August 2nd, 2007:

By Guy Faulconbridge
Thu Aug 2, 9:16 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian explorers dived deep below the North Pole in a submersible on Thursday and planted a national flag on the seabed to stake a symbolic claim to the energy riches of the Arctic.

A mechanical arm dropped a specially made rust-proof titanium flag onto the Arctic seabed at a depth of 4,261 meters (13,980 ft), Itar-Tass news agency quoted expedition officials as saying.

Russia wants to extend right up to the North Pole the territory it controls in the Arctic, believed to hold vast reserves of untapped oil and natural gas. read more

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 12:17am BST 02/08/2007

Russia threatened to halve gas supplies to Belarus from Friday, prompting concern that the dispute could yet again lead to cuts across the Continent.

The European Union called yesterday for a swift resolution to the row, sparked because Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom says Belarus has unpaid bills of around $456m (£225m).

Western Europe receives almost 20pc of its gas via pipelines running through Belarus. Gazprom said it would continue to pump gas to the West, but could not guarantee that Belarus would not siphon off some for its own use. However, Gazprom has notified customers in western Europe that it may have to use alternative routes. read more

02 Aug 2007 

As part of an ongoing strategy of portfolio management, Société des Pétroles Shell (Shell) has received an offer for the sale of its Berre-l’Etang refinery site complex and associated infrastructure and businesses to Basell. A purchase price of $700 million has been agreed.

The sale is subject to staff consultation and regulatory approval. Shell will be working closely with the appropriate trade unions and staff representatives as it has been doing since the announcement to review the ownership of the assets was made in January 2007. It is anticipated that any deal would be concluded in early 2008. read more

Extracts

BP Ranked 84 out of 100 global brands:

Oil spills in Alaska and a disastrous 2005 refinery explosion in Texas have undermined the promise of “Beyond Petroleum.”

Shell ranked 93 out of 100 global brands:

Shell was damaged by a scandal over overstated reserves, but it is back on track in a strong oil market.

For the entire list and information on basis on which rankings were compiled go to…

http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2007/0732_globalbrands.pdf

Thu Aug 2, 2007 2:57 PM BST
By Alex Lawler

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell sold three French oil refineries and gas field stakes in Norway for $2.5 billion (1.23 billion pounds) on Thursday, pressing ahead with its strategy to divest lower-returning assets.

Swiss-based oil refiner Petroplus will buy oil refineries at Petit Couronne and Reichstett Vendenheim for $875 million, while Basell has agreed to buy the Berre-l’Etang plant for $700 million.

The deals reflect Shell’s strategy to focus on faster-growing regions and analysts said the sales may signal the company is betting that a period of rising profit from oil refining in Europe may not last. read more

Thursday 02 August 2007

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell is selling three refineries in France and stakes in two Norwegian oil and gas fields for a total $2.5bn, the company announced on Thursday. The sales still have to be approved by the relevant competition authorities.

Shell has been reorganising its refining activities for several years, reducing interests in less profitable countries and boosting investment in growth markets such as Asia.

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/08/shell_sells_assets_totalling_2.php read more

02 Aug 2007 

A/S Norske Shell (‘Shell’) today announced that the company has entered into an agreement with E.ON Ruhrgas Norge AS to sell its 28% equity interests in the undeveloped Skarv and Idun fields for US$ 893 million. The agreement covers the licenses PL-159, PL-212, PL-212B and PL-262 in the Norwegian Sea.  

David Loughman, Managing Director A/S Norske Shell, said: “We remain fully committed to Norway and continue to consider this to be a key area of growth within our European business. We are currently making major investments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Ormen Lange development, where Shell assumes operatorship in November 2007, is very important in our growth strategy. We are currently investing in increased output from the Shell operated Draugen asset, the development of Gjøa and further development of the Statfjord, Troll, Kvitebjørn and Valhall assets. In addition we continue a very active exploration drilling program in the deep-water areas of the Norwegian Sea.” read more

EXTRACT: Rep. Frelinghuysen has more than $100,000 invested in Conoco Phillips, and more than $250,000 in Royal Dutch/Shell, which has had interests in Iran, according to the SEC.

By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 02, 2007

(CNSNews.com) – More than 30 members of Congress, or their spouses, invest in companies that do business in countries that the U.S. government says sponsor terrorists, a Cybercast News Service investigation has established.

Financial disclosure forms show that Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) — one of the leading national security experts in Congress — has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in nine corporations listed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as doing or having done business with a terror-sponsoring state. read more

02 Aug 2007 

As part of an ongoing strategy of portfolio management, Shell International Petroleum Company Limited (Shell) has signed a Letter of Intent with Petroplus Holdings AG relating to the possible sale of two of its French refineries. Shell and Petroplus will discuss detailed terms, including developing a processing arrangement for the production of speciality products such as lubricants, with a view to agreeing and concluding a potential sale during 2008.  

The sale, which would be part of an ongoing strategic review of a number of Shell’s refining and petrochemicals assets, would include the Petit Couronne and Reichstett Vendenheim refineries and associated infrastructure and businesses. read more

Singapore (Platts)–2Aug2007

Royal Dutch Shell has signed a letter of intent for the possible sale of two of its French refineries with a combined capacity of 220,000 b/d to Switzerland-based independent refiner Petroplus for $875 million, the oil major said Thursday.

The sale, which is part of Shell’s ongoing strategic review of a number of its refining and petrochemicals assets, includes the Petit Couronne and the Reichstett Vendenheim refineries, and associated infrastructure and businesses.   read more

By Kristian Rix and Fred Pals

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — Petroplus Holdings AG, a Swiss oil refiner, agreed to buy two French refineries from Royal Dutch Shell Plc for $475 million to profit from higher demand for fuels. The shares jumped the most in six months.

The refineries, Petit Couronne and Reichstett Vendenheim, have a combined capacity of 239,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Zug, Switzerland-based Petroplus said in a statement distributed by Business Wire today. The company expects the purchase to be completed in the second quarter of next year. read more

By Fred Pals

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — E.ON AG, Germany’s biggest utility, agreed to buy a 28 percent stake in two Norwegian gas fields from Royal Dutch Shell Plc to increase its natural-gas production.

E.ON will pay Shell $893 million for stakes in the Skarv and Idun fields, the Dusseldorf-based company said in a statement today on its Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Pals in Amsterdam at [email protected]

Last Updated: August 2, 2007 05:32 EDT

By Joe Carroll

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp. sent engineers to advise Eni SpA on how to develop Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field, the biggest oil discovery in 30 years, after costs more than doubled to $136 billion.

Exxon Mobil’s technical advisers will use experience gained from working on other ice-plagued, offshore oil projects to assist Eni, operator of the project, said Margaret Ross, a Exxon spokeswoman. Italy’s Eni will also draw on the expertise of some of its other partners in the field, she said. read more

By Christian Schmollinger

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom’s Sakhalin Energy liquefied natural gas plant on the island is unaffected by earthquakes, a spokesman said.

“Nothing is wrong,” Alexey Okhotnikov said by telephone from the island of Sakhalin, off Russia’s Pacific coast. “Got a feeling of a lot of moving and shaking. This is just normal.”

State-run Gazprom bought a majority shareholding in the Sakhalin Energy joint venture in April from Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. read more

The Associated Press
Published: August 2, 2007

PARIS: Oil company Total SA said Thurdsay that second-quarter net profit was little changed as improved refinery margins failed to offset the weaker dollar.

Net income declined 1 percent to €3.41 billion (US$4.66 billion) from €3.44 billion (US$4.7 billion) in the same period a year ago, said Total, the world’s fourth-largest publicly traded oil company.

“Oil prices rebounded to high levels approaching those that we saw in 2006,” Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said in a statement accompanying the quarterly results. read more

Story Highlights

NEW: 3 quakes kill 2 people on Russian island of Sakhalin, says ministry

Quake caused small tsunami on west coast of Japan’s Hokkaido; no damage

No reports of injuries or damage in Japan from the quakes or tsunami waves
    
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia (Reuters) — A series of three earthquakes killed two people on Russia’s Pacific island of Sakhalin on Thursday, the Russian emergencies ministry said.

1 of 2  Japan’s Meteorological Agency registered the first earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 off Sakhalin. It was felt in nearby Japan but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury there. read more

Thu Aug 2, 2007 2:37AM EDT

PARIS, Aug 2 (Reuters) – France’s Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) reported a 7.8 percent decline in second-quarter adjusted net profit as lower gas prices and a weaker dollar exchange rate outweighed a rebound in its hydrocarbon production.

Total bucked an industry-wide trend of falling oil and gas output as its new 220,000 barrel-per-day Dalia field in offshore Angola came on stream, helping to lift production by 1.4 percent to 2.322 million barrels of oil equivalent. read more

By Aaron Sheldrick

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — Two earthquakes, one of magnitude 6.2, struck near Sakhalin Island in eastern Russia today, the U.S. Geological Survey said. One person was killed and Japan’s government said a small tsunami hit the island of Hokkaido.

The first, stronger quake struck 81 kilometers (50 miles) west of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Sakhalin at 1:37 p.m. local time and 205 kilometers north of Wakkanai in Hokkaido, the USGS said on its Web site. The quake’s depth was 5 kilometers. The second quake, of magnitude 6.1, occurred at 4:22 p.m. eastern Russian time, in the same area with a depth of 21 kilometers. read more

Sir Mark Moody-Stuart (*the man who laid the groundwork for the Shell reserves fraud)

DHAHRAN, August 01, 2007 —  The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah ibn ‘Abd al-’Aziz Al-Sa’ud, on July 18 ordered the formation of the Saudi Aramco Board of Directors under the chairmanship of Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali I. Al-Naimi.

The new board will serve starting September 27, 2007, and will be composed, in addition to Al-Naimi, of: Dr. Ibrahim A. Al-Assaf, Minister of Finance and Member of the Council of Ministers; Dr. Mohammed I. Al-Suwaiyel, President of King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST); Dr. Abdul Rahman A. Al-Tuwaijri, Secretary General of the Supreme Economic Council and Chairman of the Capital Markets Authority; Dr. Khalid S. Al-Sultan, Rector of King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM); Abdallah S. Jum’ah, president and CEO; Abdulaziz F. Al-Khayyal, senior vice president of Refining, Marketing & International; Khalid A. Al-Falih, senior vice president of Industrial Relations; Salim S. Al-Aydh, senior vice president of Engineering and Project Management; James W. Kinnear, former president and CEO of Texaco; Mark Moody-Stuart, former Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group; and Peter Woicke, former Executive Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Managing Director of the World Bank.
 
Al-Sultan, Al-Aydh, Moody-Stuart and Woicke are new members of the board. Dr. Khalid S. Al-Sultan is the fourth rector of KFUPM and the first graduate of that institution to hold this position.  He also has served as the Kingdom’s Deputy Minister for Educational Affairs. read more

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — Osaka Gas Co., Japan’s second-biggest natural gas distributor, agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in Nexus Energy Ltd.’s Crux condensates project off northwest Australia, which is due to start production in 2010.

The Japanese utility will pay A$75 million ($64 million) for the interest, valuing the project at A$500 million, Melbourne- based Nexus said today in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. The partners plan to seek more exploration prospects, targeting “significant potential gas resources,” Nexus said. read more

Martyn Wingrove, Lloyds List
Published: Aug 02, 2007

SHELL Exploration and Production has started production at its Deimos deepwater oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico, which will boost its US output levels.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major’s US subsidiary has tied back three subsea oil wells on Deimos to the nearby Mars tension leg platform to keep this floating system producing at plateau levels.

This is the first phase of developing Deimos, which Shell discovered in 2002, and which will have a peak production level of around 30,000 barrels a day. Shell and its partner in the project, British oil major BP, are considering options for the second phase of development at Deimos. read more

Published: Aug 02, 2007

MALAYSIA’S petrol dealers must be desperately unhappy with their lot, judging by the confrontational efforts of the Petrol Dealers’ Association of Malaysia to improve it. A couple of years ago, the association threatened to stop accepting credit card payments, which account for more than a third of their sale transactions, because of the 1.25 per cent commission financial institutions levy on such transactions. On margins of eight sen per litre of petrol and 3.5 sen for diesel, these charges enabled banks to make almost as much as petrol stations on fuel sold. read more

Published: Aug 02, 2007

Eamon Ryan’s decision to impose a resource tax on offshore operators is sure to receive a cool response, writes Lorna Siggins , Marine Correspondent

“When are we going to get rid of this bloody chancellor? Does he want the oil and gas industry and the jobs it provides to disappear?” The offshore exploration industry does not take interference in its activities lightly, judging by this reaction from an Aberdeen chief executive almost two years ago when Gordon Brown, now Britain’s prime minister, introduced a windfall tax on North Sea companies. read more

PAT FLANAGAN
Published: Aug 02, 2007

IRELAND could be on the verge of a multi-billion euro bonanza after the Government invited companies to explore for oil and gas in the Atlantic.

But energy firms who take up the offer will have to pay dearly when they discover oil and gas fields off the West Coast.

Natural Resources minister Eamon Ryan said yesterday new exploration and production licences will see hiked taxes of up to 40 per cent on profits from newly-discovered reserves.

He added: “The basis for this decision was to ensure a greater return from our own natural resources, while maintaining the incentive for companies to explore our shores. read more

1st August 2007
By Clare Watson

Dominion and Shell WindEnergy have revealed that they are planning to add a second phase to their wind energy project currently under construction in Grant County, West Virginia. The added phase of the project will increase the wind farm’s capacity to 264MW.

Dominion and Shell WindEnergy have formed a new company, NedPower Mount Storm, to own the facility. The first phase of the project, which consists of 82 turbines producing 164MW, or enough electricity for 41,000 homes, is under construction at a site near Dominion’s Mount Storm power station. It is scheduled to begin operation in Q4 2007. read more

Thu Aug 2, 2007 1:29AM EDT

ZURICH, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Swiss-based oil refiner Petroplus said on Thursday it planned to acquire two refineries in France from Royal Dutch Shell for $475 million, excluding net working capital.

Petroplus said it intends to buy the refineries at Petit Couronne and Reichstett Vendenheim, which have a combined total nameplate crude capacity of 239,000 barrels per day.

Net working capital in the agreed purchase prices is expected to be about $400 million.

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. read more

Talks Are Resumed
To Finalize an Accord
On Siberia Gas Field
By JAN HROMADKO and ANDREAS HEITKER
August 2, 2007

FRANKFURT — E.On AG aims to build on friendly ties with OAO Gazprom to tap Russia’s energy wealth, even as Russian-U.K. relations sour and foreign oil companies relinquish control of Russian resources.

Düsseldorf, Germany-based E.On, the world’s largest nongovernment owned, publicly traded utility by market value, has resumed negotiations with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom over final details of a swap agreement to give E.On a stake of 25% minus one share in the massive Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field in Western Siberia, E.On Chief Executive Wulf Bernotat said. read more