March 23rd, 2007:

Mar 23, 2007 2:41 PM (4 hrs ago)

TORRANCE, Calif. – Toxic fumes were released from an oil refinery but nobody was injured, authorities said.

Hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide were released into flares at the ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery after the plant south of Los Angeles had a problem with its sulfur recovery unit and shut down shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, officials said.

The flare system acts as a “safety relief valve” for the refinery that combines liquid and vapors with steam and burns it off, according to information on the refinery’s Web site. read more

By Mathew Carr

March 23 (Bloomberg) — Delta Hydrocarbons, a company run by a former Royal Dutch Shell Plc executive, is raising $1 billion to help national oil companies worldwide enhance oil recovery, said 3i Group Plc, an investor.

London-based 3i will invest $250 million in the venture, it said in an e-mailed statement today. Delta is managed by Walter van de Vijver, formerly chief executive of the exploration and production unit of Royal Dutch Shell, 3i said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mathew Carr in London at [email protected] read more

By Upstream staff

French giant Total said today that its chief executive Christophe de Margerie would return to work, adding it was “business as usual” after he was placed under formal investigation by a judge in an inquiry into kickbacks related to a 1997 gas deal in Iran.

De Margerie, who was detained on Wednesday, was freed without bail late last night but put under formal investigation for “corruption of foreign officials” and “misuse of company assets”, a preliminary step before a possible trial. read more

By Trisha Huang

March 23 (Bloomberg) — Royal Shell Dutch Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, said its ethylene and mono-ethylene glycol plants in Singapore are on schedule for operation in 2009 or 2010.

The first piles were driven into the ground on Pulau Bukom and Jurong Island, the company’s chemical unit said in a statement today.

The Shell Eastern Petrochemicals Complex, which will have a cracker with a capacity to make 800,000 metric tons of ethylene from naphtha and other petroleum products, is Shell’s biggest chemical investment in Singapore, the company said. Construction of the plants started in October. read more

By Victor Epstein

March 22 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, reported that several units were idled yesterday by a power failure at a refinery in Deer Park, Texas.

The idled refinery equipment included two crude units, a hydrotreater, vacuum flashers and an 85,000-barrel-a-day delayed coker, Shell said in a filing with Texas environmental regulators. The plant is owned by Shell, based in The Hague, and Mexico’s state oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos. read more

Gunmen in Nigeria have kidnapped the security manager of a German construction company in the oil capital, Port Harcourt, police say.

The Dutch manager was reportedly seized at dawn by his abductors, who arrived on the waterfront by the construction camp in three speedboats.

They are said to have exchanged heavy gunfire with guards before escaping.

About 60 foreigners – mostly oil workers – have been kidnapped in the Niger Delta so far this year.

The wave of attacks and kidnappings has led to a 25% cut in Nigeria’s oil output.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6483695.stm read more

In their own words…

Mar 22nd 2007

THE Chemical Safety Board, an American government agency that investigates industrial disasters, has long maintained that in the past BP’s bosses did not spend enough time and money on the safety of their employees.

Its latest report on the subject, released on March 20th, was no different: it argued that such failings contributed to an explosion in 2005 at BP’s refinery in Texas City, Texas, which killed 15 people and injured 180. This time around, however, the board also published documents that tell of the employees’ misgivings in their own words: read more

Mar 22nd 2007
Oil-rich Iran may have to ration petrol
Reuters 

IRANIANS last week celebrated the start of their new year, but alongside the festive goldfish and fireworks displays, 1386 might bring a rise in their petrol bills. After two years of dithering, the government is at last ready to introduce rationing and a price hike to reduce a subsidy that costs the country billions of dollars a year.

Petrol rationing in a country with the world’s second-largest reserves of crude oil might sound slightly strange. But Iran’s big problem is a shortage of refineries; it can only satisfy about 60% of its soaring demand with locally produced petrol. It imports the rest at market prices of about 45 cents a litre—five times what motorists pay at the pumps. read more

EXTRACT: Several foreign companies have been seeking opportunities in China’s CBM sector, including Royal Dutch Shell PLC

In order to meet the rising demand for energy, China has quickened its pace in developing coalbed methane (CBM), a clean fuel.

CBM is more commonly known as coalmine gas. With components similar to natural gas, it is a practical and reliable alternative energy source, said Sun Maoyuan, president of China United Coalbed Methane Co Ltd.

“Last year our company drilled 391 CBM wells in the nation,” he said. “And we achieved the production capacity of 200 million cubic meters. This year we aim to drill more than 400 wells and increase our production capacity to 450 million cubic meters.” read more

EXTRACT: One of the biggest targets is Royal Dutch Shell, which plans a $10 billion investment in an Iranian gas field. If enough government entities deny Shell the necessary capital, Shell’s CEO has said that the company would cancel its Iranian project, Mandel points out.

THE ARTICLE

BY: MARILYN H. KARFELD Senior Staff Reporter

Just as divestment from companies doing business in South Africa helped bring down its apartheid regime, a campaign using economic pressure to isolate Iran is now gaining traction. read more

Tom Shiel,
Published: Mar 23, 2007

Some 30 protesters were still occupying part of the Corrib gas terminal site in Bellanaboy, Co Mayo last evening to highlight their fears over possible contamination of local water supplies.

Activists made their way on to the site through a gate in the afternoon.

A number of gardaI were on standby during the protest but did not interfere.

The incursion followed an earlier seepage of a brown-coloured liquid from the site. Local streams feed into Carrowmore lake, the source of drinking water for thousands of homes in the Erris area. read more

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 3:36am GMT 23/03/2007

The chief executive of Premier Oil has predicted that the industry is ripe for consolidation as some of the “big boys” of the sector struggle to meet their production growth targets.

Simon Lockett, whose FTSE 250 company was in takeover talks last year, said the industry was entering a period of stability which should encourage deals.

Mr Lockett said: “We are starting to see a more stable oil price, which provides the conditions for investment and consolidation.” He would not name names, but he said: “I can see more deals being done by the big boys because they need to deliver the numbers in terms of growth.” read more

Fri 23 Mar 2007, 1:19 GMT
 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Shell Oil Products, a unit of Shell Oil Company, is being awarded two U.S. Defense Logistics Agency contracts totaling up to $1.2 billion for aviation turbine fuel, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Work under the contracts is to wrap up on April 30, 2008, the Defense Department said in its daily contract summary.

Separately, it said Valero Marketing and Supply Co., San Antonio, Texas, is being awarded a deal valued at up to $499.4 million for fuel, and Shell Chemical Yabucoa, Inc., Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, has won one valued at up to $143 million for naval distillate fuel. read more

CALGARY, Alberta–Shell Canada Ltd. has settled on a location in southern Ontario for its planned heavy-oil refinery, but most other details for the new facility are still being worked out, a spokeswoman for the company said Thursday.

The company, Canada’s No. 3 oil producer and refiner, said the new operation is likely to be built near the small community of Sombra, which has a population of about 280. Sombra is south of Sarnia, the center of Ontario’s petrochemical industry.

The new plant will process between 150,000 and 250,000 barrels a day of heavy oil from Shell Canada’s oil sands operations in Alberta but other details, including cost, configuration and a potential tie to the company’s nearby 72,000 barrel a day refinery in Sarnia, are still sketchy. read more