March, 2007:

Published: March 20 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 20 2007 02:00

If Rijkman Groenink, ABN Amro’s embattled chief executive, is seeking tactical advice on how to handle activist investors, he does not have far to look. Rob van den Bergh, who was ousted as chief executive of business information group VNU in a shareholder revolt, sits on ABN’s supervisory board, while Jan Kalff, Groenink’s predecessor at ABN, is chairman of Stork, the industrial conglomerate that is also the target of break-up demands. read more

Tuesday, March 20, 2007. Issue 3618. Page 1.

By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer 
Grigory Sysoyev / Itar-Tass 

The company has no web site, no publicly listed phone number, and a history of murky deals. Yet it runs the country’s largest independent electricity supplier, owns the country’s most popular tabloid, and is headed by one of Russia’s richest men.

The story of ESN Group runs deep. Headed by flamboyant multimillionaire Grigory Beryozkin, the company has fostered close, yet foggy, ties with state-run Gazprom as it grows into a major ¬investment vehicle. read more

EXTRACT: In the summer of 2005, Mr. Oxford says, he traveled to London with Mr. Giuliani to meet top executives of what is now Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Mr. Oxford says the firm could not have scored the high-level meeting without Mr. Giuliani: “Leaders around the world admire Rudy and want to talk to him.” The meeting didn’t bring in any new business, but Mr. Oxford says he believes that Bracewell solidified its stature with the energy company. The company confirmed the meeting but declined to elaborate. read more

· Local partners in TNK-BP could sell 50% to state
· Russia already pushing for sale of troubled gas project

Terry Macalister in Moscow
Tuesday March 20, 2007

BP has warned western investors that it could soon be forced to share control of its highly profitable Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, with a Kremlin-controlled energy group such as Gazprom or Rosneft.

The change could come after the end of a “lock-in” period in December when its local private partners, the Alfa and Access/Renova groups, can sell their 50% stake in Russia’s third largest oil producer. The other half is owned by BP. read more

Tuesday 20 March 2007

One part of BP’s empire has not been overwhelmed by the company’s sea of troubles over the past 12 months. The joint venture in Russia, TNK-BP, has continued to gush profits and improve production volumes. True, the Kovykta gas project in Siberia has met problems from local environmental agencies but there has been nothing to compare with Shell’s headache at Sakhalin.

In short, TNK-BP seemed to be an example of how Lord Browne, the chief executive, having been burnt the first time by Russian oligarchs, got it right at the second attempt. He invested directly in a Russian company and avoided fancy footwork such as production-sharing agreements; TNK-BP is a straightforward joint venture in which BP has 50%. read more

EXTRACT: The recent history of Anglo-Dutch mergers is not great – Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell and Corus have not always inspired confidence.

By Damian Reece
Last Updated: 3:20am GMT 20/03/2007

Barclays may well be an extremely good fit for ABN Amro but that doesn’t mean it’s going to win what looks set to turn into an auction for the struggling Dutch banking giant.

It’s clear why John Varley, the Barclays chief executive, is keen to do a deal and the fact that the Barclays share price was nudged only slightly down yesterday suggests the market is happy to give him and his team a chance. There are overlaps that can be eliminated and costs saved to boost profitability. ABN delivers a mid-west US business and operations in emerging markets such as Brazil. As a whole the ABN assets are good but could be made great by more competent management as part of a bigger, more integrated global bank. read more

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 3:20am GMT 20/03/2007

Oil company BP operated an unsafe culture at a Texas refinery where 15 died in an explosion and management should have spotted the warning signs years ago, according to a damning report being published today.
  
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB), which spent two years investigating the blast in March 2005, says that cost-cutting at the plant in Houston was a contributory factor because ageing equipment needed upgrading.

The report is the most critical so far into the Texas City refinery explosion, which also severely injured 180 people and led to an avalanche of writs against BP. Full details of the report will be released in the US later today, although CSB chairman Carolyn Merritt has already indicated some of its conclusions. read more

Flow of bitumen out of calgary. But no shift in business strategy: analysts

DINA O’MEARA, CP
Published: Tuesday, March 20, 2007

The $8.7-billion privatization of Shell Canada planned by parent company Royal Dutch Shell PLC could signal a change in bitumen flow out of Alberta, but not a change in business strategy for the oilsands giant, analysts said yesterday.

Major shifts in company assets and policies are probably unlikely as the Dutch-based energy giant already has had a controlling interest in Shell Canada for years, said analyst Tom Ebbern, with Tristone Capital Inc. read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:18pm ET

NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) – Shell International Finance B.V., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) (RDSa.AS: Quote, Profile , Research), on Monday sold $1.25 billion of notes in two parts, joint lead manager Goldman Sachs said.

The sale included $500 million of 4.95 percent five-year notes priced at 99.908 to yield 4.97 percent or 0.48 percentage point more than comparable U.S. Treasuries.

Also included were $750 million of 5.20 percent 10-year notes priced at 99.669 to yield 5.243 percent or 0.68 percentage point over Treasuries. read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:21 PM GMT

March 19 (Reuters) – Shell International Finance BV, a subsidiary of oil company Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) (RDSa.AS: Quote, Profile , Research), on Monday sold $1.25 billion in a two-part note sale, joint lead manager Goldman Sachs & Co. said.

Morgan Stanley was the other joint lead manager for the sale. BORROWER: SHELL INTERNATIONAL FINANCE BV FIRST TRANCHE: AMT $500 MLN COUPON 4.95 PCT MATURITY 3/22/2012 TYPE NOTES ISS PRICE 99.908 FIRST PAY 9/22/2007 MOODY’S Aa1 YIELD 4.97 PCT PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL S&P DOUBLE-A SPREAD 48 BPS MAKE-WHOLE CALL 10 BPS FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS MORE THAN TREAS SECOND TRANCHE: AMT $750 MLN COUPON 5.20 PCT MATURITY 3/22/2017 TYPE NOTES ISS PRICE 99.669 FIRST PAY 9/22/2007 MOODY’S Aa1 YIELD 5.243 PCT PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL S&P DOUBLE-A SPREAD 68 BPS MAKE-WHOLE CALL 15 BPS FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS MORE THAN TREAS read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:08 PM GMT

CALGARY, Alberta, March 19 (Reuters) – Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd. will tender its 29.5 million Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.TO: Quote, Profile , Research) shares to Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) buyout offer for the minority of its Canadian unit, the money manager’s chief investment officer said on Monday.

Jarislowsky Fraser had opposed the C$45 a share offer, arguing it undervalued Shell Canada. However, after 53 percent of the company’s minority shares were tendered to the bid last week, the firm conceded defeat. read more

Terry Macalister in Moscow
Monday March 19, 2007

BP has warned western investors that it could soon be forced to share control of its highly profitable Russian joint venture, TNK-BP, with a Kremlin-controlled energy group such as Gazprom or Rosneft.

The change could come after the end of a “lock-in” period in December when its local private partners, the Alfa and Access/Renova groups, can sell their 50% stake in Russia’s third largest oil producer. The other half is owned by BP.

BP’s warning comes after the forced sale of part of Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas development in eastern Russia to Gazprom at the end of last year. read more

Reuters
Monday, March 19, 2007

LONDON — Canadian oil company Western Oil Sands (TSX:WTO) said on Monday it had not received any bid approaches, despite the company being the subject of takeover rumours.

“We haven’t been approached by any parties at this point,” Chief Financial Officer David Dyck told Reuters in an interview.

The company has hired Goldman Sachs and TD Securities to advise on strategic options, including the possible sale of the company, but there was no time schedule for any deal, Dyck told Reuters. read more

Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:04PM EDT

CALGARY, Alberta, March 19 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), fresh from acquiring most of its Canadian unit’s minority shares in a going-private bid, is certain it will scoop up the rest in the second quarter, the oil major said on Monday.

Royal Dutch Shell said on Saturday investors holding more than 53 percent of the minority shares of Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) had accepted its C$45 a share offer, meeting the minimum condition for the C$8.7 billion ($7.4 billion) bid. read more

By Jean-Pierre Séréni:

States claim back their energy reserves

In the race to secure access to the world’s remaining oil, international companies are being left behind by national companies and states. Venezuela is renegotiating concessions and Russia is taking back the gas industry it sold off during the 1980s. State interests are on the rise.

Petrochina, China’s leading oil company, which is quoted in Hong Kong and on Wall Street, may be no more than a subsidiary of the major state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), but last December it overtook Shell to become the world’s sixth-largest company by market value. Two other Chinese companies follow closely: the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). These companies now operate in 40 countries; in 1999 they were present only in Venezuela, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Burma and Indonesia. read more

CALGARY, Alberta, March 19 (UPI) — Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell may be considering deals or takeovers of Canadian oil sands players that need access to refining, the National Post reports.

Last Friday, Royal Dutch took over Shell Canada Ltd. and analysts quoted by the newspaper as saying its next logical target could be Western Oil Sands Inc., a partner in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project.

Royal Dutch’s ownership of Shell Canada climbed from 78 percent to 89.6 percent over the weekend after Canadian shareholders accepted its $8.7 billion, or $45 a share to turn Shell Canada private, the newspaper reported. read more

NOTIFICATION OF TRANSACTIONS OF DIRECTORS AND CONNECTED PERSONS
Name of Issuer: Royal Dutch Shell plc
Date of transaction (“DATE”): 14 March 2007

Notification relating to a transaction notified in accordance with: DR 3.1.4 R (1)(a) and DR 3.1.4 R(1)(b) (a disclosure made in accordance with Section 324 (as extended by Section 328) of the Companies Act 1985).

Nature of the transaction: Rollover of dividends into Royal Dutch Shell plc shares RDSA, RDS.A, RDSB and RDS.B (as given below) under the Long-Term Incentive Plan and the Deferred Bonus Plan. read more

By Bunny Nooryani

March 19 (Bloomberg) — Dansk Undergrunds Consortium, which accounts for more than 80 percent of Denmark’s petroleum output, said oil and condensate production dropped 1.7 percent in February from a month earlier.

Production averaged 270,500 barrels a day in February, compared with 275,100 barrels a day a month earlier, Maersk Oil, which operates the venture, said on its Web site today. The group’s natural-gas output fell to 777 million standard cubic meters in February from 853 million cubic meters. read more

By Bryan Keogh

March 19 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil producer, plans to sell five- and 10-year notes, according to three people familiar with the offering.

The benchmark notes may be sold as soon as today, according to the people, who declined to be identified because terms haven’t been set. Investors typically consider a benchmark sale to be at least $500 million.

Shell, based in The Hague, is rated Aa1 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by Standard & Poor’s, both investment grade. read more

Nigeria – 19 March 2007 – The $1.1billion 1000km West African gas pipeline
(WAGP) has been completed and may be commissioned this month, according to
the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), Funsho Kupolokun. The commissioning ceremony will be performed by
President Obasanjo.

The pipeline traverse 1,000km onshore and offshore from Nigeria’s Niger Delta region to its planned terminus in Ghana.

Four nations, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin signed a 20-year agreement on the implementation of the pipeline which provides for a comprehensive legal, fiscal and regulatory framework, as well as a single authority for the implementation of the project. read more

By Lynn Thomasson and John Kipphoff

Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC CN): Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it acquired through a tender more than half the shares of Shell Canada that it didn’t already hold, giving it enough to proceed with its plan to take full ownership of the affiliate. Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, already owned about 78 percent of Shell Canada stock. With the tendered shares, that rises to 89.6 percent.

Royal Dutch Shell said in a statement on March 17 that the purchase meets a requirement that 50 percent must be tendered before it can extend the offer for the rest of the shares until March 30. Under Canadian law, once a buyer in a tender acquires at least 90 percent of all outstanding shares, any holdouts must agree to tender their shares. Shell Canada shares added 8 cents, or 0.2 percent, to C$44.68. read more

Planning drags on for 17 years after Valdez

By ROBERT McCLURE
P-I REPORTERS

After the Exxon Valdez gushed 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Congress vowed that the next time a tanker got into trouble in U.S. waters, two things would happen: Help would arrive soon to prevent spills. And if oil did get loose, it could be cleaned up.

A lot has been done to assure that oil-spill cleanups can be launched. But the idea of ensuring that a rescue ship will show up to keep spills from happening in the first place still has not been made into a rule — more than 17 years after the Valdez disaster. read more

By Upstream staff

Gazprom has been in talks with ExxonMobil regarding possible tie-ups between the US supermajor’s Sakhalin 1 and the nearby Sakhalin 2 development, in which the Russian gas monopoly took the majority stake last year, according to reports.

“Sakhalin 2 can expand business to building new [LNG] facilities and procuring gas produced at neighbouring gas fields,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller told Japan’s Nikkei business daily.

Gazprom was interested in improving the business efficiency of Sakhalin 1 rather than directly investing in the project, Miller said. read more

Last Updated: 6:20am GMT 19/03/2007

Philip Aldrick examines the possibility of ABN Amro providing the perfect fit for the British bank

Bankers have been aching for Barclays to do a major deal. With its rapidly growing investment bank, highly respected management and well-known brand, the British bank has long been considered the ideal partner for an American or European rival.

Rumours of a potential merger with Société Générale and BNP Paribas, probably stoked by impatient bankers, have been doing the rounds for the past year. Memories of reported talks in 2004 with Bank of America are still fresh – resurfacing as recently as last December.
 
For all its British past, Barclays is a bank with global ambitions. Seven years ago, the international operations accounted for just 20pc of profits. Today, more than half come from overseas. But for all that ambition, Barclays has yet to unveil itself as a dominant presence on the global stage. It has crept into the world’s top ten by market capitalisation but there are still vast holes in its portfolio including a glaring lack of a US retail presence. read more

Vanguard (Lagos)
March 19, 2007
Emma Arubi, Warri

SHELL Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), and Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), have been given a 14-day ultimatum by the Dale-Oketa Itsekiri community in Warri North Local Government Council to arrange for a round table negotiation to address the alleged deliberate neglect of the community or face the wrath of the community in their Otumara and Olero oil field operations.

In a petition signed by Mr. Victor Bawo Okonedo, representative of the community and addressed to Mr. Harriman Oyofo, Manager, External Relations, SPDC, and Odumabo A.O., General Manager, Government and Public Affairs, CNL, on behalf of the management committee of Dale-Oketa community, they accused the SPDC of deliberately omitting their community as an impacted one in the “Trans-Escravos Pipeline Replacement and Otumara Integrated Oil and Gas Project, IOGP, against evidence by the Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, profile confirming Dale-Oketa as one of the communities within the field.
 
They also accused Chevron of deliberately refusing to recognize them in the Global Memorandum of Understanding, GMOU, in their Olero Field Operations while Jakpa, their next door neighbour has since been accorded due recognition. read more

By Dan Lonkevich and Ian McKinnon

March 18 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it acquired through a tender more than half the shares of Shell Canada Ltd. that it doesn’t already hold, giving it enough to proceed with its plan to take full ownership of the affiliate.

A total of 97 million shares were tendered at C$45 ($38.26) each, representing 53.1 percent of the shares Hague-based Shell didn’t already own, the company said in a statement yesterday. That met Shell’s requirement that 50 percent must be tendered, so the company will complete the purchases and extend the offer for the rest of the shares until March 30. read more

DAVID EBNER

CALGARY — Royal Dutch Shell PLC is poised to take over Shell Canada Ltd. after it scored a significant victory in its $8.7-billion takeover bid.

Royal Dutch, which already owns about 78 per cent of Shell, said late Friday that 53.1 per cent of the minority shares had been tendered to its $45-a-share bid, increasing its Shell stake to 89.6 per cent.

The company is now in the position to conduct an amalgamation to take full control of Shell, though dissenting shareholders could challenge the $45 valuation in court. read more

The Supreme Court has relaxed rules against price fixing. Coming up: a big case for retailers.

By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
March 19, 2007

WASHINGTON — With a push from the Bush administration, the Supreme Court is in the midst of steady, if little noticed, retreat from enforcing the antitrust laws that for decades have guarded against monopolies and price fixing.

In the last year, the court has relaxed or repealed several rules designed to prevent anti-competitive schemes, and later this month will hear another widely followed case that could dramatically change the rules of the retailing business. read more

03.18.07, 2:35 PM ET

LONDON (AFX) – Royal Dutch Shell has made another attempt to participate in developing the 40 bln usd Shtokman gas field in the Russian Barents Sea, one of the world’s largest energy projects, weekly magazine the Business reported without citing sources.

The magazine understands that Shell made contact with Gazprom earlier this year, when the Russian group began scouting once again for international partners to help develop the field.

Gazprom in September 2005 made a shortlist of five Western energy groups to partner with on the field — ConocoPhillips (nyse: COP – news – people ), Chevron (nyse: CVX – news – people ), Total, Statoil (nyse: STO – news – people ) and Norsk Hydro (nyse: NHY – news – people ), but not Shell — but later that year decided to operate alone. In January, though, it sent letters to the same five companies inviting them to restart negotiations. read more

Sun, March 18, 2007
By CP

CALGARY — European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC has acquired another 97 million shares of its Shell Canada Ltd. (TSX:SHC) subsidiary and is on the road to taking its Canadian unit private under an $8.7 billion Cdn bid announced in January.

Royal Dutch, which already holds 78% of Shell Canada, announced early yesterday that just under 97 million shares were tendered to its $45 Cdn a share offer. That amounted to about 53% of Shell Canada’s minority stake, meeting a key condition of the privatization bid. read more

Business comment
By Dan Roberts, Business Editor, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:28am GMT 18/03/2007

When Gordon Brown stands up in the Commons on Budget day, we all need a little something to keep us going during his relentless blizzard of billions. So here is a distracting factoid to squirrel away for that moment when you feel your ears begin to bleed on Wednesday.

Some bright chaps at Cazenove have worked out that you can get paid as much for owning shares in Britain’s biggest companies as you can for lending your money to Brown. In other words, dividend payments from the 10 largest FTSE100 companies are this year expected to yield almost exactly the same return (4.5 per cent) as 10-year government debt. read more

Saturday, March 17, 2007
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 288

Shell Investments Limited (“SIL”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, announced that as at 8:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on March 16, 2007 (the “Initial Expiry Time”) 96,985,322 common shares in the capital of Shell Canada Limited (“Shell Canada”) were validly deposited to SIL’s offer to acquire, at a price of C$45.00 cash per common share, all of the outstanding common shares of Shell Canada not already owned by SIL or its affiliates (the “Offer”).
 
As the minimum deposit condition under the Offer has been met, SIL has taken up and accepted for payment all of the common shares validly deposited.  The common shares taken up and accepted for payment represent approximately 53.1% of the outstanding common shares of Shell Canada not already owned by SIL or its affiliates.  SIL or its affiliates now own 740,294,180 common shares of Shell Canada or approximately 89.6% of the outstanding common shares of Shell Canada.  Payment will be made on or before Wednesday, March 21, 2007 to Shell Canada shareholders who have validly deposited their common shares under the Offer. read more

Published: Saturday, March 17, 2007 | 5:41 PM ET

CALGARY (CP) – European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC has acquired another 97 million shares of its Shell Canada Ltd. (TSX:SHC) subsidiary and is on the road to taking its Canadian unit private under an C$8.7 billion bid announced in January.

Royal Dutch, which already holds 78 per cent of Shell Canada, announced early Saturday that just under 97 million shares were tendered to its C$45 a share offer. That amounted to about 53 per cent of Shell Canada’s minority stake, meeting a key condition of the privatization bid. read more

By Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: March 17 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 17 2007 02:00

Yury Trutnev, Russia’s natural resources minister, yesterday warned that TNK-BP’s licence to develop the Kovykta gas field in eastern Siberia could be withdrawn and auctioned off to a Russian company.

Mr Trutnev said BP’s Russian unit, TNK-BP, would not have time to rectify breaches of its licence to develop the vast gas field in time for a May deadline.

“I don’t think they’ll be able to fix the violations,” he told Russian reporters during a trip to Luanda. “If they haven’t done it in the past several years, how can they do it in two months?” read more

Published: March 17 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 17 2007 02:00

The international oil companies descended from the mighty “seven sisters” have been losing their grip on the world’s oil supply for years, but it is only as oil prices have settled stubbornly above $50 a barrel that the significance of the change in the industry has become clear.

The “new seven sisters”, from outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, now hold the oil, and the whip hand. If the world’s energy demands are to be satisfied, to say nothing of oil producers’ economic interests, interfamilial relations will have to improve. read more

EXTRACT: “Including companies such as BP and Shell is a pragmatic compromise…

By Faith Archer
Last Updated: 12:40am GMT 17/03/2007

Marks & Spencer has launched a new ethical investment fund which has troubled oil giant BP as one of its biggest holdings.

BP has been criticised for safety and pollution failings, including the deaths of 15 workers at its Texas City refinery and oil pipeline spills at its Alaskan unit. Also, US regulators are scrutinising BP’s dominance in the propane gas market after allegations of price-fixing. read more

By Matt Whittaker

McALLEN — Shell Oil Co. wants more natural gas and it’s looking at deep South Texas to get it.

Royal Dutch Shell Group subsidiary Shell Western Exploration & Production Co. expects to drill two or three exploratory wells a year in Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Brooks and Duval counties, said Annell R. Bay, vice president of exploration for Shell’s Americas division.

The company is already drilling one of the exploratory wells in Starr County, she said. She did not know how long the drilling would continue. read more

SAN FRANCISCO

•  EPA has been cleaning up Arvin site

•  ‘The process was quite messy, with frequent spills’

The costs of cleaning up a toxic waste site near Arvin the Central Valley should be paid by Shell Oil Co., Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co., and Union Pacific Transportation Co., the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says in a ruling Friday.

Brown & Bryant Inc., an agricultural chemical company that has since gone out of business, used the polluted land. The two railroad companies owned part of the land on which the chemical operation was located. read more

Shell Oil Products US has launched a yearlong, $35 million integrated marketing campaign to let motorists know that “all gasolines are not the same.”

TV spots, an experiential marketing tour, and in-market activation programs all focus on giving consumers a first-hand look at the gunk that low-quality discount valves and fuel injectors can leave behind on critical engine parts, Shell said.

The new marketing campaign, Shell Passionate Experts, is built around the results from a variety of Shell tests, including one designed to compare two gasoline products in a single engine under identical conditions. read more

Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:06AM GMT
By Jeffrey Jones

Update One

CALGARY, Alberta, March 17 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) moved a major step toward integrating its Canadian unit’s vast oil sands holdings late on Friday when most Shell Canada Ltd.’s (SHC.TO: Quote, Profile , Research) minority shareholders accepted the oil major’s C$8.7 billion ($7.4 billion) bid to take it private.

Royal Dutch Shell, which launched its offer in October, said 53.1 percent of the minority stockholders tendered their shares before the Friday bid deadline, surpassing a minimum condition of half the stock it did not already own. read more

Advertising feature
March 17, 2007

James Penfold on a partnership that has endured through the years between a car manufacturer and its favourite petrol

The 2007 Formula One season marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of Ferrari and another chapter in the unique and successful technical partnership between Ferrari and Shell – a formal link-up which was originated only three years after Ferrari was established. Since that debut race together in the first-ever round of the Formula One World Championship in 1950, Shell fuels and lubricants and the technical experts who develop them have been an important element in the Scuderia’s success. read more

By Hayley Pinkerfield Revolution UK
16-Mar-07, 13:17

LONDON – Royal Dutch Shell is launching an interactive campaign site to support a new brand positioning.

The site, created by Digit, is part of a global communication campaign, pitching Shell’s quest to secure a responsible energy future. It marks the company’s first fully integrated online marketing message.

Visitors can try out online challenges, which aim to entertain and inform while testing users’ ‘analytical, maths and memory skills. Each game reinforces positive messages about future energy sources. read more

Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:17 PM EDT
 
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.TO: Quote) stock hovered below the price of its parent company’s C$8.7 billion ($7.4 billion) bid for the minority shareholding on Friday, a sign investors saw little chance of a sweeter offer hours before the expiry.

Shell Canada was off 22 cents at C$44.38 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSa.L: Quote) C$45 a share offer for the 22 percent of Shell Canada it does not already own is set to expire at 2000 Eastern time (midnight GMT). read more

Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:17 PM BST

LAGOS, March 16 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) has begun repairs to a ruptured trunk pipeline in Nigeria that forced it to cut 187,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) output on March 4, a spokesman said on Friday.

Work on the pipeline that feeds the Bonny export terminal was delayed by youths from a local community who seized Shell’s equipment and denied workers access to the spill in the Nembe Creek area.

March 16, 2007
Posted to the web March 16, 2007
Emma Arubi
Warri

THE Egbema Survival Movement (ESM) in Warri North Local Government Council of Delta State has called on the federal and state governments to urgently address the issues of neglect and marginalisation visited on their communities.

They also called on Shell Petroleum Development Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited to wake up to their social responsibilities to Egbema communities, saying that their oil exploration and exploitation activities in the area is impacting negatively on them.
 
In a press statement signed by Mr. Ebiginde Izon-Kenewonumo, President, Mr. David Egbema-Ebi, Secretary and Victor Ditimi, Operations Director and made available to Vanguard in Warri, yesterday, the Egbema Survival Movement listed their predicament to include the dredging of the Olodua creek, construction of the Ogbudugbudu/Ofunama/Udo road and provision of potable drinking water. read more

TEHRAN, March 16 (MNA) — Four big oil companies purchased the tender documents of 17 oil blocks in Iran, said National Iranian Oil Company’s (NIOC) exploration manager here on Friday.
 
Of over 30 domestic and foreign bidders, four oil companies bought the documents, Hossein Roshandel told MNA.

He declined to directly name the purchasers, however adding the Anglo-Dutch Shell, France’s Total, Brazil’s Petrobras and Malaysia’s Petronas, Spain’s Repsol, and Austria’s OMV were among the bidders. read more

15/03/2007

THE Prins Willem-Alexander School in Woking has also excelled with its exam results, following the curriculum operated in the Netherlands.

The Dutch school in Old Woking Road, which caters for children aged four to 12, has  achieved the highest results in the annual CITO exams of all Dutch schools in the Netherlands and overseas.

CITO examinations are taken by pupils aged 12 as the final exam before they move to secondary schools and to some extent it determines the type of school they go to. read more

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

March 16 (Bloomberg) — Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Santos Ltd., Australia’s second- and third-largest oil and gas producers, are ramping up production at oil fields off the northwest coast that were closed last week on the approach of a tropical cyclone.

The Woodside-operated North West Shelf venture yesterday reconnected the production vessel used at the Cossack oil project to the field and was resuming output, said Peter Kermode, a spokesman in Perth. Santos resumed output at the Mutineer-Exeter field, while Woodside restarted the Legendre field. read more