July 11th, 2007:

Posted: 11-07-2007 , 13:36 GMT  
 
Today Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) announced the incorporation of Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited (4), a joint venture between an affiliate of QP (70%) and an affiliate of Shell (30%), which will own the Qatargas 4 project’s onshore and offshore assets.  At the same event, this newly formed joint venture company signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with a Shell affiliate as buyer of all the LNG volume produced by this large-scale project.   read more

I’m reluctant to rush to celebrate this change of attitude on Shtokman investment so prematurely as some in the media are – Russia really doesn’t have much choice but to invite in some serious equity partners
 
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
By Robert Amsterdam  

First the Russian government invited all the oil majors to submit bids to jointly develop the Shtokman Field, a vast natural gas field in the Barents Sea, and then, deep into the selection process, they rejected all the bids and announced that they would go it alone. Now, once again the government is dangling the opportunity before the hungry eyes of multinational energy companies. What are we meant to think of all this? read more

By Stephen Voss

July 11 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, signed agreements giving it access to all the liquefied natural gas from a new project in Qatar and a 25-year service contract to manage a fleet of 25 Qatari LNG carriers.

The agreements were signed today by Shell’s head of gas and power, Linda Cook; Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah; and Qatargas Chief Executive Officer Faisal Bin Mohammed Al Suwaidi, Shell said in an e-mailed statement. read more

(Cars were reportedly backed out into the street while waiting to fill up at the intersection of Grey Rock Estates and U.S. 72 at a Shell station in Abbeville)

July 11, 2007
By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer 
 
ABBEVILLE — Word always travels fast in a small community. But when that word is that a local gas station is charging 29 cents for a gallon of gasoline — which is exactly what happened Tuesday afternoon — excited calls quickly began to circulate via cell phone.

That’s when business at the store in question really picked up. read more

Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:36 AM BST

DOHA, July 11 (Reuters) – The cost of a joint venture between Qatar and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) to build the Qatargas 4 liquefied natural gas plant will be $8 billion, the Gulf Arab state’s Energy Minister said on Wednesday.

The cost is up on initial estimates of around $6 billion to $7 billion made by Qatari officials when the deal was first announced in 2005.

“The all-inclusive cost will be about $8 billion,” Energy Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah told reporters in Arabic after a signing ceremony for the formation of the joint venture with Shell on Wednesday. read more

NORVAL SCOTT
Globe and Mail Update
July 10, 2007 at 9:39 PM EDT

CALGARY — A list of companies that the U.S. securities regulator believes are operating in countries that Washington says sponsor state terrorism is arbitrary and incomplete, critics say.

The list, which includes several Canadian companies, was prepared by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to provide information to investors. But it has been criticized by both business and humanitarian agencies alike, because, among other things, it includes companies that have since withdrawn from the named countries – Cuba, Syria, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. read more

By Trista Kelley
July 11 (Bloomberg)

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA LN): Shares of Shell were cut to “sell” from “neutral” by analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, was downgraded because it faces “three years of heavy investment in its new legacy assets without the prospect of material production growth,” Goldman analysts including Jonathan Waghorn and Mark Lacey in London said in a note yesterday. Shell shares declined 18 pence, or 0.9 percent to 2091. read more

By Gavin Evans

July 11 (Bloomberg) — New Zealand’s Tui oil project may set a world record for offshore fields by recouping $245 million of costs in three months, half the time for BHP Billiton Ltd.’s Shenzi venture in the U.S. Gulf, as higher prices boost returns.

Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd.’s Tui venture will pump its first crude this month, said Bruce Phillips, managing director of the Sydney-based explorer. The payback may be twice as fast as the next-best projects monitored by energy consultants John S. Herold Inc. read more

Unclear where fuel to service ships plying the Welland Canal will come from in future, says Port CAO

By MARK TAYTI
Local News – Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Tribune Staff

PORT COLBORNE

Shell Canada is pulling out of Port Colborne, leaving some big questions about the future of the city’s only marine fuel dock.

“We’re concerned about the fuel dock continuing to operate in Port Colborne,” chief administrative officer Robert Cotterill said Tuesday.

He said Shell has told the city that its fuel operation in Port Colborne will cease at the end of July. read more

11 Jul 2007
 
NEW DELHI: Shell India will seriously consider the opportunities thrown up by the government’s auction of exploration acreages in future, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

“Shell continuously investigates and actively considers all opportunities in upstream ventures around the world, which includes India,” Shell country head (corporate affairs) Deepak Mukarji said.

The company has so far stayed away from the auctioning rounds and is in talks with ONGC for a tie-up.  read more