October 17th, 2007:

Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:48 PM BST
By Catherine Hornby and Tom Bergin

AMSTERDAM/LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile , Research) have put some Dutch North Sea fields up for sale, adding to plans to sell UK North Sea assets, as the oil majors focus on exploring regions offering more potential.

Shell said in a statement on Wednesday that its NAM joint venture with Exxon was selling a number of producing fields in the NOGAT area on the Dutch continental shelf. read more

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) intends to market a number of its offshore licences, consisting of producing fields in the NOGAT area on the Dutch continental shelf. The producing fields are L2-FA, L2-FB, L5-FA, L12-FC and L15-FA, and the combined oil and gas producing F3-FB field.  

The fields and facilities to be divested are located in an area of the North Sea to the northwest of Den Helder and are interconnected by the NOGAT pipeline, through which natural gas is transported to the NAM operated processing plant at Den Helder.  NAM also intends to divest its share in NOGAT. read more

EXTRACT: Tom Botts, executive vice-president of Shell Exploration and Production activities in Europe, said: “The strong partnership with Norway and the opportunities to create value from existing assets shows why the North Sea is still a good place for Shell to do business.”

THE ARTICLE 

Jobs at a North-east gas terminal have been safeguarded until 2021.

The move is a result of gas flowing in from Norway to St Fergus.

The terminal, which provides 120 jobs, had been due to wind down, but can now operate at full capacity for another 14 years. read more

By Upstream staff

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is set to pump at least 8.7 million barrels per day this month, and is likely to raise that to about 9 million bpd in November when Opec’s supply increase takes effect, an Opec source said today.

Last month Opec agreed to raise supply by 500,000 bpd from 1 November in an attempt to soothe consumer concerns over tight supplies and high prices.

Under the agreement, Riyadh has a supply target of 8.943 million bpd, a Reuters report said.

The Opec source was talking to the news agency on condition of anonymity. read more

By Upstream staff

Turkey has stepped up security along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline as its army prepares for a possible incursion into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels based in the region, a senior energy ministry official said today.

Oil prices have risen to record highs in recent days amid tensions between Turkey and Iraq over the Turkish military plans. Parliament is expected to authorise military action later today.

“It is normal to have some threats against important pipelines at a time when Turkey is expected to launch an operation in northern Iraq. There are some threats (by Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas) towards this pipeline,” a senior official told Reuters. read more

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

GARDAI once again resorted to physically moving protestors at the Shell to Sea national day of action at Bellanaboy last Friday, October 12.

Supt John Gilligan said 120 protestors participated in the sitin blockade at the site for the Corrib gas terminal. He said the protestors were not aggressive but gardai did have to physically move some of them when they declined their request to stop blocking the paths of vehicles.

There were no arrests and protestors made no attempt to gain entry to the terminal site. Supt Gilligan said the majority of participants in the day of action had left the area by 1pm. He stressed that An Garda Siochana’s involvement related to issues of public order, road traffic and safety. read more

A Curb on Calpers:
Iran-Linked Holdings
By SPENCER SWARTZ
October 17, 2007; Page C2

LONDON — Two big U.S. pension funds will be forced to sell large shareholdings in energy companies if those companies don’t stop doing business in Iran after a new California law took effect over the weekend, fund officials said in interviews.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or Calpers, and California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS, confirmed they will have to sell large holdings — amounting to about $3.4 billion in holdings between the two funds — if the companies they hold stock in don’t halt operations in Iran.
 
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday signed the California Public Divest from Iran Act, which bans the two funds from holding public-employee retirement funds in companies with operations in Iran. read more

Nick Fletcher
Wednesday October 17, 2007

Traders were playing spot the FTSE 100 bid target again yesterday, and the name in the frame this time was gas and oil group BG.

The company, once part of the British Gas monolith, has been tipped as a target for some time, with Royal Dutch Shell, Russian group Gazprom or even a mining group such as Rio Tinto mentioned.

This month Shell was reported to be planning a carve up of BG in partnership with Brazilian group Petrobas. Yesterday the speculation was of a £12-a-share bid, perhaps from the Russians, which helped push the company’s shares 19p higher to 914p. read more

OLUSOLA BELLO & EJIOFOR ALIKE on 17 October, 2007

The lingering power crisis in the country may worsen following a force majeur on the supply of 200-million cubic feet-a-day of gas from the Utorogu-Ughelli gas field by Royal Dutch Shell last weekend.

The shutting down of the gas pumping station in Delta State, will cut gas supply to the nation’s power plants, and worsen the hardship of electricity consumers.

The company had earlier shut natural gas pumping at the gas field following a fire in the gas condensate pipeline which was reported by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). read more

17 October 2007

BG Group, the oil and gas explorer, rose 19 to a new all-time high of 914p amid ongoing speculation that it could be the target of a joint takeover by Royal Dutch Shell and Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company. Dealers said there were also rumours of a US investment bank building a stake in BG.

For the complete Daily Telegraph Market Report for 17 October 2007 go to…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/17/cxmktrep117.xml

October 17, 2007
Patrick Hosking, Banking and Finance Editor

A radical strategy overhaul of HSBC could produce at least 17 times more value for shareholders than the bank’s existing diversification policy, the rebel shareholder Knight Vinke claimed yesterday.

Renewing his assault on Britain’s biggest bank, Eric Knight, the founder of Knight Vinke, suggested that HSBC could transform its fortunes by choosing to build scale in a few key retail markets and abandoning its string of sub-scale operations. read more

October 17, 2007
Carl Mortished: World business briefing

Hu Jintao wants to make every Chinese twice as rich by 2020. He has done it once – in just five years, income per capita doubled to $2,000 (£983) – and the only obstacle in the Chinese President’s path is the fuel needed to stoke the boiler in China’s locomotive.

The president needs more copper, iron ore, zinc and natural gas. Above all, he needs more coal to keep the power stations humming nicely and more oil for Chinese cars and lorries. China accounts for more than a third of world demand for coal and the price in Australia soared this year as the People’s Republic switched from being an exporter to being an importer. If Mr Hu had a message for the world in his address to the Communist Party National Congress, it was this: we will burn our coal and, if we have to, we will burn yours, too. read more

October 17, 2007

In the know

Speculation grew that BG Group was a bid target. As the oil sector continued its bullish run, BG was among the biggest gainers, rising 19p to 914p. The company has been tipped as a takeover target for some time, with Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom, of Russia, and even a mining company such as Rio Tinto being mentioned.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article2674069.ece

Daily Mail: Top Lakeland restaurant serves up Peking duck-style squirrel pancakes

Last updated at 14:41pm on 16th October 2007

A top restaurant is serving up free grey squirrel pancakes to hungry diners.

Peking duck-style squirrel wraps are being offered to diners at The Famous Wild Boar Hotel.

The restaurant at Crook, near Windermere, in Cumbria, is giving diners the chance to try the canapes free of charge.

The grey squirrels were caught in the hotel’s 72-acre woodland grounds and have been prepared by head chef Marc Sanders. read more

By Nick Clark
Published: 17 October 2007

BG Group was in focus yesterday, as takeover rumours returned to the stock with a vengeance.

Talk sweeping the market speculated that Royal Dutch Shell was to team up with Brazil’s Petrobas to launch a 1,050p-per-share offer. Other names linked with interest in BG over the past week include Gazprom and Exxon.

One trader said: “Rumours in BG come up frequently. It could well be true, but why didn’t they target the stock when it was down around 710p in August?” It closed up 2.12 per cent at 914p. read more

Published: October 17 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 17 2007 03:00

Determinists believe that man is the plaything of events, not their master. Knight Vinke and other activist investors clearly disagree. They believe that if the right levers are pulled, even a tiny shareholding can be used to move corporate giants. But how is it possible to know whether change would have happened anyway?

Knight Vinke, which now has its sights set on HSBC, claims to have led the shake-up of Royal Dutch/Shell. But some argue Shell’s restructuring in 2004 was inevitable following its crisis over reserves. When the fund manager went after Suez, in 2004, Knight Vinke was accused by the French utility’s management – and by some analysts – of being somewhat tardy. Suez was already working to a new action plan and the board had only just completed a review of its structure. More importantly, power prices were on the move, boosting sector share prices. Similarly, HSBC announced a new strategy, refocusing on Asia, just seven months ago. read more

By Neil Hume and Robert Orr
Published: October 17 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 17 2007 03:00

BG Group , the oil and gas exploration group, was in demand again yesterday, and record crude prices were only part of the reason.

Its shares gained 2.1 per cent to a record high of 914p amid rumours of a stakebuilding operation through a large US investment bank.

In August, the People’s Bank of China paid £125m for a 0.5 per cent stake in BG, which is seen as a take-over target for a number of large oil companies. read more