Posts on ‘January 7th, 2008’

Mon Jan 7, 2008 11:50pm GMT 
(Recasts, updates with Shell comment and lawyer comment)
By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – The Sierra Club, the largest and oldest U.S. environmental organization, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against Shell Oil Co and subsidiaries over pollution at a refining and chemical plant complex along the Houston Ship Channel.

Shell could face a maximum fine of $32,500 for each of an estimated 1,000 incidents between 2003 and 2007 when the Deer Park, Texas, refinery and chemical plant exceeded levels of pollution allowed under permits issued by Texas regulators. read more

CINDY GEORGE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 7, 2008, 2:49PM

Environmental activists filed a federal lawsuit today against Shell Oil on behalf of citizens, saying state and federal environmental officials have failed to enforce the Clean Air Act at the company’s Deer Park plant.

Environment Texas Citizen Lobby and the Sierra Club claim Shell and several of its subsidiaries have released millions of pounds of excess air pollutants along the Houston Ship Channel over the last five years, including benzene and other toxins that can cause cancer and respiratory problems. read more

Mon Jan 7, 2008 8:24pm GMT 
By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The Sierra Club, the largest and oldest U.S. environmental organization, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against Shell Oil Co and subsidiaries seeking to stop pollution during malfunctions from its refining and chemical plant complex along the Houston Ship Channel.

Shell could face a maximum fine of $32,500 for each of an estimated 1,000 incidents between 2003 and 2007 when the Deer Park, Texas, refinery and chemical plant exceeded levels of pollution allowed under permits issued by Texas regulators. read more

The Shell boss Jeroen van der Veer says higher oil prices is not all good news for producers

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 4:08pm GMT 07/01/2008

The chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, has warned that higher oil prices are slowing the start of new production projects.

Governments, which award operating licenses, are driving a harder bargain to ensure they get a share of the revenues.

Mr van der Veer told Shell’s in-house magazine that governments’ “active interest” in their domestic oil industry is starting to “have an influence on the tempo in which new projects start production.”
  
He said: “You’d think that higher oil and gas prices result in an acceleration of the decision-making, but in reality the opposite happens….[Governments] negotiate longer than in the past about their share in the proceeds.” read more

7 January 2008

With the price of oil tipping over $100 a barrel for the first time in history shortly after the turn of the year following a controversial ‘vanity trade’ by an overnight dealer, it has emerged that bets are being placed on the price topping $200 a barrel during 2008.

Figures from New York’s Nymex commodities exchange show a 10-fold rise in options being taken on a price rise to $200 over the next year.

Most investment houses forecast oil will average between $80 and $90 a barrel this year, and the options bets have been dismissed as long-shot insurance against a low-probability event. read more

Rosalie Marshall and Dave Bailey, IT Week, 07 Jan 2008
 
This year will see in a shift in the IT services market as firms turn to direct sourcing from hosted software providers, rather than traditional outsourcing opportunities, according to industry experts.

Richard Sykes, chair of the Outsourcing Group at IT trade association Intellect, pointed to the difference between direct sourcing and classic outsourcing as “very high productivity server farms at work rather than thousands of IT professionals”. read more

By Nick Heath

Published: Monday 7 January 2008

Shell is facing the threat of legal action from trade union Amicus over staff redundancy terms, which could hit the oil giant’s plans to outsource up to 3,200 tech jobs.

The oil multi-national is in the process of finalising contracts with AT&T, EDS and T-Systems to run the bulk of its global IT infrastructure as part of a cost-cutting drive.

But the outsourcing plans may be affected by wider legal action being threatened by Amicus to force Shell to reinstate a company redundancy package worth up to £200,000. read more

Former Shell brand Executive, Paddy Briggs

I attended the memorial service on Friday of David – an old colleague and boss of mine who joined Shell way back in 1952 and who had been retired a couple of decades. He was a wonderful man – individualistic, cantankerous, intelligent, rude, caring, creative, trusting and above all humane. The church was full and there were many of his old colleagues present to pay their tributes. As I watched them, and thought about David, I wondered what he and they would make of the spiteful, greedy, selfish, ignorant bunch that run the show today. Perhaps David would have shrugged his shoulders and said something about bygones…and maybe he would have been right!  But he would certainly have been disillusioned and disappointed by the Shell hypocrisy that on one hand says that it will: read more

EXTRACT: Besides relying on federal grants, LSU is working with corporations. For instance, O’Keefe said, Shell Oil Co. has given the university about $4 million for research into coastal restoration, an issue that has achieved paramount importance since Hurricane Katrina swept through. 

THE ARTICLE

1/6/2008, 5:17 p.m. CST
The Associated Press   

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana State University is getting a lot of attention thanks to Monday night’s football championship game.

But the 148-year-old Baton Rouge institution is beefing up its academic side, too, and it is using the Internet, broadcast media and the program for the championship game to tout its construction projects, its aggressive hiring and its growth as a research institution. read more

Jan. 6, 2008, 11:58PM

Some rethink expansions as legislation aims to reduce gas use

By BRETT CLANTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Refinery expansion is continuing, but some refiners are putting plans on hold while they review the potential effects of new energy-conservation legislation and other market factors.

The status of some big projects:

Continuing

• Motiva: Port Arthur

• Marathon Oil: Gravelly, La., and Detroit

• Valero Energy: St. Charles, La.

• Chevron Corp.: Pascagoula, Miss.

• ConocoPhillips: Wood River, Ill. read more

By Winnie Zhu

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — China National Offshore Oil Corp., the nation’s third-largest oil company, plans to buy small refineries and build storage depots in eastern China’s Shandong province to expand into oil processing.

The state oil company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shandong provincial government, Liu Junshan, a Beijing-based spokesman for China National Offshore, parent of Cnooc Ltd., said by telephone today.

China National Offshore is buying so-called teapot refineries to diversify from oil exploration to oil processing and benefit from anticipated relaxation of fuel-price controls. The combined refining capacity of such plants, based mainly in the provinces of Shandong and Guangdong, is equivalent to about 40 percent of the oil-processing volume at China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, Asia’s biggest refiner. read more

By SPENCER SWARTZ
January 7, 2008; Page A9

OAO Gazprom and the Nigerian government are in early talks about a deal by which the Russian natural-gas company would help explore and develop the West African nation’s huge gas resources, a senior Nigerian oil official and Gazprom officials said.

Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov confirmed the company is in talks with Nigerian officials, saying, “We are interested in Nigeria, and the talks are under way.” He didn’t divulge a time frame. read more

AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) – Royal Dutch Shell chief executive officer Jeroen van der Veer said it is taking longer to gain approval for new oil extraction projects due to higher oil prices, newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported.

‘And over a period of time that will have an influence on the tempo in which new projects start production,’ Van der Veer told the company magazine Shell Venster, the FD reported.

Van der Veer said the ‘active interest that governments show’ also means that it is taking longer before new projects can be carried out, the FD reported. Aaron Gray-Block; [email protected] agb/jlw read more

Sun Jan 6, 2008 10:09pm EST 

Chiyoda Corporation Collaborates with Shell Global Solutions to Offer Integrated Solutions to Local Industries

YOKOHAMA, Japan–(Business Wire)–Chiyoda Corporation (TOKYO:6366; ISIN:JP3528600004), (hereinafter
“Chiyoda”) has concluded a collaboration agreement with Shell Global
Solutions (Japan) K.K. (hereinafter “SGS(J)”) to conduct marketing in
the Japanese market on Shell Global Solutions International B.V’s
(hereinafter “SGSI”) consultation on plant optimization. Chiyoda will
conduct consultations with Chiyoda Advanced Solutions (ChAS) as the
focal point, which provides advanced engineering solutions and
consultation within the Chiyoda group. Up to now, Chiyoda and SGS(J)
have concluded agreements and have conducted consultation related to
the support of the MERIT (Maintenance Enhancement Reliability
Improvement Team) program that is aimed for the streamlining of
equipment management and improvement of profits targeting the oil and
the petrochemical industry. This agreement will be a step forward from
the conventional agreement, as it expands the target from the oil and
the petrochemical industry to power, gas and steel industry etc. Also
it intends to increase and optimize the plant owner’s profits by
providing best practices and know-how on the plant’s operation
strategy, operation and maintenance possessed by the major oil
company, along with the solutions on reduction of CO2 emission and
environmental protection. read more