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October 3rd, 2007:

San Jose Mercury News: Shell reclaims station from owner who launched hunger strike

Marina operator hospitalized after 90-protest against ‘big oil companies’

By Larry Parsons
MediaNews
Article Launched: 10/03/2007 11:01:46 AM PDT

A Marina service station operator, who has mounted a personal battle against high gasoline prices, learned Tuesday from his hospital bed that Shell Oil Co. regained legal control of his station.

Mehdi Shahbazi, 65, said he was hospitalized Friday after more than 90 days of maintaining a liquids-only diet. He said he went on the fast to call attention to what he sees as a viselike grip that major oil companies have on U.S. and world economies. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Forbes: Esso, Shell Fined in El Salvador

By DIEGO MENDEZ 10.03.07, 1:56 PM ET
Associated Press

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The Salvadoran government has accused oil companies Esso Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s El Salvador subsidiary of price fixing and fined them $852,000 each.

The fines were announced late Tuesday in a government statement, and officials warned that there would be more sanctions unless the two companies showed that they were not working together to set artificially high prices at the gas pump.

“Esso and Shell have engaged in conduct together to restrict competition and create artificial barriers to new competitors,” El Salvador’s anti-monopoly regulatory commission said in a statement. “As a result, it has affected the economy’s efficiency and harmed consumers.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Former Shell Executive Paddy Briggs comments on the FT article: Shell UK halts pension fund contributions

03 October 2007

By Paddy Briggs

The Shell Contributory Pension Fund (SCPF) is a well managed fund and those of us who are Shell pensioners are certainly fortunate to be members of it.

But as this FT report confirms…

Financial Times: Shell UK halts pension fund contributions

…virtually all key decisions of the fund, whilst nominally made by the Trustees, are in reality made by Shell top management. The Trustee Board itself is dominated by senior Shell employees and Shell appointees (i.e. Trustees nominated by Shell senior managers). The 30,000 Shell pensioners currently receiving pensions (of which I am one) have only two elected member places on the Trustee Board (out of a total of seventeen Trustees). read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bloomberg: Repsol, Oil Firms Fined by EU for Asphalt Cartel (Update2)

By Matthew Newman

Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — European Union regulators fined Repsol YPF SA, Spain’s largest oil producer, and three other oil companies 183.7 million euros ($260 million) for fixing domestic prices for bitumen, used to make asphalt.

The European Commission in Brussels fined Repsol 80.5 million euros, Compania Espanola de Petroleos SA 83.9 million euros, Sweden’s Nynas Group 10.6 million euros and Galp Energia SGPS SA 8.7 million euros. BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, received immunity for tipping off inspectors. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Daily News & Analysis – Mumbai, India: Shell to buy BPCL’s 49 pc stake in Bharat Shell

Wednesday, October 03, 2007  15:05 IST

NEW DELHI: Global oil major Royal Dutch Shell will buy Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s (BPCL) 49 per cent stake in lubricant marketing firm Bharat Shell Ltd (BSL) for Rs 145.80 crore.

BPCL plans to exit the joint venture company, floated in 1993 to market Shell branded lubricants in India, as it has developed a competing product.
   
Official sources said the Petroleum Ministry has moved a Cabinet note for sale of BPCL’s 49 per cent stake in BSL to Shell. Shell holds 51 per cent stake in BSL.
   
Besides paying BPCL Rs 145.8 crore in cash, Shell will also takeover the state-run firm’s 49 per cent of BSL’s debt amounting to Rs 31.2 crore as on March 31, 2006.
   
BSL incurred losses till financial year 2001-02 but after hiving off its loss-making LPG business, the company showed signs of turnaround and posted a net profit of Rs 12.12 crore in 2006-07. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Globe & Mail (Canada): Woodland Cree asks court to block oil sands project

DAVID EBNER
October 3, 2007

The Woodland Cree First Nation, home to about 1,000 aboriginals located in northwestern Alberta, have filed an application with the Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary against the Alberta government to block a Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil sands project near their land.

The Woodland Cree believe Alberta has not conducted meaningful consultation with aboriginals over the granting of oil and natural gas development leases. The Woodland Cree are specifically worried about total development plans in their region. Shell has about 12,500 barrels a day of oil sands production in northwestern Alberta, which it hopes to increase to about 100,000 b/d. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Times: Corrib protestors hold all-night vigil

Last Updated: 03/10/2007  06:16

Members of the Shell to Sea campaign have  held an all-night candelit vigil at the Corrib gas refinery gates in north Mayo to mark a year since deployment of extra gardaí to the area.

Shell to Sea spokesman John Monaghan said in a statement yesterday that the vigil from midnight until 6.30am was being held to mark “the one-year anniversary of the siege of the local community”.

A prayer service was held at dawn.

Up to 200 gardaí have been deployed during certain periods to provide escorts for employees building the Bellanaboy refinery, since work resumed there last October. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

FT REPORT – INVESTING IN RUSSIA: Corruption complicates an image problem

By Catherine Belton and Neil Buckley, Financial Times

Deteriorating political relations with the west have had little impact on bullish attitudes among corporate investors in Russia – but those not yet in the country are significantly more cautious about the country’s prospects.

A survey of 106 foreign companies investing in Russia and 51 “potential” investors this year found 82 per cent of existing investors were moderately or highly satisfied. Only 7 per cent of respondents to the survey, conducted for the Foreign Investment Advisory Council (or FIAC, a forum including senior business figures set up to foster dialogue with the government) were dissatisfied. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Independent: Record 22C temperatures in Arctic heatwave

The Independent 03 October 2007

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 03 October 2007

Parts of the Arctic have experienced an unprecedented heatwave this summer, with one research station in the Canadian High Arctic recording temperatures above 20C, about 15C higher than the long-term average. The high temperatures were accompanied by a dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice in September to the lowest levels ever recorded, a further indication of how sensitive this region of the world is to global warming. Scientists from Queen’s University in Ontario watched with amazement as their thermometers touched 22C during their July field expedition at the High Arctic camp on Melville Island, usually one of the coldest places in North America. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Times: Gazprom issues new ultimatum to Ukraine: pay $1.3bn bill or gas will be cut

October 3, 2007
Carl Mortished, International Business Editor

Gazprom said yesterday that it would cut supplies of natural gas to Ukraine if a $1.3 billion (£636 million) debt was not settled this month. The warning from Moscow was delivered just as pro-Western parties claimed a lead in closely fought parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

The country is a key transit point for Gazprom’s exports to Western Europe.

A spokesman for Gazprom said yesterday that the European Commission had been told of the situation and he denied that the action had any relation to the Ukraine elections. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Times: Case study: Shell

THe Times image

October 3, 2007

Josefine van Zanten, the global head of diversity and inclusiveness, believes she’s doing her bit for the planet’s wellbeing

By Julie Daniels

You could say that Josefine van Zanten has green blood in her veins.

Her formative years were spent in Switzerland, a country where recycling was embedded in the culture before the rest of Europe had even heard of the word. So for someone whose passion for green living was instilled so early, isn’t working in the oil business an odd career choice? read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Business Week: Catching The Wind In A Bottle

OCTOBER 8, 2007

A group of Midwest utilities is building a plant that will store excess wind power underground

The future is taking shape under the windswept corn and soybean fields outside Dallas Center, Iowa. At the Iowa Stored Energy Park, a coalition of local utilities is grappling with one of the thorniest challenges in the field of renewable power: how to store the excess energy windmills create when demand is low so it can be used later, when the need is greater.

The group is building a system that will steer surplus electricity generated by a nearby wind farm to a big air compressor (diagram). Connected to a deep well, the compressor pumps air into layers of sandstone. Some 3,000 feet down and sealed from above by dense shale, the porous sandstone acts like a giant balloon. Later, when demand for power rises, this flow is reversed. As the chamber empties, a whoosh of air flows back up the pipe into a natural-gas-fired turbine, boosting its efficiency by upwards of 60%. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

ThisDayOnline (Nigeria): Shell/EFCC: Court Adjourns to October 5

By Davidson Iriekpen, 10.03.2007

A Federal High Court in Lagos, yesterday adjourned till October 5, trial in the case brought before it by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Nigeria Ltd, against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). 

Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed adjourned the matter for trial,  to enable the counsel to the EFCC, Mr Femi Falana, regularise his defence filed out of time. The judge therefore, asked Falana to formally file the application before the court today, while the application would be taken on Friday this week. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bloomberg: BP California Refinery Plans 11 Days of Flaring (Update1)

By Samantha Zee

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, plans to flare certain gases later this week and into next at its Carson, California, refinery, according to a state- run Web site.

The flaring will begin Oct. 4 and last until Oct. 15, according to the Web site of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Gases that will be released into the atmosphere include sulfur dioxide, the Web site said.

The flaring will occur as the company prepares to shut at least two units for maintenance this month, according to a person familiar with the plant’s operations who asked to not be identified. The repairs will last a few weeks and the refinery will shut a crude unit and a coker unit, the person said. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bloomberg: Alberta Natives Sue to Block Shell Oil Sands Project (Update1)

By Joe Schneider

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — A native group in Alberta, Canada, sued the provincial government in a bid to block Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s multibillion-dollar expansion of an oil-extraction plant at Carmon Creek.

The Woodland Cree First Nation said it filed the complaint today in Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench in Calgary. The tribe seeks an order requiring the province to talk with natives before approving oil and gas development projects and halting Shell’s expansion. The group asked for an Oct. 31 hearing. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.