January 30th, 2008:

Filed from Aberdeen
1/30/2008 6:12:18 PM GMT
 
RUSSIA: Nineteen local and international environmental organizations have called on Sir Fred Goodwin, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to recall a controversial US$1 billion loan by ABN AMRO for the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s purchase of a controlling share of the enormous Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia.

Sakhalin II has caused many severe environmental problems and violates the Equator Principles, to which RBS has signed, claim the Pacific Environment organisation. The groups have also requested to meet with Goodwin. RBS leads a consortium of banks that purchased ABN AMRO in 2007. read more

Solar reflectors: ‘We think we can achieve 15 times the biofuel yield per hectare of land by using algae rather than conventional crops’

Solar reflectors could one day make petrol from thin air, and algae may provide all the diesel we need. Simon Usborne reports on the race to perfect energy sources for the future

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

The need to find a new generation of fuels has never been greater. Earlier this month, the cost of oil hit $100 a barrel for the first time, leading to sky-high prices at petrol pumps all over the world. And consumption shows no signs of slowing as the new economic powerhouses of China and India continue to develop a seemingly insatiable thirst for the black gold. In smog-choked Beijing alone, more than 1,000 new private cars hit the roads every day – that’s about one every 90 seconds. read more

January 30, 2008
British Columbia 

A GROUP of Tahltan elders have added their voices in opposition to Shell’s plan to drill for coalbed methane natural gas in the Klappan area.

The elders, centered in Telegraph Creek but who now also live around the northwest, feel the Klappan area is too important for development because it is the headwaters of three major rivers, says Lillian Moyer, who speaks for the group.

“For these elders, their traditional fishing spot is the Stikine River at Telegraph Creek and the Stikine has its headwaters in the Klappan. They’re worried about the downstream effect,” she said. read more

Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:02am EST

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Oil sand projects operated by Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) are running normally despite a bitter cold snap in northern Alberta that forced Syncrude Canada Ltd to suspend production at its 350,000 barrel per day project.

Suncor and Shell both said that their oil sands mining projects near Fort McMurray, Alberta, were producing at normal rates. Suncor’s output is about 260,000 bpd, while Shell has a capacity of 155,000 bpd. read more

Published by Andy Rowell January 29th, 2008
 
Maybe the oil industry is running out of reserves faster than it is letting on, but Shell is to delay publication of key data about its oil reserves that it would normally have released alongside profits figures being published this week.

The decision is said to have disappointed some analysts, who have been told that the subject will not even be “up for discussion” and which has sparked concern the reserves numbers could be poor.

The amount of reserves booked by Shell is always a sensitive issue for the company as it was the revelation in 2004 that Europe’s largest oil firm had overstated the amount of oil in its wells that led to the resignation of chairman Sir Philip Watts and investigations by regulators in London and New York. read more

Adrian Ash, 29 Jan ’08

The FSA… has just got round to bringing its first ever criminal case for insider dealing – despite being the statutory prosecutor for insider dealing since 2000.

“That’s a long while,” as Sara George of Allen & Overy noted to the Financial Times. Not least because the regulator itself says insider dealing is “rife” in the City of London, affecting almost 24% of takeover and merger announcements in 2005 – utterly unchanged from the proportion subject to insider dealing in 2000, the year the FSA became responsible for preventing it. read more

Experts say the world’s major oil fields are declining. (AFP)

The idea that the world’s supplies of oil have either peaked or will soon start declining has suddenly gained new respectability.

The concept of ‘peak oil’ has been derided by the big oil companies for years, but at the end of last week came a turnabout.

The chief executive of the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, put out a paper on Friday forecasting the end of easy oil.

Mr Van der Veer said the result could be a worldwide scramble to mitigate climate change. read more

By Nikhil Kumar
Wednesday, 30 January 2008

At the other end of the table, shares in the energy giant Royal Dutch Shell fell after the company said it would not provide oil and gas replacement guidance with its annual results, which are due tomorrow. Dresdner Kleinwort said that news was “regrettable” and Royal Dutch Shell was down 10p at 1,766p.

For the full report go to…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/market-report-investors-dig-into-miners-as-copper-price-spikes-775691.html read more

By Sabine Pirone

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in the U.K. and Irish markets. Stock symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.

The FTSE 100 rose 96.30, or 1.7 percent, to 5,885.20 yesterday. The FTSE All-Share Index rose 1.8 percent to 3,003.90. Ireland’s ISEQ Index rose 1.2 percent to 6,720.07.

U.K. Companies:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA LN): Europe’s largest oil company and Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s joint venture, Petroregional del Lago, will in the next week start to study development of an oilfield in Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. The stock fell 11 pence, or 0.6 percent, to 1808 pence. read more

A WSJ NEWS ROUNDUP
January 30, 2008

Royal Dutch Shell PLC encountered concerns yesterday that the oil major had little luck adding new reserves last year after a report that it wouldn’t publish such figures with its annual results tomorrow.

Shell’s London-listed Class A shares edged down 0.6% to 1808 pence ($35.87), compared with a 1.35% rise in the Dow Jones Stoxx European oil-and-gas-sector index.

The Daily Telegraph reported earlier yesterday that Shell wouldn’t report its 2007 reserve-replacement ratio — the rate at which production is matched with new finds — when it releases its fourth-quarter results, as it has done in the past. read more

Written by Emma Ujah    
Wednesday, 30 January 2008 

The Bayelsa State Governor, Timi Sylva, yesterday, said the planned 1000 job cut by Shell had nothing to do with issues of militancy in the Niger Delta.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, he said Shell, like many other Joint Venture partners in the oil industry, has been complaining over the failure of the Federal Government to pay its JV Cash Calls and therefore urged the President Umaru Yar’Adua administration to release all necessary JV funds to save the situation. read more