September 21st, 2007:

September 22, 2007

Since the 1990s, Royal Dutch Shell has been at war with a family who registered a website, royaldutchshellplc.com. The Donovan family, led by 90-year-old Burma veteran Alfred, perhaps quixotically want Shell to change its management.

Shell has failed to shut down the site, which has attracted job applications and, allegedly, even a terrorist threat, all of which are dutifully passed on to the company.

Space does not allow exposition of all the correspondence between the two sides, but there are signs that Shell is developing a sense of humour. A recent letter from general counsel there suggests that “a truly alternative solution for all those people inadvertently contacting you is for you to choose a website and e-mail address without the word ‘shell’ in it”. read more

Print Date : Saturday, September 22, 2007

TEHRAN (Dispatches) — The biggest oil and gas companies in Europe said in spite of France’s call, are serious in investing in Iran.

European nations have failed to echo France’s call to its oil and gas companies not to bid for projects in Iran, Reuters reported.

Tehran says its nuclear program is for electricity generation only but earlier this week, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his country must prepare for the possibility of war against Iran over the program. read more

By Ed Crooks in London
Published: September 21 2007 20:35 | Last updated: September 21 2007 20:35

Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco are to invest $7bn in their refinery at Port Arthur, Texas, making it the biggest in the US, even though they expect margins in the industry to fall.

A shortage of refining capacity in the US has helped drive petrol prices up to over $2.80 a gallon at the pump, and sent refiners’ margins soaring.

The shortage has been created by a lack of investment that has lasted for decades and exacerbated by problems such as the explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery in 2005. A new refinery has not been built in the US for more than 30 years. read more

Mark Milner, industrial editor
Friday September 21, 2007

Royal Dutch Shell and a Saudi Arabian partner have given the go-ahead to a $7bn investment which will more than double the size of their refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.

The refinery, which is jointly owned by the Anglo-Dutch group and Saudi Refining, has a capacity of 285,000 barrels a day. The new investment will increase that to about 600,000 barrels. “Shell’s investment in the Motiva Port Arthur Refinery expansion will lead to increased supplies of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels in the US,” said Rob Routs, Royal Dutch Shell’s executive director downstream. read more

CALGARY, Sept. 21 /CNW/ – Shell and Tree Canada today announced an extensive tree-planting program. Backed by a $235,000 contribution to Tree Canada from Shell, the program will see more than 120,000 trees planted across sites in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec that need reforestation.

“Shell’s work with Tree Canada contributes to greener communities and is an important component of our voluntary commitment to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs),” said Rob Seeley, General Manager of Sustainable Development for Shell’s Oil Sands division. “While we are making progress on GHG-related technology – such as energy efficiency plans and carbon capture and storage – tree planting remains an integral and visible component of our voluntary GHG management portfolio.” read more

 “How is Shell going to deliver elephant projects without any elephant riders?”

21 September 2007

Dear Mr Van der Veer

I understand that the highly respected and experienced project manager, John Stubbs, resigned after falling out with the Executive Director of Shell EP, Malcolm Brinded, who has never himself actually delivered a frontier project.

According to our information the Kashagan “Cash All Gone” project was the catalyst for his resignation.

I have set out below the information accumulated from a number of insider sources. read more

ERIC REGULY
September 21, 2007 at 7:16 AM EDT

ROME — For the peak-oil crowd, that merry band of doomsters who believe global oil production is about to go into irreversible decline and plunge us into a new Stone Age, the timing couldn’t have been better. As the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas was holding its conference in Cork, Ireland, earlier this week, oil prices conveniently set record prices. By midweek, they had gone as high as $82 (U.S.) a barrel.

The conference speakers were no doubt thrilled. If oil prices had been falling, their message would have been laughed out of court. As it were, Ronald Oxburgh, the British lord and geologist who is the former head of Shell U.K., one of the world’s biggest oil companies, looked like something of a prophet. He said oil prices could hit $150 as supplies fail to keep pace with soaring demand. Another speaker, CIBC World Markets chief economist Jeff Rubin, predicted prices of “around $100 a barrel by the end of next year.” Talisman Energy chief executive officer Jim Buckee talked about rapidly declining production from once-prolific and seemingly stalwart oil fields. read more

Rob McKay, Melbourne, Lloyds List
Published: Sep 21, 2007

AUSTRALIA is flavour of the year in gas exports. A series of ever more promising contract announcements were made, culminating in Perth company Woodside’s mammoth A$35bn-A$45bn ($29bn-$38bn) PetroChina deal at the start of September, involving 2m-3m tonnes a year over 15-20 years, starting in 2013-2015, writes Rob McKay.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation heads of government meeting, held at the same time, put the country centre stage, politically speaking, but the fact that its biggest-ever export deal was for liquefied natural gas caught the nation’s imagination. read more

Lloyds List: Bright future in store for LNG in China

Keith Wallis, Lloyds List
Published: Sep 21, 2007

CHINA’S liquefied natural gas imports are still tiny compared with the volume of coal imports. But that is set to change as oil companies continue to invest in new LNG terminals, ink supply pacts and China implements a blueprint for future LNG use.

Recent figures from China’s General Administration of Customs show the country imported 27.07m tonnes of coal in the first six months of this year, up 47.6% year-on-year. read more

Tony Gray, Lloyds List
Published: Sep 21, 2007

A BURST of activity has seen liquefied natural gas return to the front pages.

After a year-long quiet spell, during which rising construction costs seemed to ensure little progress was made in advancing projects, there has been a rapid flow of positive news in the past two months.

Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom started the ball rolling inmid-July by finally choosing France’s Total as a partner in developing thegiant Shtokman offshore field, whose reserves will partly support a major LNG project. read more

Rebecca LeMay,
Published: Sep 21, 2007

PERTH, Sept 21 AAP – Japan’s Osaka Gas Co has paid Nexus Energy Ltd $75 million for a 15 per cent interest in the Crux liquids project, implying a total value for the project of $500 million. The Crux field is in the Browse Basin offshore Western Australia.

In early 2006, Nexus sold the rights to the gas in the project, excluding condensate, to Shell for $US40 million ($A46.48 million). Osaka Gas and Nexus have committed to a work program to bring the project to a financial investment decision in the second quarter of 2008. read more

Published: Sep 21, 2007

Petrolinvest has announced its will to co-operate with world fuel giants but refuses to disclose their names. “We are being watched by major oil companies operating in Kazakhstan and Russia,” says Pawel Gricuk, Petrolinvest head. Among others, Chevron, Shell, Eni, Total and BP are present in the country.

Apparently, the Chinese CNPC oil company has bought a site bordering with that of Petrolinvest and paid $4.2bn for it. CNPC is interested in co-operating with Petrolinvest according to a source. Petrolinvest is open to proposals. The company may carry out a share issue already this year, aimed at foreign investors. The issue will finance an investment scheme evaluated at minimum $200m. First Petrolinvest wants to show investors it already is an extracting company. Since yesterday, the company has been extracting oil from Kazakhstan’s Zubantam deposits, which have a potential of 250m barrels. \nc 04005000 read more

Published: Sep 21, 2007

Italian energy group ENI, the lead operator in the Kashagan oil field, has called on its partners in the project to work ‘cohesively and quickly’ in resolving a dispute with the Kazakh government over delays and spiralling costs.

ENI chief executive Paolo Scaroni has sent a letter to fellow consortium members Exxon, Total, Shell, Conoco Philips and Inpex urging unity so that negotiations can be concluded before the government’s deadline of October 23. If there is weakness in the alliance, the Kazakh government would be in a very strong position to renegotiate the terms of the project. read more

Fri Sep 21, 2007 11:45 AM BST

NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell will go ahead with a 325,000 barrel-per-day capacity expansion of its Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, at a cost of $7 billion, the Anglo-Dutch oil group said on Friday.

The 285,000 bpd refinery is owned by Motiva Enterprises LLC, Shell’s joint venture with Saudi Refining Co.

“The expansion project will increase the refinery’s crude oil throughput capacity to 600,000 bpd, making it the largest refinery in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world,” Shell, the world’s second-biggest non-government controlled oil group, said in a statement. read more

Published: Sep 21, 2007

MADRID (Thomson Financial) – Repsol YPF SA has joined Royal Dutch Shell and Eni SpA in an oil and gas exploration programme in the Beaufort sea, some 30 miles off the Alaska coast, Negocio reported, citing unnamed sector sources.

The area is seen as one of the world’s largest untapped energy reserves.

Repsol will have 20 pct of the project, while Shell and Eni will have 40 pct each, Negocio said, but noted that regulatory approval has yet to be received.

Exploration activities could start in 2009-2010, it added. read more

By Ed Crooks
Published: September 21 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 21 2007 03:00

The new Energy Technologies Institute, a public-private partnership for research into energy sources, will be based in the Midlands, the government said yesterday, after a consortium at Loughborough University won the right to host it.

David Clarke, the head of technology strategy at Rolls-Royce, is to be the institute’s chief executive. Six companies – BP, Royal Dutch Shell, EDF Energy, Eon, Rolls-Royce and Caterpillar – are backing the ETI, promising £5m a year each for ten years. read more

By Javier Blas
Published: September 21 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 21 2007 03:00

Crude oil prices jumped above $84 a barrel late yesterday after production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were shut down ahead of a threatened tropical storm.

Nymex October West Texas Intermediate hit a record $84.10 a barrel, up $2.17, but settled at $83.32, up $1.39 on the day. The October contract expired at the end of trading. The most active November WTI contract was up $1.05 at $80.75.

ICE November Brent closed 62 cents higher at $79.09 after peaking at an all-time high of $79.23. read more

Big Producers Reduce
Presence Over Taxes;
A Good Opportunity
By BENOÎT FAUCON
September 21, 2007

London

Tax changes and investment incentives are transforming the landscape of Britain’s North Sea — reinvigorating Europe’s second-largest oil basin after Norway and raising hopes its long decline may slow.

The revival has taken many in the industry by surprise, because when the government in 2005 announced it would raise taxes on oil production, big international companies warned the move would discourage investments. read more

Record-High Crude Oil,
Supply Snags Could Lead
To New Round of Increases
By ANA CAMPOY
September 21, 2007

Prices at the pump so far aren’t matching the exuberant new highs of crude oil, but consumers have reason to worry.
 
Crude-oil prices, which yesterday rose to their fourth record close in as many days, have combined with tight gasoline supplies to set the stage for a potential surge in gasoline prices. Refinery snags, a Gulf of Mexico storm or other disruptions could ripple quickly through the supply chain, taxing consumers and adding another burden to the economy. read more

This hydrogen fuel cell car is leading an energy revolution in Iceland.

(go to link below for “Iceland partnered with Shell” photograph)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/18/driving.iceland/index.html#cnnSTCPhoto