July 7th, 2007:

Published: Sunday, 8 July, 2007, 02:03 AM Doha Time  
 
Royal Dutch Shell had recently taken a group of journalists to visit their first gas-to-liquids plant in Bintulu, Malaysia. Gulf Times’ Leonard H Manickam was one of the two journalists from Qatar who made the trip. He writes about the ‘founding capital of the GTL world’ and Pearl GTL, which is set to propel  Qatar as the new GTL capital of the world.

As Qatar positions itself to become the GTL capital of the world in a few years’ time, the first-ever gas-to-liquids plant – the Shell MDS Malaysia – will be pushed a little further into history, but not to be forgotten. read more

EXTRACT: But this is not necessarily the case with the mega caps, which are capitalised above that level. This is where shareholder activists believe they have an opportunity. Some of these stocks, such as Glaxo Smith Kline, BP, Shell and Vodafone, are still greatly undervalued on fundamentals. Shares in Shell bounced about 4% last week, partly due to the rise in the oil price, but even after this rally several top brokers issued buy notes. If the markets don’t attribute the right values to these stocks, an activist will try to shake the tree to ensure this. read more

The Russian giant aims to buy up power stations as well as gas distribution firms to become a one-stop energy shop for commercial users

Dominic O’Connell
July 8, 2007

ON his way to London last week, Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Gazprom, took a call from the Takeover Panel, the City watchdog that polices the buying and selling of quoted companies. Shares in a London-listed energy group had jumped 4%. Was he up to something?

Medvedev has become used to such calls. Gazprom, the world’s sixth-largest company, owner of 17% of the Earth’s gas reserves and provider of one-quarter of western Europe’s gas, has regularly been tipped as a buyer of big British companies. Last year the government was thrown into a spin by reports that Gazprom was about to make a move on Centrica, owner of British Gas. read more

By Codie Leonsch Hartwig

Friends of the Earth International media release states that the Dutch Advertising Authority has accepted a complaint filed in Amsterdam against Shell Oil Company for an advertisement that claims that Shell uses its waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers.

Friends of the Earth Netherlands, a branch of Friends of the Earth International, filed a complaint against a “greenwash” advertisement being run by Shell in the Netherlands. The Dutch Advertising Authority has instructed Shell to stop misleading the public with “geenwashing” advertising. read more

Flag of the Ogoni People 

Alfred Donovan speech prepared for presentation at the National Union of Ogoni Students (NUOS International, USA) Convention at the University of Missouri (UMKC), Kansas City, on Saturday July 07, 2007.

EXTRACT FROM INVITATION

Dear Mr. Alfred Donavan:

Your contributions to the Ogoni struggle for environmental justice cannnot be quantified. Thank you so much.

The National Union of Ogoni Students(NUOS INTL.)USA is delight to invite you as a special guest to her annual conference holding on Saturday July 07, 2007, at the University of Missouri (UMKC), Kansas City, United States of America. read more

NIYI BABADE,
Published: Jul 07, 2007

The sobbing mother of a British girl kidnapped in Nigeria says her 3-year old is under threat of death and living on bread and water. President Umaru Yar’Adua vowed the child would be released unharmed.

Officials in the state where gunmen seized Margaret Hill said security forces would not resort to violence to gain her liberation. The only fatalities amid the more than 200 kidnappings in Nigeria’s southern oil region have occurred when security forces battled hostage takers. read more

By ROBERT D. NOVAK

Friday, Jul. 6, 2007

Sen. Hillary Clinton is facing increasing Democratic criticism for using Mark Penn as her presidential campaign’s chief strategist while he also serves as CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the public relations giant with corporate clients whose policies run opposite to Clinton’s.

Clients include Royal Dutch Shell (attacked by Clinton for “windfall profits”), as well as tobacco and pharmaceutical firms with records she has deplored. Penn was a key operative in President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and continued as a second-term adviser. read more

July 7, 2007, 12:42AM
ENERGY

Oil majors are increasingly investing in monitoring stations onshore to track and direct activity at distant offshore wells

By KRISTEN HAYS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

At tens of millions of dollars a pop, wells drilled in the ocean’s unforgiving deep waters are an investment oil companies consider worth watching around the clock.

And watch they do.

Increasingly risky exploration in recent years has prompted companies to create “real-time operation centers” that are to remote operations what Mission Control is to space exploration. read more

By Carlyn Kolker

Houston-based Shell, the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, used more than 400 law firms before paring down in 2003. Now it sends the majority of its work to 28 “strategic” partners.

Discounts on hourly rates are “a key part” of the arrangements, said William Lowrey, Shell’s general counsel.

Shell rates law firms based on factors such as cost- effectiveness, quality and commitment to diversity. Shell has dropped firms when “our needs and the needs of the firms didn’t match up,” Lowrey, 54, said. read more

Nick Fletcher
Saturday July 7, 2007

Elsewhere crude oil climbed to more than $76 a barrel, an 11-month high, on strong demand, concerns about falling inventories in the US and worries about unrest in Nigeria. So Royal Dutch Shell A shares rose 59p to £21.15 and BP was 6.5p better at 610.5p. They were helped by Deutsche Bank issuing a buy note on both companies and increasing its price targets. It has lifted its BP target from 580p to 670p and its Shell forecast from £19.50 to £23.75p. It also raised BG from 890p to 925p, prompting a 16p rise in the gas group’s share price to 829p. The rise in the oil and mining companies outweighed continuing worries about further interest rate rises, and by the close the FTSE 100 was 54.9 points better at 6690.1. read more

By Javier Blas,Commodities Correspondent
Published: July 7 2007 03:00 | Last updated: July 7 2007 03:00

Oil prices rose above $76 a barrel yesterday to the highest level in 11 months amid renewed unrest in Nigeria and no prospect of a production increase by Opec, the oil cartel.

Low US petrol inventories ahead of an anticipated surge in demand during the summer holiday season provided additional support.

Analysts warned that further rises were likely as the Nigerian militant group responsible for most of the attacks on the oil industry called off a one-month truce. Attacks had cut about25 per cent of Nigeria’s oil output. read more