August 20th, 2007:

Shell to Sea Protest at Norwegian Embassy 34 Molesworth Street Dublin 2, Thursday Lunchtime 1.00 PM, August 23rd

Shell to Sea will be holding a short protest at the Norwegian Embassy, Molesworth Street Dublin (near the Passport Office) on Thursday at lunchtime, to highlight the fact that Norwegian citizens will see much more benefit from the Corrib Gas Field than the people of Ireland.

The event is also to publicise the fact the Shell to Sea will have an information stall as part of the Cool Earth Fair in the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures this weekend (Sat and Sun 25/26th August). To highlight Statoil involvement in the Corrib Scheme, the campaigners will have a Norwegain-themed stall, with leaflets outlining how people can apply for Norwegian citizenship. read more

Posted by Stuart Staniford on August 20, 2007 – 1:10pm

In this post I want to start exploring a hypothesis that is worrying me a lot.

Specifically, the possibility that the emerging financial/credit crisis could cause a near-term collapse in demand for energy, energy prices, and investment in energy infrastructure. That in turn could lead to an even poorer failure to adapt to peak oil than we have seen so far, resulting in great difficulties once the economy begins to recover from its credit problems. I’m not claiming to have conclusive evidence for this hypothesis, I am not sure of its truth myself, and this post will only be a beginning of exploring the issues. read more

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it will evacuate a further 200 people from its Gulf of Mexico operations today and will continue to evacuate as needed in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Dean.

The latest scheduled evacuations follow Saturday’s exodus of 380 people from the company’s operations in the western Gulf of Mexico, along the projected path of the hurricane.

A spokesman for the oil major said evacuations are of personnel ‘non-essential to producing and drilling operations’, as well as the reduction of producing operations personnel to minimum levels. read more

By  Samuel Oyadongha
Posted to the Web: Monday, August 20, 2007

Yenagoa—Fresh crisis looms in the coastal communities of Aleibiri and Angalawei-gbene in the Ekeremor local government area of Bayelsa State following a 30-day ultimatum given to the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) by the people to pay N40 million compensation for the three decades ecological damages unleashed on their environment failure of which they might be forced to send the company packing from the area. read more

GEORGE OSODI / AP: A man carrying a machete walks by a burning oil pipeline last month near a farm in Kegbara Dere, Nigeria. The fire burned strong for 45 days, raining ash down on the village.

By Heidi Vogt
The Associated Press
Monday, August 20, 2007 – Page updated at 12:04 AM

KEGBARA DERE, Nigeria — The fire burned strong for 45 days and 45 nights, blanketing the village with ash and torching the young cassava plants in Ada Baniba’s field. As she weeded, the flames flared out of the leaking oil pipeline behind her. read more

By Gavin Evans and Angela Macdonald-Smith
 
Traders work in the crude oil options pit Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil fell in New York on signs Hurricane Dean’s more southerly track may mean it will miss the largest oil production regions of the Gulf of Mexico.

Dean, an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane, is passing just to the south of Jamaica and may cross Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula tomorrow, the National Weather Service said in its latest advisory. The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 27 percent of U.S. oil output, mostly along the northern coast between Texas and Florida. read more

Local filling stations are as vital as post offices for community life – and disappearing much faster

Peter Preston
Monday August 20, 2007

There used to be one down the road and one up it when I moved to this house, plus a couple just at the bottom of the hill, one right and one left. But now there are none. Two of the old sites are blocks of flats, the others oscillate between doing very small temporary business and flytip heaven, but all are relics of times and communities past. Ah, surely we’re talking post offices, urban or rural, with another 2,500 doomed to close by Chancellor Darling in his previous ministerial life, BG (before Gordon)? Surely the Lib Dems and the Telegraph and numerous knights of the Tory shires will step in to stamp on the hitlist? read more

Published: Aug 20, 2007

SHAH ALAM: A lorry driver walked away RM8,000 richer when he won the Scania Driver Competition.

Borhan Bakar, 34, was in a state of disbelief when his name was announced as the champion in the lorry category, beating seven others.

He overcame a series of challenges, including driving a tanker on a plank in reverse and manoeuvering the vehicle into various positions.

“I did not practise for this competition but used my 12 years of experience of driving lorries,” said Borhan who delivers diesel and petrol for Shell on a contract basis. read more

By Christian Holler and Matthias Ruch
Published: August 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 20 2007 03:00

Mol, the Hungarian energy group, is open to partnerships with bigger rivals, chief executive Zsolt Hernádi said.

“If I had to look for a partner, I would ask Shell, BP or Gazprom, but not OMV,” he told FT Deutschland, the Financial Times’ sister paper, in an interview. “But at the moment we don’t necessarily need a partner,” he added.

Mol is being courted by Austrian rival OMV, but has fiercely rejected the approach. In the interview, Mr Hernádi again stressed that position: “From our side, we have ended this whole OMV theatre. We have other things to do. We are not actors.” read more

By Catherine Belton
Published: August 20 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 20 2007 03:00

The mystery surrounding the buyer of Yukos’s last big asset last week brought the curtain down on the dismantling of what was once the nation’s biggest oil major with a final bizarre flourish.

In a deal inside a deal, reminiscent of Russian matryoshki or “nesting” dolls, US businessman Stephen Lynch has laid claim to ownership of the former Rosneft unit, Promneftstroi, that won the final lot of Yukos assets. They went under the hammer last week for $305m, in a lot that included the oil major’s Dutch subsidiary Yukos Finance BV. read more