February 22nd, 2008:

In Edward Lucas’s The New Cold War, Moscow’s new battle with the west is not about ideology but power, writes Angus Macqueen

Saturday February 23, 2008
The New Cold War
by Edward Lucas
352pp, Bloomsbury, £18.99

This book reads like a throwback to an era we hoped had passed into history. Painted in black and white, the anti-hero is a Kremlin with evil designs upon the world and Europe in particular. Facing this conspiracy is a naive, disorganised west, supposedly gullible in its liberal openness and democratic values. There are dissidents and fellow travellers – no longer the muddle-headed ideological souls of the left but, ironically, corporate businessmen in their pursuit of a short-term buck. read more

By Dino Mahtani in London
Published: February 22 2008 22:58 | Last updated: February 22 2008 22:58

Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, is asking US regulators to ease rules to allow the company to book oil and gas reserves from unconventional sources such as its Canadian tar sands operations.

Under US Securities and Exchange Commission rules, oil companies are only allowed to book reserves from oil and gas finds that are considered readily available or from “conventional” sources. These do not include tar sands, also known as oil sands, which would normally be classified as a mining operation. read more

By Fred Pals

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company by market value, urged U.S. regulators to ease rules on how petroleum reserves are counted to allow the inclusion of Canada’s oil sands.

“The current exclusion of reserves not reported for crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids that may be recovered from tar sands, oil shale, and other in-place hydrocarbons should be removed,” The Hague-based Shell said in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated Feb. 19. read more

Fri Feb 22, 2008 1:36pm EST 
By Robert Campbell

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc is looking for oil and gas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the coast of Alaska, but the finds will have to be significant to justify the huge cost of development, a senior Shell executive said Friday.

Shell surprised many in the oil industry when it bid $2.1 billion for acreage in this month’s controversial auction of drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea, a large polar bear habitat, and one of the least explored areas in U.S. federal waters. read more

By LIAM LEONARD
February 21, 2008

The ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom of recent years has led to a number of disputes involving infrastructural projects around the green fields and valleys of rural Ireland. This article examines the critical issues surrounding one such dispute; the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign in County Mayo on the island’s rugged western shores. This campaign has pitted the Irish state and its multinational partners Shell and Statoil at odds over the transgression of human and environmental rights within the Irish speaking Gaeltacht farming and fishing community and their once-pristine hinterland in the Erris peninsula. Here, the community has opposed plans for onshore processing through a gas pipeline due to the environmental, health and safety concerns of the local community. The campaign gained national recognition when five local farmers were jailed for their resistance to the project. The issue has yet be resolved, and a legacy of mistrust of both multinationals and the state by communities has emerged as locals excluded from local input to development issues due to corporatist ‘Partnership’ sweetheart deals are compelled to defend their traditional way of life. read more

WORK IN PROGRESS: Work at the Corrib gas processing plant at Bellanaboy.

Áine Ryan
Thursday 21 February 2008

IF there was ever a poignant symbol of two worlds apart, there is no need to go further than the Corrib gas refinery site in Bellanaboy. These days, inside the gates, the beleaguered project is at its busiest to date, employing around 600 people, with the figure set to further increase in the coming weeks to 800.

Meanwhile, outside the gates, the Shell to Sea protest continues each day; rain, hail or snow. Moreover, its likening to a classic David and Goliath struggle has been further enhanced in recent weeks with the apparent dwarfing of the signature camp headquarters – a sheep-trailer – now dramatically overshadowed by an array of colourful cranes, cluttering the north Mayo skyline. read more

Taking it all in: Journalists are given a guided tour of the Corrib gas processing plant at Bellanaboy. Pics: John O’Grady

By Áine Ryan
Thursday 21 February 2008

THE announcement of the new Corrib gas pipeline route is due in the coming weeks. Speculation that the final route will be the most direct corridor down Sruwaddaccon Bay has been dismissed by RPS Director, Mr PJ Rudden.

He told The Mayo News at the weekend that such rumours were ‘pure speculation’.
“As I’ve said before, we have to achieve a sensible balance between the social issues involved while minimising the impact on the environment,” said Mr Rudden. read more

Thursday, 21 February 2008 

A FEMALE garda revealed how she could not breathe after she fell head first into an eight-foot drain full of water and muck – and thought she was going to be left there.

Garda Orla Nelson (24), of Castleblayney Garda Station, was giving evidence at the hearing of Mr Edward ‘The Yank’ Collins of 8 Ferry Close, Pollathomas, Ballina, at Belmullet District Court, who is charged with obstruction of a peace officer at a Shell to Sea National Day of Protest in Bellanaboy on November 10, 2006. read more

Posted on: February 21, 2008
James Hamilton: Bio & more articles

Crude oil reached a record high on Tuesday, and there’s an embarrassing oversupply of theories to explain why.

Some opine that the oil market is still on edge over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ decision to cut off sales of crude, gasoline, and diesel to ExxonMobil. But this is old news, and I thought the market’s modest initial reaction when the story first came out last week was the right one. Presumably Chavez is going to sell the same oil to somebody else, and ExxonMobil could then purchase crude from that buyer’s previous vendor. It’s not trivial to do this logistically, as Geoffrey Styles observed last week: read more

Feb. 18, 2008, 8:05PM

A new partnership will enhance the ability to keep tabs on hurricanes in the Gulf.

Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

The idea is so logical, one wonders why nobody thought of it years ago. A conversation between a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official and Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister at a storm conference in 2006 gave rise to a plan to utilize offshore oil platforms as meteorological lookout posts.

As reported by the Chronicle’s Kristin Hays, over the next seven years seven of Shell’s giant rigs will be outfitted with sensors to measure a big storm’s vital signs as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico. Although a number of small weather buoys dot offshore waters, their capabilities are limited. The new systems to be placed on installations with such names as Mars, Brutus and Auger will be fully automated and capable of measuring wave heights and direction, water temperature and sea current strength. read more

Bloomberg
February 22, 2008 — It may be the last year for Marcel Ospel at UBS AG.

Europe’s largest bank by assets plans to reduce the chairman’s next term of office to one year from three after reporting a record loss, Zurich-based UBS said in a statement yesterday.

Ospel, 58, was the force behind the merger that created UBS in 1998 and has been chairman for seven years.

Investors will vote on re-electing Ospel and two other board members to shortened terms at the annual general meeting on April 23. read more

By Lewis Page
Published Friday 22nd February 2008 09:55 GMT

Trials of biofuels for airliners will use conventional, controversial feedstocks, it has been reported. Virgin Atlantic and Boeing had hoped to employ so-called “second-generation” biofuel feedstocks such as algae which wouldn’t threaten food production or biodiversity. The news comes as the UK government has announced a review of potential downsides to biofuel use.

Speaking to Flight International at the Singapore Air Show, Boeing environmental-tech exec Dave Daggett confirmed that the Virgin biofuel trials this year would use ordinary feedstocks. However, Virgin Atlantic representatives maintained that it still “could be algae”. read more

By John Donovan

THE SPIN: LEAKED ANNOUNCEMENT BY SEIC CEO IAN CRAIG

FROM: Ian Craig, CEO
DATE:  15 January, 2008
SUBJECT:

Staff Announcement

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that, with effect from 1st March, 2008, Mark Wojcik, currently general manager of Human Resources department (GM HR), will be appointed to the new role of GM HR for Shell Qatar. In this role Mark will be accountable for a unified Qatar Shell HR team, general Services and Real Estate.

It had previously been announced that Mark would be moving to Moscow as VP HR for Shell Russia. Please note that Nigel Kemp, who has been acting in this position, will now assume this role on a permanent basis. read more

Friday, February 22, 2008

“Clearing the Air”

Further thoughts on Shell’s misleading advertising

My recent article criticising Shells’ “Clearing the Air” GTL advertising campaign has generated a (mostly) healthy debate here and elsethere. I hope that those who have criticised my piece are now satisfied (a) That there are no inaccuracies in it (b) That I am certainly not anti GTL or anti any other development which will mean improvements to our well-being and to the environment in the future. But as someone who has been active in the world of advertising and communications for more than twenty years I believe that it is legitimate that I pass judgment on advertising which is as ill-thought-through and as misleading as this campaign. read more

By AKANE VALLERY UCHIDA
February 22, 2008

TOKYO — Japan had a trade deficit for the first time in a year during January because of high oil prices, while exports to the U.S. declined, adding to worries about the world’s second-largest economy.

The Ministry of Finance said the trade deficit came to 79.3 billion yen ($733 million) in January, much larger than the 5.6 billion yen deficit forecast on average by economists surveyed by Dow Jones and Nikkei.

Separately, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed that Japan’s economic activity fell 0.2% in December from November because of continuing weakness in the construction sector. read more

Written by Anayo Okoli    
Friday, 22 February 2008 

UMUAHIA— ABIA State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) has threatened to shut down Shell Petroleum Development Company oil flow stations in Owaza, Ukwa West Local Government Area of the state for alleged environmental degradation and neglect of the host community.

The agency accused Shell of “totally messing up the community”, and providing no social amenities to them. The agency also accused Shell of refusing to attend a meeting it called in Owaza. read more