December 11th, 2007:

Class Action against Royal Dutch Shell alleging securities fraud

Videotaped deposition of JOHN C. DARLEY, Director E&P Technology, Shell International E&P, taken by the Lead Plaintiff in New York, New York: November 16, 2006: Includes “MOST CONFIDENTIAL” Shell documents, internal confidential correspondence and Shell plans and strategy – 2000/2001/2002/2004, involving senior managers and group managing directors including: Walter van de Vijver, Malcolm Brinded, Linda Cook, David Greer, Brian Ward, John Haney, Fran Lohr, Anton Barendregt, Lorin Brass, Frank Coopman and many others. read more

December 11, 2007 |

The following Oil & Gas Industry report is provided by guest author Robert Williams, PhD, P.E., and industry executive with over 40 years experience working for major oil corporations as well as smaller companies all across the globe.

The major oil supplier areas of the world are Middle East (specifically Saudi Arabia), West/North Africa, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Indonesia and including the North American suppliers and consumers, USA and Canada. Major oil consumers are USA/Canada, Europe, Japan, China, India/S.E. Asia and Australia/New Zealand. read more

This Day (Lagos)
11 December 2007
Ahamefula Ogbu
Port Harcourt

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) yesterday blocked the entrance of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Port Harcourt in protest of what they called human and Environmental rights abuses of their people by Shell.

The protest which saw about 250 Ogonis protesting in front of the oil giant coincided with the celebration of the United Nations Human Rights Day where they vowed that Shell was not going to return back to Ogoniland. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin and Marianne Stigset

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, and HR Biopetroleum will build an algae- growing plant in Hawaii to produce vegetable oil for biofuels.

The two companies have set up a joint venture, Cellana, to develop the project and will start by constructing a pilot facility, Shell said today in a statement. The partners say algae will absorb carbon dioxide, a gas blamed for global warming.

Algae “can double their mass several times a day and produce at least 15 times more oil per hectare than alternatives such as rape, palm soya or jatropha,” Shell said. It “can be cultivated in ponds of seawater, minimizing the use of fertile land and fresh water.” read more

By Quentin Peel in London
Published: December 11 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 11 2007 02:00

The anointment of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, as heir apparent to Vladimir Putin is, on the face of it, confirmation of continuity in the Kremlin – and of Mr Putin’s intention to remain the power behind the throne.

As the president’s former chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and a close associate from Mr Putin’s days as deputy mayor of St Petersburg in the early 1990s, Mr Medvedev could scarcely be more intimately associated with his boss, always in a firmly subordinate role. read more

By Fiona Harvey and John Aglionby in Bali
Published: December 11 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 11 2007 02:00

Businesses yesterday told negotiators at international talks on climate change that they needed firm targets to encourage investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

David Hone, group climate change adviser for Shell, the oil group, said countries should be given definite emissions targets, broken down into “clearly segmented timeframes”.

“The real confidence would ultimately come once we’ve set and passed one or two [target] deadlines and someone’s held to task if we don’t meet them. If that doesn’t happen, then the whole thing starts to unravel,” he said. read more

By Dino Mahtani in London
Published: December 11 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 11 2007 02:00

Just a handful of international energy groups have secured licences to develop Libya’s gas reserves in spite of high initial interest from dozens of companies.

Tight commercial terms and a lack of gas industry infrastructure in the North African country put off many of the 34 operating companies that qualified for the country’s first gas licensing auction.

Last weekend just four operators walked away with licences, including Russia’s state-owned gas company, Gazprom, and Algeria’s national oil company, Sonatrach. Shell, Europe’s largest integrated oil company, and PGNiG, Poland’s largest gas exploration and production company, took the other licences. read more

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 1:23am GMT 11/12/2007

Imperial Energy, the London-listed company that explores for oil in Russia, said the country’s Natural Resources Ministry had extended all six licences held by a subsidiary.

The company’s shares rose as investors interpreted the extension as a sign Imperial’s problems with Russia’s regulators were easing.

Imperial is one of several Western energy firms, including Royal Dutch Shell and Peter Hambro Mining, that were targeted by Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the environmental agency, over claims companies breached operating licences. read more

Energy chief Bodman and others hail Motiva’s $7 billion project at groundbreaking in Port Arthur

Dec. 11, 2007, 12:30AM
Refineries

By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

PORT ARTHUR — U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Monday that a $7 billion expansion of Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur refinery will be needed to meet the nation’s rising energy needs even if federal lawmakers pass an energy bill that curbs U.S. gasoline usage in coming years.

“It’s clear we’re going to use a lot of oil and gas in this country over the next several decades. That’s why this investment makes sense,” Bodman told reporters after a groundbreaking ceremony for the Motiva expansion. read more

Posted by Dan Denning on Dec 11th, 2007

Hold everything. The Shanghai Stock exchange has halted the trading of Baosteel share’s for Tuesday.

You remember Baosteel. It’s the Chinese steel-maker that says it’s NOT working with Blackstone (NYSE:BX) to make an offer for Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) that trumps BHP’s (ASX:BHP) offer.

Say one thing. Do another. Why would you tip your hand in markets when you don’t have to? The rumours were flying yesterday. One was that Blackstone will raise debt to buy just Rio’s iron ore business. Another, that BHP will sell off its oil business and that the petroleum arm will merge with Woodside (ASX:WPL) and Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) to become Australia’s first great oil major. read more

Shell, Saudi Aramco to invest $7 billion; Gulf Coast facility to be biggest in U.S.

10:55 PM CST on Monday, December 10, 2007
By ELIZABETH SOUDER and JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News

Two foreign companies broke ground Monday on construction of the largest oil refinery in the U.S. in the Gulf Coast town of Port Arthur.

Motiva Enterprises LLC, owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco, will invest $7 billion to expand an existing refinery.

That’s the biggest capital investment Texas has ever received, and it comes at a time when refiners are enjoying fat profits, state officials said. read more

11/12/2007

We Don’t Consider Shell a Seller of its 34% Equity in Woodside — Shell doesn’t need cash, it wants reserves which are currently difficult to obtain through exploration. Selling or diluting its equity position in Woodside doesn’t achieve this objective; it simply creates a stronger competitor and removes its strategic LNG holding, a recognised core focus area for Shell. We maintain our Sell Medium Risk rating on WPL and target price of $46.20/share.

LNG is Material to Shell — Shell currently has the largest LNG capacity of any nongovernment company and Woodside, particularly with its project potential, will be considered an important part of the portfolio. Woodside provides Shell with Operating expertise – that it surprisingly has no direct exposure to. read more

Published: Tuesday, 11 December, 2007, 02:44 AM Doha Time
 
LONDON: The world’s largest project to turn natural gas into transport fuels, Royal Dutch Shell’s Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, risks breaching its $18bn budget this year and won’t begin production until the middle of 2010, people close to the situation told Dow Jones Newswires late last week.

The Pearl gas-to-liquids project, entirely funded by Shell, has already seen its costs balloon from an original $5bn estimate to a $12bn-$18bn range. read more

EnergyPublisher.com: Production Sharing Agreements in Putin’s Russia

The dynamics of the Russian energy industry have changed in the past fifteen years. Under Putin, the government has reasserted its control by restricting private and foreign investment in strategic sectors, particularly energy.
 
Monday, December 10, 2007
by Timothy Fenton Krysiek

Every so often a company signs an agreement so advantageous it becomes part of corporate lore and is analyzed in business school textbooks for years to come. In 1994, a consortium of foreign oil companies known as the Sakhalin Energy Investment Corporation (SEIC) believed it had signed just such a deal with the Russian government for the development rights to the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas fields in the Russian Far East (RFE). read more

By Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Margaret Cronin Fisk

 Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — An engineer at BP Plc’s Texas City, Texas, refinery testified that the company lied on an air pollution permit application covering a unit of the plant that exploded in 2005, killing 15 people and injuring hundreds.

Reuben Herrera, who left the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to work for BP, told jurors in Galveston state court today that, as a BP employee, he twice misstated the doomed unit’s mechanisms for releasing vapors through a “flare” to burn off emissions and its monitoring of relief valves. read more