May 20th, 2007:

Martin Ayankola, Lagos – 21.05.2007

Shell Development Petroleum Company (SDPC) paid a total sum of over $3.5 billion in taxes and royalties to the Federal Government in 2006.

According to the 2006 Shell People and Environment Report recently released by the company, Shell paid $2.21 billion Petroleum Profit tax (PPT), $771 million in royalties, $26 million contribution to the Niger Delta Development Commision, $54 million to Education Tax Fund and $594 million royalties paid from Bonga, Abo and his life in one of the incidents. read more

By James Brooke

May 20 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc’s Russian unit will be audited by the most-senior environmental regulator this week and stands to lose its license to operate Eastern Siberia’s largest known natural-gas field if it fails.

TNK-BP, a venture between BP and private Russian investors, will be audited May 23 on its production at the Kovytka field, where it has a contractual target, Russia’s Natural Resources Inspectorate said. OAO Rusia Petroleum, a unit 62 percent owned by TNK-BP, produced 1.5 billion cubic meters from the field last year, compared with a target of 9 billion cubic meters. read more

By GLEN OWEN
 
Last updated at 11:16am on 20th May 2007

When Lord Browne resigned as BP chief executive earlier this month after lying to the courts during a failed attempt to gag The Mail on Sunday, his supporters paid tribute to the buccaneering way he built the company into a global oil giant.

But now a former BP employee has come forward to give the first insider’s account of what the deal-making often entailed – sex, spying and briefcases full of hard currency…

A former BP worker has told how he threw champagne-fuelled sex parties to help secure lucrative international oil contracts. read more

(RICK BOWMER/ AP FILE PHOTO
With energy prices so high, what incentive do cash-rich oil-producing nations and multinationals have to increase supplies?) 

May 20, 2007 04:30 AM
David Olive

As gasoline prices soar to upwards of $1.10 per litre in the GTA, motorists stare at the rapidly revolving figures on the pump and curse multinational oil companies suspected of manipulating prices, governments that reap a tax windfall whenever prices rise – as federal finance minister Jim Flaherty acknowledged last week – and Middle East potentates whose regimes are further enriched with more wealth than they know what to do with. read more

EXTRACTS: The row is strikingly similar to that experienced by Shell over the $20bn Sakhalin 2 gas project, which at the time was Russia’s largest direct foreign investment. After months of warnings from Mr Mitvol over environmental breaches committed by Shell, and threats to revoke its licence, the Anglo-Dutch oil major and its Western partners were forced to sell a majority stake in the project to Gazprom at the beginning of the year. Mr Mitvol, who enjoys close ties with President Vladimir Putin, is the same regulator who targeted Shell over its giant Sakhalin 2 project. read more

Analyst tells energy executives environment is right for success

By KRISTEN HAYS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Alternative energy isn’t the next big thing.

That’s because it’s already here, an analyst told energy executives in Houston on Friday.

The key for the ever-growing alternatives sector is to deliver, particularly when the current political environment is encouraging and high energy prices — in addition to subsidies — make such investments more economical, Simmons & Company International analyst Pearce Hammond said. read more

EXTRACT: Meanwhile, in the United States, ERISA resulted in a successful class-action settlement in the U.S. involving Royal Dutch Shell and its reduced reserves controversy. The oil giant paid out US$90-million. So did Global Crossing (US$79-million) and AT&T (US$29-million) for transgressions.

THE ARTICLE

Canadian companies are getting picked off piecemeal due to one principal problem: the lack of investor protection in Canada, which discounts the cost of buying assets.

The impending buyout of BCE Inc. is a case in point. read more

Headline: WEEKLY ROUND-UP: Strong Europe buoys sentiment in Dublin

EXTRACTS FROM ARTICLE

London

Investor excitement surrounding the possibility of a ‘mega merger’ between oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell helped propel the London market to its highest level for nearly seven years.

Rumour of a tie-up between the oil majors, combined with higher metal prices for miners, sent the FTSE-100 Index soaring through the 6600 barrier to close at 6640.9, up 61.6 points.

Shell shares shot up by 47p to 1906p, while BP was ahead 11.5p at 582p thanks to the rumours, despite the fact brokers remained realistic on the prospect of a tie-up between the two groups, branding such a move “unlikely”. Miners also helped boost London’s leading share index. Vedanta Resources led the way with shares soaring 5pc, or 72p, to 1484p. read more

Andrew Dewson
EXTRACT FROM ARTICLE

Among the wilder stories doing the rounds in the market is rehashed talk of a deal between the oil giants BP and Shell. The speculation varies from a full-blown merger to a tie-up between some of the groups’ upstream assets.

Citigroup poured cold water on the notion of a merger, which would create a European oil behemoth with a market capi-talisation of about pounds 240bn.

The US broker put the rallying prices down to upgrades to oil price forecasts rather than to the prospect of major corporate activity. BP finished up 11.5p to 5 8 2 p, while Shell added 47p to 1,906p. read more

EXTRACT: Mr. Murray reserves special criticism for those companies that have joined the high-profile U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition pushing for mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions. “Some of them see profits — such as Caterpillar, General Electric, DuPont, Alcoa, General Motors, British Petroleum, Shell Oil, ConocoPhillips, Entergy — and all are just trying to look ‘green.’ But none of it is good for America.”

By KIMBERLEY STRASSEL

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Every good party has its wet blanket. In the case of the energy industry’s merrymaking for a global warming program, the guy in the dripping bedspread is a 67-year-old, straight-talking coal-mine owner by the name of Robert E. Murray.
 
You won’t hear many of Mr. Murray’s energy-biz colleagues mention him; they tend to avoid his name, much as nephews avoid talk of their crazy uncles. GE’s Jeffrey Immelt, Duke Energy’s Jim Rogers, Exelon’s John Rowe — these polished titans have been basking in an intense media glow, ever since they claimed to have seen the light on global warming and gotten behind a mandatory government program to cut C02 emissions. They’d rather not have any killjoys blowing the whistle on their real motives — which is to make a pile of cash off the taxpayers and consumers who’ll fund it. read more

By DANIELLE PLETKA and OMEED JAFARI 

As Iran’s violations of its nuclear nonproliferation obligations have been revealed, U.N. sanctions have been imposed and economic pressures have been multilateralized. Since none of this has stopped Iran’s seemingly inexorable progress toward nuclear weapons, many have concluded that there are only two realistic options: war or engagement.

In fact, it is too early to give up on multilateral economic pressure. There is significant unexploited potential for leverage against the Islamic Republic, because Iran is tightly bound to the world in a vast web of trade and financial relationships. Limited U.N. sanctions have yet to compel the rest of the world to exercise this leverage, and even America’s closest allies have so far avoided jeopardizing lucrative trade and investment relationships with Iran. So before we despair about sanctions, we should redouble our efforts to persuade other countries to join us in applying meaningful economic pressure. read more

By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: May 20, 2007
HOUSTON

JOSEPH H. BRYANT, still boyish-looking at 51, jostles with glee among tens of thousands of people here at the Offshore Technology Conference, one of the energy industry’s biggest trade fairs. He is surrounded by newfangled technologies occupying more than half a million square feet of display space: drills stuffed with electronic sensors, underwater wells shaped like Christmas trees, mini-submarines and pipes, pumps, tubes, gauges, valves and gadgets galore. read more

Oliver Morgan
Sunday May 20, 2007

The government has given its strongest indication yet that it would block an attempt by the Russian energy group Gazprom to take a significant stake in a UK energy company.

Whitehall officials have indicated that ministers have reserve powers that could block a takeover. Gazprom has made clear its wish to increase its presence in the UK energy market, with a significant stake in British Gas owner Centrica thought to be its preferred option.

Gazprom, which has a marketing and trading subsidiary in the UK, aims to increase its 2 per cent share of the market by targeting other customers, such as hospitals, but remains intent on taking a significant share of a business here. read more

May 20, 2007
Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor

The world’s largest untapped oil reserves – in northern Canada – have become the new front line in the battle between environmentalists and the energy industry.

Shell, a self-styled “green” energy company, is to invest billions of pounds in exploiting the Athabasca tar sands.

Environmentalists say the tar sands are the world’s dirtiest oil deposits and that refining them generates three to four times more CO2 than normal oil extraction.

However, Clive Mather, chief executive of Shell Canada, said rising demand and surging oil prices could not be resisted. “The deposits are huge, potentially even greater than in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The time is right to exploit them.” read more

05.20.07, 1:37 AM ET
 
LAGOS (XFN-ASIA) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC has resumed production at a 170,000 barrels-per-day Nigerian export facility shut down during the week because of community protests, a spokesman said Saturday.

‘We have resumed operation at the facility since the protesters have vacated the place. But the optimal level is yet to be attained. It is a gradual process,’ the spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Local youths had closed down an oil pipeline intersection known as a manifold at Bomu on Tuesday, preventing the pipeline from feeding in to the Bonny export terminal in southern Nigeria. read more