August 17th, 2007:

Posted on Aug. 17, 2007
By Michael J. Economides and Pavel Romanov

Two decades of Pax Americana are coming to a screeching halt. Starting with Ronald Reagan, the end of the Cold War, and the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire, the world was supposed to enter a new era of democracy, freedom, and free enterprise, far away from what everybody thought was stifling state control.

Fat chance. It all began with the low oil prices Ronald Reagan precipitated in the mid-80s by persuading Saudi Arabia to flood the market. This caused the Soviet Union, whose economy was then entirely dependent on oil and gas for hard currency, to crash. Those very same oil prices have now gone full circle, giving Russia and others renewed reasons for bravado. Enough to once again cover their other deficiencies. read more

By Dinakar Sethuraman

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) — Chevron Corp. said the company and its partners Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are “committed” to Australia’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas project.

The three companies agree “on the way forward,” Chevron spokesman Cameron van Ast said today. He was responding to reports citing Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson as saying the project can’t proceed because of escalating costs.

Credit Suisse analyst Mark Flannery yesterday cited Tillerson as saying that all partners agree the project can’t continue at current costs. Tillerson, who held a 90-minute meeting with analysts in New York on Aug. 15, also said that the LNG plant may be moved to contain costs, Flannery said in his note to clients. read more

WILL RASMUSSEN REUTERS CAIRO

Egypt’s plans to phase out gas subsidies to industry could stimulate investment by international oil and gas companies, and help raise gas supplies both for domestic use and for export.

Energy-intensive industries in Egypt will have to pay more than double the current price they pay for natural gas over the coming three years, the government said this week.

The pricing change will make selling to the domestic market more profitable for energy giants investing billions of dollars in the country, such as Shell and BP, giving them an alternative to selling gas on the international market. read more

17 August 2007

The U.S. sold almost $1 billion in oil obtained as royalty-in-kind payments to six refiners.

The 14.2 million barrels of oil, valued by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, were originally sent by Gulf of Mexico oil producers to the federal government in lieu of royalties, or as so-called RIK payments. The bulk of the oil, 12.7 million barrels, will go to two companies under a special small refiner program.

“The Minerals Management Service has made RIK crude oil available to small refiners for decades in an effort to provide them with a consistent oil supply at market prices,” Randall Luthi, the service’s director, said today in an e-mailed statement. read more

By SARAH COOKE, Associated Press
Last updated: 12:03 a.m., Friday, August 17, 2007
 
HELENA, Mont. — A 35-year-old Canadian woman has given birth to rare identical quadruplets, officials at a Great Falls hospital said Thursday. Karen Jepp of Calgary, Alberta, delivered Autumn, Brooke, Calissa and Dahlia by Caesarian section Sunday afternoon at Benefis Healthcare, said Amy Astin, the hospital’s director of community and government relations.
  
The four girls were breathing without ventilators and listed in good condition Thursday, she said. read more

Aug 18, 2007 
By Michael T Klare

When “peak oil” theory was first widely publicized in such path-breaking books as Kenneth Deffeyes’ Hubbert’s Peak (2001), Richard Heinberg’s The Party’s Over (2002), David Goodstein’s Out of Gas (2004), and Paul Roberts’ The End of Oil (2004), [1] energy-industry officials and their government associates largely ridiculed the notion.

An imminent peak – and subsequent decline – in global petroleum output was derided as crackpot science with little geological foundation. “Based on [our] analysis,” the US Department of Energy confidently asserted in 2004, “[we] would expect conventional oil to peak closer to the middle than to the beginning of the 21st century.” read more

Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:24AM EDT
By Austin Ekeinde

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) – The government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s main oil city, on Friday after dozens of people were killed in gun battles.

Up to 40 people died in street fighting between troops and heavily armed gangsters on Thursday, local newspapers reported, and residents said they expected the gunmen to return to the sprawling riverside city, which serves as the base for Africa’s largest oil industry. read more

By John Donovan

Friday 17 August 2007

A contributor to Live Chat has mocked our references to the surreptitious activities of Shell directed us and our website www.royaldutchshellplc.com.

Once again the contributor is ill informed. We have recent correspondence with Keith Ruddock, General Counsel of Shell EP, confirming Shell’s secret moves against the website. We also have information obtained from Shell under the Data Protection Act which further confirm Shell’s malicious intent and actions already taken. read more

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CIV

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23. 2001

(202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV

TDD (202) 514-1888

SHELL OIL TO PAY UNITED STATES $110 MILLION FOR UNDERPAYMENT OF OIL ROYALTIES

WASHINGTON, D.C. Shell Oil Company has agreed to pay $110 million to resolve claims under the False Claims Act, and administrative claims that Shell underpaid royalties due for oil produced on federal leases from 1980 to December 31, 1998, the Justice Department announced today.

Federal leases are administered by the Minerals Management Service of the United States Department of the Interior. Each month, oil companies are required to report the amount of oil produced and the value of the oil produced on Federal and Indian leases. The companies pay royalties based upon the value of the oil they report. read more

Martyn Wingrove, Lloyds List
Published: Aug 17, 2007

CHEVRON’s Greater Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia may be delayed or even postponed because development costs could be too high, writes Martyn Wingrove.

Chevron’s partner in the project, US major ExxonMobil, is reported to have said the project plan, which involves building a double train plant on Barrow Island off the Australian coast, is too expensive.

The two US oil companies and partner Royal Dutch Shell are thought to be considering moving the plant to an onshore location. read more

JOHN PORRETTO, AP Worldstream
Published: Aug 17, 2007

The tropical weather season revved up as the Atlantic’s first hurricane formed and quickly strengthened, and as Tropical Storm Erin’s remnants soaked rain-weary Texas, snarling rush-hour traffic and killing at least two people.

Even as they fetched dozens of stranded drivers Thursday, authorities in Houston and San Antonio looked over their shoulders at Hurricane Dean, a Category 2 storm building in the Atlantic as it neared islands in the eastern Caribbean. Hurricane warnings were issued for some islands, and a tropical storm warning was issued for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. read more

SIMON BAIN
August 17 2007

Shell has announced a further expansion of its financial shared service operation in Glasgow, creating up to 150 accountancy jobs.

The Glasgow operation already employs almost 500 staff, providing accounting services to Shell’s businesses worldwide.

Shell was revealed earlier this year to be one of the biggest recipients in the final round of regional selective assistance (RSA), with a £1m grant over two years based on the creation of 100 jobs in Glasgow’s international financial services district. read more