June 20th, 2007:

06.20.07, 2:45 PM ET

LONDON – Royal Dutch Shell has had a rough time abroad over the past six months, from losing the controlling stake in a $20 billion Russian gas project to cutting $100 million in Nigerian investments.

But Australia could be a hot spot for the London-based energy company, as market watchers wondered Wednesday whether Woodside Petroleum would once again attract a bid down under.

The Australian government tried to snuff out Shell (nyse: RDSA – news – people )’s flame for Melbourne-based Woodside Petroleum back in 2001, when Treasurer Peter Costello blocked the Anglo-Dutch group’s $10 billion bid on grounds that it went against national interest. Although Shell owns 34% of Woodside, political forces have so far obstructed it from getting a controlling stake. read more

18:39 | 20/ 06/ 2007
(Recasts headline, lead, adds details, background in paras 3-9)

NOVO-OGARYOVO (near Moscow), June 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he had signed a decree to merge two leading tanker companies, Sovkomflot and Novoship, in a bid to raise the shipping sector’s international competitiveness.

At a meeting with Sovkomflot General Director Sergei Frank, the president said: “I have signed a resolution to create a new company on the basis of two existing ones.” read more

By Lautaro Vargas,

20 June 2007

The world’s leading oil and gas companies have descended on a young Cambridge company in the hope that the firm can help eliminate the expensive uncertainty they face in the search for increasingly depleted oil reserves.

ARKeX Ltd says it is bursting at the seams as top multinationals, state-owned corporations and even small independent prospectors look to harness the company’s hi-tech imaging solution, BlueQube, capable of surveying for petroleum deposits as far as 40 kilometres beneath the Earth’s surface from the air. read more

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

VetcoGray, a GE Oil & Gas business, is supplying its latest MS-700 system deepwater technology to Shell Group Companies for the deepwater BC-10 project, recently named Parque das Conchas, located in Brazil’s Campos Basin.

The contract with Shell includes the supply of 12 MS-700 slimbore subsea wellhead systems and seven 42-inch liners, with delivery beginning in July of 2007.  Once installed, the MS-700 slimbore wellhead systems will enable Shell to drill and complete wells in conjunction with their reduced bore riser and a surface blowout-preventer (BOP), thus  exploiting  the drilling capabilities of  rigs with conventional operating envelopes, typically less than the actual water depth at Parque das Conchas (up to  1930m water depth). read more

Julian Evans, Moscow
June 20, 2007

DSG International’s decision not to go ahead with its $1.9 billion (£953 million) option to buy Russian electronics retailer Eldorado could be seen as evidence of Tony Blair’s claim that foreign investors will withdraw if the new “cold war” between Russia and the West continues.

After all, John Clare, chief executive of DSG, did blame “corporate, economic and political risks” in the Russian market for the company’s decision not to go ahead with the deal. read more

June 19th, 2007, filed by Deborah Zabarenko
Posted by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

Sometimes you can’t make it up any weirder than it actually is. That definitely was the case on June 14, when a pair of environmental pranksters managed to promote themselves as keynote speakers at the Gas and Oil Exposition – aka GO-EXPO 2007 – in Calgary.

Masquerading as officials from ExxonMobil and the U.S. National Petroleum Council, the two appeared before an oil industry audience and the buzz was that they would deliver long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. read more

Full headline: Chairman Dianne Feinstein Announces Measure to Close Oil Lease Loophole Included in FY’08 Interior Appropriations Bill

Wed, 06/20/2007

Measure would help federal government recoup billions of dollars in lost oil lease royalties

June 19, 2007 — Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Related Agencies, today announced that the FY 2008 Interior Appropriations bill includes a measure to close the loophole that has allowed oil and gas companies to pay no royalty payments for drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf for leases negotiated in 1998 and 1999. This has already cost the federal government approximately $1 billion in lost revenue, and unless corrected, is estimated to cost up to $10 billion. read more

June 20, 2007
By Guillaume Lavallee

Fort McMurray – With world oil prices hovering at near nine-month highs and global energy firms flush with cash, analysts are predicting that control of Canada’s booming oil sands sector could soon fall into foreign hands.

Foreign bids worth tens of billion dollars are expected in the coming years as global oil companies look for new opportunities, say analysts.

“The oil sands are ripe for a (wave of takeovers),” analyst Mark Friesen, of FirstEnergy Capital in Calgary, told AFP. “There are world-class assets (in Alberta province) that have already attracted the attention of world players. So, I think there are possibilities for more (acquisitions).” And “those who come may want to do more,” he said. read more

By Gareth Chetwynd

Shell, Petrobras and Chevron are rethinking their development plans for heavy oil fields in Santos basin Block BS-4 after a horizontal appraisal well weakened the case for a tension leg platform or spar design and brought the FPSO option back into the fold.

“The well was designed to answer questions about the long-term development scenario, and we learned a lot from it, but it has really opened up the issues,” Shell Brazil vice president John Haney told UpstreamOnline on the sidelines of the Brasil Offshore conference in Macae. read more

Posted : Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:24:00GMT
 
Abuja – Nigerian workers walked off the job Wednesday in an indefinite strike that saw banks and offices shut down but left oil exportation unhindered in Africa’s largest oil-producing nation. Labour unions rejected government efforts to meet their demands Tuesday saying the concessions came too little too late and urged banks, schools and markets across the country to join the strike.

Workers in Lagos, Nigeria’s business centre, heeded the call, leaving streets deserted and offices around the megacity closed. read more

NEW ROUTES
Áine Ryan
Wednesday, 20 June 2007

SHELL TO SEA will seek an early meeting with three newly-appointed ministers whom the protest group believes could help broker a breakthrough in the controversial Corrib gas project.

The Mayo News has learned the group plans to seek meetings with Green Ministers Eamon Ryan (Communications, Energy and Natural Resources), John Gormley (Environment, Heritage and Local Government) and Fianna Fáil’s Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan.

While the group places some hope in the fact the last National Convention of the Green Party, (held in February last in Galway) unanimously endorsed a motion supporting Dr Mark Garavan’s call for an Independent Review into the project, it seems Minister Ryan, a long-time supporter of the campaign, has already distanced himself somewhat from the concept.    read more

Russian oil wells will be pumping air in 23 years, according to BP (file photo)
(TASS)

By Roman Kupchinsky

June 19, 2007 (RFE/RL) — The debate over how much readily accessible oil remains on Earth has been revived with the release of a new report that suggests there is enough to last about 40 years.

But critics say British Petroleum’s 2007 “Statistical Review Of World Energy,” released this month, is far too optimistic.
 
In 2003, a team of scientists from Sweden’s University of Uppsala presented evidence that purported to prove that the world’s oil reserves are up to 80 percent less than predicted. They claim that production levels will peak by 2013. 
 
Colin Campbell, a former chief geologist and vice president of BP, disagrees with the company’s latest oil-reserve estimates. He recently explained in the “Independent” that he believes the production of regular oil, the kind which is easy and cheap to extract, peaked in 2005. By his estimates oil will become a rare commodity by 2011.
 
And Campbell confesses that he mistrusts figures provided by oil companies. He told the “Independent” in a recent article that, “When I was the boss of an oil company I would never tell the truth. It’s not part of the game.”
 
Saudi And Russian Reserves
 
Estimates of proven oil reserves in the Middle East have befuddled analysts for years because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has kept estimates of its reserves a state secret. read more

NEW YORK — The president of Shell Oil Co., John Hofmeister, is giving Americans the chance to speak their minds by touring the nation and visiting 50 cities to answer questions posed by residents, reported “ABC News.”

“The oil industry has a terrible, terrible image issue that we have to correct” because it has “lived in a bunker,” Hofmeister told “ABC News.”

“The public doesn’t know us,” Hofmeister said. “The public doesn’t like us. The public doesn’t trust us.” read more

POSTED: 1:26 a.m. EDT, June 20, 2007

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) — Russia’s Gazprom asked the government on Tuesday to block an Exxon-led project from selling gas to China, which would remove a challenge to its Asia strategy and seal its absolute control of gas exports.

Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Ananenkov said the gas from Sakhalin-1 on the Pacific coast was needed to supply Russia’s Far East and plans to export 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year to China would leave the domestic market short. read more

Charlotte Thomson, The Express
Published: Jun 19, 2007

A UNION leader warned yesterday of a “mass exodus” of oil workers from the North Sea following Shell’s decision to sell a large part if its northern operation.

Jake Molloy of the OILC union said workers would prefer to take their termination package and leave rather than face an uncertain future with another employer.

Many who have worked with Shell for years believe pensions and other benefits accrued over the years would not be transferable to another employer. read more

June 19, 2007
 
SANTO DOMINGO.- The process to sell the Shell Company’s shares in the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa) advance with several proposals, which involve Dominican as well as foreign business groups.

This Tuesday the newspaper El Nacional reports it confirmed that a partnership by Dominican and  Barbadian entrepreneurs made an offer, which apparently had the best response.

The group reportedly includes the powerful Dominican families Peynado, Vicini, Corripio and Martí, whereas foreigners are the Group Sol, of Barbados, which owns the same corporation that acquired Shell’s businesses in Puerto Rico. read more

EXTRACT: The tax package also would repeal the rollback in the corporate tax rate now scheduled for the nation’s five largest integrated oil and gas companies — Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP and ConocoPhillips — and would increase taxes oil companies pay on their operations overseas.

THE ARTICLE

By DAVID IVANOVICH and MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
June 19, 2007, 11:39PM

WASHINGTON — Senate tax writers Tuesday proposed slamming the oil and gas industry with nearly $29 billion in new taxes to pay for alternative energy and “clean coal” projects. read more

By Ying Lou

June 20 (Bloomberg) — PetroChina Co. is planning the nation’s biggest share sale this year to raise as much as $5.6 billion in Shanghai for overseas acquisitions, increased oil drilling and refinery construction.

The company today overtook Royal Dutch Shell Plc as the world’s second-largest oil company by market value, behind Exxon Mobil Corp., after announcing the plan to list on the Chinese mainland for the first time. As many as 4 billion shares will be sold, Beijing-based PetroChina said in a statement. read more

June 19, 2007, 5:07 pm
Posted by Mark Gongloff

The Wall Street Journal’s Guy Chazan reports what could be a major coup for Eni:

At a moment when some Western oil majors are being forced to walk away from exploration and production projects in Russia, Italian energy giant Eni thinks it might have actually landed one.

Eni chief Paolo Scaroni said the company might be able to keep its 20% stake in Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Kremlin-controlled gas monopoly OAO Gazprom, which has a call option on the stake. “When we made the deal, if you’d met me I would have told you that the chances of us holding the 20% were small,” he said in an interview. “Now, today I think that those chances are growing considerably.” read more

June 20, 2007

Having concluded the deal for Sakhalin-2, Gazprom has turned its steely attention to another major project in the region, Sakhalin-1.

Deputy chairman of the Gazprom supervisory board Alexander Ananenkov announced yesterday that all the natural gas from Sakhalin-1 must be rerouted from China, as the projects shareholder planned, to the domestic market. The Ministry of Industry and Energy supports the idea. Industry analysts say, however, that export attracts Rosneft more than Sakahlin-1 shareholders. read more