO Gazprom has discussed forming a joint venture with BP PLC that could work with liquefied natural gas, Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly said in a statement Thursday.

BP’s outgoing Chief Executive John Browne met with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller at the company’s Moscow headquarters on Thursday, the statement said. Browne was accompanied by Tony Hayward, current head of exploration and production at BP, who is set to succeed Browne.

“In particular the creation of a joint venture for developing the international business of the companies, including LNG (liquefied natural gas), was discussed,” the statement said. read more

Thursday, March 1, 2007
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 287

PetroChina Company Ltd. (PetroChina) and Shell China Exploration and Production Ltd. (Shell) announced today the start of commercial production and gas delivery from the Changbei gas field.

PetroChina and Shell are jointly developing the field under a Production Sharing Contract, with Shell currently being the field development operator. Located on the edge of the Maowusu desert in the Ordos Basin of Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, it is the largest onshore upstream cooperative development Shell has had in China. read more

By JOHN J. FIALKA
March 1, 2007; Page A4

WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy has kicked off a technological horse race to see which among six companies can produce a transportation fuel that is an alternative to corn-based ethanol, in commercial quantities, at a cost of around $1 a gallon.

Companies successful in producing low-cost ethanol could have first crack at a new fuel market that offers a domestic alternative to gasoline. Until then, the agency says it will pony up as much as $385 million to help the competitors, but how much each company gets will be negotiated later, based on their progress. read more

Published: Mar 01, 2007

An engineering joint venture between US group Foster Wheeler and Japan’s Chiyoda has won a prestigious contract for a groundbreaking liquefied natural gas project in Nigeria, writes Tony Gray .

The partners have been awarded a contract by Nigeria LNG for the front-end engineering design of the SevenPlus project, which involves the construction of two liquefaction trains, each producing 8.5m tonnes of LNG a year. These would be the two largest LNG trains in the world, said Foster Wheeler, which is leading the joint venture. It will produce a project specification package forming the basis for an invitation to bid for an engineering, procurement and construction contract. The contract terms were not disclosed. read more

Lorna Siggins & Aine Ryan
Published: Mar 01, 2007

The negative social and environmental implications of the Corrib gas controversy on “the parish, community and beyond” have been strongly highlighted in an objection by the parish priest of Kilcommon (Erris, north Mayo) to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In his submission, Fr Michael Nallen argues that “[our] environment is more precious, in both the long and short term, than economics”.

A native of Belmullet, Fr Nallen said there were various concerns “which had driven him” to formulate his submission. His primary concern, he said, was for “the decent, good and ordinary people who are hurting”. read more

Wednesday February 28, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Guardian stories which have been written using the freedom of information since it came into force in January 2005

EXTRACTS

· How Shell improperly lobbied a cabinet minister over a huge gas plant in Russia.

· Documents revealed health and safety concerns about Shell’s oil rigs in the North Sea.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email [email protected] or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332. read more

(Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov stands between flags during a signing ceremony for cooperation agreements with Japan at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s official residence in Tokyo, February 28, 2007.)

Mar. 01, 2007

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and the numerous delegation of ministers and businessmen spoke in Tokyo yesterday, persuading Japan to increase investment into Russia’s economy, saying that it is risky not to invest into Russia. Japan received no warranties that energy risks would be reduced. However, Russian Premier assured Japan that all Sakhalin-2 contracts will be carried out. read more

Posted on : Thu, 01 Mar 2007 01:57:00 GMT

MOSCOW, Feb. 28 It’s official now: Gazprom officially owns a majority share in the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East with its board’s vote Wednesday.

The state-run gas monopoly announced in December it had come to terms on the purchase of a 50 percent plus one share in Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin-2 natural gas and oil project.
 
Sakhalin Energy was owned by Shell (with a 55 percent stake), and Japan’s Mitsui (25 percent) and Mitsubishi (20 percent). But after Kremlin-backed efforts to get a state stake in the project, the sides agreed to a Gazprom buyout of $7.45 billion for a controlling stake in the $22 billion project. read more

Wednesday 28 February @ 13:10:15 
by Emily Lindell & Dan Gannon

By June 2005, the residents of the tiny community of Rossport, Ireland, had had enough. For years, they had registered objections and appeals to the Shell gas pipeline project proposed to run through their farming and fishing community. By mid-year, the corporate interests were losing patience with the delays and raised the stakes of the dispute. Bringing police officers with them as they attempted to access private yards and farmland that was to be seized for the pipeline, Shell officials still were turned away repeatedly. The police that accompanied the multinational’s reps recorded the names of those who refused to welcome Shell onto their properties. Soon, five of these community members would land in a Dublin jail on an indefinite sentence as punishment for their refusal to submit to Shell’s plan. read more

HOUSTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Workers were attempting to repair a propane leak on Wednesday that forced the evacuation of workers from a section of Shell Oil Co.’s joint-venture 334,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Deer Park, Texas, according to a report on a Houston television station.

A spokesman for Deer Park Refining L.P., which operates the refinery, was not immediately available to discuss plant operations.

The leak began early on Wednesday morning, according to KHOU-TV.

Deer Park has been restarting 20 units that underwent annual overhaul at the refinery. read more