January 23rd, 2008:

By Matthew Green
Published: January 23 2008 16:28 | Last updated: January 23 2008 16:28

Conventional wisdom suggests that China’s energy companies are marching across Africa, shoving aside established majors and grabbing huge oil reserves with the help of bottomless funding from Beijing.

A closer look reveals a more nuanced picture: China’s giants have won only a fraction of the continent’s crude, state backing has shown its limits, and they are perhaps more image-conscious than many people think. read more

By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: January 23 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 23 2008 02:00

National oil companies from China and Brazil continued their relentless rise to power last year, pushing the likes of Exxon, Shell and Total down the PFC Energy 50 rankings of the world’s largest listed energy companies.

The annual PFC rankings, due to be released today, reinforce the perception that international oil companies are losing access to global resources and their futures are not as definite as the growing state-owned competition. read more

By SPENCER SWARTZ
January 24, 2008

DAVOS, Switzerland — Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, plans to meet with Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua on Friday in an effort to resolve security and funding issues that have hampered the company’s output in the country, one of its largest production centers.

In an interview, Mr. van der Veer said he hopes Shell can regain its share of lost oil output but that “conditions must improve for us to restart production and we’re not there yet.” read more

23.01.2008 18:14

A key part to Europe’s long-term effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be a controversial and untried technology that aims to bury large amounts of carbon dioxide underground.

The European Commission on Wednesday pinned part of the EU’s climate change hopes on capturing greenhouse gas as it is burned in coal- or oil-fired power stations and pumping it into empty gas and oil wells under the North Sea. It said similar programs could make 7 million metric tons (7.7 million tons) of CO2 disappear by 2020, rising to around 160 million metric tons (176 million tons) by 2030 _ or 15 percent of the cuts the EU may need to make. read more

Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:48am EST
(Adds details, shares)

OSLO, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Norwegian energy group StatoilHydro (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) said it shut its Mongstad oil refinery after a fire broke out on Wednesday, and it was not clear when the 186,000 barrel-per-day plant would be back in operation.

“Production has been shut down … (and) it’s too early to say how long it will stay this way,” said Oerjan Heradstveit, a public affairs manager at StatoilHydro.

Heradstveit said a “controlled flame” was still burning in a flange pipe at the refining complex on Norway’s west coast, and plant operators were keeping it aflame to drain the pipe of oil. read more

23.01.2008 18:28

The FTSE 100 Index dropped back into negative territory after more volatile trading as persistent US recession fears held back a London recovery.

Tuesday’s rate cut from the US Federal Reserve gave the Footsie early momentum with a 100-point gain early on. But signs that the Bank of England may not follow America’s lead with dramatic rate cuts, coupled with ongoing fears over the US economy, dragged the index 130.8 points – or 2% – lower by close to 5609.3.

It was a third day of wild swings for London’s top-flight shares, following a 3% rise on Tuesday after the Fed’s surprise intervention buoyed investors, and the 5% drop on Monday amid global market gloom. read more

Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:26pm EST 
By Michael Erman – Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The oil industry is expected to be one of the losers if fears of a U.S. recession become reality this year, as falling oil prices take the steam out of the sector’s four-year boom.

Worries of a recession sparked sell-offs in financial markets around the world this week, and the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday in order to quell those fears. read more

By John Donovan

We recently decided to feature on our website news stories from 2004 – Shell’s so called ‘annus horribilis’ – the year of the reserves fraud which destroyed Shell’s reputation and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and class action settlements.

It then struck us that Shell has an ‘annus horribilis’ on a regular basis bearing in mind that the same dramatic description was applied to Shell in reference to tubulent events in 1994 and 1998. read more

By Maher Chmaytelli and John Dawson

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said Europe’s economic growth remains sufficient, while global energy consumption will continue to increase.

“Demand for energy this year will be higher than last year’s,” Van der Veer said today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. U.S. economic growth concerns won’t immediately affect demand for crude oil and gas because “the jury is still out” on whether the world’s largest economy will enter a recession, Van der Veer said. read more

Jan. 23, 2008, 6:58AM
© 2008 The Associated Press

DAVOS, Switzerland — The head of Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday that “conditions must improve” before the company could resume production that was cut because of unrest in Nigeria.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, CEO Jeroen van der Veer told Dow Jones Newswires he would meet with Nigeria’s president, Umaru Yar’Adua, on Friday about security and energy funding.

Van der Veer said he hoped to regain its share of lost oil output but “conditions must improve for us to restart production, and we’re not there yet.” read more

By Brian O’Connor,
23 January 2004 

DISSIDENT Shell investors are seeking a shake-up in the complex structure of the board and its committees. One result may be that an outside chairman is appointed when Sir Philip Watts steps down. 

This would be a revolution for Shell, but big investors are in a revolutionary mood.  

Though most boards now have a full-time chief executive and a part-time chairman, the UK company Shell Transport has traditionally had an executive chairman. So too has its sister company Royal Dutch Petroleum.  read more

Foreign Shares’ Tumble
Prompts Bernanke Call;
Biggest Trim in 20 Years
By GREG IP
January 23, 2008; Page A1

The Federal Reserve chairman, who normally tries to avoid reacting directly to financial markets, saw global markets in free fall, and yesterday abruptly orchestrated the single deepest cut in the Fed’s main interest-rate target in more than two decades.

U.S. and many global markets quickly rebounded from huge losses in response to the three-quarter percentage-point cut in the target for the federal-funds rate, to 3.5%. read more

By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: January 23 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 23 2008 02:00

National oil companies from China and Brazil continued their relentless rise to power last year, pushing the likes of Exxon, Shell and Total down the PFC Energy 50 rankings of the world’s largest listed energy companies.

The annual PFC rankings, due to be released today, reinforce the perception that international oil companies are losing access to global resources and their futures are not as definite as the growing state-owned competition. read more

“In 20 years the world will find itself desperately trying to put right what it could have avoided”

By GEORGE KEREVEN

IT HAS been a busy week. Global equity markets suddenly went into meltdown at the prospect of a US recession. Quite where the market traders have been living for the past six months is not clear. Then out of the blue, Jose Manuel Barroso, the mild-mannered president of the European Commission, threatened to impose carbon tariffs on US imports unless America agreed to limits. read more

22 January, 2008 12:00:00

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation said a “problem” at the Bonny export terminal, operated by the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc, has delayed some crude shipments and is being resolved.

Force majeure has not been declared, NNPC spokesman Levi Ajuonuma said, referring to the legal clause that allows a company to miss contracted deliveries because of circumstances beyond its control. State-owned NNPC owns 55 percent of Shell’s Nigerian venture. Shell holds 30 percent, Total SA has 10 percent and Eni SpA owns 5 percent.
Ajuonuma didn’t specify the nature of the problem affecting the export terminal, the country’s oldest. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, pumped an estimated 2.15 million barrels a day in December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. read more