October 24th, 2007:

CALGARY, Oct. 24 /CNW/ – Shell Canada, Shell employees and Shell retirees
announced today a donation of $5.4 million to United Way of Calgary and Area,
the largest contribution to United Way from a company headquartered in Western
Canada. Each year, Shell matches its employees’ and retirees’ donations
dollar-for-dollar to United Way chapters across the country.

“The number of employees who volunteered with the United Way campaign and
Day of Caring(TM) events was an equally important component of the success of
this year’s campaign,” said Adrian Loader, Shell Canada President. “Shell
people truly showed what they can do when they work together to make a
difference in our community.” read more

By Tara Patel and Fred Pals

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA haven’t been contacted about a possible renegotiation of oil contracts in Nigeria, the companies said today.

“We have not officially seen anything from the Nigerian government so it is too soon to make a comment,” Wim van de Wiel, Shell spokesman in The Hague, said in a telephone interview today. Shell is Europe’s largest oil company.

Total spokeswoman Patricia Marie said the French company hasn’t been contacted by Nigeria about possible changes either. read more

By Torrey Clark

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 project with Royal Dutch Shell Plc delayed drilling Russia’s first offshore natural-gas well until next year as the venture completes construction of overland oil and gas pipelines.

Project operator Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. plans to drill as many as five gas production wells from the Lunskoye-A platform next year, spokeswoman Evgenia Oleinikova said by telephone today from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia’s Far East. read more

By Tom Bergin and Jonathan Cable

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil major BP plans to cut its onshore North Sea workforce by almost 20 percent, citing unsustainable business conditions, as big industry players continue to reduce their presence in the mature oil-producing province.

BP said in a statement on Wednesday it would cut 350 jobs over the next six months from a total onshore staff and contractor workforce of 2,100.

“Declining production and rapidly rising costs have created business conditions which are not sustainable in the long term,” BP said. read more

Alaska Native Press Briefing Calls on Congress to Protect Native Cultures from Impacts of Oil and Gas Development in Northern Alaska
 
WASHINGTON , Oct. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – – Alaska Natives from the Native Village of Point Hope and the community of Nuiqsut gathered today to voice their opposition to oil and gas development in key Native subsistence lands and waters in America’s Arctic. Close to one year after the first BP oversight hearing in the Senate, this briefing reinforced the need for Congress to address this administration’s headlong leasing of key Native subsistence lands for oil drilling, as well as new concerns regarding the compounding effects of climate change on the future of the Native subsistence cultures in Alaska. read more

EXTRACT: The payout would dwarf the $2.5 million BP paid the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2003 to settle allegations it had improperly traded crude oil futures, and the $120 million Royal Dutch Shell paid the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 to settle accusations it overstated its reserves.

THE ARTICLE

By Tom Bergin Reuters – Wednesday, October 24 11:22 am

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil major BP faces fines in excess of $300 million (146 million pounds) to settle civil and criminal probes related to market manipulation charges and a Texas refinery explosion that killed 15 workers in 2005. read more

Published: Tuesday 23 October 2007

 In an interview with EurActiv, Shell Vice-President for CO2 Bill Spence says carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will be fundamental in making fossil fuels environmentally acceptable as global demand for oil, coal and gas is set to continue surging in the coming decades.

Bill Spence is vice-president for CO2 at Royal Dutch Shell. David Hone is the company’s climate change advisor.

To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here.

Why is Shell interested in carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a way to fight climate change? Is CCS not like wiping the dust under the carpet? read more

08:50 – 24 October 2007

A dispute has broken out between an oil major and 200 of its North Sea staff about the impact a change of employer will have on the finances of the workers.

The Shell staff on five platforms being sold claim that many will lose out on tens of thousands of pounds from their retirement packages by transferring to a new owner.

The oil group has responded by saying that employees’ terms and conditions will be protected, while it will also fund “substantial” transfer and transition bonuses. read more

By Upstream staff

The Woodside-led North West Shelf Venture has made a shallow-water gas discovery with the Lady Nora-1 well off Western Australia.

The well was drilled in the Western Flank area next to last year’s Pemberton gas discovery, said a Woodside spokeswoman.

No further details were disclosed.

Lady Nora-1 lies in 78 metres of water in Block WA-28-P. The well was drilled to 3558 metres by the jack-up rig Premium Wilcraft.

The six North West Shelf Venture partners are Woodside, Shell, BP, Chevron, BHP Billiton and Japan LNG (MiMi).
——————————————————————————–
24 October 2007 02:28 GMT  | last updated: 24 October 2007 07:46 GMT read more

By Andrew G. Marshall

Cheney, who has more often represented his neo-conservative lunatic peers, as opposed to Ms. Rice, who, before coming into government in the George W. Bush administration, was on the board of Chevron, and thus, owes her loyalty not to any half-baked, mentally defunct ideology, but to an industry; the oil industry.

In the same month, March, it was reported that, “For all its efforts to apply economic and political pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, the United States has never used a potentially potent tool in its arsenal — penalties on foreign companies that assist Iran in producing oil and natural gas. That may be about to change. read more

By Matthew Green in Abuja
Published: October 24 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 24 2007 03:00

Some of the world’s biggest oil multinationals – including Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron – are facing a fresh threat to their profits after Nigeria became the latest oil-rich country to say it was thinking of renegotiating their contracts.

Against a backdrop of rising oil prices, Rilwanu Lukman, chairman of the Nigerian government’s oil and gas reform committee, said yesterday in his first public comments since taking office in August that the country might have to revisit some of the “generous terms” granted to western companies. read more

By MICHAEL CONNOLLY
October 24, 2007

With no end in sight to high oil prices and amid climate-change concerns, auto-industry leaders gathering for the Tokyo Motor Show this week are debating whether it’s time to skip past partial electrification of cars — represented by gasoline-electric hybrids such as the Toyota Prius — and to push instead to revive the ideal of all-electric cars that the industry largely abandoned earlier this decade.

As Joseph B. White and Norihiko Shirouzu report, Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn and Honda President and CEO Takeo Fukui argue, in separate interviews, that all-electric vehicles make more sense from environmental, political and economic points of view than hybrids — provided there are advances in making lithium-ion-battery technology safer and more reliable. Industry leaders are worried that U.S. and European regulators may force car makers to dramatically decrease the petroleum consumption of new vehicles, and more big cities are moving to institute curbs on automobile use in congested urban centers. read more

Guilty Plea on 2005 Blast,
Trading-Charges Settlement
Expected to Come Tomorrow

By ANN DAVIS in Houston, MATTHEW DALTON in New York, GUY CHAZAN in London
October 24, 2007; Page A3

New BP PLC Chief Executive Tony Hayward is making sweeping moves to clean up the oil giant’s operational and regulatory troubles. Among them: an expected agreement to plead guilty to U.S. criminal environmental charges and pay a $50 million fine related to a deadly Texas refinery explosion two years ago, according to people familiar with the matter. read more

The Golden Grain Energy ethanol biorefinery in Mason City, Iowa.
 
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: October 24, 2007

YES, gasoline has the corner on the American car fuel market, but maybe not forever. Carmakers already produce passenger vehicles that run nicely on diesel fuel, ethanol or hydrogen. The first two are on the road in the millions around the world, and the third is moving slowly toward viability.

The catch is that the path to the pump, as Thomas Hobbes might have said, can be nasty, brutish and long. And the overall picture for pollution and energy — which the engineers call “well to wheels” — might have drawbacks to equal gasoline’s. read more

October 24, 2007
Steve Hawkes

The takeover speculation that has been sweeping the City’s oil and gas sector reached new highs yesterday as BP was rumoured to be eyeing a possible £3.6 billion bid for Cairn Energy.

Shares in Cairn, the former FTSE 100 explorer, soared nearly 8 per cent, or 158p, to £22.69 and within reach of its highest level of the year.

The jump valued the group at just under £3 billion.

Cairn and BP refused to comment, but industry sources put the talk down to the frenzied atmosphere in the market in the wake of the recent approaches by Eni, the Italian giant, and the Korean National Oil Company for Burren Energy. read more

October 24, 2007

Shell and ExxonMobil are among oil companies facing a new threat to their profits after the Nigerian Government said it may renegotiate their contracts to operate in the country. “We may have to reconsider some of our generous terms,“ said Rilwanu Lukman, chairman of the oil and gas reform committee.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article2727788.ece

EXTRACT: “…look at the plunder of Nigeria by U.S. and European oil monopolies, enforced by a succession of murderous neo-colonial regimes. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a community leader of the Ogoni people of eastern Nigeria. He accused Shell Oil of participating in the genocide of the Ogoni people. In 1995, the Nigerian regime hung Ken Saro-Wiwa. Collaboration between foreign oil companies and Nigeria’s government death squads is overt and documented…”

THE ARTICLE

David Horowitz on Slavery: “Where’s the Gratitude?” read more

By Shelley Smith

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) — The following stocks may rise or fall in U.K. markets today. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from the last market close.

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index rose 54.7, or 0.9 percent, to close at 6,514. The FTSE All-Share Index gained 32.44, or 1 percent, to 3,351.93.

U.K. Companies:

BG Group Plc (BG/ LN): Allen & Overy LLP’s Graham Vinter was named general counsel at BG Group, the U.K.’s third-largest natural-gas producer. BG’s stock remained unchanged at 863 pence. read more

Wednesday, 24 October 2007, 04:46 GMT 05:46 UK

Nigeria’s top energy adviser, Rilwanu Lukman, has said deals with foreign companies to extract Nigerian oil should be reviewed.

Nigeria produces billions of dollars worth of crude oil every year in partnership with Western companies such as Mobil and Shell.

Mr Lukman said he wanted to improve the conditions of oil deals to be even more mutually beneficial to both sides.

Nigeria is Africa’s top oil exporter and a key supplier of crude to the US. read more