June 23rd, 2007:

By Amelie Herenstein
AFP: MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 06 25 07

The planned sale of a Siberian gas field by Britain’s BP to Gazprom is only the latest twist in a Kremlin campaign to reassert control over Russia’s vast energy resources, analysts said Friday.

Friday’s announcement of a preliminary agreement on the sale by Gazprom and BP executives came after months of Russian government threats to revoke the licence on the Kovykta field for not meeting production timetables.

The deal carried echoes of a similar agreement last December in which a consortium of foreign energy majors led by British-Dutch giant Shell sold a majority stake in the vast Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project to Gazprom. read more

Oliver Morgan
Sunday June 24, 2007

Leading British companies are being accused of supporting a system of apartheid in India by failing to ensure that they treat members of the country’s lowest caste equally.

The International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN), which campaigns on behalf of the caste, pejoratively known as ‘untouchables’, says UK companies with operations in India are not monitoring their staff and are refusing to sign up to positive action to combat the problem.

Dalits are often excluded from work in India and do not have the educational opportunities available to India’s middle classes. The IDSN has approached Standard Chartered, which employs 15,000 people in India, HSBC (25,000), Shell (10,000), Barclays and ICI and asked if they monitor recruitment and workforces. It also asked them to sign up to the 10 so-called Ambedkar principles, which enshrine affirmative action against discrimination. read more

6-21-07 2:15 PM EDT

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- David Greer, the deputy head of the Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. Ltd., has resigned, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) spokesman said Thursday.

Shell, which initially appointed Greer, agreed to relinquish the control of Sakhalin Energy to OAO Gazprom (GSPBEX.RS) last year. The venture operates an oil and gas project in the Russian Far East.
 
Shell “can confirm that David Greer has decided to leave Sakhalin Energy and Shell to pursue personal business interests,” the spokesman said. “We wish him well and thank him” for the contribution he made during 27 years at Shell, he added. read more

By our correspondent
Saturday, June 23, 2007, Jamadi-us-sani 7, 1428 A.H.

Karachi: Shell Pakistan and The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) have signed an agreement to establish schools in the earth quake affected areas of Pakistan.

The agreement was signed here recently between Lt. Gen (R) Syed Parwez Shahid, Chief Executive (TCF) and Zaiviji Ismail, Managing Director and Chairman, Shell Companies in Pakistan. According to, the agreement, Shell Pakistan will fund the cost of three primary schools and running them for at least 5 consecutive years. read more

(The Moscow Times Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)

David Greer, the Sakhalin Energy deputy CEO running the giant Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, has left the company unexpectedly just weeks after a leaked e-mail he wrote revealed the pressure that managers working there were facing.

Greer’s departure comes as Shell is adjusting to ceding control of the $20 billion project to Gazprom after sustained state pressure.

“I can confirm that David Greer has left the company to pursue other business interests,” Sakhalin Energy spokesman Ivan Chernyakhovsky said Thursday. He did not elaborate on Greer’s future plans. read more

“Lead me, follow me or get out of my way,” said the email from David Greer, deputy chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, a Russia-based consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell.  The email further said that he despised cowards, according to a report by the Financial Times.

I guess that it might not be a good idea to quote a U.S. general in Russia.  (The quote is from WWII general George Patton.)  Perhaps the tone and the source is what led to his resignation a few days ago.

The email appears to have been heavily plagiarized from Patton.  read more

David Greer Photo by SEIC

By Upstream staff

An executive from Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell has resigned two weeks after a motivational email he wrote to staff on the Sakhalin 2 project in Russia was leaked to newspapers, a company spokesman said today.

“This is true,” a Shell spokesman in Moscow told Reuters, without giving details.

David Greer, deputy chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, the consortium running the $22 billion project, sent an email in which he said he despised cowards and urged staff “lead me, follow me or get out of my way”. read more

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC

BOARD COMMITTEE CHANGE

Pursuant to Listing Rule 9.6.11 (3) the Board of Royal Dutch Shell plc announces that Mr Jorma Ollila has been appointed a member of the Remuneration Committee with effect from 20 June, 2007.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&refer=conews&tkr=RDSB:LN&sid=avN8R9M93BVE

Saturday 23 June 2007

“There has been a total change in the DNA of the Company”:

I could not have put it better. My first encounter with a Shell project was with Han Goudsmit and PER+. I found it quite bureaucratic, but technically thorough & reliable, and a project to be proud of. 10 years later I encountered more and more bullshitters and my first outright Shell fraudster in SEIC, no less.

Having seen how SEIC/Shell non-management tried to duck and dive every problem and the budget mushroomed by +300%, the current mere 100% growth in the overall Sakhalin II budget is suspiciously low. At the same time, there are still an amazing number of good people in the company that have soldiered on doing their jobs well, while so many wasters have risen to the top. read more

AFP

Jun 22nd 2007
From Economist.com

BP is the latest Western energy firm to back down, agreeing to sell a prized asset to Gazprom

AT A much publicised ceremony in 2003, Vladimir Putin looked on approvingly as BP and its Russian partners signed an agreement to set up a joint venture called TNK-BP. But there was no sign of Mr Putin and no fanfare on Friday June 22nd, when TNK-BP agreed to sell a prized asset to Gazprom, Russia’s largely state-owned gas giant. In just four years, Mr Putin has turned from a friend of Western oil companies into one of their most notable foes—with dramatic consequences for the industry. read more

Published: Jun 23, 2007

MELBOURNE, June 23 AAP – The federal government today pledged $12.51 million to a water recycling project in the regional Victorian city of Geelong.

The funding will go towards a water reclamation plant that will cost $63.78 million and save at least 2,000 megalitres of drinking water a year. But the commonwealth funds would not flow unless the Victorian government and Barwon Water both matched its contribution, Water Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today. “I call on the Victorian government and local water users through Barwon Water to match the Australian government’s contribution of $12.51 million,” Mr Turnbull said. read more

By Ed Crooks
Published: June 23 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 23 2007 03:00

Tony Hayward, BP’s new chief executive, has been to Russia four times already this year. It is a country he cares about, and with good reason: last year TNK-BP, the Russian joint venture, contributed a quarter of the group’s total production and about a sixth of its reserves.

Its contribution to the growth of BP’s reserves was even bigger. Last year, additions of proved reserves of oil and gas replaced just 34 per cent of BP’s production, excluding affiliates such as the half-owned TNK-BP. Including those affiliates, the added reserves replaced 113 per cent of production, thanks to the extension of TNK-BP’s rights to the Samotlor oil field, Russia’s biggest. read more

By Ed Crooks in London and Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: June 23 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 23 2007 03:00

BP yesterday became the latest western oil company to fall victim to the Kremlin’s campaign to claw back control of Russia’snatural resources.

TNK-BP, the company’s Russian joint venture, bowed to pressure and agreed to cede its controlling 62.9 per cent stake in the vast Siberian Kovykta gas field to Gazprom, for $700m-$900m (£350m-£450m).

The news came as the head of ExxonMobil warned in an FT interview that Russia would jeopardise future investment in the country if it failed to honour contracts with the US oil giant. read more

By Ed Crooks in London and Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: June 23 2007 03:00 | Last updated: June 23 2007 03:00

ExxonMobil yesterday brushed aside fears that it could be the next western energy company targeted in Russia’s efforts to reclaim control of its gas and oil industry. He warned that investment in the country would be jeopardised if the Kremlin did not honour contracts.

Speaking to the Financial Times on the day TNK-BP, BP’s 50 per cent Russian joint venture, agreed to cede its controlling stake in the vast Kovykta gasfield to Gazprom, Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil chairman, made it clear he did not expect his company to meet a similar fate. read more

By BENOIT FAUCON and GEOFFREY SMITH
June 23, 2007; Page A6

BP PLC’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP said it agreed to sell its controlling stake in a key Siberian natural-gas project to OAO Gazprom and also announced a $3 billion cooperation deal with the Russian gas monopoly.

The deal is the latest twist in Russia’s effort to increase control over strategic oil and natural-gas assets.

TNK-BP’s rights to develop the Kovykta gas project have been under threat since Russian regulators said last month they could pull the license because TNK-BP didn’t respect production quotas. read more

By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: June 23, 2007

MOSCOW, June 22 — Under pressure from the Russian government, BP agreed on Friday to sell one of the world’s largest natural gas fields to Gazprom, the natural gas monopoly, in the latest apparently forced sale that benefited a Russian state company.

BP’s local joint venture, TNK-BP, sold the field after Russian authorities threatened to revoke the company’s license to develop it.

Indeed, a committee of the Natural Resources Ministry had scheduled a meeting for Friday to consider revoking the license, the same day Gazprom invited BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, to sign the sales agreement. read more

June 23, 2007
Carl Mortished, International Business Editor

The Kremlin strengthened its grip over Russia’s energy resources yesterday when BP gave up Kovykta, one of the world’s largest undeveloped gasfields, in a forced sale to Gazprom.

The Russian state gas utility is to pay TNK-BP between $700 million and $900 million (£351 million to £452 million) for the controlling stake in Kovykta held by TNK-BP, the British multinational’s Russian joint venture.

BP’s eviction from the giant Siberian gasfield is the second forced removal by the Kremlin of a foreign investor from a major gas resource. In December, Royal Dutch Shell was forced to cede control of Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom in a $7 billion transaction. read more

June 23, 2007
James Harding, Business Editor

Better to sit out the game on the bench than to be kicked off the team.

BP never had a hope of hanging on to Kovykta, an asset that, like Shell’s Sakhalin-2, is so rich and was acquired for a song in the dubious casino run by Boris Yeltsin during Russia’s period of cowboy capitalism.

The Siberian gasfield is a latent monster. It could keep Britain going for two decades but it has no value today, lying stranded in a region rich in resources but empty of people and industry. The obvious customer is China, and Beijing is desperate to buy Kovykta’s gas. But the Kremlin is in no hurry to supply the fuel China needs to consolidate its economic supremacy in Asia. There are historic quarrels between the two nations and fears about Chinese immigration into Siberia. For all its quarrels with Europe, the Kremlin still looks west. Even now, it is building pipelines to Europe, not to Asia andbumptious BP may have been too aggressive in pushing the China card. read more

Rebecca Tucker

23 Jun 2007

GEELONG has been promised a $64 million water recycling plant with Shell Australia confirming its future in the city.

The plant, funded four ways between the State and Federal governments, Barwon Water and Shell, will lead to savings of at least 2000 megalitres of drinking water a year, or about 5 per cent of Geelong’s annual water use

Federal Water Minister Malcolm Turnbull will today announce the project, the first of its kind for Australia, when he visits Geelong. read more

Alan Bailey
Vol. 12, No. 25  Week of June 24, 2007

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued air quality control minor permits for Shell’s planned drilling program in the Beaufort Sea. There are separate permits for operations by the Kulluk drilling platform and for the Frontier Discoverer drilling vessel. The permits also encompass a support fleet that includes 18 other vessels.

Initially Shell plans to use the Beaufort Sea fleet for exploratory drilling at its Sivulliq prospect, formerly Hammerhead, on the western side of Camden Bay in the summer of 2007. read more

By Andrea R. Mihailescu
Jun 22, 2007, 23:42 GMT

David Greer, Sakhalin Energy deputy chief executive running the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas development project, has resigned unexpectedly just weeks after a leaked e-mail he wrote revealed the pressure that managers working there were facing.

The Moscow Times reported that Greer`s departure comes as Shell is adjusting to ceding control of the $20 billion project to Gazprom after sustained state pressure.

‘I can confirm that David Greer has left the company to pursue other business interests,’ Sakhalin Energy spokesman Ivan Chernyakhovsky said Thursday. read more

Royal Dutch Shell fights it out in multi-billion dollar worldwide class action lawsuit arising from the reserves fraud which first hit the news headlines in January 2004

A four week mini-trial was due to commence in the U.S. Courts on Monday 18 June 2007 in the consolidated class action against Royal Dutch Shell on behalf of worldwide (qualified) Shell investors. Instead, the parties involved have agreed to the appointment of a Special Master to consider issues and make recommendations to the Court. read more