When BP set out to build a £3.5bn natural gas plant in remote West Papua, local villagers hoped for a bright future. But all is not well.

John Vidal
Wednesday March 19 2008

Recently, with hundreds of Indonesian troops just out of sight in scenes of intense security, Prince Andrew, the government’s official business envoy, dropped in on Bintuni Bay, one of Indonesia’s mots remote corners. The plan was to inspect BP’s new £3.5bn natural gas plant. What the Duke of York probably did not know was that he had walked straight into a row between the giant oil company and local villagers. read more

March 18, 2008

Mar. 18–The City of Bakersfield and California Water Service Co. have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of a suspected carcinogen that’s been detected in trace levels in some city drinking water wells.

The chemical, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, has been found at extremely low levels and is not a health threat, said City Water Resources Director Florn Core. The lawsuit is an attempt to recoup costs for a filtration system before a statute of limitations expires, according to Core. The number of wells requiring filtration wasn’t known early Tuesday but each unit is expected to cost $500,000 to $1 million. read more

NOTHING TO DO WITH SHELL:

FOR THOSE INTERESTED HERE IS LINK TO THE FULL JUDGMENT Paul McCartney, Heather Mills divorce

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/docs/judgments_guidance/judgment_180308.pdf
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 17/03/2008
Before :
THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE BENNETT
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Between :
James Paul McCartney
Petitioner/
Respondent
– and –
Heather Anne Mills McCartney read more

Shell is working on carbon capture-and-storage technology to reduce the impact on the environment of its oilsands projects.

May Upset Province; Ontario, U.S. possible options, executive says

Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post 
Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

CALGARY — Royal Dutch Shell PLC is considering several upgrading options for its crude from Alberta’s oilsands, including sending it to Ontario, the U.S. Gulf Coast or California.

The strategy could upset the Alberta government, which wants more oilsands upgrading to be done in the province, but Rob Routs, in charge of the European oil major’s refining business, said one of the reasons Shell took out Shell Canada Ltd.’s minority shareholders for $8.7-billion last year was to optimize its infrastructure in North America. read more

All future 2340 postings will be transferred here as they arrive on Live Chat 

EXISTING RECENT POSTINGS  BY 2340:

guest_2340 : 20080316d: “How much did Shell gained from the informations collated into one single source as provided by www.royaldutchshellplc.com?” An immediate answer was another leaked email subjected to verification. Shell can you provide shareholders with more excitement tomorrow over this most important question. What is value of Shell share from 2002 to 2008 & the forecast in the year ahead? Come summer, please tell us environmental damage from hydrocarbon leaks around Sahkalin II read more

Regular Live Chat contributor comments on leaked Jeroen van der Veer email

Guest 1094: Performance Share Plan (PSP) for which performance measure = 50% Total Shareholder Return (TSR) + 50% Group Scorecard Average. The former was zero and the latter 1.3 for 2007. This means an award was justified. Since this was 65% of the 2005 PSP does need further explanation. Is it based on a 3 year running average? This PSP is NOT given to all staff via this formula. Poor performers will receive nothing.

Ian Lyall,
18 March 2008, 8:37am

Crude may have gone into reverse after hitting a record of almost $112 a barrel, but long-term there will unfortunately be little respite for motorists and energy-hungry manufacturers.

According to Shell chief Jeroen van der Veer, demand for the black stuff will remain strong as the world’s population jumps by 50pc to 9bn in the next two decades, while monster new oil discoveries around the globe will be few and far between. He said: ‘Supplies of easy oil will not be enough to match demand. read more

(THIS SHELL INSIDER WAS NOT THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK)

John

Some of the more scrupulous people in Shell (who incidentally are also recipients of the largesse) are questioning why the rules made three years ago for a bonus relating to 2005 have been changed retroactively to turn a 0% bonus award for 2005 into a 65% award. According to all the internal criteria, 0% was the correct figure. Those behind the changes to the rules are also allegedly recipients of the award.

I don’t seem to remember any reserves related bonuses being repaid when the reserves were restated, so why are the rules for the 2005 bonus payments being rewritten now?
read more

Live Chat comment posted on Tuesday 18 March 2008

Guest 1418: So Shell fails to meet it’s targets, but gives everyone a bonus anyway. And vd Veer awards himself a small payrise too, since everyone has to be a winner… I hope the shareholders get a chance to vote on this largesse at the AGM – Shell employees get a bonus for being almost bottom of the league table. How much would they have paid themselves if they had actually outperformed their competitors?

Leadership (Abuja)
18 March 2008

Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) has reacted to a report that Shell Petroleum Company has resumed operations in Ogoniland.

In a statement signed by Bari-ara Kpalap,MOSOP information officer and sent via e-mail to LEADERSHIP Kaduna office, the movement described the report as an infantile act of desperation and crass insensitivity.
 
The statement said, “We would not have bothered to respond to the report but for our experiences of the past days and our recollection that such approach in the past had led to the precipitation of crisis in Ogoni by the company’s callous tactics of pitching our people against one another. Shell should be held responsible for any possible crisis in Ogoni by their efforts to resume oil production in the area without a resolution of the protracted problem with the Ogoni people”. read more

Live Chat Comment from a Shell insider: ‘So once again Shell tries to “fiddle” the books’: posting on Tuesday 18 March 2008

Guest_3599 : So once again Shell tries to “fiddle” the books. Claiming to have an RRR of 124% (which is supposed to compare available reserves year on year) when the true figure is 17% unless Sakhalin etc is excluded is a joke. Did Exxon, ConocoPhiliips and Total exclude their Venezuelan losses from their calculation of RRR? I think not.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
March 18, 2008; Page B8

John Hofmeister, who guided Shell Oil Co. through the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita only months after becoming president in 2005, will retire on June 1, the company said.

The 60-year-old Mr. Hofmeister will be succeeded by Marvin E. Odum, currently executive vice president for the Americas for Shell Exploration & Production. Mr. Odum, 49, will retain his current duties as well.

In his current capacity, Mr. Odum is responsible for Shell’s exploration and production operations in the Western Hemisphere. He joined Shell as an engineer in 1982 and has held a variety of management positions in technical and commercial operations. He began his current post in May 2005. Shell is the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe’s largest oil company. read more

By Danny Fortson
Tuesday, 18 March 2008

Royal Dutch Shell plans to quintuple production in the controversial Canadian tar sands in an attempt to halt falling production from resource nationalism and the drying up of old fields.

At its annual strategy briefing in London yesterday, Europe’s largest oil company said that its net reserves stayed at 11.9 billion barrels last year – equal to the previous year’s total – as new discoveries were offset after the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan forced the company to give them larger stakes in the Sakhalin 2 and Kashagan projects respectively. read more

By John Donovan

The Wall Street Journal has published an article this morning mentioning an email from Jeroen van der Veer which was leaked to us. It came from a trusted Shell insider source. Shell has confirmed its authenticity.

It contains an admission of disappointment by Mr van der Veer over Shell’s financial performance compared with the majority of its rivals. Such an admission was completely lacking from the Shell 2007 Annual Report and from Shell’s associated press release. Hence there was no article conveying this admission until the mention in the WSJ article today. Clearly negative news is only meant for internal consumption, not for investors, the media and the public. read more

(FROM A SHELL INSIDER: JUST HOW GREEN IS SHELL???: My highlighted comments in the article apply to both Gas-to-liquids (GTL) plants such as Pearl, and also to tar sands, oil shales etc. The US law is not a commercial problem as the oil can be sold elsewhere, but it highlights Shell’s green hypocrisy.)

Mar 13th 2008 | OTTAWA
From The Economist print edition

A new American law could limit oil-sands production in Alberta

CANADIANS like to think that although they are the junior partner in their trade relations with the United States, the 174 billion barrels of proven reserves in the oil sands of Alberta provide a powerful ace up their sleeve in any dealings with their energy-hungry neighbour. That belief has now been shaken by an American law that appears to prohibit American government agencies from buying crude produced in the oil sands of the western province. read more

EXTRACT: Shell’s lackluster performance compared to its competitors came up in a memo sent by Mr. van der Veer to staff this month. A copy was given to royaldutchshellplc.com, a Web site regularly used by Shell whistleblowers.

By GUY CHAZAN
March 18, 2008; Page A16

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC sought to allay concerns about its petroleum reserves, saying it had 50 big projects in the pipeline that would deliver strong growth for decades to come. But, reflecting the uncertain climate the oil majors face, Shell declined to give production guidance for the year, saying only that output will increase after 2010. read more

By Ed Crooks in London
Published: March 18 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 18 2008 02:00

Royal Dutch Shell, western Europe’s biggest oil company, kept its oil and gas reserves steady last year in spite of the loss of control at its Sakhalin 2 project in Russia, it said yesterday.

It also reaffirmed its commitment to output growth of 2-3 per cent a year in the next decade, and highlighted its shift away from traditional oil and gas production towards long-lived “legacy assets”.

Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive, said Shell was investing in projects “that will underpin the group in the first half of this century”, a time when he believes conventional oil and gas production will be insufficient to meet demand. read more

March 18, 2008
Carl Mortished, World Business Editor

Shell’s Canadian oil sands business is suffering a profitability squeeze because of the soaring cost of energy needed to extract bitumen from sand.

The oil company’s annual report, published yesterday, reveals that operating expenses at the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta have soared by almost 50 per cent in the two years since 2005, while output at the bitumen mining project has either remained static or declined.

Shell’s oil sands profits dipped sharply last year when a fire temporarily reduced the output of its upgrader, a refinery that converts bitumen into a synthetic crude oil. Earnings from oil sands fell from $651 million in 2006 to $582 million (£291 million), which the company attributes to lost output from the shutdown. The net production of the oil sands business, after deducting royalty payments, fell from 95,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2005 to 81,000 bpd in 2007. read more