March 27th, 2007:

By Tara Patel

March 27 (Bloomberg) — A Total SA refinery is among six whose operations have been hit by a two-week strike at the port of Marseilles that threatens to create fuel shortages at service stations in France.

Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, said it has cut output by about a third at the Feyzin refinery near Lyon because of disruption to crude-oil deliveries. As well as the six in France, refineries in Germany and Switzerland are also affected, said Jean-Francois Cousinie, a regional director of the French Union of Petroleum Industries. He didn’t name them. read more

EXTRACT: There’s also the effect of energy development on the Colorado River Basin to consider, an issue some roundtable members found frustrating Monday because Royal Dutch Shell and other companies researching oil shale here have not divulged how much water in situ oil shale extraction will consume.

By BOBBY MAGILL
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

GLENWOOD SPRINGS —  A call on the Colorado River could be decades away, but with less water forecast to flow in the river in the coming years, cities and towns on the Western Slope should plan for water shortages anyway —  especially if they have junior water rights. read more

Production to be boosted to 700,000 barrels per day when complete

by Andrew Thompson
Wednesday March 28, 2007

Construction on a $6 billion second phase is just starting up and Shell is already planning future expansion of their Scotford Upgrader east of Fort Saskatchewan.

Shell has announced plans for four future expansions that would boost production to 700,000 barrels of bitumen per day. The upgrader currently refines about 190,000 barrels a day. The current expansion is expected to raise that to about 300,000 barrels a day when it’s finished in 2010. read more

By Joe – WSM – personal capacity Tuesday, Mar 27 2007, 11:24am

Shells HQ on Leeson street in Dublin has been occupied by activists protesting the give away of Ireland natural resources to this corporation depriving the health and education system of billions of euro worth of needed funds.

The lobby has been occupied and a banner hung from the roof. The audio file below from indymedia.ie is an interview with a WSM member occupying the lobby.

Shell are also currently involved in constructing a dangerous experimental gas pipeline through the community of Rossport in Co Mayo. Last year it had five locals jailed for 91 days for resisting the pipeline. This is a campaign WSM members are also involved in. read more

International companies weigh contracts’ danger against payoff
By Jim Krane – The Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — China has sat out the Iraq war, but it could be the first to take advantage when the Iraqi government finishes a law opening up its oil fields to international companies.

The Iraqi oil legislation, expected to be approved by July, will open the door for the government to sign contracts for exploration and production of the country’s vast untapped reserves, a top U.S. priority. But since few Western companies are prepared to send equipment or crews into the war zone, it could take five years or more before they begin extracting big shipments of Iraqi crude. read more

EXTRACT: Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, resigned from Bush’s Cabinet in 2006. However, there’s never been any evidence that Norton knew that Abramoff or others were using her name to solicit funds from Indian tribes. She now works as a general counsel for oil giant Royal Dutch Shell – part of the same industry that was near and dear to Interior’s heart. Norton was attacked by environmentalists as Interior secretary for her pro-development policies regarding oil and gas, coal and timber. read more

(Total says that its chief executive, Christophe de Margerie above, is not culpable.
Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

Comment on this article received from a Shell Insider: the gas field discovered offshore Qatar in 1971 (see para 7) was discovered and subsequently relinquished by Shell!
              
By CRAIG S. SMITH
Published: March 27, 2007

PARIS, March 26 — Christophe de Margerie, the new chief executive of Total, France’s largest corporation and one of the world’s big energy companies, was formally placed under investigation last week on suspicion of paying bribes to win a huge gas project in Iran. read more

EXTRACT: The growing scrutiny comes amid political and grass-roots pressure on U.S. investors, such as state pension funds, to dump shares of non-U.S. companies with major investments in energy businesses in Iran. Earlier this month, Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida introduced a bill calling for federal pension funds to sell shares of any company with more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector. Such companies include Royal Dutch Shell PLC, based in the Netherlands; Total SA of France and Russia’s OAO Gazprom. read more

By John Kay
Published: March 26 2007 19:00 | Last updated: March 26 2007 19:00

Last week the US Chemical Safety Board published its review of the fatal explosion at BP’s Texas City oil refinery. The board criticised senior executives of the company for demanding cost reductions at the expense of safety. Chemical plants are, by their nature, full of flammable liquids. Airlines carry their customers in fragile metal boxes at speed and altitude. Pharmaceutical products are effective only because they interfere with our bodies. read more

Published: Mar 27, 2007

Royal Dutch Shell’s former upstream chief executive Walter van de Vijver has raised $1bn of private equity funds for his new company Delta Hydrocarbons, writes Martyn Wingrove .

The Dutch executive has finally found a way to return to the industry after being forced to quit Shell three years ago, with chairman Sir Philip Watts, because of the reserves slashing scandal.

Mr van de Vijver has teamed up with Maarten Scholten, former head of mergers and acquisitions at service contractor Schlumberger, to provide management services for mature oil fields. read more

By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: March 26 2007 22:04 | Last updated: March 27 2007 02:05

An internal BP investigation into the Texas City refinery explosion found that John Manzoni, the chief executive of refining, should have done a “much deeper dive” into the state of the facility after “clear warning signals” from previous accidents.

The confidential report concludes that Mr Manzoni – who until late last year was regarded as being near the top of the short list to succeed Lord Browne as BP’s chief executive – lacked refining experience and failed to obtain information needed to understand better his most complex and important refining asset and the risk of a big accident. read more

(Putin: energy-control aim)

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 7:09am BST 27/03/2007

Only two bidders are likely to be in today’s auction in Moscow for the assets of oil company Yukos, fuelling a belief that the sale is being stage-managed.

TNK-BP and Rosneft were the only firms to register for the auction by the deadline, according to a statement from Yukos’s receiver.

It has been claimed that TNK-BP, a joint venture in which the UK’s BP owns 50pc, have agreed to enter the auction to lend the process credibility and does not really want the assets. TNK-BP denies this, saying that it is “bidding to win”. read more

From Funso Muraina in Abuja, 03.27.2007
Toxic Waste

The Federal Government has directed security agencies to place the 21 persons accused of transporting toxic waste allegedly on the directive of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) under security surveillance, pending the commencement of their trial.

Specifically, the Federal Government directed the Police to be vigilant on the accused persons so as to facilitate easy access to them whenever the Police would be asked to produce them in court. read more