January 15th, 2008:

Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer

15 January, 2008 12:00:00
EJIOFOR ALIKE

Following persistent attack on Shell workers and facilities by Niger Delta militants, Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch has stated the conditions under which the company will continue to operate in the country.

This is coming as the company intensifies plans to select the next chief executive before van der Veer leaves office in 2009.

In the January 2008 publication of Royal Dutch Shell’s in-house magazine, the Shell boss outlined the company’s strategy in its operations in the country. read more

January 16, 2008
Carl Mortished

Stuff you can burn, stuff you can eat and stuff you can hoard. The world is going back to basics. We knew about oil in three digits and gold beating its record and now silver is getting a polish. In Britain, we had forgotten about coal – and the price of the ugly, polluting fuel is riding the up escalator.

Banks that invest in whizzy things such as credit card receivables and mortgage securities are yesterday’s cold turkey. Instead, the moneymen are buying something to stave off the chill, to store under the mattress and to put food on the table. Greed is finding common cause with hunger and people are betting on harvests, scanning grain siloes and plantation warehouses. Are they half-empty or half-full? read more

January 16, 2008
Bronwen Maddox

Britain’s sour scrap with Russia over the British Council is an odd but unpleasant start to the year. At best, it is neutral in what it implies for relations with Moscow – a self-contained row over an issue that Russia has chosen to find provocative for a long time but which matters very little to Britain in practice and, indeed, leaves it on the moral high ground. At worst, it is a sign that Russia (or at least Vladimir Putin in his last three months as President) is in the mood for a fight and will extend that to issues that do matter – such as Iran and energy investments. read more

Blackonomics
By James Clingman
2008-01-16

Have you had enough yet? Are you convinced yet? Now that oil has hit that magical price of $100 per barrel, are you finally ready to respond with a strategy that makes sense this time? Or, do you want to call for another Gas Out Day? Been there, done that, right? Although we missed a great opportunity back in 2002 to show the oil thieves we would not take being ripped-off lying down, now that we are paying through the nose, and every other orifice, for gasoline and related oil products, maybe now we are ready to strike back. read more

Tue Jan 15, 2008 7:33pm GMT 
By Marcin Grajewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s top business lobby attacked on Tuesday European Commission plans for implementing deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, saying that auctioning pollution permits could hurt industry in global competition.

In a letter to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, BusinessEurope urged the European Union executive to avoid forcing firms to buy carbon dioxide emissions permits, rather than receiving them for free as they do now. read more

Posted: January 14, 2008
9:29 p.m. Eastern

By: Pat Buchanan

Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody’s has rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world’s great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril.

Last week, Moody’s warned that if the United States fails to rein in the soaring cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nation’s credit rating will be down-graded within a decade. read more

By Manash Goswami and Archana Chaudhary

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Essar Oil Ltd. agreed to buy half of Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd. from Chevron Corp., BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, marking the first overseas acquisition of an oil refinery by an Indian company.

Essar Energy Overseas Ltd. will buy the combined 50 percent holding, the Mumbai-based company said in an e-mailed statement, without saying how much it would pay. The transaction may be completed early this year, the refiner said. The government of Kenya holds the remainder of the company. read more

Reuters
Tuesday January 15 2008
By Marie Maitre

PARIS, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Total’s foray into nuclear power may prompt copycat moves by rival oil majors, but the French group holds trump cards — France’s decades-old atomic expertise and its state-controlled reactor builder Areva.

Total has a stake in Areva, giving it privileged access to technology and precious uranium resources, and it has already worked with electricity group Suez, with which it expects to co-develop a nuclear power plant in Abu Dhabi. read more

Tue Jan 15, 7:09 AM ET

LAGOS (AFP) – Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell said Tuesday that local people are hampering efforts to repair the sabotaged pipelines at the Forcados export terminal in southern Nigeria.
 
Shell on Monday said it would not be able to honour all its export contracts from Forcados for the rest of January and February because of the incident.

Precious Okolobo, a company spokesman in Lagos, said vandals in Forcados damaged the oil export and water discharge pipelines on January 9. read more

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 320

At 07:00 BST (08:00 CET and 02:00 EST) on Thursday January 31, 2008 Royal Dutch Shell plc will release its its 4th quarter and full year results and 4th quarter interim dividend announcement for 2007.
 
All related materials will be posted on www.shell.com/investor on 31 January 2008.