November 16th, 2007:

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 17/11/2007

Qatar fuel

Qatar Airways is hoping to be the first airline to operate flights on natural gas. The carrier is investigating the benefits of synthetic jet fuel, which it believes will help to significantly reduce its carbon emissions. Several companies, including Shell and Airbus, have joined the airline, in a study of the feasibility of alternative fuel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2007/11/17/et-nibs-117.xml

Members may be split over the cartel’s objectives but they are united against a US legal threat

November 17, 2007
Robin Pagnamenta in Riyadh

Stuck in traffic, behind rows of blinking tail-lights as smoked-glassed Chevrolets sweep down the dual carriageways around you, it would be easy to mistake this sprawling desert city, humming with oil wealth, for somewhere altogether different.

But it is here, amid the palms and neon-lit malls, that Opec heads of state are gathering, for only the third time in the organisation’s 47-year history, to ponder not only high oil prices, but also the purpose of the organisation – and whether it has a role beyond trying to massage prices by controlling production. read more

November 17, 2007
Nick Hasell: Tempus

It is no coincidence that Wood Group should wade into Canada’s oil sands in the same month that crude touched nearly $100 a barrel.

The synthetic crude extracted from the bitumen-soaked sands beneath Alberta’s peat bogs ranks among the world’s dirtiest oil. It is also among the costliest to produce, and requires crude prices to sustain a level above $50 a barrel to make such activity viable.

But that is not a calculation that need concern the Aberdeen-based oilfield services group for now. In paying an initial $140 million (£68 million) for the Canadian company IMV it is gaining a significant strategic foothold in what promises to be a fast-growing market. read more

You can pay for small items such as a coffee or a paper with a new ‘contactless’ card. Just wave it in front of a card reader and you’re done. But, the signal it sends is an invitation to hi-tech pickpockets

Saturday November 17 2007
 
Contactless cards have been heralded as the next big thing in retail and banking

Banks are rushing to roll out so-called “contactless” credit and debit cards which allow people to pay for low-value items such as their morning coffee or copy of the Guardian by simply waving their plastic over a reader at the till. read more

Kay Cashman

In September 2007, Repsol YPF joined a Shell/Eni partnership in a block of 64 leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope. It was the Spanish oil and gas major’s first acquisition in the state.

Shell and Eni exchanged working interests in the contiguous outer continental shelf leases in November 2006. At that time Eni had a 60 percent interest in the acreage and Shell had 40 percent. Repsol picked up its 20 percent interest from Eni.

The exploration block is operated by Shell in the federal waters north of the Oooguruk, Nikaitchuq, Northstar and Kuparuk units, extending east to midway above the Prudhoe Bay unit. read more

Vol. 12, No. 46  Week of November 18, 2007

2007 Beaufort drilling plans on hold due to a court order, Odom says will continue to listen, learn, work with local people

By Kay Cashman
Petroleum News

When Shell re-entered Alaska in October 2001 with the $2.4 million acquisition of 56,000 acres on the North Slope, Alaskans watched to see what the U.S. E&P arm of Royal Dutch Shell would do next.

Formerly a Cook Inlet basin producer, Shell left Alaska in 1998 after more than 40 years of activity that included exploration drilling in almost all of the state’s offshore basins with oil and gas potential, including the Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Cook Inlet. read more

By Michael Peel and Dino Mahtani in London
Published: November 16 2007 22:03 | Last updated: November 16 2007 22:03

Anti-corruption investigators are probing payments by ChevronTexaco and Royal Dutch Shell to a company owned by a powerful Nigerian politician they suspect has laundered tens of millions of dollars in British banks, property and cars.

James Ibori, who was governor of Delta State until last May, is being investigated by British and Nigerian authorities over sums he is alleged to have accumulated during his years in office. read more

Bloggers Alfred and John Donovan of royaldutchshellplc.com have unearthed some pretty interesting sounding “secret minutes” from a Sept. 2001 meeting of the company’s Committee of Managing Directors (CMD). The documents leaked show that in their discussions of a potential Sakhalin-China pipeline, the Shell executives expressed “considerable concern” about the role of Gazprom in the joint venture. That website says they will publish these leaked documents later today – we wonder if the Shell executives had the foresight to predict six years ago that Gazprom would end up stealing control of the project from them. read more

Bloomberg

November 16, 2007 — OPEC oil nations plan to ignore U.S. calls to increase production as crude prices remain stuck above $90 a barrel, according to a draft of the group’s statement to be released this weekend.

Their intention to keep production at current levels signals consumers are unlikely to see relief from high oil prices, which reached a record $98.62 a barrel on Nov. 7 in New York. A pledge to reduce carbon dioxide threatens to force investors in OPEC nations such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. to incur extra costs at their operations. read more

By Za’im Zaini

November 16, 2007

The Brunei Health Expo opened yesterday to an overwhelming response as scores of people visited the exhibition at the ICC.

A total of 110 booths have been set up by 74 exhibitors, which include the Ministry of Health that is showcasing its history and progress. Other exhibitors include corporations which are promoting products and services such as medicine, healthy food, healthy lifestyle, sports science, dental and body building products.

Among the participating corporations is Brunei Press Sdn Bhd. In an interview with the Bulletin, the General Manager of Brunei Press Sdn Bhd Mr Reggie See, said “Health is Wealth” which is the kind of message they are trying to send out. read more

Web posted at: 11/16/2007 8:44:41
Source ::: LAT-WP
By Steven Mufson

High oil prices are fuelling one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history. Oil consumers are paying $4bn to $5bn more for crude oil every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than $2 trillion into the coffers of oil companies and oil-producing nations this year alone. The consequences are evident in minds and mortar: anger at Chinese motor-fuel pumps and inflated confidence in the Kremlin; new weapons in Chad and new petrochemical plants in Saudi Arabia; no-driving campaigns in South Korea and bigger sales for Toyota hybrid cars; a fiscal burden in Senegal and a bonanza in Brazil. In Burma, recent demonstrations were triggered by a government decision to raise fuel prices. read more

NORVAL SCOTT
November 16, 2007

CALGARY — The U.S. is looking to companies now operating in Alberta for help in unlocking its own version of the oil sands, the massive oil shale deposits that lie underground in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The hope is that the U.S. can “learn lessons” from Alberta’s oil sands experience that will stand it in good stead when it comes to developing its own complex, unconventional crude resource, said Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado.

“We have enormous deposits of oil shale, but so far there hasn’t been a technology that has allowed it to be commercially developed,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail in Calgary. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved an operating licence for the Corrib gas refinery in north Mayo.

The agency has also said that its director, Dr Mary Kelly, did not participate in the decision, which was taken at board level.

This was due to the fact Dr Kelly had, in a previous post, appeared on a promotional video for the Corrib gas project, made by former developers Enterprise Energy Ireland (EEI).

This issue had been raised by objectors at an oral hearing held by the agency on the licence application earlier this year. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
Friday 16 November 2007

An Bord Pleanála has permitted Shell E&P Ireland to retain a temporary road which had been built initially without authorisation at the landfall for the Corrib gas pipeline.

The appeals board has said that the temporary road will not have a significant effect on the Glenamoy bog complex special area of conservation (SAC), if certain conditions are complied with.

The board has allowed the Corrib gas developers to retain the temporary development for a five-year period to “facilitate the construction of the Corrib gas pipeline”. read more

 By Angela Macdonald-Smith

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp.’s proposed liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea may beat rival ventures in the Australian region to production given its economics and unity between partners, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said.

Exxon’s project has fewer hurdles to overcome than competing projects led by Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Chevron Corp., Inpex Holdings Inc. and Santos Ltd., the bank said in a Nov. 13 report. All the proposed 66 million metric tons-a-year of LNG projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea won’t proceed within the suggested 2015 timeframe due to market and resource constraints, it said. read more

November 16, 2007

Royal Dutch Shell, the oil and gas group, has confirmed an attack on a pipeline linked to the Forcados oil terminal in Nigeria. A Shell spokesman in Lagos said this had been confirmed by the company’s “sources” in the area.

BP, the oil giant, saw its shares fall by 3 per cent after it said it will shed 10,000 employees in the US and sell its petrol pump forecourts to franchisees.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/article2879893.ece

By BENOIT FAUCON
November 15, 2007 4:26 p.m.

LONDON — BP PLC said Thursday it would sell most of its U.S.-owned or operated convenience stores, cutting about 10,000 jobs, as it begins a wide-ranging restructuring.

The U.K. oil company said the majority of the sites will be sold to franchisees over the next two years. The move places BP as the latest oil giant to dramatically scale back its convenience store operations.

In the past few years, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, ConocoPhillips and Chevron Corp. have all reduced their retail marketing positions. read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 16, 2007
Filed at 1:45 a.m. ET

SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices held steady Friday amid expectations that global crude supplies will remain tight despite a U.S. oil inventory report that showed a surprising build in domestic crude stockpiles.

”The outlook for pricing remains strong based on tight supply-demand fundamentals,” said Victor Shum, energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. ”Because of growth in developing countries, global oil demand growth is going to continue at a good pace.” read more

By Dino Mahtani in London, Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: November 16 2007 01:41 | Last updated: November 16 2007 01:41

Iran appears to be pushing ahead with its third major liquefied natural gas project, known as Iran LNG, with the assistance of European companies.

Last week, Ali Khayrandish, the managing director of Iran LNG, was reported as saying that one Chinese and four European companies had been in talks to secure liquefied natural gas supplies from the project. read more

By Peter Smith in Sydney
Published: November 16 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 16 2007 02:00

CNOOC, the Chinese offshore oil and gas producer, is understood to have hired Macquarie, the investment bank, to advise on the possible acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s oil assets in Australia’s North West Shelf.

Shell declined to comment, saying the matter was “commercially confidential”. CNOOC and Macquarie also declined to comment. However, a person close to the situation confirmed that a deal was being considered. read more

16/11/2007
By Geraldine Carr

At Wednesday’s sitting of Belmullett District Court, Shell E&P Ireland Ltd were prohibited by Judge Mary Devins from entering Rossport and Muinig na Bó commonages where they wanted to inspect the land to see if it was suitable for laying a pipeline.

Two separate appeals were brought before the court. One was on behalf of Ms Monica Muller while the other case was for 27 separate appellants, all of whom have shares in the commonage.

Mr John Gordon, the solicitor representing Shell, said that there are now three pipeline corridors shortlisted, and that this commonage was one of the shortlisted routes. Mr Gordon said there were two ways in which consultants for Shell (RPS Group), could enter the land: by gaining consent of all owners or by giving notice. read more