November 18th, 2007:

By Katherine Griffiths, City Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:10am GMT 19/11/2007

Sovereign wealth fund Temasek may today be fined $5bn (£2.4bn) following a showdown with the Indonesian government over telecoms investments.

Indonesia’s competition authority is understood to be preparing to levy a heavy penalty against Temasek after the fund refused to agree to the nationalisation of two multi-million pound shareholdings it holds in the country’s largest mobile telephone companies, Indosat and Telkomsel. read more

Fauwaz Abdul Aziz
Nov 18, 07 7:53pm
 
The royal commission of inquiry into the controversial VK Lingam video clip should be given the widest terms of reference to address the rot in the judiciary, said Malaysian Democratic Party secretary-general Wee Choo Keong.

Seeking to pre-empt the possibility that the commission will be given only limited scope, Wee said the inquiry should probe into events as far back as 1988.

He was referring to the year then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad had the lord president, Salleh Abas (left), tried and sacked by a special tribunal for, among others, questioning constitutional amendments that had severely eroded the powers of the judiciary. read more

Companies are keen to advertise their ecological credentials. But beyond the marketing spin, how green are they really?

Lucy Aitken  Monday November 19, 2007

Last Wednesday, November 14, was a big day for Eurostar. Not only did it open its St Pancras International terminus, it also made all Eurostar journeys carbon neutral at no extra cost to its passengers. Both Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace – who can spot the merest splash of greenwash – have applauded Eurostar for the eco-friendly changes it has made throughout its business, as well as for how it is communicating them. read more

11.18.07, 6:36 PM ET 
 
SYDNEY (Thomson Financial) – Australia’s leading oil and gas group Woodside Petroleum Ltd said Monday it has signed a deal to supply liquefied natural gas from its still to be developed Browse Basin project in northwest Australia to Taiwanese state oil company CPC Corp.

Woodside, 34 percent owned by the Royal Dutch Shell (nyse: RDSA – news – people ) Group, said the agreement allows for the potential sale of 2-3 million tonnes a year of LNG from the Browse project for a period of 15 to 20 years, starting from between 2013 and 2015. read more

Sunday, November 18, 2007

The Environment Minister John Gormley has threatened Shell Ireland with criminal proceedings after the company carried out work in a special area of conservation.

Unauthorised drilling of two boreholes was completed by Shell contractors at Glengad in County Mayo last month without the required permission.

Minister Gormley is ordering Shell to restore the drilling site to its original condition and is reminding the company that failure to do so is a criminal offence.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/politics/article3172388.ece read more

Clink on this link for information on careers at Shell

http://www.shell.com/home/content/careers-en

Shell discovery documents published by royaldutchshellplc.com on Sunday 18 November 2007

Videotaped Deposition of Tim Warren, retired Country Chairman, Shell Australia, deposed in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, January 30, 2007: 10:25 a.m. Formally Shell EP Technology director, Shell International Exploration & Production B.V.

ENTIRE SEARCHABLE DEPOSITION: 16.62mb pdf file containing 518 pages, so will take some time to load, particularly if you don’t have broadband…

http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/depo_tim_warren_ocr.pdf read more

By Ed Crooks and Javier Blas in Riyadh
Published: November 18 2007 09:01 | Last updated: November 18 2007 09:01

Opec leaders meeting at the weekend summit in Saudi Arabia have differed sharply over the group strategy and purpose, but have united in defence of high oil prices.

Hugo Chavez, the left-wing president of Venezuela, opened the summit welcoming oil prices at close to $100 a barrel, describing them as “fair”. He called for the group to be “an Opec for geo-politics, an Opec for revolution,” adding “Opec was born as a geo-political actor, not as an economic or technocratic bloc.” read more

The world’s largest oil producer could soon find itself over a barrel, reports Tim Webb in the Gulf

Sunday November 18 2007

The dusty sign next to the landing strip reads ‘Welcome to the City of Golden Sand’. This ‘city’ of 700 oil workers and their families is one of the most remote outposts on earth.

Shaybah is on the edge of the aptly named Rub’ al-Khali (’empty quarter’) desert region in southern Saudi Arabia, hundreds of miles from the nearest town. Underneath the rolling red sand dunes lies one of Saudi Arabia’s largest oilfields. It pumps 500,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd)- about 5 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s total. Production will rise to 750,000bpd by late 2008, and according to its state owned-operator, Saudi Aramco, the field has 19bn barrels of proven reserves. read more

EXTRACT: The investigation is looking at payments by Shell and Chevron-Texaco to his businesses in his home state. Over three years, Shell, Chevron and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company paid £3.6m into a Barclays account controlled by Ibori for renting out houseboats to foreign employees.

THE ARTICLE

November 18, 2007
Christopher Thompson

A FORMER governor of Nigeria’s richest province has used banks in Britain to stash £20m in stolen funds to finance his flamboyant lifestyle, police investigators allege. read more

Chavez Suggests Oil Could Reach $200 A Barrel

Nov 17 03:38 PM US/Eastern
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT
Associated Press Writer    
 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – In his opening address of a rare OPEC summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the United States on Saturday that oil prices would further surge if the U.S. contemplates an attack against his country or Iran.

The summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries opened Saturday in Saudi Arabia, with heads of states and delegates from 12 of the world’s biggest oil-producing nations listening to a recitation from the Quran. read more

The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal was overheard ruling out a proposal from Iran and Venezuela to discuss pricing crude in a private meeting at the oil cartel’s conference.

In an embarrassing blunder at the meeting in Riyadh, ministers’ microphones were not cut off during a key closed meeting, and Prince Al-Faisal was heard saying: “My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries. “There will be journalists who will seize on this point and we don’t want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec.” read more

18 November 2007 
By Gavin Daly

The founders of Ion Equity, the Dublin finance house that owns a range of businesses including Shell and Statoil, have sold shares in the business to their staff for the first time.

The firm has issued stakes to some of its investment staff in Dublin and London, including directors Patrick Hogan, David Fewer and Alex Noton.

Ion’s founders, Neil O’Leary, Ulric Kenny and Joe Devine, still own about 80 per cent of the business.

It is understood that the firm was keen to reward and keep its investment staff. The staff have previously shared equity in some deals completed by Ion, whose interests include travel firm Usit, Shell and Statoil in Ireland and alternative energy and outsourcing firm SWS. read more

By RAMON ALMANZAR
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is seeking to acquire full control of an oil refinery jointly owned with Royal Dutch Shell PLC in a bid to stabilize domestic fuel prices.

President Leonel Fernandez said Thursday that the treasury minister has been authorized to begin negotiations for the company’s 50 percent stake in the Refidomsa refinery, which produces 30,000 barrels of fuel per day, just under a fifth of the Caribbean country’s daily consumption. read more

Mehdi Shahbazi owned the Shell gas station on Reservation Road in Marina. (VERN FISHER/Herald file)

Shahbazi had gone on liquid diet

By LARRY PARSONS
Herald Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/17/2007 01:27:50 AM PST

Mehdi Shahbazi, a longtime Monterey Bay area service station operator who waged a quixotic and dogged battle against high gasoline prices, died this week at Stanford University Hospital, his wife said Friday. Shahbazi was 65.

In a protest that centered around the Marina Shell station he leased from 1982 to last month, Shahbazi had gone on a liquids-only fast this summer to highlight his populist crusade against high fuel prices and Shell’s legal campaign to terminate his lease. read more

The Associated Press
Article Launched: 11/17/2007 01:50:20 PM PST

PALO ALTO, Calif.—Mehdi Shahbazi, a gasoline station operator who waged a hunger strike and public-relations battle against Shell Oil Co., died this week at Stanford University Hospital of liver failure. He was 65.

Shahbazi leased a Shell station in central California from 1982 until September. In 2005, he posted signs at the Marina station highlighting “big oil’s unearned profit”—a protest that Shell said violated the terms of his lease. Shell sued, then Shahbazi accused the company of breach of contract and of violating the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act. read more