August 28th, 2007:

Terry Macalister
Wednesday August 29, 2007

Shell has run into trouble over another big oil project in the former Soviet Union with the government of Kazakhstan halting development of the Kashagan field alleging environmental violations and cost over-runs in a move with ominous similarities to the Sakhalin-2 row.

Shell is one of a number of western partners in the Agip Kazakhstan North Caspian Operating Company along with ENI of Italy and ExxonMobil of America in the Kashagan field – one of the biggest oil discoveries ever with commercial reserves of up to 16bn barrels of oil. A spokesman for Shell said the company could not comment. He added: “It’s a matter for the operator [ENI].” read more

EXTRACT: Just behind Dame Marjorie on the list of female executives came Linda Cook at Shell, who was paid £1.9m in 2006. Ms Cook runs the gas and power division at the Anglo-Dutch oil group. An American who has been with Shell since leaving the University of Kansas, she is also a non-executive director of the aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

THE ARTICLE

Terry Macalister
Wednesday August 29, 2007

The pay gap between men and women is as wide in the boardroom as it is lower down the company, reinforcing the glass ceiling barring equal opportunities. read more

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 12:18am BST 29/08/2007

Oil services group John Wood is looking to make several acquisitions over the next few months after reporting a surge in interim profits yesterday that puts the company on track to beat analysts’ full-year forecasts.

The Aberdeen-based company, whose products include pumps and pipelines for the oil and gas sectors, predicted in March that growth would continue this year, but at a slower pace.

But there was no sign of this as Wood posted a 64pc jump in pre-tax profits to $124m (£61.7m) in the six months to the end of June on increased exploration activity by major customers like Royal Dutch Shell. read more

August 29, 2007
Carl Mortished: European briefing

There is one big problem with the proposed French mega-merger of Suez, the power, gas and water utility, and Gaz de France (GdF), which once again is troubling civil servants and bankers in Paris.

It isn’t the French unions that have growled intermittently over the backdoor privatisation of the national gas company. It isn’t competition; the European Commission has delivered a conditional blessing to the deal. It isn’t even the soaring cost of the transaction for Gaz de France; the rise of the Suez share price has turned the deal, once billed as a near-partnership of equals, into a more one-sided affair. read more

By Alexander Kwiatkowski

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — John Wood Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest oilfield services provider, rose to a record in London trading after saying full-year profit may beat forecasts.

The shares closed at a 352.5 pence, up 4.7 percent, valuing Aberdeen, Scotland-based Wood Group at 1.85 billion pounds ($3.72 billion). They had climbed as much as 9.1 percent to 367.25 pence. First-half profit rose 65 percent and full-year results will be “ahead of expectations,” the company said today. read more

OSAMU TSUKIMORI AND KENTARO HAMADA
Reuters
August 28, 2007 at 7:11 AM EDT

TOKYO — Japan’s trade minister said Kazakhstan’s move this week to suspend work on the huge Kashagan oil field echoed Russia’s row over the Sakhalin-2 oil project and he cautioned against the spread of global resource nationalism.

Akira Amari, who was reappointed on Monday as Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, said on Tuesday he would investigate the Kazakh authorities’ freezing of Italy’s Eni-led development of the Caspian Sea site, the world’s biggest oil find in decades, on mainly ecological grounds. read more

By Celestine Bohlen Bloomberg News
Published: August 28, 2007

MOSCOW: Viktor Gerashchenko, chairman of the Yukos oil company, sits in his almost-empty office on the 10th floor of the now-bankrupt oil giant’s headquarters, its logo stripped from the roof, lobby and doors.

The building in central Moscow is a stark symbol of Russia’s triumphant return as an economic player under Vladimir Putin, now in his eighth year as president.

His administration’s 2003 attack on Yukos was the first on a private company and ended with its founder in prison and its key assets sold to a government entity. Since then, Russia has tightened its grip on energy resources, created “national champions” in aerospace and shipping, taken over automobile plants and unveiled a $5 billion nanotechnology initiative. read more

Tuesday, August 28,2007

HOPES for a ‘clean coal’ revolution have been dealt a blow after North Sea oil fields were ruled out as a home for greenhouse gases.

Energy giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP have been investigating the possibility of capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions In ageing oil reservoirs.

The benefits would be twofold. Not only could this reduce global warming by sequestering CO2 under the ocean floor, but it could help enhance oil recovery rates.

But it has emerged that ageing oil platforms won’t be able the host the equipment needed to pump CO2 from power plants to undersea reservoirs, industry players said. read more

By Isabel Gorst in Moscowand Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: August 28 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 28 2007 03:00

Kazakhstan called a three-month halt to work at the Kashagan oilfield on Monday, claiming a consortium led by Italy’s Eni had broken environmental rules and evaded customs duties on imported equipment.

The action escalates a dispute that erupted after Eni announced a two-year delay to the start of production and soaring development costs at Kashagan.

It came as the consortium opened talks with the government about a revision to its contract, and a new Kazakh energy minister, Sauat Mynbaev, was appointed. read more

Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:47AM BST

BAKU, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Korean National Oil Company (KNOC) will buy 20 percent in Azerbaijan’s undeveloped oil project INAM following oil major Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) decision to cut its stake, an Azeri official said on Tuesday.

Energy Minister Natik Aliyev told reporters the project would remain under the leadership of BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), which has a 25 percent stake, while Shell would reduce its stake to 5 from 25 percent. read more

Drilling facilities on an artificial island in the Kashagan field, where the Kazakh government halted work for this year.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007. Issue 3730. Page 5.
Combined Reports   

Kazakhstan suspended work at the Kashagan oil field Monday, putting pressure on the field’s Western operators, led by Eni, over delays and cost overruns at one of the world’s biggest oil projects.

The move by Kazakhstan, mainly citing environmental issues, echoed Russia’s dispute with Shell, which ended with the oil firm losing control of a major oil field to Gazprom last year. read more

Officials Suspend Work
In Vast Kashagan Field;
A New Balance of Power
By GUY CHAZAN
August 28, 2007; Page A1

KASHAGAN, Kazakhstan — On an island in the Caspian Sea, the hub of the world’s largest oil-development project, a thousand men in orange jumpsuits train for catastrophe.

Oil in the Kashagan field here is potentially lethal, with high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas. So workers carry oxygen canisters and gas detectors and do daily evacuation drills. High-tech getaway boats stand ready to whisk them to safety. The place feels more like a hazardous-chemical plant than an oil rig. read more

By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: August 28, 2007

MOSCOW, Aug. 27 — The government of Kazakhstan suspended environmental permits on Monday for a consortium of foreign energy companies developing a potentially huge oil field in the Caspian Sea, threatening to slow development of the largest oil find in the world since the discovery of Prudhoe Bay off Alaska three decades ago.

The suspension came as Kazakh officials and the consortium, led by the Italian oil company Eni, were negotiating new terms for a $20 billion development contract for the Kashagan field, arousing speculation that the move was an effort to press the companies into ceding a larger share of future profits to the Kazakh government. read more

By David Lee Smith
August 27, 2007

Last week, I read and reread a Forbes article looking for all the facts of how BP (NYSE: BP) may effectively usher Russian energy behemoth Gazprom (OTC BB: OGZPY) into doing business in the U.S. I never found — pardon me, Paul Harvey — the rest of the story.

According to the magazine, Gazprom may be granted a stake in BP’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Trinidad and Tobago, which supplies LNG only to the United States. And as the story goes, “After the Kremlin allowed BP the option of acquiring a minority stake in the coveted Kovykta gas fields, the two companies announced a $3 billion global venture, though they did not provide specifics.” The possible stake in BP’s project, called Atlantic LNG, which supplies about 65% of the 16.56 billion cubic meters consumed in the U.S. annually, apparently could constitute the “specifics.” read more