December 3rd, 2007:

Is there a head of steam building up to introduce US-style class action to Britain? Consumers will not be so lucky

David Greene
December 4, 2007

From the legal media it looks as if our civil court process will become inundated with US-style class actions. But is British business really heading into the abyss of mass litigation in the UK courts?

After a constant flow of conferences held by the International Bar Association, American Bar Association, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and now the Civil Justice Council (CJC), a head of steam seems to be building for the import of the US process, with all its alleged ills. In reality, there remain substantial barriers. read more

December 4, 2007
Patrick Hosking, Banking and Finance Editor

Serious money can be made out of loyalty cards, the fiddly bits of plastic that clutter up the wallet and delay the simplest shop transaction. Unfortunately, to do so, it helps to be a shareholder, rather than a cardholder.

Sir Keith Mills clinched one of the entrepreneurial coups of the decade yesterday, multiplying his start-up investment 450 times in only five years when he sold LMG, the business behind Nectar cards.

Aeroplan, the Canadian loyalty marketing company, is paying £350 million mostly in cash for LMG, which began Nectar in 2002. At the time Sir Keith, the chairman, injected “a few hundred thousand pounds worth” of research and development work in return for his 46 per cent stake. Yesterday he sold that stake for £160 million. read more

A bone from the skull of a bowhead whale outside Barrow, Alaska. The Inupiat worry that oil drilling will disrupt their whaling. (Photographs by Damon Winter/The New York Times)

By Jad Mouawad
Monday, December 3, 2007

BARROW, Alaska: Each summer and fall, the Inupiat, natives of the arid north coast of Alaska, take their sealskin boats and gun-fired harpoons and go whale hunting. Kills are celebrated throughout villages as whaling captains share their catches with relatives and neighbors. Muktuk, or raw whale skin and blubber, is a prized delicacy. read more

CONFIDENTIAL: Shell email 30 Jan 2001 from Anton Barendregt, Group Reserves Auditor, to Lorin Brass Shell EP Director), Phil Watts (EP Chief Exec) , Dominique Gardy (CFO SIEP), John Bell, Remco Aalbers SIEP plus Egbert Eeftink (Partner, KPMG Accountants) and Stephen L. Johnson of PriceWaterhouseCoopers

REVIEW OF GROUP END-2000 PROVED OIL AND GAS RESERVES SUMMARY PREPARATION

http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/421.pdf

Iranian police officers patrol part of the Caspian sea in front of an oil facility outside the city of Neka some 190 miles (305 kilometers) northeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, in a Thursday, April 29, 2004 file photo. Iran’s potential to shut down nearly 40 percent of the world’s oil trade represents a weapon possibly more powerful than its missiles, gunboats or any arms system Tehran claims to possess. But such a move would cut both ways in any possible military showdown with the United States. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) (Vahid Salemi – AP) read more

Britain security agency warns of international spies in cyberspace.

PC World
Monday, December 3, 2007; 11:19 AM

Britain’s domestic intelligence agency is warning that cybercrime perpetrated by China is on the rise following hacking attacks against Rolls-Royce and Royal Dutch Shell.

The agency, known as MI5, recently sent letters to some 300 banks, accounting and legal firms warning that “state organizations” of China were plying their networks for information, according to theTimes of Londonon Monday. read more

By Jad Mouawad
Monday, December 3, 2007

After a year of dizzying gains for energy markets, a rapid fall in oil prices lately is posing a dilemma for OPEC, the oil-producing cartel.

Should OPEC make industrialized countries happy by increasing the oil supply, a move that would probably send prices down further? Or should it keep production at a steady level at a time of economic turbulence, when demand could easily taper off?

As they prepare to meet in Abu Dhabi this week to set output levels for the winter, officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are mindful of the many uncertainties that complicate their task. Oil prices flirted with $100 a barrel just two weeks ago, but fears of slowing economic growth have since pushed them down by more than 10 percent. Oil futures settled at $88.71 a barrel, down $2.30, on Friday, after their steepest weekly decline in more than two years. read more

Mon Dec 3, 2007 11:44am GMT 

OSLO, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch energy group Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) is testing its Ormen Lange gas field in the Norwegian Sea after a shutdown on Friday, and plans to restart production late on Monday, Shell’s Norwegian unit said.

“Ormen Lange is not back up, for the time being we are still testing,” said Kitty Eide, Shell’s spokeswoman in Norway.

“We hope to begin the start-up process late today. Shortly afterwards, production should be back to normal capacity.” read more

From a Shell insider

Nice posting, brought back old memories!

I attach for your bulging archive a photo of a key fob trinket (expensive leather naturally) with the famous rocket motif handed out in Maastricht (the venue of the Astronaut and the Macarena). That rocket would point towards N-E and consisted of strategies, leadership, targets etc. It appeared on hundreds of Shell sites and in thousands of presentations. All disappeared suddenly without a trace. But we have proof in the photo below! read more

November 20, 2007 

To: Federal First Instance Court

      Kera Bench Work Litigation Tribunal

      Addis Ababa
 

            Plaintiff…………….. Trade Union of Shell Ethiopia Ltd

                        Address: N/S/Lafto Sub-City Kebele 10 House No. 280
 

            Defendant…………… Shell Ethiopia Ltd

                        Address: N/S/Lafto Sub-City Kebele 10 House No. 280

This is a mutual work litigation charge filed to adjust improper deduction of benefits and protect employees’ right as the defendant is going to sell its shares and leave the country read more

By KADYR TOKTOGULOV
December 3, 2007; Page A16

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — All but one member of a consortium developing the giant Kashagan oil field have agreed to transfer part of their stakes to Kazakh state-run oil-and-gas company JSC NC KazMunaiGaz, a move that could help resolve a long-running dispute with the government.

The consortium, led by Italy’s Eni SpA, has been embroiled for months in a disagreement over rising costs and delayed production at the field. With 13 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, Kashagan is one of the largest oil finds of the past 30 years. read more

By Isabel Gorst in Moscow
Published: December 3 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 3 2007 02:00

Kazakhstan warned international oil companies at the weekend to stop living “in ancient times” as it prepared to tighten the fiscal regime at oilfields and increase state ownership of its flagship Caspian Sea development.

Daulet Yergozhin, Kazakhstan’s deputy finance minister, said, draft revisions to the tax code, to be debated in parliament early next year, would increase budget revenues, be “simple to administer and collect and very understandable for oil and mineral producers”. read more

The Independent: Expanding tropics ‘a threat to millions’

3 December 2007 08:15
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 03 December 2007

The tropical belt that girdles the Earth is expanding north and south, which could have dire consequences for large regions of the world where the climate is likely to become more arid or more stormy, scientists have warned in a seminal study published today.

Climate change is having a dramatic impact on the tropics by pushing their boundaries towards the poles at an unprecedented rate not foreseen by computer models, which had predicted this sort of poleward movement only by the end of the century. read more

EXTRACT: The panelists encouraged divesting in companies doing business in Iran, such as Britain’s Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

By DON JORDAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 03, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH — Strong economic pressure from the international community is the best way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapons program, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein said at a conference Sunday. But if sanctions fail, the Boca Raton Democrat said, he wouldn’t agree with taking “any options off the table,” including military action. read more