July 18th, 2007:

08:50 – 18 July 2007
 
Top figures from the worldwide oil and gas industry will be in Aberdeen at the start of September for the Offshore Europe show.

Leading the debate will be Mark Carne, managing director and executive vice-president for Europe and central Asia for BG Group, who is the conference chairman.

Joining him in the opening session will be: Malcolm Brinded, executive director for exploration and production at Royal Dutch Shell; David Lesar, chairman, president and chief executive at oilfield service giant Halliburton; Robert Olsen, chairman and production director at ExxonMobil; and Frank Chapman, chief executive at BG Group. read more

Alex Nicholson
July 18, 2007

MOSCOW (AP) – A top adviser on foreign economic policy to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice encouraged Russia on Wednesday to give foreign companies a bigger role in developing its vast but remote oil and gas reserves in the Arctic and Eastern Siberia.

Reuben Jeffery III called Russia a “key player in the global energy equation,” noting that Russian supplies were “critical to global energy security.”

He was speaking on his first official trip overseas since taking up the post of U.S. undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs in June. read more

Published: July 18, 2007 at 11:35 AM

By ANDREA R. MIHAILESCU
UPI Energy Correspondent

Syria’s decline in crude oil production has gathered pace in the first quarter of 2007, according to figures released by the government as it seeks to promote fresh exploration efforts.

In the first quarter of this year, oil production averaged 382,300 barrels per day, compared with about 400,000 bpd in 2006 and 430,000 bpd the previous year, according to the Ministry of Petroleum.

If output continues to decline at the same rate as in the first quarter, Syria could become a net oil importer by the end of 2008, but the government hopes to stem the rate of decline through enhanced oil recovery operations in both marginal and mature fields. read more

Email sent 18 July 2007 (copied to Jeroen van der Veer, Jorma Ollila and Malcolm Brinded)

Dear Mr Brandjes

You were kind enough to set in motion our application under the UK Data Protection Act.

Since we do not have an email address for the Company Secretarial, I would be grateful if you could kindly pass on to them this response to their letter hand delivered to us by courier at 9pm on Friday 13th July 2007.

Best regards
John Donovan

18 July 2007
Company Secretarial                                                                                    
Shell International Limited
Shell Centre                                                                                      
London SE1 7NA       
                                                                       
Dear Sirs read more

By Stephen Voss

July 17 (Bloomberg) — Pipeline construction at OAO Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in eastern Russia is causing mudflows and landslides, contaminating rivers and streams, a local branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.

Field studies on June 2 by the Far Eastern Geological Institute of the academy’s Far Eastern Department concluded that anti-erosion efforts were inadequate, Nikolay Kazakov, the institute’s deputy director, wrote in a July 13 letter to the Sakhalin region’s Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment. read more

By Trista Kelley and Adam Haigh

July 18 (Bloomberg) — The following stocks may rise or fall in U.K. and Irish markets today. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from yesterday’s market close.

U.K. Companies:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA LN): The trans-Niger pipeline feeding the Bonny export terminal of Shell’s Nigerian venture is burning in six separate locations after protesters set fire to it a few weeks ago, a spokesman said. Shell shares added 12 pence, or 0.6 percent, to 2052. read more

MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) – The supervisory council at Sakhalin Energy has endorsed one of the company’s main buy-sell agreements on liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its first extraordinary session with the participation of new shareholder Gazprom (RTS: GAZP), the Industry and Energy Ministry said in a statement.

“Thus, it can be said that almost all the gas (9.55 million tonnes per year) refined at the two LNG lines have been contracted,” he said. tj

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/finances/26.html?id_issue=11792522 read more

Summary

The Russian government is expected to respond to the United Kingdom’s expulsion of four Russian diplomats — which itself was a reaction to Moscow’s refusal to extradite the key suspect in the poisoning death of former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. Speculation is running rampant over what the next moves will be and whether the poisoning of a former agent will lead to a break in business between Russia and the United Kingdom. However, while each country is maintaining its pride and acting against the other, neither will allow the situation to degrade into anything beyond typical Cold War games. read more

BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Published: Jul 18, 2007

The following is a selection of quotes from articles published in the 18 July editions of Russian newspapers, as available to the BBC at 2300 gmt on 17 July 2007:

Russia-Britain

Rossiyskaya Gazeta (state-owned daily) – “The Russian Foreign Ministry thinks that the current punitive measures by [British Foreign Secretary David] Miliband against Russia are dictated by an attempt to justify its unwillingness to cooperate on the extradition of [tycoon Boris] Berezovskiy and [Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed] Zakayev. It appears that this is the reason why this political spectacle has been staged. read more

By Stefan Wagstyl, Catherine Belton and Isabel Gorst
Published: July 18 2007 03:00 | Last updated: July 18 2007 03:00

British business is braced for a possible increase in costs and delays in dealing with Russian officials despite claims from Moscow that the diplomatic dispute will have no effect on commercial life.

They fear they could face extra red tape over everything from tax returns to residence permits and are especially worried about visa applications. The worst affected could be short-term business visitors, who often travel on tourist visas that are easier to secure quickly than business visas. read more

Colombia’s state oil company Ecopetrol and multinational Shell have signed a contract to explore jointly the Caño Sur block in Colombia’s Llanos Orientales region, Ecopetrol said in a statement.

The block measures 653,662ha and is southeast of the city of Villavicencio.

State hydrocarbons regulator ANH approved the contract and each company will control a 50% stake in the block.

Ecopetrol will operate the block during the exploratory stage, according to the statement.

Seismic information will first be collected and an exploratory well will be drilled in 2008, according to the statement. read more

Dina O’Meara
Canadian Press

CALGARY – Royal Dutch Shell says it will base its North and South American conventional and unconventional oil and gas programs in Calgary as part of its integration of Shell Canada into the parent company’s global operations.

Shell Canada, which was recently privatized when majority shareholder Royal Dutch bought it out, will see its oilsands operations report to the de Haag-based petroleum products business unit, but run out of Calgary, president Adrian Loader said. read more