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December 2nd, 2007:

The East African: CMA finally allows Kenya Oil to buy up Kobil’s assets

3 December 2007

By PHILP NGUNJIRI
Special Correspondent

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority’s has approved the acquisition of Kobil’s Kenya assets by Kenya Oil Company Ltd (Kenol).

One of the implications of the move is that Kenol will have a much larger asset base with which to negotiate more favourable borrowing terms from banks. 

Kenol will also have more negotiating power with respect to suppliers such as overseas oil producers, according to a statement by Kenol/Kobil’s acting chairman and group managing director Jacob Segman. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Times: Secrets of Shell and Rolls-Royce come under attack from China’s spies

December 3, 2007
James Rossiter

Rolls-Royce and Royal Dutch Shell have fallen victim to Chinese espionage attacks, The Times has learnt.

Sustained spying assaults on Britain’s largest engineering company and on the world’s second-biggest oil multinational occurred earlier this year as part of a campaign to obtain confidential commercial information, sources said.

News of the attacks on Rolls-Royce and Shell comes after a warning by Britain’s security services that China is sponsoring espionage against vital parts of the British economy, including breaking into big companies’ computer systems. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Gulf Daily News (Bahrain): Eni group close to increasing firm’s stake in oilfield

Monday 3 December 2007

ASTANA: All but one member of an Eni-led consortium developing the huge Kashagan oilfield in Kazakhstan have agreed to raise Kazakh state oil company KazMunaiGas’s stake in the project, the company said yesterday.

Kazakhstan has been at loggerheads with the Eni-led group over cost overruns and production delays at the Caspian Sea field – the biggest oil find in three decades.

The sides set December 20 as the deadline to find a settlement.

“According to a new memorandum of understanding, all consortium members except one have reached principal agreement to hand over parts of their stakes in the project necessary to raise interest to a level of a large participant,” KazMunaiGas said. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Addis Fortune Newspaper (Ethiopia): Labour Union Sues Shell Over Severance Benefits

By Issayas Mekuria
Fortune Staff Writer
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Front page and continued on to page 15

Shell Ethiopia’s Labour Union filed a lawsuit at the Federal First Instance Court, Kera Area Labour Bench, alleging that the company has illegally changed its retirement policies in order to save money on lay-offs ahead of a possible closure of its operations in the Country.

The Complaint, filed by the Labour Union against Shell on November 22, 2007, stated that Shell Ethiopia scrapped its ‘Special Early Retirement Scheme’, which pays up to 55 months salary to employees who have been terminated or have voluntarily resigned from their jobs.  The company has instead replaced the scheme with a ‘Voluntary Severance Package’. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Midland Reporter-Telegram: Study: Dividends, stock buybacks found to pull away oil cash

Houston Chronicle
Midland Reporter-Telegram
12/02/2007

The “Big Five” oil companies are putting more money into stock buybacks and dividends than new exploration and development despite a fourfold increase in cash flow since the 1990s, according to a study by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips collectively spent 56 percent of their cash flow on share repurchases and dividends in the last year, moves that are good for investors in the short term, according to Amy Myers Jaffe, a co-author of the study. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Valley Morning STAR (Texas): Editorial: ‘Obscene’ profits are reinvested

December 2, 2007 – 1:42AM

Readers frequently hear or read about the allegedly “obscene” profits that oil companies have been raking in, but precious little about where all that filthy lucre is going.
A recent article in the Houston Chronicle, which intensely covers the oil industry, provided a welcome glimpse into the other side of the story.

If you adhere to the Watergate-era adage and “follow the money,” looking beyond the envy-mongering rhetoric of the Big Oil bashers, you will see the flip side of the coin.
More than half of the cash flow generated by the Big Five oil companies (ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch-Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips) went into paying stock dividends and stock buybacks, according to the paper. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Consortium Inks Preliminary Deal In Oil Field Dispute with Kazakhstan

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
December 1, 2007 10:09 a.m.

The consortium of Western companies developing the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea said Saturday it signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Kazakhstan. The agreement outlines a settlement of the dispute over rising costs and delays in the start of production at the massive oil field. Dec. 20 is the deadline to finalize the terms.

In a statement, the consortium — which is being led by Italian oil and natural gas company ENI SpA — said it achieved “good” progress in the negotiations with the authorities of the Central Asian country through “open and constructive dialogue.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: What’s Hot – and Not

Wall Street Journal image

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The New York Times: Only Downtrend at Pump: Independent Stations

New York Times image

ENDANGERED Bill Hands’s Orient station, one of a vanishing breed.
 
By STEWART AIN
Published: December 2, 2007

WHEN Bill Hands bought an unbranded gasoline station in Orient on the North Fork 21 years ago, it had three pumps — one for regular, one for premium and one for diesel. It still does.

Mr. Hands’s three-pump station, called the Orient Service Center, on Main Road, is a rarity on Long Island, according to Charles A. Gardner, director of the Suffolk County Office of Consumer Affairs. Long Island has lost at least 45 percent of its gasoline stations in the last quarter-century, and many of those that have disappeared were small independent stations. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Detroit News: Where ‘personal virtue,’ market meet

Sunday, December 2, 2007
Froma Harrop
 
In June 2000, newspapers ominously noted that oil had “surged” to more than $31 a barrel and that, come summer, gas might average a lofty $1.50 a gallon. Nonetheless, the gas-guzzlers were flying off the lots.

A year later, gas topped $2 a gallon. That “high” price was deemed politically problematic for the new President Bush. But rather than encourage Americans to burn less oil, Vice President Dick Cheney famously remarked that saving energy was a “sign of personal virtue,” not a basis for “a sound energy policy.” The guzzlers continued to fly. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.