July, 2007:

Aleksei Miller, chief of Gazprom, presented the deal as a positive step.
(Dmitry Beliakov/Bloomberg News)

By Andrew E. Kramer
Published: July 12, 2007

MOSCOW: The French oil company Total has agreed to form a consortium with Gazprom to develop one of the world’s largest natural gas deposits, offshore in the Russian Arctic. The deal, announced Thursday, is a sign of the willingness of oil companies to continue work in Russia in spite of the risks of nationalization.

Total’s deal is a long-sought prize for foreign energy companies. The field holds enough natural gas to meet all European demand for seven years – but comes after two similar, large energy investments in Russia have been effectively nationalized just in the past six months. read more

Vidya Ram, 07.12.07, 12:59 PM ET
 
LONDON – France’s Total has been watching from the sidelines as other international oil and gas companies have gotten involved in lucrative Russian ventures. Therefore, the news that Gazprom has chosen the company as a partner to operate the Shtokman gas field, the world’s largest natural gas field, is no small victory, even though Total will be entering as a minority shareholder, without any ownership rights over the fields themselves.

Gazprom, by now expert at coding messages in its actions, is signaling that if companies are willing to play by its rules, they can have access to the country’s coveted resources. read more

Gazprom recently ditched plans to keep the project a solo one

Thursday, 12 July 2007, 10:01 GMT 11:01 UK 

Russian gas company Gazprom has chosen French energy firm Total as a partner to develop the Shtokman gas field.

Gazprom chief executive Alexei Millar said the Total would hold a 25% stake in the company controlling the infrastructure of the field.

The two firms are expected to sign an agreement on the project on Friday.

The gas field in the Barents Sea – holding an estimated with 3.2 trillion cubic metres of gas – could become the world’s largest offshore gas field. read more

July 12, 2007: 07:25 AM EST

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- A force majeure notice imposed on July crude oil exports from the Nigeria Forcados terminal remains in place, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC ( RDSB) spokesman said Thursday.

However, a small amount of fresh oil production has started from the field.

“There are small quantities being produced – between 1% and 3% on a daily basis of total capacity,” said Rainer Winzenried. “We cannot say we have resumed production – that would be totally overdone. read more

Market Blog: John Partridge, today at 9:06 AM EDT

It’s time to take a pause on Royal Dutch Shell, according to analyst Jon Rigby at UBS Securities in London.

He said in a report Thursday that he has chopped his rating on the petroleum giant’s shares to “neutral 2” from “buy 2,” following a 30 per cent climb in their price in sterling terms since March.

They were trading at £20.52 in London late Thursday, down 13 pence from Wednesday’s finish.

Still, Mr. Rigby also said he has pumped up his 12-month price target for the shares, to £23 from £21, “to reflect the impact of the stronger operating environment outlook that we see … and to reflect the track record of strong underlying performance increasingly evident at the company.” read more

By Lucian Kim and Torrey Clark
 
Alexei Miller, CEO of OAO Gazprom July 12 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest natural-gas producer, chose Total SA to help develop Shtokman, an Arctic offshore field that may hold enough gas to supply Europe for more than three years.

Paris-based Total will take 25 percent in an operating company that will finance, build and own infrastructure in the $20 billion project, while the Russian company will hold the rest, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller said in an e-mailed statement today. Gazprom may later offer 24 percent to one or more additional foreign partners, Miller said. read more

12 July 2007

Since October last year, a huge force of Gardaí have been in control of the Shell refinery site at Bellanaboy in North West Mayo. In the course of the peaceful protests by the local people and others who are opposed to Shell’s scheme, there have been many instances of Garda violence and scores of people have been injured, some seriously.

Despite the dozens of complaints to the Gardaí, the Garda Ombudsman Commission, TD’s, MEP’s etc, and despite the many instances of video evidence of Garda brutality, there has been no action taken against any member of the force. read more

By Dino Mahtani and Daniel Balint-Kurti in Lagos, Financial Times
Published: Apr 27, 2006

Royal Dutch Shell has admitted it has subcontracted work to companies run by Nigerian militant activists involved in a violent ethnic insurrection in 2003 that shut 40 per cent of the country’s oil output.

The activists in question also have links to a rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), that has attacked Shell oil facilities this year, shutting down over a fifth of oil output in the world’s eighth largest exporter. read more

By Dino Mahtani and Daniel Balint-Kurti in Lagos, Financial Times
Published: Apr 27, 2006

Royal Dutch Shell, the oil group, has admitted to subcontracting work to companies run by Nigerian militant activists involved in a 2003 insurrection that shut40 per cent of the country’s oil output.

The activists have links to a rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), that attacked Shell oil facilities this year. Analysts say subcontracting work to local strongmen is a practice used by companies to buy off militants threatening attacks on oil facilities in the region. read more

EXTRACT: Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA LN): A “mega merger” between any of the world’s biggest oil companies, such as BP Plc and Shell, is unlikely because it wouldn’t deliver sought-after gains in productivity or cost savings, researcher Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts Neil McMahon and Oswald Clint in London said in a report today. Shell stock fell 26 pence, or 1.2 percent, to 2065.

Bloomberg Headline: GlaxoSmithKline, Ryanair, Cadbury: U.K., Irish Equity Preview

By Trista Kelley read more

EXTRACT: Royal Dutch Shell may move on reports that a merger between any of the world’s biggest oil companies, such as BP and Shell, is unlikely.

7/12/2007 2:44:10 AM Thursday, the major European index futures are pointing to a lower opening. Nonetheless, buying interest may emerge as traders resort to bargain hunting following the sell-off of the past couple of sessions. The markets may also be encouraged by positive leads from Wall Street and the Asian markets. The price of crude oil remains unrelenting and may support the oil space. read more

Martyn Wingrove
Published: Jul 12, 2007

STATOIL and Shell have found more hydrocarbon resources in the Norwegian Sea that will support further subsea-based projects in the region.

Exploration drilling over the last two months has led to Statoil discovering more gas reserves in the Asgard area of the Norwegian Sea, and Shell has found more hydrocarbon resources in its promising Onyx Southwest discovery with an appraisal well.

Statoil used semi-submersible rig Stena Don to drill on the Yttergryta prospect, 1 km east of the Midgard field, which is producing oil via the Asgard Alpha and Bravo floating production facilities. read more

Published: Jul 12, 2007

BRAZIL’s Energy and Mines Ministry expects oil companies will invest between $108bn and $133bn over the next 10 years in order to explore and produce hydrocarbons to meet growing demand and to increase exports.

State-run oil group Petrobras will continue to contribute the most in oilfield expenditure from now to 2016, but international companies will be increasing their spending, as more oil and gas fields are discovered and developed.

The energy ministry predicts oilfield investment will be $46bn and $55bn for 2007 to 2011 as most of the oilfield projects are driven by Petrobras’ $40bn investment. read more

Published: Jul 12, 2007

SHELL and Gazprom have begun drilling the first Russian offshore gas production wells, starting a new phase of the Sakhalin II project, writes Martyn Wingrove.

Their operating venture, Sakhalin Energy, has started drilling on the Lunskoye A platform off Sakhalin to keep a $22bn offshore and liquefied natural gas project on track for exports next year.

Environmental groups believe the noise pollution from offshore construction work, which included installing topsides on an oil production platform, has affected whales breeding off the semi-Arctic island. read more

Published: Jul 12, 2007

BRISBANE, July 12 AAP – Kidnapped Australian oil worker Jason Lane has been released alive but sick after a “horrific” ordeal at the hands of militant rebels in the Niger Delta. The Queenslander was released overnight along with his four co-workers, a week after they were kidnapped from an Anglo-Dutch Shell oil rig.

His father Brian Lane says his son told him in a phone conversation shortly after his release he had contracted malaria during the ordeal. “He’s a little bit worse for the wear, he said it wasn’t a picnic, he said it was the most horrific thing he’d ever been through,” he told ABC radio. Though the phone call was brief, Mr Lane says it was a welcome relief to speak to his son after a week spent on tenterhooks. “What did I say? I said ‘Thank Christ for that! Hope you’re all right’. He just went through a few formalities, not very much, of what had happened. “It was only about three or four minutes of speaking but it was a good three or four minutes.” read more

Tony Gray
Published: Jul 12, 2007

A major liquefied natural gas project involving Shell and Qatar, requiring nine of the largest LNG carriers, is on course despite cost escalation of at least $1bn since initial agreement was reached 18 months ago.

Qatar Liquefied Gas Co (4), a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum (70%) and Shell (30%), was yesterday officially incorporated by the partners.

At the same time a Shell affiliate signed a sale and purchase agreement with the Qatargas 4 joint venture as buyer of all the LNG volume produced by the project. read more

Tom Shiel
Published: Jul 12, 2007

Three fisherman, who formed a “rugby like scrum” to force a Garda Sergeant into a drain during protests at the Corrib gas terminal in Bellanaboy last October, were each sentenced to three months in prison and fined 500 each and by a District Court Judge yesterday.

Father and son Patrick (49) and Jonathan O’Donnell (21), Porturlin Shore, Ballina, Co Mayo, were found guilty by Judge Mary Devins at Belmullet District Court of assaulting Sgt Donal Glennon during a Shell to Sea protest on October 12th last. read more

Published: Jul 12, 2007

THREE fisherman who formed a “rugby-like scrum” to force a garda into a drain during protests at the Corrib gas terminal, have been fined 500 each and sentenced to three months in prison.

Patrick O’Donnell (49) and his son Jonathan (21), of Porturlin Shore, Ballina, Co Mayo, were found guilty yesterday of assaulting Sgt Donal Glennon during a Shell to Sea protest in October.

In the Belmullet District Court, Judge Mary Devins sentenced Jonathan to a further month in prison and fined him 250 for assaulting Garda Barry Byrne on the same date. read more

EXTRACT: These deals are all about lowering risk, something which is particularly necessary in the western offshore, where Island also has some interesting acreage. In the Rockall Basin, the company is looking at a prospect analogous to the Corrib gas field – and if this proves up, Island will simply have to tap in to the infrastructure being built at huge cost by Shell and its partners.

Published: Jul 12, 2007

INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK: Island Oil and Gas chief executive Paul Griffiths

The firm’s simple business plan has won strong backing from investors read more

Published: Jul 12, 2007

The more success Research In Motion Ltd. achieves, the more unwanted attention it attracts, this time it is from the goddess of arts and crafts.

A new patent-infringement lawsuit against RIM, one of Canada’s best-known brands, surfaced this week, and experts say that is the price you pay for sitting at the top of the heap.

“The more successful a company becomes, the more sensitive they are to litigation. They become a much easier target for people to want to prey on them,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. “If you’re not successful … who cares?” read more

Published: Jul 12, 2007

CALGARY – Oilsands skeptic BP PLC has finally caved after years of ignoring Alberta’s oil-soaked dirt in its influential tally of world energy resources.

The oil giant, one of the few super-majors in the world without a significant oilsands project under development, has long been reluctant to count the number of potential barrels in the unconventional, economically challenged oilsands in its annual Statistical Review Of World Energy.

The London-based company pulled a quiet about-face late last month, however, and its highly regarded publication now lists Canadian oilsands as containing 163.5 billion barrels of undeveloped reserves — oil that could be produced using today’s technologies and in today’s economic climate — among a total of 1.37 trillion barrels worldwide. read more

By Dino Mahtani, Financial Times
Published: Jul 12, 2007

The production of liquefied natural gas is expected to become critical to world energy needs and Nigeria’s performance will be in the spotlight.

It holds the world’s seventh-largest reserves of natural gas and wants to more than double its exports of LNG to be near the top of world export tables within five years. Global demand for LNG is set to rise by 9 per cent a year during the next decade and any delays to Nigerian projects could have significant repercussions on international gas markets. read more

Financial Times
Published: Jul 12, 2007

Standing in a luxurious hotel room in the capital Abuja in a suit and tie, a militant leader from the oily swamps of the Niger Delta reveals his strategy to the FT.

“First you do war-war and then it’s a bit of jaw-jaw,” he says, standing over a draft contract for work on a state-owned gas pipeline that his own armed group had blown up in an act of “war-war” before negotiations, or “jaw-jaw” began.

The leader, carrying the code name “Duty Calls”, had flown to Abuja after militant attacks on oil and gas facilities last year cut about a quarter of Nigeria’s oil output. “If we get the contract, things may calm down,” he says. read more

· Possibility of expulsions and tit-for-tat reprisals
· Miliband weighs options in murder suspect row

Luke Harding in Moscow and Julian Borger
Thursday July 12, 2007
 
Britain is on the brink of a diplomatic crisis with Russia which could see the expulsion of several diplomats from London and tit-for-tat reprisals by Moscow. The Foreign Office and Downing Street are preparing to send a strong signal to the Kremlin following its refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB agent suspected of murdering Alexander Litvinenko last November. On Monday, Russian prosecutors formally announced that Mr Lugovoi would not be handed over to the UK, on the grounds that Russia’s constitution prevents his extradition. read more

Last Updated: 12:24am BST 12/07/2007

A round-up of headlines from across the financial sectors, provided by Bloomberg News

ENERGY

• Royal Dutch Shell, 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.

• Shares of Empyrean Energy, an oil and gas explorer, rose to a six-month high following the arrival of a rig at its drilling prospect in Texas. read more

July 12, 2007
Large caps
James Rossiter

The FTSE 100 closed 15.8 points down at 6,615.1, pulled lower by down-grades to BP and Royal Dutch Shell by brokers at Goldman Sachs. Goldman added Shell to its “conviction sell” list with a £19 target. Royal Dutch B shares fell 29p to £21.07. BP, down 6½p to 605p, moved from “buy” to “neutral”.

Extract: for the complete article go to…

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article2062134.ece

By Susan Kelly
July 11, 2007

Companies in the oil business occupy six of the top 10 spots in Fortune’s latest list of the biggest 500 businesses around the world.

Wal-Mart regained the top spot in the latest Global 500, pushing last year’s top company, ExxonMobil, to second place. But Wal-Mart is the only retailer in the top 10. In addition to ExxonMobil, the oil companies in the top 10 include Royal Dutch Shell in third place, BP in fourth place, Chevron in seventh place and ConocoPhillips and Total in ninth and tenth place, respectively. read more

Associated Press

YENAGOA, NIGERIA — Gunmen have released seven kidnapped oil industry workers — five foreigners seized from a rig a week ago and two senior Nigerian managers taken captive last weekend, police and company officials said Wednesday.

Nigerian security forces helped negotiate the release of the five foreigners, Bayelsa state police spokesman Inyebom Inidong said. The two New Zealanders, one Australian, one Venezuelan and one Lebanese were subcontractors to oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. read more

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

Nils Pratley
Wednesday July 11, 2007

The last time oil was at $76 a barrel, which was only 11 months ago, a chorus line emerged to tell us it would not last. Speculative money was at play, political tensions would ease, and American drivers would notice a rise in pump prices. All were good points, and a reasonable explanation of why the oil price fell rapidly over the next few months; by January, Brent was close to $50 a barrel.

So why is it at $76 again? Certainly, speculative money is back. Oil, despite being a vast market with huge daily volumes, is also territory for financial players, who these days even include pension funds, who have been persuaded that modern investment portfolios need a smattering of commodities. read more

The first sentence of the executive summary of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) influential “Medium Term Oil Market Report,” released today, states the broad outlines of the problem baldly: “Despite four years of high oil prices, this report sees increasing market tightness beyond 2010, with OPEC spare capacity declining to minimal levels by 2012.”

Demand for oil products — primarily transportation fuels — is growing fast. You can blame all those developing countries whose populations are approaching the critical $3,000 per capita GDP level — that magic moment when, according to the IEA, “a middle class usually emerges, eager to purchase cars, fly in aeroplanes, install air-conditioners and, more generally, use energy-consuming appliances.” Don’t blame a lack of refinery capacity — the IEA says investment in refinery upgrades is proceeding apace, and is not likely to be a problem in the near future. But overall, supply of the raw product — oil and gas — is having a harder and harder time keeping up with demand. read more

by Macdonald Stainsby / July 10th, 2007

The primarily indigenous and mostly Cree (also ‘Chipewyan Dene’) community of Fort MacKay — just north of the internationally famous tar sand “boom” city of Fort McMurray — is said to be the “richest First Nation in Canada.” The question should be asked: How well does this reach the entire community, and does the economic benefit outweigh the cost?

Let me describe the approach to Fort MacKay from “Fort Muck.” The only official community north of McMurray on the highway is MacKay, a community of about 500 people 40-odd kilometers down the mighty Athabasca River. On a highway like this one, a person would normally see car traffic every few minutes. On this particular road, the traffic is every few seconds. At shift change — with several of these every day of the year, around the clock– the highway is bumper to bumper the entire route. Where two generations ago there was nothing but muskeg forest, there is now sandy wastelands. Where there were rivers, there are now 9 storey-deep holes, often filled with useless mounds of treated earth. Where there were lakes with fish, there are tailings ponds with cancer-causing waste. In short, where there was life there is now death. read more

Someone posts cryptic messages on Live Chat on a regular basis. Rather than just deleting them permanently, they will now be deleted from Live Chat but added to this article. Anyone who wants to read them can just do a search on “cryptic”.

Posted 10/11 July 2007

guest_735 : Dreep, VinBark +-.

guest_9872 : refidomsa

Posted 10 July 2007

guest_5466 : BV

guest_735 : Bill; Vark – sent vame. To the Bost Vark. “Bost Vark” I say . . . “Bost Vark, veek, vark!” Bill Vark, Bil Vark, Bill Vark, Bill Vark, Bill Vark, Bill Vark. # please, mmm. Bill Vark. read more

10 July 2007

The world’s biggest energy project of its kind, the $22 billion Sakhalin-2 project in Russia, has been damaged by devastating leaks and allegations over the past two years made to a non-commercial website www.royaldutchshellplc.com recently described by the Financial Times as being anti-Shell.

Shell was the majority shareholder in the company set up to manage the Sakhalin-2 project: Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC).

The so called “Kremlin attack dog”, Oleg Mitvol – the deputy head of the Russian environmental agency Rosprirodnadzor – confirmed that his threatened $30 billion lawsuit against Shell for alleged environmental violations rested on evidence provided by the website owner, John Donovan, who received leaked documents from Sakhalin-2 insiders. Shell surrendered and was forced to allow the Russian energy company Gazprom to take a majority stake in SEIC. read more

By Stephen Voss

July 10 (Bloomberg) — An OAO Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell Plc joint venture said endangered whales were unaffected by loud noise from oil and gas construction work off the coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia. Environmental groups were unconvinced.

Construction activity has had “no discernable impact” on the Western Gray Whale population and underwater noise levels remained within agreed parameters, the venture said in a statement today.

On July 6, it handed over two weeks worth of noise- monitoring and whale-sighting data to environmental groups, including the Worldwide Fund for Nature and International Fund for Animal Welfare, who raised concern that noise had displaced some whales during their summer feeding period. read more

Tuesday July 10, 2007 02:23
 
A recent independent report by a delegation of international human rights and environmental activists has slammed the actions of the Gardai in Mayo for suppressing peaceful protest and creating civil unrest.

The report, issued by the Global Community Monitor (GCM), was compiled from evidence gathered at a public hearing as well as through interviews, emails and video footage. It does not, however, take a position in relation to the construction of Shell’s pipeline. read more

Governor sees need for commercially viable biofuels; gives support to research, $5 million to Texas A&M efforts

By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

The state will make the development of alternative energy and biofuels a bigger priority under a new strategy outlined Monday by Gov. Rick Perry.

The initiative is focused on creating commercially viable products — especially non-corn-based ethanol — to help Texas keep pace with its rising energy needs and ensure its position as a world energy capital. read more

By Christian Schmollinger and Shigeru Sato

July 10 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil was little changed in New York after falling from a 10-month high yesterday on signs demand will ease following U.S. refinery shutdowns.

BP Plc is shutting the largest of three crude units at its refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a person familiar with the plant said. Units were shut at refineries in Texas and Kansas last week. Oil inventories are 12.5 percent higher than their five- year average, said a July 5 U.S. Energy Department report. read more

By Ed Crooks in London and Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: July 10 2007 03:00 | Last updated: July 10 2007 03:00

Royal Dutch Shell said it is still interested in further expansion in Russia as it signed a strategic co-operation deal with Rosneft, the country’s biggest oil company by market value, in spite of its bruising experience last year over the Sakhalin-2 project.

The two companies gave no details of the specific projects they would pursue as part of the deal but said they would co-operate in both oil and gas, upstream and downstream, in Russia and internationally. read more

By 2012, Production
Is Expected to Fall
Short Of Global Demand
By BHUSHAN BAHREE
July 10, 2007; Page A12

The industrialized world’s energy watchdog added to rising concerns in some quarters that oil and natural gas production won’t keep up with the world’s growing thirst for energy in coming years, highlighting worries over supplies and prices.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency, which monitors energy markets on behalf of the world’s 26 most-advanced economies, yesterday released its annual medium-term forecast, projecting conditions through 2012. The agency expects oil supply to be tighter in coming years than it had forecast, with little prospect of relief unless world economic growth falters. read more