April 10th, 2007:

Posted Apr 10th 2007 12:00PM by Peter Cohan

Two Sumos — government and big oil companies — are wrestling for control of the oil industry. And according to the Wall Street Journal [subscription required], a big shift in bargaining power is putting government on top. This could be a crushing blow for oil companies and the people who invest in them.

In the past, oil companies enjoyed the upper hand because they had the capital and the expertise to take on the risk of exploring for new sources of oil. As a result, big oil traded that ability to take risk for equity ownership of oil fields. But since there are fewer new places to explore, governments increasingly find themselves in control of their own energy destinies. read more

Refinery problems cause glut of crude
Published April 10, 2007

NEW YORK — The price of oil fell the most in three months Monday because of a supply glut at a key North American delivery point and speculation that an Energy Department report will show U.S. inventories jumped last week.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery fell $2.77 a barrel, to settle at $61.51, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest close since March 21 and the biggest one-day decline since Jan. 4. The price of oil is down 8.7 percent from a year ago. read more

Posted on Apr 10th, 2007 with stocks: RDS.A

By Jack Brynaur

Over the past few years, more and more apocalyptic stories have been popping up about a supposed phenomenon known as “peak oil.” The theory is that we’re running out of oil, the big powers are keeping it quiet, and as supplies dwindle, world-wide economic chaos will ensue.

This is hardly a new theory. According to the Chicken Littles of the world, we’ve been “about to run out of oil” for over thirty years. Obviously it hasn’t happened yet. With the recent upswing in strife in the Middle East, however, the notion has gained in popularity. read more

10/4/2007  
 
Royal Dutch Shell PLC has expressed its willingness to the Iraqi government to invest in Iraq’s gas fields and to set up a pipeline that would connect these gas fields to Europe via Turkey, a senior Iraqi oil official said Tuesday. 

“There are attempts by Shell to open talks with the Iraqi government to develop Iraq’s vast gas fields,” the senior official at the Iraqi Oil Ministry told Dow Jones Newswires.

He said that Shell held serious talks with Iraq on development of gas fields during the government of former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi. “Now the company is trying to revive these talks.”  read more

A multi-million pound investment announced by oil giant Shell in three of its Scottish facilities could safeguard 300 jobs.

Improvements are being made to the St Fergus gas processing plant in Aberdeenshire and the Mossmorran plant in Fife.

The £350m investment will also upgrade the Braefoot Bay facility on the firth of Forth.

It is hoped the investment will create up to 100 contractor jobs.

‘Vote of confidence’

The two gas processing plants had been running below capacity in recent years, but now Shell is to make a substantial investment in “re-fettling” St Fergus and Mossmorran to enable them to return to full capacity. read more

Lisa Schmidt, Calgary Herald; CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2007

CALGARY – When Shell Canada Ltd. leaves the public realm later this year, it will mark the end of a long history in Canada.

With all but one per cent of Shell’s shares in the hands of its Anglo-Dutch parent Royal Dutch Shell, transition plans are underway.

Last week, four members of Shell Canada’s board resigned, reducing its number to eight. Senior executives, including chief executive Clive Mather, are expected to remain in their positions until the formal handover, expected before the end of June. read more

Courtesy of  CounterPunch
By Richard W. Behan

The US Congress has gone beyond compliance with George Bush’s illegal war, and is now technically an accomplice-it is assisting with full knowledge in the perpetration of a crime. Congress has attained this status through two grave errors, one of omission and one of commission.
 
The Error of Commission

The Iraq Accountability Act passed the House as H.R. 1591 and slightly differently as S. 965 in the Senate. The versions await reconciliation in conference committee. Both bills set deadlines for troop withdrawal, both appropriate the money the President requested for prosecuting his war, and both require the Iraqi Parliament to pass its “hydrocarbon law,” to enable the sharing of oil revenues among the Iraqi people. read more

Published: Tuesday, 10 April, 2007, 07:53 AM Doha Time
 
DOHA: Iran doesn’t agree with Total’s $10bn cost estimate for the Pars liquefied natural gas development, and is still in negotiations with the company over the future of the project, Iran’s Energy Minister said yesterday.

“The proposal by Total concerning the costs … wasn’t in line with our expectations. We have given our views and they are reconsidering their position,” Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum meeting in Doha. read more

Producing Nations Win
Tougher Deals, Limiting
Potential for Windfalls
By RUSSELL GOLD and BHUSHAN BAHREE
April 10, 2007; Page A1

The doubling of oil prices over the past few years has produced enormous windfalls for oil companies. But those record profits are likely to recede in the years ahead — even if oil prices don’t — as oil-producing nations increasingly demand a bigger share of the wealth.

Last year, the five largest U.S. and Western European oil companies had a combined profit of $120 billion, roughly double what they earned in 2003, and they are likely to be rolling in cash for some time to come. But the production contracts they are signing today aren’t likely to be as lucrative as the ones they signed in the 1990s, when oil prices were low and looked likely to stay that way. read more

Published: Tuesday, 10 April, 2007, 07:53 AM Doha Time
 
Moscow: Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas export monopoly, aims to quadruple its market value to $1tn within a decade and become the world’s biggest company.

“We will reach a $1tn market capitalisation in a period of seven to 10 years,” Deputy chief executive officer Alexander Medvedev, 51, said in a Moscow interview on April 6. “We’d like to be the most valued and most capitalised company in the world.”

The goal would be more than twice today’s $439.6bn market value of ExxonMobil Corp, the world’s largest publicly traded company, and would exceed Russia’s 2006 economic output of $975bn. It would also surpass the gross domestic product of countries including the Netherlands, Australia and South Korea. read more

By Peter Millard

CARACAS (MarketWatch) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC has paid Venezuela $13.7 million in income taxes that went unpaid during the 2005 fiscal year, said the Seniat tax office in a statement Monday.

The Seniat said it charged Shell additional taxes because the company inflated some of its costs in Venezuela. Venezuela began auditing foreign oil companies in 2004, accusing them of underpaying on their income taxes.

Shell has a minority stake in the Urdaneta oil field in western Venezuela. read more