November 27th, 2007:

Terry Macalister

Annual revenues of $165bn are funding six new cities to create jobs – but can it last?
 
Terry Macalister
Wednesday November 28 2007

As the tiny ball of burning crimson drops behind the sand dunes it leaves a dark, almost silent landscape worthy of its name: Rub’ al-Khali, the Empty Quarter.

No sooner has the sun gone down than a long necklace of golden lights flickers on in the valley below and the improbable sound of an Islamic preacher can be heard calling the faithful to prayer. read more

November 28, 2007
Carl Mortished, World Business Editor

Hopes that Gazprom might open up the Yamal Peninsula to foreign oil companies appeared to be dashed yesterday when the Russian utility’s deputy chief executive gave a cool response to the notion of further investments by international oil companies in Russia’s gas-rich Arctic regions.

Alexander Medvedev, who heads Gazprom’s export business, spoke of “psychological barriers” to further investment by foreign oil companies and said that he had not received any interesting proposals from the Western majors. read more

November 28, 2007
Robin Pagnamenta

Staff at Shell Centre, Royal Dutch Shell’s high-rise London office, seem to have been placed on an enforced corporate fitness regime. An internal e-mail explains:

“As part of the renewal programme, lifts 4 and 5 have been taken out of service. Lifts 6 and 7 are currently out of operation. Lifts 2 and 3 are still operating for levels above the 9th floor. Lifts 4 and 5 are scheduled to be out of service until the beginning of February and we will let you know when lifts 6 and 7 will be available for use.” Er, so that leaves how many still operating, exactly? read more

27 November 2007

Scathing comments were made in May 2002 by Walter van de Vijver, the then Chief Executive of Shell EP, about the management team of Petroleum Development Oman (34% owned by Shell). 

The comments were contained in an extract from a document which formed part of his deposition filed in the current Royal Dutch Shell reserves fraud litigation.

Van de Vijver described PDO management in the following terms:

“Overall my patience has been tested too long with PDO and it’s management, progress over the last year (is it not just about delivered production!) has been less than expected, less than promised and less than could have been possible. Changes will have to be made.”  read more

Exhibit 129: January 2003 email correspondence involving Stuart Evans DPVM, Paulo Bizarro ONP32F, Niels van Dijk Shell International Petroleum – EPGO-RTL-R, Abdulla Lamki DMD, Saif Hinai OND, Jeroen Peters OSD, Abia Riyami OSP, Frode Linge ONP, Rob Willis SIEP-EPT-AGI, Bart Wassing OSP3H, Chris Mijnssen ONP3, Stuart Evans DPVM, Stuart Clayton DTEM, Said Harthy UPG2G, Kathleen Heller UPP: Subject Updated Reserves Picture and initial water flood plans:

Extract:

“Following on from the SSG, a meeting was reviewed to revisit options to make up the reserves shortfall.” read more

Tue 27 Nov 2007, 17:49 GMT
By Estelle Shirbon

ABUJA, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s oil industry regulator threatened on Tuesday to impose hefty fines and other penalties on firms that continue to burn off gas beyond a 2008 deadline.

Oil companies in Nigeria flare about 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas associated with the extraction of crude because there is no infrastructure to make use of it. Only Russia flares more gas than Nigeria.

Gas flares burning day and night are a health hazard to nearby communities and contribute to global warming, environmentalists say. The Nigerian government also wants to end flaring because it is a waste of a valuable resource. read more

By JOHN WILEN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 27, 2007; 12:19 PM

NEW YORK — Oil prices plunged Tuesday, picking up downward momentum amid concerns that a slowing economy might reduce demand for crude just as OPEC members are considering an increase in production.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery dropped $3.05 to $94.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling as low as $94.45 earlier. The contract is more than $4 below its all-time high of $99.29 set last week.
 
Stocks dropped sharply Monday, reigniting worries among energy traders that the economy is slowing and will use less oil and gasoline. Wall Street rebounded Tuesday, but the oil market was still clearly uneasy. read more

Workers and public transport drivers march with protest slogans closer to the Presidential Palace in Manila, Philippines on Monday, Nov. 26, 2007 to protest the escalating price of gasoline and other oil products by the three big oil companies, Caltex, Petron and Shell. The protesters formed recently an alliance of consumer groups, transport networks and “people’s organizations,” to pressure the government to suspend the Oil Deregulation Law to control “runaway oil prices” instead of public appeal for energy conservation. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez) (Bullit Marquez – AP) read more

Tuesday, 27 November 2007 
Áine Ryan

A DELEGATION of Shell to Sea campaigners met Minister Éamon Ó Cuív in Galway yesterday (Monday) to further highlight the issues of community dissent about the controversial Corrib gas project.

Retired teacher, Mr Niall King, told The Mayo News that, while the Minister said that many of the issues discussed were outside his departmental remit, the protest group felt he had primary obligations to such issues, particularly under the ‘pobal’ or ‘community’ dimension of his office. read more

 Shell said the platform fire would be investigated

A fire which broke out on a Shell platform has been extinguished.

The fire happened on the North Cormorant platform, which is 109 miles north east of Shetland.

The “small fire” broke out at 0042 GMT on Tuesday and Shell said it was “quickly contained” by the platform fire protection system.

Shell said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been informed. The incident happened less than 48 hours after a fire on another oil platform. read more

Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Tehran
November 27, 2007 05:33pm

IRAN has built a new longer-range missile named “Ashura” with a range of 2000km, the defence minister announced today, the Fars news agency reported.

“The construction of the Ashura missile with a range of 2000km is one of the accomplishments of the ministry of defence,” Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted as saying.

The weapon’s range is sufficient to put US bases in the Middle East and Iran’s arch enemy Israel within reach. The missile is named after the holy Ashura mourning ceremony that marks the death of Shi’ite imam Hossein read more

By Tim Hepher

BEIJING, Nov 25 (Reuters) – Oil company Total SA, battling to preserve a major gas investment in Iran amid French government pressure on businesses to trim their dealings there, is playing the energy security card by highlighting Iran’s huge gas reserves.

Total CEO Christophe de Margerie told Reuters that Iran could be a valuable source of new energy supplies as Europe frets about possible gas shortages and heavy reliance on Russia.

De Margerie said talks over the South Pars development had slowed, but denied this was the result of a French government call in September to show restraint in dealing with Iran as the West tries to rein in its nuclear program. read more

08:50 – 27 November 2007

First Minister Alex Salmond was accused of playing politics with North Sea safety last night after calling for the Scottish Government to take over regulation of the oil and gas industry.

North-east union leaders and rival politicians dismissed as “inappropriate” Mr Salmond’s call for responsibility for health and safety matters to be devolved to Edinburgh.

And UK Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain said the best way to keep North Sea oil workers safe was through a consistent health and safety regime that operated regardless of borders. read more

By Upstream staff

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond has called for the Scottish government to take control of policing the offshore industry, it was reported today.

Salmond claimed yesterday that the UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) should report directly to the Scottish government on all aspects of oil and gas installations operating in Scottish waters, a report in the Edinburgh-based Scotsman newspaper said.

He added that the move would make the North Sea a “safer place”. read more

By Isabel Gorst in Almaty
Published: November 27 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 27 2007 02:00

A high ranking foreign delegation arrived in Astana yesterday to discuss Kazakhstan’s demands for compensation for production delays and soaring costs at the Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian Sea.

A group led by Italy’s Eni is under intense pressure to meet a November 30 deadline set by Kazakhstan for amicable settlement of the dispute which erupted after the Italian energy group presented a revised development plan for Kashagan, one of the world’s biggest oilfields. read more

By Paul Betts
Published: November 27 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 27 2007 02:00

Kazakhstan has always been at the heart of “great game” politics. Back in the 19th century, the Russians, the British, the Germans and the French were already conspiring against each other for central Asia’s rich natural resources. After the second world war, a new player entered the game – the US. Ever since, the Americans have not been shy of moving every weapon in their arsenal to tighten their hold on the region’s energy assets. read more

EXTRACT: “Every time we put our credit card in the gas pump, we’re paying so that the Saudis get rich – filthy, obscenely rich, and that money then ends up going to funding madrassas,” schools “that train the terrorists,” said Huckabee. “America has allowed itself to become enslaved to Saudi oil. It’s absurd. It’s embarrassing.”

myway.com: Huckabee: America Enslaved to Saudi Oil

Nov 25, 2:59 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) – Consumers are financing both sides in the war on terror because of the actions of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday. read more

EXTRACT: Oil giants BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, for example, have been forced to sell stakes in lucrative energy projects to Kremlin-controlled companies.

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD
November 27, 2007; Page C5

Black Earth Farming Ltd., a Swedish-run company that invests in Russian farmland, is planning an initial public stock offering aimed at raising 1.6 billion Swedish kronor ($255.7 million) to take advantage of soaring grain prices by buying more land.

Black Earth, which plans to offer the stock in Stockholm by the end of the year, is one of several Western European companies hoping to capitalize on the glut of cheap farmland in the nutrient-rich belt that stretches from Ukraine into central Russia. read more

Reuters: November 26, 2007 at 5:10 PM EST

CALGARY — — Royal Dutch Shell PLC  [RDS.B-N]said Monday it has suspended bitumen production at its oil sands mine near Fort McMurray, Alta., as it works to repair a fire-damaged upgrader that converts the tar-like bitumen into synthetic crude oil.

Shell will advance the timetable of maintenance work at the Muskeg River mine while repairs at the 155,000 barrel per day Scotford upgrader are completed following a Nov. 19 fire.

Storage facilities at the mine are full, and with the upgrader damaged, there is no place to send the bitumen for processing. read more

Nov. 26, 2007, 4:08PM

© 2007 The Associated Press

FRISCO, Texas — Comstock Resources Inc., an oil and gas producer, said Monday it agreed to buy some oil and gas properties from Swepi LP, an affiliate of Shell Exploration & Production, for $170 million.

As part of the deal, Comstock will acquire producing properties and 70 producing wells in south Texas.

The deal is expected to close in December and will be funded by borrowing under its $600 million credit facility.

Comstock said the deal expands its presence in south Texas. read more

Photograph by: Donald Weber

Portfolio Magazine: Putin’s Power Grab

by James Verini  December 2007 Issue

The Russian president’s global ambitions—and his drift toward totalitarianism—hinge on the staggering energy reserves of the onetime Siberian gulag of Sakhalin Island. Royal Dutch Shell knows the drill.

Even in August, a visitor to Sakhalin Island, off the eastern shores of Russia, can detect a chill in the air. The pine and birch forests are still a brilliant green, the sky azure and cloudless, but intimations of the island’s savage Siberian winter are already here. Katerina Lekomtseva, a veteran of 28 such winters, shivers as she stands on a hill above Aniva Bay, on Sakhalin’s southern coast. When Lekomtseva was a child, during the death throes of the Soviet Union, there were constant electricity shortages, and she and her father would sit in the candlelight playing a game called In Town. He would name a city, and she would name another beginning with the last letter of the city he mentioned. After her father, who hadn’t yet given up on the U.S.S.R., would say “Moscow,” Lekomtseva, who had accepted her country’s eventual demise, would counter with “Washington.” Then she would imagine how wonderful Washington must be: no electricity shortages, no candles. “I hated that game,” she tells me. read more

Monday, November 26, 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin has parlayed Russia’s huge energy resources into a powerful political tool. Portfolio magazine’s James Verini has written about what lies ahead for Russia and its largest energy project, Sakhalin II. He talks with Kai Ryssdal.

TEXT OF INTERVIEW

KAI RYSSDAL: Vladimir Putin’s a little peeved at the United States. Today the Russian president accused Washington of leaning on election observers, pressuring them to stay away from parliamentary elections that’re set for this Sunday. Putin’s party is widely expected to win in a landslide this weekend. Which would help him hang onto power when he leaves the presidency this spring. Not hurting either, are the rising prices of oil and natural gas. Putin has parlayed Russia’s huge energy resources into a powerful political tool. Portfolio Magazine writer James Verini wrote about Russia’s, and the world’s, largest energy project, Sakhalin II, this month. read more

Nov 26, 2007 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) — RGPMF | charts | news | PowerRating — UK-based oil and gas exploration and production company Regal Petroleum has named David John Greer as chairman and CEO, Antonio Mozetic as non-executive director and Hendrikus Verkuil as an executive director.

In addition, Francesco Scolaro has stepped down as non-executive chairman and Neil Ritson has resigned from his position as CEO and director.

Mr Greer has extensive oil industry experience, having worked for Shell International Exploration and Production for 28 years. He has held a wide variety of engineering, production, commercial and senior executive positions in Shell’s operations in the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Oman, Argentina and the Philippines. read more

UPDATED: 4:42 pm EST November 26, 2007

PALM BAY, Fla. — Thousands of homes in Central Florida contain defective water pipes that could burst at any time. A huge lawsuit has provided millions of dollars for homeowners to replace the pipes but most consumers are not covered or don’t even know they can apply for the funds.

Patty Van Zweden is a victim of polybutylene water pipes. It’s a hard plastic pipe, usually colored gray, used by home builders for nearly 20 years as a cheap alternative to copper. But by the late 1980s, plumbers found the poly pipes failed at alarming rates. At Van Zweden’s Palm Bay house, a pipe burst in the master bath when nobody was home. read more