September 29th, 2007:

Edited by Iain Dey
Last Updated: 11:37pm BST 29/09/2007

Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP (567.5p), was caught off guard last week when comments from a staff meeting leaked into the public domain. He warned that third-quarter results from the oil major would be “dreadful” and a strategic overhaul is imminent.

While the news knocked BP’s shares, there was nothing in Hayward’s comments that came as much of a surprise. Analysts had been anticipating awful results from BP in Q3 – with production targets and profit targets all missed – and had already factored this into the share price. read more

Article published 7 September 2007: Shell to appeal refinery closure
 
Shell CAPSA will appeal an order issued late Wednesday night that will lead to the closure of its refinery in the Dock Sud area for alleged pollution, company president Juan José Aranguren announced yesterday. 

By Peter Johnson
Herald staff

The closure, the latest in a series of clashes with the government over the pricing of the company’s fuels and alleged failures to meet the requirements of the so-called Supply Law, will take at least a week and “is the first time that the refinery has been shut down since 1977, or at least since I have been with the company,” Aranguren stated. read more

By Thomas Elias

It’s one thing for consumer advocates to argue endlessly that oil companies are guilty of long-running collusion in setting prices. There’s plenty of evidence they are correct in that contention – the similarly of prices offered by different companies at the same intersections is one indicator. But no one has yet produced a smoking gun to prove such a conspiracy.

Yet, there’s another form of gas pricing deception for which there is plenty of proof, even including defiant admissions from some oil company executives in congressional testimony. read more

The Wall Street Journal: How Economy Could Survive Oil At $100 a Barrel

Compared to 1980, U.S.
Is More Able to Handle
Once-Unthinkable Rise
By PETER FRITSCH and KELLY EVANS
September 29, 2007; Page A1

The world economy has managed, with some indigestion, to swallow the rise of oil prices past $80 a barrel. How well could it survive $100 a barrel?

The answer is quite well — so long as several conditions still hold true. The price rise would probably have to be gradual. Inflation couldn’t get so bad as to force big interest-rate hikes. Oil-rich nations would need to pump their profits back into U.S. and European economies.
 
All of this has happened so far. The happy confluence may continue, though fears remain strong that high energy prices will tip the U.S. into recession. read more

A silky shark closes in on a pilot fish. Pilot fish often swim in front of sharks to feed on scraps

By Gordon Rayner
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 29/09/2007

The subject matter may be familiar, but this stunning image of a shark beautifully captures nature’s infinite ability to surprise and delight us.
 
In pictures: Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The photograph has been highly commended by judges in the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The overall winners will be announced next month before an exhibition of more than 100 of the best entries goes on display at the Natural History Museum in London. read more

*Shell and famed whistleblower Dr John Huong…

September 29, 2007

LONDON Whether spooked, sinister, watchful or plain comical, wildlife features in all its guises in the prestigious Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. More than 32,000 pictures have been entered; 49 have been highly commended and 107 will go on display at the London’s Natural History Museum next month. One of the highly commended pictures is of wildebeest stampeding in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. It was taken by a Swedish teenager, Liisa Widstrand. read more

Joint program researches aspects of responding to oil spill in ice-infested waters

Alan Bailey
Vol. 12, No. 39  Week of September 30, 2007

Worldwide interest in the petroleum potential of the Arctic seas has triggered a corresponding focus on the practicalities of responding to an oil spill, were disaster to strike an offshore oil operation. As part of the ramped-up interest in how to deal with an Arctic spill, a joint industry program coordinated by Norwegian research company SINTEF is engaged in a series of research projects covering most aspects of offshore Arctic spill response. The program’s objective is continuing development of tools and technologies for oil spill response in the Arctic and ice-infested waters. read more

Vol. 12, No. 39  Week of September 30, 2007

Repsol YPF has joined Shell and Eni in a block of 64 leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope. It’s the Spanish oil and gas major’s first acquisition in the state.

Shell and Eni exchanged working interests in the contiguous outer continental shelf leases last November. At that time Eni had a 60 percent interest in the acreage and Shell had 40 percent. Repsol picked up its 20 percent interest from Eni.

The exploration block is operated by Shell in the federal waters north of the Oooguruk, Nikaitchuq, Northstar and Kuparuk units, extending east to midway above the Prudhoe Bay unit. read more

Vol. 12, No. 39  Week of September 30, 2007

Given the amount of research being done on Arctic oil spill response, Petroleum News asked Shell, a participant in the SINTEF Arctic oil spill response joint industry program, to comment on the viability of the techniques and technologies that the company has specified in its oil discharge prevention and contingency plan for its proposed Beaufort Sea drilling program off Alaska.

For example, Shell sees in-situ burning of spilled oil as a particularly valuable part of its arsenal of response tactics. But, has in-situ burning actually been demonstrated to work in Arctic waters or in sea ice? read more

Shell is the first company in over three years to openly absorb an entire month’s slate of Dubai crude cargoes, say traders

Published: Saturday, 29 September, 2007, 02:08 AM Doha Time 

SINGAPORE: European major Shell has purchased all available November-loading benchmark Dubai crude cargoes after an unprecedented buying spree on the partials market this month, traders and industry sources said yesterday.

On Thursday, US trader Phibro, declared physical delivery of a Dubai cargo to Shell after selling it 19 partial 25,000-barrel lots – the fourth such declaration. read more

Sakhalin-2 will not begin exporting oil and gas from the new terminals until the first half of next year due to construction and commissioning delays on Russia’s largest offshore project.

The Gazprom-led Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. continues to build and commission the oil and gas pipelines that run along the length of the east Russian island, but construction has been more complex than anticipated.

The consortium, which includes Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, has installed two new platforms and built two export terminals and offshore pipelines as part of the Sakhalin II project. read more