February 18th, 2008:

Shirish Nadkarni
OGJ Correspondent

MUMBAI, Feb. 18 — India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC recently revised their joint participation memorandum of understanding for projects to be auctioned in the forthcoming seventh round of India’s New Exploration Licensing Policy VII (NELP VII).

The original MOU was aimed at cooperation in field optimization using Shell’s proprietary enhanced recovery technology and in other areas such as LNG importation, development of coal bed methane, underground and surface coal gasification projects, refinery upgrades, and trading and development of supply chains. read more

Dear Sirs,

Shell Drivers Club number:700405 2316656530013

Following  my claim against your company number 7QT75081 to the Northampton County Court, your company Shell UK Oil Products Ltd Shell Drivers’ Club was ordered on 12 January 2008 to pay to the claimant – Mrs Clark the total of £ 39.34 (in default).

By the time of writing I still have received no money from you.

Please refer this email to the department who is dealing with this issue and please advise the outcome ASAP by email: svetlana_clark@ (email address supplied)
I would like the Judgment to be paid immediately. read more

February 18, 2008: 09:52 AM EST
(Adds comments from Exxon Chairman)
By Spencer Swartz
OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Exxon Mobil Corp.’s (XOM) legal dispute with Venezuela is over the country’s failure to abide by its terms and obligations, ExxonMobil Chairman Robert Olsen said Monday.

“This is an issue about contract sanctity that provides the basis for all parties to know their rights and responsibilities,” Olsen told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference here. read more

By Steve Goldstein
Last update: 6:08 a.m. EST Feb. 18, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Exxon Mobil Corp. is struggling to replace reserves and may have to boost capital spending substantially, an analyst said on Monday.

The world’s largest oil producer said on Friday afternoon that it unearthed proved reserves of 1.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent during 2007, or 76% of production.

Excluding the appropriation of Venezuela assets, which knocked reserves by around 500 million barrels, and its proved reserve replacement ratio would have been 107%. read more

By Bill Murray

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose for a fourth day after Iran’s oil minister said OPEC may reduce production when it meets next month.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries typically cuts output in the second quarter to counter a drop in demand at the end the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, Gholamhossein Nozari said yesterday. The group, whose members produce more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, will gather in Vienna on March 5.

“You have some OPEC countries such as Iran and Venezuela that are supporting cuts and those countries get listened to,” said Andy Sommer, an analyst with HSH Nordbank in Hamburg. Oil prices will rise to more than $100 a barrel should OPEC cut production, he said. read more

18th February 2008
By Staff Writer

Stone Energy has reported that estimated year-end 2007 proved reserves were 403 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent, as compared with 591 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent at year-end 2006. The company has appointed Rich Pattarozzi as the non-executive chairman of the board.  

The estimated year-end 2007 reserves included proved developed reserves of 323 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent (bcfe) and proved undeveloped reserves of 80bcfe, and the split between gas and oil reserves was 53% and 47%, respectively. read more

Reuters
Monday February 18 2008 (Adds background)
By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, Feb 18 (Reuters) – More than 70 international firms have registered to compete for tenders to help develop Iraq’s oil reserves, seen as vital to providing the funds to rebuild the shattered country, Iraq’s oil ministry said on Monday.

Iraq currently produces only a fraction of its vast reserves, the third-largest in the world and among the cheapest to produce, and international oil firms have been positioning for years to gain access. read more

Reuters
Monday February 18 2008
By Randy Fabi

ABUJA, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A wave of violence targeting Nigeria’s oil facilities shows no sign of abating and may get worse, analysts and security experts say.

Nearly a fifth of Nigeria’s oil supply capacity, or some 515,000 barrels per day (bpd), is shut in due to violence in the Niger Delta region in southern Nigeria, where nearly all of the West African country’s hydrocarbons are produced.

However, high oil prices and tight global supplies are giving energy companies reason enough to stay put in Africa’s top oil producer. read more

EXTRACT: A test of wills is going on between two huge Russian state-controlled operations, the GazProm energy company and the Rosneft oil company. At issue is whether the pipeline and gas should come from GazProm’s Sakhalin-2 project or from the Sakhalin-1 site in which Rosneft has a 20-per-cent share with principal owner ExxonMobil.

Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, February 18, 2008

Russia’s president-in-waiting Dmitry Medvedev came close to losing his cool a few days ago as he listened to a seemingly endless catalogue of excuses for why preparations to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in 2012 are behind schedule. read more

By John Donovan

To 5388, please leave us to decide on the possible repercussions of publishing Shell internal email. You will not be involved. We have had a great deal of experience.

Shell sued Dr Huong because he is from Malaysia, a country where the judiciary is corrupt and justice can be bought by the party with the deepest pockets.

Shell has an entirely different attitude towards us. Printed below is one of the many press statements Shell has issued about my father and me.

On 17th March 1995, Shell UK circulated to the media a press statement headed: “DON MARKETING LIMITED –V- SHELL UK LIMITED. Its ferocious content shows just how livid Shell UK was about our legal claims and our campaigning activity.  read more

Engineers fitting solar panels to a roof at Silvertown solar village, Docklands, London. Photograph: Alamy

Government apathy sabotages Britain’s shift to a low-carbon economy

Ashley Seager
Monday February 18 2008

You’d hope, wouldn’t you, that the government department responsible for energy to heat our homes, power our cars and so on would be on top of two key issues – a switch to a low-carbon economy and the possibility that oil might run out sooner than we thought.

Both these issues should concern us greatly and, indeed, there is growing discussion of them everywhere. But, the Department of Business As Usual (DBERR) doesn’t seem to be on the case at all. read more

From Constance Ikokwu in Washington, D.C., 02.18.2008

Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has said it is still committed to ending gas flaring, more than a month after the January 2008 deadline expired. An earlier deadline in 2007 was shifted to this year.

The January deadline saw oil companies lobby hard to have it pushed to another year, raising doubt about their commitment to ending the harmful practice.

President of Shell in the United States (US), Dr John Hofmeister, has explained that the multinational oil company is determined even after it failed to achieve this important objective for more than 30 years of drilling oil in the country. read more