October 26th, 2007:

Acacia Research in Settlement With Shell Oil on Credit Card Patent Dispute; Terms Undisclosed

October 26, 2007: 10:42 AM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Acacia Research Corp., which develops, licenses and acquires patented technologies, said Friday it agreed to settle a patent dispute with Shell Oil Co. regarding credit card fraud protection technology.

Shell Oil is a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The agreement between Acacia’s Financial Systems Innovation LLC unit and Shell covers patents relating to a computerized system for protecting retailers and consumers engaged in credit card, check card, and debit transactions. The system includes an electronic card reader and the generation and use of a transaction number which identifies each transaction in the system. read more

Price Hits Record Close; U.S. Tightens Sanctions

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 26, 2007; A01

A U.S. military strike against Iran would have dire consequences in petroleum markets, say a variety of oil industry experts, many of whom think the prospect of pandemonium in those markets makes U.S. military action unlikely despite escalating economic sanctions imposed by the Bush administration.

The small amount of excess oil production capacity worldwide would provide an insufficient cushion if armed conflict disrupted supplies, oil experts say, and petroleum prices would skyrocket. Moreover, a wounded or angry Iran could easily retaliate against oil facilities from southern Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz. read more

17:49 | 26/ 10/ 2007 

MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) — Sakhalin Energy, operator of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific Coast, said Friday it would rectify violations, identified by Russia’s environmental watchdog, within a year.

Sakhalin Energy CEO Ian Craig said at a meeting with Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev that the program, including the reinforcement of landslide-prone river banks and reforestation, would be completed in a year.

Trutnev said the government was prepared to wait, expressing hope that the violations would indeed be eliminated within the time. read more

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY — Associated Press Writer
Published: Friday, October 26, 2007

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) Gunmen in speedboats attacked an oil vessel off the coast of Nigeria at dawn Friday and kidnapped six workers, Italian energy giant Eni SpA said.

The Polish, Filipino and Nigerian workers were taken off the FPSO Mystras, Eni said on its Web site. One Nigerian was reported to have been wounded in the leg, the statement said. A spokeswoman refused further comment.

The Mystras, used for production, storage and offloading crude oil, is capable of producing 80,000 barrels of oil per day. read more

BARRY MORGAN, Nairobi

Seven workers kidnapped on Sunday from support vessels working near Shell’s Amatu facility near the EA field off Bayelsa state in Nigeria have been freed.

The hostages citizens of the US, Russia and Croatia were working for sub-contractors Hydrodive and Interoil. They were handed over unharmed to Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva-Sam and senior Shell officials.

A total of 30 heavily armed men from a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) engaged military guards from the Joint Task Force (JTF) for three hours at Ekeremor before the abductions took place, according to local reports. read more

RUSSELL SEARANCKE, Wellington

Shell’s multi-billion dollar Gumusut-Kakap deep-water oil project in Malaysia is facing delays while project partners deal with weight issues on the topsides.

The topsides of the semi-submersible production platform have been designed far too heavy for the supporting hull, according to well-placed sources. Some suggested the deck is 3000 tonnes overweight.

The Gumusut project’s main turnkey contractor is Malaysia Marine&Heavy Engineering (MMHE), which one year ago was awarded its prestigious Gumusut platform contract by way of direct negotiations between Shell, national oil company Petronas, which is a part owner in Gumusut-Kakap, and Petronas subsidiary MISC, which owns MMHE. read more

By Upstream staff

Environmental concerns dogging the Sakhalin 2 development, in Russia’s far east, will be resolved next year, Sakhalin Energy management told Russian resources officials today.

The two sides met after the Gazprom-led project came under fire from the Russian government for what it claimed were continued environmental violations.

“I am pleased with your timetable to clear the problems next year and I think it’s positive Gazprom plays such a central role in your management,” Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev told Sakhalin Energy’s chief executive Ian Craig at a meeting in Moscow, Reuters reported. read more

By Upstream staff

Shell will take political issues into account when deciding whether to go ahead with the Persian liquefied natural gas project Iran, chief financial officer Peter Voser said today.

The Anglo-Dutch supermajor and Spain’s Repsol YPF have signed a preliminary deal to develop phases 13 and 14 of Iran’s South Pars gas field, despite Washington urging its allies not to invest in the Islamic Republic.

Voser told a news conference on the company’s earnings that the supermajor was working on technical and economic aspects of the project, which Tehran has valued at $10 billion. read more

Graeme Wearden
Friday October 26, 2007

Renewed fears over relations between the US and Iran helped to push the oil price to a new all-time high this morning.

The price of a barrel of oil for December delivery reached $92.01 a barrel.

Traders said the economic sanctions announced yesterday by US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice against Iran had fuelled concern over rising tensions in the Middle East.

There were already worries that military action between Turkey and Kurdish rebels could disrupt supplies. read more

By Alexander Kwiatkowski and Angela Macdonald-Smith

 Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose above $92 a barrel for the first time in New York after the U.S. accused the Iranian military of supporting terrorism and stepped up pressure on foreign companies to cut ties with the Middle East oil producer.

Oil was also pushed higher as Turkey warned of a wider military assault into northern Iraq and called on the U.S. to join the fight. Turkey’s army shelled suspected militant camps on the Iraqi side of the border. read more

The new report shows that after they reach their peak around the year 3000 humans will begin to regress

By NIALL FIRTH
 
The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection will mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000. read more

By Dino Mahtani
Published: October 25 2007 21:00 | Last updated: October 26 2007 06:45

Shell’s drop in third-quarter profits follows a trend seen elsewhere in the global oil and gas industry.

In spite of record oil prices, the major multinationals are struggling to book growth in profits, taking hits in their refining divisions or facing industry-wide cost pressures and delays to important new oil and gas projects.

John S Herold, an oil and gas research firm, and industry advisory group Harrison Lovegrove recently estimated that spending by the 228 global oil and gas companies increased 45 per cent to $401bn in 2006 but they generated only a 2 per cent increase in reserve volumes to 263bn barrels of oil equivalent. read more

By Dino Mahtani in London
Published: October 26 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 26 2007 03:00

Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, warned that record high oil prices were being driven by speculation and political tension, not a lack of supply.

The comments by Peter Voser, chief financial officer, came as the group reported that third-quarter earnings, on a current cost of supply basis, had fallen 8 per cent to $6.39bn as a result of lower refining margins and sales volumes.

But record high oil prices meant that profit attributable to shareholders rose 16 per cent to $6.916bn. read more

By Javier Blas in London
Published: October 26 2007 07:49 | Last updated: October 26 2007 07:49

Crude oil prices on Friday breached $92 a barrel to hit a fresh all-time high, driven by low inventories ahead of the winter peak season, fresh geopolitical tension between the US and Iran and the weakness of the US dollar.

Nymex December West Texas Intermediate jumped in London early morning trade by $1.59 to an intraday record of $92.05, after rising $3.36 to $90.46 on Thursday. The oil price is up almost 50 per cent since January. read more

By JULIA WERDIGIER and STEPHEN LABATON
Published: October 26, 2007

LONDON, Oct. 25 — The chief executive of BP, Tony Hayward, presented himself when he took over in May as a leader who could move the company away from its troubled recent past.

On Thursday, Mr. Hayward and BP took a big step forward in doing that.

At a news conference in Washington, the Justice Department announced that BP and its subsidiaries had agreed to pay $373 million in fines and restitution to settle accusations of environmental violations that had led to a fatal explosion at a Texas refinery in 2005 and to leaks of crude oil from pipelines in Alaska. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 26, 2007

AMSTERDAM, Oct. 25 (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that third-quarter net profit rose 16 percent despite a drop in production, but it warned that the underlying performance of its refining operations was weaker than it appeared.

Net profit at Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, came to $6.92 billion, up from $5.94 billion, primarily because of a rise in the reported refining earnings. Sales rose to $90.7 billion in the quarter from $84.3 billion. read more

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 12:18am BST 26/10/2007

Peter Voser, finance chief at Europe’s biggest oil company, Royal Dutch Shell, warned the industry not to bank on record crude prices to drive revenues in the future, calling predictions that the price per barrel would hit $100 “too speculative”.

He said the oil price was being driven up by speculators and political factors, rather than any fundamental problems with production and supply.

“To be honest, we find it hard to explain the oil prices,” said Mr Voser. read more

(Mike Agliolo/Science Photo Library)
A computer enhanced image of earth from space at sunset

October 26, 2007
Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

The speed at which mankind has used the Earth’s resources over the past 20 years has put “humanity’s very survival” at risk, a study involving 1,400 scientists has concluded.

The environmental audit, for the United Nations, found that each person in the world now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the Earth can supply.

Thirty per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea. read more

By Angela Macdonald-Smith and Christian Schmollinger

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose to a record above $91 a barrel in New York on an unexpected drop in U.S. stockpiles and concern that supply from the Middle East may be disrupted.

Inventories last week fell 5.29 million barrels to the lowest since January, the U.S. Energy Department said. New U.S. sanctions against Iran, warnings of a Turkish assault on Kurdish militants in Iraq and a falling dollar helped push prices higher. Brent futures in London reached a record. read more