September, 2007:

Martyn Wingrove, Lloyds List
Published: Sep 20, 2007

ROYAL Dutch Shell has taken Ocean Rig’s semi-submersibleLeiv Eiriksson from offshore Angola to begin a multi-well exploration campaign off northern Europe, writes Martyn Wingrove.

The rig is en route to Las Palmas for modifications and upgrades, which will allow it to operate on the Irish, British and Norwegian continental shelves.

Norwegian contractor Ocean Rig said the unit will be working for Shell under a two year term on dayrates of at least $465,000. read more

By Ed Crooks
Published: September 20 2007 04:59 | Last updated: September 20 2007 04:59

The irony of Scotland’s oil is that the debate over control of the country’s resources has flared up again just as it has become clear that the UK sector of the North Sea is in irreversible decline.

Alex Salmond, the first minister in the Scottish Nationalist administration at the Scottish Parliament, has set taking control of Scotland’s oil and gas resources as a priority. The UK government at Westminster has made it clear it has “no intention” of ceding such control, but the hard truth is that the argument is becoming a historical relic. The days of bumper oil revenues are fading into the past. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 20, 2007
Filed at 12:45 a.m. ET

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices dipped on profit-taking Thursday after reaching record highs in the previous session on U.S. refinery outages and declines in U.S. oil inventories.

The decline was limited by worries over a potential tropical storm threat to oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said.

A weather system with the potential to become a tropical storm appeared to be heading toward the U.S. state of Louisiana, prompting emergency officials to be on guard Wednesday. Shell Oil Co. announced evacuation plans for hundreds of staff from its rigs in the region. read more

September 20, 2007
Martin Waller: City Diary

Jorma Ollila, the former chief executive of Nokia and now chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, has been setting the record straight.

He has no intention, he tells CNBC Europe in an interview tonight, of running for the presidency of Finland, contrary to suggestions there by the country’s former finance minister. And he is a keen ornithologist with a great fondness for birds. Grouse, ptarmigan, he loves them so much he shoots them with a shotgun at his “summer place”, having switched his affections from moose, deer and a rifle. “So I enjoy being in the nature,” he says. So much so that he shoots lots of it. read more

EXTRACT: Shell’s $18 billion Pearl GTL project at Ras Laffan is the biggest single investment by the oil major anywhere in the world.

THE ARTICLE

Once synonymous with interminable WTO wrangles, Doha is now better known for its $50bn QIA fund hoovering up global assets

Nick Hasell
September 20, 2007

The marble-clad lobby of the Ministry of Finance is the closest that the curious visitor will get to the Qatar Investment Authority. The government-backed fund, whose assets are estimated conservatively at $50 billion (£25 billion), does not do interviews. read more

The pension fund will stop investing in firms at work in Sudan, Iran.

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief
Published September 20, 2007

TALLAHASSEE – Florida made a political statement with its pension fund Wednesday by cutting investment ties with 57 companies doing energy-related work in the Sudan and Iran.

Intended as a condemnation of genocide in Darfur and terrorism in Iran, the action was also meant to spur other states to take similar steps.

At least two other states have also passed laws requiring divestiture of stocks tied to Sudan, but Florida is the first state to target both countries. read more

By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press
Sept. 20, 2007, 12:28AM

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s public employee retirement fund will divest nearly $1.3 billion invested with 21 companies doing business in Iran or Sudan, an action state officials hope will be imitated across the nation.

The State Board of Administration authorized the divestiture Wednesday.

“You will be telling every one of these companies that from this day forward we won’t invest another dollar, Florida’s public dollars, in those companies,” state Sen. Ted Deutch, the law’s sponsor, told the board. read more

By Shigeru Sato

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — Inpex Holdings Inc said it will maintain its plan to develop natural gas in Australia’s Ichthys field with Total SA, ruling out an option of taking Royal Dutch Shell Plc as a partner.

Shell, which has discovered gas in a permit area adjacent to Ichthys, is considering options for developing the field, including joining with companies such as Inpex, the Australian said today, citing Linda Cook, Shell’s executive director, gas and power.

“Total and Inpex will go ahead with the project on our own without joining Shell,” Kazuya Honda, an Inpex spokesman, said by telephone in Tokyo. “There are enough gas reserves in the field to build our liquefied natural gas plant as planned.” read more

US Attorney General Newswire

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today issued the following statement on the State Board of Administration’s implementation of the Protecting Florida’s Investments Act:

“Today, Florida’s State Board of Administration sent the message to nations that support terrorism and brutal treatment of their own citizens that we will not do business with them or assist in financing terrorist activities,” said Attorney General McCollum. “As a member of the State Board of Administration, I strongly support the vote to formally sever ties between the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund and companies that have certain business relationships with the countries of Sudan and Iran. The activities of these terrorist nations could clearly jeopardize our state’s investments and this decision reinforces my fiduciary responsibility to the people of Florida.” read more

By BILL KACZOR 20 Sept 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s public employee retirement fund will divest nearly $1.3 billion invested with 21 companies doing business in Iran or Sudan, an action state officials hope will be imitated across the nation.

The State Board of Administration authorized the divestiture Wednesday.

“You will be telling every one of these companies that from this day forward we won’t invest another dollar, Florida’s public dollars, in those companies,” state Sen. Ted Deutch, the law’s sponsor, told the board. read more

Published: Sept. 19, 2007 at 2:21 PM
By ANDREA R. MIHAILESCU

Russian gas giant Gazprom has resumed negotiations with the Japan Bank for International Coop. to secure financing for the $20-plus billion Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas development project.

Financing the multibillion dollar project has become a key issue after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a core member of the planned lending syndicate, pulled out in early August because of concerns about how Gazprom gained control. read more

By Matthew Robinson
REUTERS

11:07 a.m. September 19, 2007

NEW YORK – With oil storming to new highs over $80 a barrel this week, energy experts are divided over whether prices will crash back to $50 before they break $100.

Expectations that global supplies will struggle to keep pace with demand as the Northern Hemisphere gears up for the winter cold, and worries over potential hurricane disruptions, have sent oil to new peaks over the past six trading sessions.

But analysts are debating whether oil prices have much upside left after quadrupling since 2002, with bulls arguing that strong economic growth means a supply squeeze is imminent and bears saying a seasonal demand drop will deflate prices. read more

By Mark Shenk

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose to a record $82.51 a barrel in New York after an Energy Department report showed a larger-than-expected U.S. inventory decline.

Supplies fell 3.87 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 14, the 10th drop in 11 weeks, the report showed. A 2.03 million barrel decline was expected, according to the median of responses by 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News before the report.

Crude oil for October delivery rose 42 cents, or 0.5 percent, to settle at $81.93 a barrel at 3:02 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $82.51, the highest intraday price since trading began in 1983. Prices are up 33 percent from a year ago. read more

19 September 2007

By Alfred Donovan

We have today notified Mr Michiel Brandjes, the Company Secretary and General Counsel Corporate, of yet another lottery scam being conducted in the name of Shell, in this case by “Shell Oil”.

http://www.artisan2k.com/actualites/070919_shelloilcooperation.htm

 In a response this afternoon, Mr Brandjes said:

“Thank for fwd this. I have brought it to the attention of the right persons in Shell.”

No doubt Shell’s Head of Global Security, a former senior officer of the British Secret Service, Mr. Ian Forbes McCredie OBE, will look into the matter in view of the further damage being inflicted on Shell’s already discredited reputation. It is bad enough suffering the fallout from in-house multi-billion dollar fraud without being tarnished by the activities of common scam artists. At least Shell’s principle crook was titled, even if not properly house trained. read more

September 19th, 2007 03:32

Former Shell Executive Paddy Briggs comments on The Daily Telegraph article: ‘Anita Roddick: A great heart in a tiny frame’

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/16/nranita116.xml

About six years ago, when I was still working for Shell, I attended an International Advertising conference in London at which Anita Roddick spoke. Her main subject was Shell in Nigeria and what she had to say was an eye-opener for me. My Shell career had never taken me to Nigeria and whilst I knew of the problems I was completely taken aback by the strength of Ms Roddick’s criticism of what Shell had been doing there for decades. It was a well-researched, eloquent and shocking attack on corporate greed and mismanagement. Perhaps the most telling point to me, as a practitioner in Brand and Reputation management, was when Anita Roddick said: read more

Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:23 PM BST
(Adds details, background)

By Annika Breidthardt and Ajay Kamalakaran

SINGAPORE/YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Russian Sakhalin-2’s first year-round exports of Vityaz crude will be pushed back to next year due to delays in pipeline commissioning, sources said on Wednesday.

The delay will mean lower-than-expected winter supplies of a highly-sought light crude to a tight oil market worried about peak heating season demand and already facing record prices at above $82 a barrel. read more

Sep. 19, 2007

The processes of nationalization in the oil sector are more visible than others and filled with more drama. Still, the state’s desire to capture an ever larger slice of the industy’s income seems logical. But often the methods and appetite of the state companies contradict this logic.

The Creativity of Capitalism

Looking back at the history of the Russian oil industry we find its initial privatization had taken place that by the end of 1997. The state retained about as many companies as it sold, although it often controlled larger and better shares. At the time, the only national company among them was Rosneft with enterprises dispersed across the entire country, from the Far East (Sakhalinmorneftegaz, with an interest in Sakhalin-1 and Komsomolsky oil refinery) to the Southwest (oil production in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions and Tuapsinskiy oil refinery). But with only one sizable production plant (Purneftegaz in western Siberia). In addition, the government owned Tatneft, Bashneft, Bashneftekhim, which all had connections to the regional elite; company ONAKO Slavneft, created as a Russian-Belarusian project with production in Siberia and refinement in Belarus, which was limited to Russian shares as a result of Belarus’ refusal to offer a stake in the Mozyrsky oil refinery. This was all poorly managed and obviously a project left uncompleted. read more

4 September, 2007: Company CEO Ian Criag delivers message at Sakhalin’s major energy conference

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great privilege and pleasure to be here to provide an update on the Sakhalin II project.

I would like to start by taking this opportunity to thank our shareholders, our staff and our key Russian and international contractors for their many achievements to date.

I would also like to thank the Sakhalin Oblast and the Russian Federation for their foresight, understanding and continued support. read more

More than 4,000 claims were filed after the March 23, 2005, blast at the BP refinery in Texas City, Texas, that killed 15 people. The company has settled more than 1,600 of the claims, including ones by four victims who were the first to go to trial in the case. (BRETT COOMER/HOUSTON CHRONICLE VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By Bloomberg  |  September 19, 2007

HOUSTON – BP PLC has agreed to settle claims by four victims of an explosion in 2005 at its Texas refinery, ending the first trial over the disaster. The terms weren’t disclosed. read more

United Arab Emirates

Royal Dutch Shell has bought unusually high amounts of Dubai crude this month, pushing up prices for the benchmark Middle East grade and hurting Asian refiners already burdened with record costs, reported Reuters. Shell has so far this month bought 162 Dubai partials, or 25,000-barrel lots, more than the total number of trades in the first seven months of 2007. Shell had no comment as to the reasons for its spending spree.

http://www.ameinfo.com/132517.html

Published: Sep 19, 2007

IRELAND needs a cross-party, united approach to renewable energy development if a future economic crisis over oil dependency is to be avoided.

Energy Minister Eamon Ryan warned a major international oil conference yesterday that Ireland’s future energy policies “cannot be party political”, if they are to succeed in the long-term.

His warning came as Lord Ron Oxburgh, the former chairman of oil-giants, Shell, stressed that the world’s love affair with — and total dependence on — the internal combustion engine needs to be reduced. read more

Michelle McDonagh, in Cork, Irish Times
Published: Sep 19, 2007

Urban refuse could be the biggest resource the world has in combating the future energy crisis, the former non-executive chairman of Shell UK, Lord Oxburgh, told a major conference in Cork yesterday.

Garbage, he said, contained an enormous amount of organic material, such as newspapers, grass cuttings, food and old shoes,that could be used to release energy to produce biofuel.

“If you took the organic component of US garbage today and theoretically released the energy from it, you would have enough energy to fuel the current US fleet of service vehicles. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, Irish Times
Published: Sep 19, 2007

Consultants for Shell E&P Ireland have published a shortlist of three “corridors” for a modified Corrib gas onshore pipeline route in Co Mayo.

All three routes, including the most direct corridor down Sruwaddaccon Bay, are within designated environmentally sensitive areas under the EU Habitats Directive.

However, Shell’s consultants say that approval can still be secured if it can be proven that “controlled construction techniques” can “minimise environmental impact”. read more

By Ed Crooks and Sheila McNulty
Published: September 19 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 19 2007 03:00

In Iraq, oil companies face a dilemma. They can wait for the central government in Baghdad to agree a new oil law that will give them a legal framework in which to operate, and for the security situation to abate.

Or they can press ahead and sign agreements with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the authority in the autonomous north of Iraq, at the risk of souring relations with Baghdad and shutting themselves out of deals in the rest of the country. read more

Sep 18, 2007 13:54 | Updated Sep 19, 2007 8:30
By JPOST.COM STAFF

Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane’s Defence Weekly report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.

According to the report, cited by Channel 10, the joint Syrian-Iranian team was attempting to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile when the explosion occurred, spreading lethal chemical agents, including sarin nerve gas. read more

By Sophie Tan and Christian Schmollinger

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose, trading above $82 a barrel for a second day in New York, on speculation a U.S. interest rate cut will bolster fuel demand.

The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by a half point, more than economists predicted, to help sustain economic growth in the U.S., the world’s largest oil user. The Reuters-Jeffries/CRB Index of 19 commodities yesterday closed at its highest since Sept. 5, 2006, and gold reached a 16-month peak. read more

Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:11am BST
 
HOUSTON, (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) evacuated 300 non-essential workers from the U.S. Gulf of Mexico but production was unaffected on Tuesday as a developing tropical disturbance was expected to strengthen and enter the Gulf later this week.

Shell said it plans to pull an additional 400 non-essential workers on Wednesday.

Other oil and natural gas producer representatives contacted on Tuesday night said they continued to closely monitor Tropical Disturbance 50 as it churned between the southeast coast of Florida and the north Bahama Islands. read more

By Nesa Subrahmaniyan and Christian Schmollinger

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, has bought more Dubai oil than the emirate produces in a month, boosting demand for similar Middle Eastern varieties from Oman and Abu Dhabi.

Shell has purchased 4.1 million barrels of the grade for November loading through the Platts trading system, said Paul Young, Platts’s executive oil-pricing editor in Asia. Dubai pumps about 2.7 million barrels each month. Alexandra Wright, a Shell spokeswoman in London, wouldn’t comment. read more

Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:33pm BST
 
NEW ORLEANS, Sept 18 (Reuters) Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister said conditions are favorable for an increase in refining capacity as the company moves closer to a decision on doubling the size of a joint-venture refinery in Texas.

“We make long-term decisions,” Hofmeister said. “We think that the long-term supply relationship with the marketplace says it’s now time for more manufacturing capacity.”

Shell has said it and joint-venture partner Saudi Refining plan to decide by the end of the year on increasing refining capacity at the 285,000 barrel per day (bpd) Motiva Enterprises refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, to 600,000 bpd. read more

Last Edited: Tuesday, 18 Sep 2007, 5:55 PM CDT 
Created: Tuesday, 18 Sep 2007, 5:55 PM CDT 
 
Administrators at Shell Oil began evacuating employees from operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The almost 300 people that evacuated Tuesday were classified as not essential toward production and drilling operations.

Company administrators are concerned with the potential development of a tropical disturbance in the region.

Approximately 400 more Shell employees are expected to be evacuated from gulf coast platforms Wednesday. read more

September 18, 2007 – 3:25 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Royal Dutch Shell plc paid Covington & Burling LLP $100,000 to lobby the federal government in the first half of 2007, according to a recent disclosure form.

The firm lobbied Congress and the U.S. State Department to oppose economic sanctions against Shell, according to a form filed Aug. 14 by the Senate’s public records office.

The U.S. government has warned the Dutch energy giant that it could be subject to sanctions if it pursues a liquefied natural gas project with Iran. The Amsterdam-based company signed an exploratory agreement with Iran earlier this year. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin and Francine Lacqua

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil prices may rise to $150 a barrel in the next 20 years because demand is growing in China and some other developing nations and reserves are dwindling, said the former chairman of the U.K. branch of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

The world is running out of “cheap oil,” Ronald Oxburgh, the former chairman at Shell Transport & Trading Plc, said in an interview late yesterday from Ireland. “The world is never going to run out of oil. The price is likely to rise so high, that we simply cannot afford to use it as a cheap fuel.” read more

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC said the process of restoring operations at the 285,000-barrel a day Port Arthur oil refinery in Texas has started.

The refinery is run by Houston-based Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco. It was shut last week after Hurricane Humberto struck the area, causing widespread power outages.

‘The Motiva Port Arthur Refinery has restored most of the power to the facility. Safety continues to be the number one priority as Motiva continues to work as quickly as possible to re-start production,’ Shell said in a statement. read more

By Alexander Kwiatkowski

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — Dated Brent declined the most in more than two months relative to the cost of November oil after Royal Dutch Shell Plc offered to sell a cargo of the benchmark Forties crude.

Dated Brent for loading in 10 to 21 days was at a discount of 15 cents to the cost of November oil, compared with a premium of 72 cents yesterday, according to data from PVM Oil Associates Ltd. That’s the biggest drop since July 9. Physical crude oil for November delivery was at $76.95 a barrel at 9:55 a.m. London time, according to PVM. read more

September 18, 2007: 03:28 AM EST

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- U.K. mid-size oil company Venture Production PLC (VPC.LN) is looking at the U.K. North Sea assets put up for sale in June by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Venture’s Finance Director Marie-Louise Clayton said Tuesday.

The companies are marketing Northern North Sea assets, including operated interests in Cormorant Alpha, Cormorant North, Tern, Eider, Kestrel and Pelican.

Shell said the sale would impact 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, out of total U.K. output of 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. read more

By Oleg Karpushin

For a number of reasons, the Sakhalin-II project run by the Sakhalin Energy company is unparalleled in its scale.

First, it is being implemented in severe climatic conditions in the Sea of Okhotsk where the water is covered with thick ice for six winter months. Secondly, all operations  have to be carried out with the fragile northern nature of Sakhalin Island in mind. Thirdly, the area is prone to high seismic loads. In addition, Sakhalin-II is unique in its scale and integrated project as hydrocarbon production, transport and processing taking place hundreds of kilometers away, will be monitored from a single control center. In response to these dramatic challenges, Sakhalin Energy could not help but rely on state-of-the-art technologies, or in some instances even pioneer their application. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, Irish Times
Published: Sep 18, 2007

Consultants for Shell E&P Ireland intend to submit the entire Corrib gas pipeline route to State authorities for approval for the first time.

The move, which will only take place when a new onshore route for the pipeline is finalised, should circumvent criticisms of “project splitting” levelled at the Corrib gas partners, according to the consultants.

However, An Bord Pleanala said it can’t consider the entire pipeline, from the wellhead off the Mayo coast to the terminal inshore, as its remit does not extend to the foreshore in this case. read more

Tony Gray, Lloyds List
Published: Sep 18, 2007

CONSOLIDATION in Japan’s LPG industry has taken on an international flavour following a co-operation pact between trading house Itochu and South Korea’s SK Gas. Areas for co-operation are expected to include shipping, writes Tony Gray.

SK Gas confirmed that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with Japan’s Itochu to invest in LPG terminals and co-operate in LPG trading.

The company was responding to a report in the Japanese financial daily Nikkei that said the strategic alliance would also embrace shipping and a joint business partnership in China. read more

By Salamander Davoudi, Financial Times
Published: Sep 18, 2007

Volatility in the financial markets and a growing credit crunch are fuelling fears that the next chemical industry downturn could come sooner than expected.

“This is exercising a lot of people’s minds. The problem may be relatively confined but people are nervous,” says one banker to the industry.

The plain truth is that across the industry people are looking at demand, capacity and the wider global economic outlook and scratching their heads. read more

By Peter Smith in Sydney and Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: September 18 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 18 2007 03:00

Oil Search yesterday played down reports that it was the $5bn bid target of a Chinese joint venture after shares of Papua New Guinea’s leading oil and gas producer jumped 19 per cent.

The company said it had not received any “formal” takeover approaches after a report suggested CNPC Exploration, a joint venture between China National Petroleum Corporation and PetroChina, was considering a bid worth close to $5bn. read more

By Philip Stephens
Published: September 17 2007 23:17 | Last updated: September 17 2007 23:17

In the end fine economic judgments were swept aside by politics, calm deliberation by panic on the streets. Never mind that investors in Northern Rock, Britain’s fifth largest mortgage lender, had been assured their money was safe. The television images of thousands queuing to empty their bank accounts the length and breadth of Britain were too much for Gordon Brown’s government. Signs that the contagion was spreading to other leading banks risked a crisis turning into a catastrophe. Only a blanket guarantee would do. read more

Natural-Gas Burnoff
By Oil Firms Rises 14%
Amid Remote Drilling
By SPENCER SWARTZ
September 18, 2007

London

The world’s energy industry has never been keener to tap the commercial potential of natural gas. But ironically, some nations are wasting more gas than ever before, as producers burn it off straight into the atmosphere.

A World Bank-financed study released this month found the industry burned off, or “flared,” about $40 billion of gas globally in 2006, up 14% from 2004, partly because of higher oil and gas prices. The study also found that 22 countries, including Russia and China, flare much more gas today than a decade ago, as companies pump more oil from new and more remote areas. read more

Article from: Felicity Williams with Bloomberg
September 18, 2007 12:00am

KEEN Chinese interest in winning access to rich gas projects in Papua New Guinea sent Oil Search shares rocketing almost 12 per cent yesterday.

Oil Search is the biggest owner of natural gas resources in PNG under joint ventures led by ExxonMobil and BG Group.

The South China Morning Post reported yesterday that CNPC Exploration — a partnership between China Natural Petroleum Corp and PetroChina — was considering offering as much as $US5 billion ($A5.94 billion) for Oil Search. read more

By Samuel Oyadongha
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Yenagoa—Bayelsa State House of Assembly has summoned the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) to appear before it tomorrow over the allegation of neglect by one of its host communities.

The invitation of SPDC to appear before the house followed a petition forwarded by the people of Agorogbene in the Sagbama local government area of the state accusing the oil company of insensitivity to the plight of its host communities. read more

By Sun News Publishing
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Conflict of interest or greed appears to have crept into the psyche of those struggling to gain control of the contentious oil well in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

The said well allegedly owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company was said to have started leaking more than 10 years ago even as the giant oil company did nothing to stop the spill, resulting in the community – Ikot Ada Udo – going to court through a power of attorney it ceded to a group known as Akwa Ibom Oil Producing Commits Development Network (AKIPCON). read more

EXTRACT:  “…we want to use this opportunity to sound it loud and clear, that no amount of appeasement or negotiation will bring Shell Oil Company into Ogoniland.”

PRESS RELEASE

NATIONAL UNION OF OGONI STUDENTS
(NUOS INTL, USA)
3116 W. DEVON AVE STE# 204
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60659
www.nuos-ogoni.org ~ [email protected] ~ 773.250.7004

September 16, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

We, members of the National Union of Ogoni Students USA on behalf of ourselves, organization and the entire Ogoni community are exhilarated by the United Nations declaration and adoption of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights during their 61st plenary session. read more

Filed from Houston
9/17/2007 1:42:54 PM GMT

USA/ALASKA:  Following the Ninth Circuit Court’s recent stay of Shell’s 2007 Beaufort Sea drilling plan, the company has started staged layoffs of contract personnel, including workers from drillship Frontier Discoverer.  Shell’s seismic program continues and staff involved in these operations, including Marine Mammals Observation, the Call Center and the Communication Center, remain employed.

Shell said that while it remains committed to Alaska, it regrets that it must release some personnel.  The company said if the court reverses the injunction quickly, then Shell could proceed with its drilling program, either by reactivating the drillship or utilizing the Kulluk, a drilling rig specifically built for Arctic conditions and anchored in the Canadian sector of the Beaufort Sea. read more

September 17, 2007, 11:05

The Russian government is working on a bill to limit foreign investment in some of the country’s most lucrative strategic sectors, including oil and gas, and aviation.
 
Russia’s effort to formalise how it regulates its strategic sectors comes at a time when several of the world’s major economies are doing the same, and economic protectionism is on the rise across the globe.

National governments from the U.S. to the UK are increasingly making it clear that foreign investment must be regulated in strategic industries, such as defence, aviation and energy. read more

EXTRACT: Besides killing 15 people, the explosion injured hundreds. It led to more than 3,000 lawsuits, a record fine of $21 million by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and a finding by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that the company endangered workers by cutting costs.

THE ARTICLE 

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Margaret Cronin Fisk
Bloomberg News
Published: September 17, 2007

GALVESTON, Texas: An executive from BP told jurors Friday that careless workers caused the explosion at the company’s refinery in Texas that killed 15 people, and said that no amount of increased spending or maintenance would have prevented the accident. read more

GWYN MORGAN
September 17, 2007

CALGARY — The Southern family’s Spruce Meadows equestrian centre near Calgary is ranked as the world’s top show-jumping venue. Each September, its flagship Masters Tournament brings together the sport’s best horses and riders.

While competition goes on in the tournament ring, private and public sector leaders from around the globe gather at this magnificent venue for the Changing Fortunes Round Table. Hosted by Ron Southern, who built Atco Ltd. into one of Canada’s most successful enterprises, invitations to the Round Table are much sought after. The session revolves around one or more internationally known marquee speakers, followed by plenary discussion among delegates. One example of Mr. Southern’s global reach is the recent presence of the head of the national bank of China alongside a former U.S. Federal Reserve Bank chairman and Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge. read more