March, 2008:

March 26, 2008
Patrick Hosking: Business commentary

It’s hard to know the precise motivation for the targeting of BP’s joint venture TNK-BP by the Russian authorities, but the idea that the events of the past few weeks are all coincidental stretches credulity. First an employee is accused of industrial espionage; then an environmental investigation is launched; then the tax authorities raid its premises; now there’s a problem over visas for technical staff. There are echoes here of the menacing of British Council employees in Russia earlier this year. read more

March 26, 2008
Robin Pagnamenta and Tony Halpin in Moscow

BP’s problems in Russia escalated yesterday after the oil giant was forced to suspend 148 employees seconded to TNK-BP, its Moscow-based joint venture, after a dispute over visas.

Fears that BP had become the latest victim of an ongoing power struggle between the Kremlin and Western energy groups were compounded when the Russian Interior Ministry said that it had launched a criminal investigation into allegations of “large-scale tax evasion” at a former unit of TNK-BP. read more

By SHAWN MCCARTHY
Toronto Globe and Mail
2008-03-27 00:00:00

Under the original optimistic plans, nearly half a million barrels a day of crude oil should now be flowing from Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field, which contains the world’s largest untapped reserves.

Despite record crude prices, however, not a single barrel has made it out of the ground. Rather than stimulate production, the rising price of oil has actually contributed to lengthy delays with the Kashagan project.

Already facing extremely hostile physical conditions, the companies developing the project watched as skyrocketing oil prices fuelled inflation in construction costs and prompted the Kazakh government to revisit the production agreement. read more

This Saturday, if you are in Dublin, please join the Shell to Sea protest at the Shell petrol station on the Finglas Road.

12noon – March 29th at Shell Glasnevin, opposite the main gates of Glasnevin Cemetery.

All the fuel sold at this business still comes from Shell, even though the company running the forecourt has been changed.

This protest is to support the people of Rossport, who are under siege from Shell’s scheme to run a production pipeline through the blanket bog landscape near their homes. Shell have still refused to announce the route the pipeline wiill take, even though “consultation” ended months ago. read more

Survey finds more than 75 percent of Americans have bonded emotionally with their autos

HOUSTON, March 26 /PRNewswire/ — A new Shell “Autotude” Survey(i) reveals that American drivers think of their autos as more than just a piece of machinery. The survey shows Americans believe their vehicles have unique personalities (67 percent), would make them proud in front of their boss (64 percent) and can even score them a date (60 percent). Plus, there are regional differences in drivers’ “autotudes.” While most of the country views their cars and trucks as simply a way to get from point A to point B, drivers in the Farm Belt states (from North Dakota down to Kansas and Missouri) the Outer South (from Texas to Virginia) and New England(ii) say they actually enjoy and look forward to driving. read more

Under pressure: The visa row over BP’s employees in Russia follows a raid last week on its HQ there

Last updated at 11:29am on 26th March 2008

BP has been forced to suspend 148 employees in Russia in a dispute over visas.

The suspensions will fuel suspicions that TNK-BP, the British energy giant’s Russian joint venture, is being squeezed as part of a Kremlin campaign to bring major oil and gas assets back under government control.

The visa row comes just days after an employee was charged with industrial espionage, and a week after a police raid on the Moscow offices of both BP and TNK-BP. read more

Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 12:29 PM

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Legendary oil investor T. Boone Pickens, who made more than $1 billion in 2006 by betting on rising oil prices, said he expects oil prices will hold near or above $100 a barrel for the rest of this year.

He added that he made “a mistake” when his fund shorted the energy market at the beginning of this year as crude prices surged to new peaks.

Pickens, who heads the BP Capital hedge fund, told CNBC television he thinks oil will “hang around” $100 in the second quarter and that “in the second half we’ll see above $100” because of strong fundamentals. read more

A customer looks over a gasoline pump at an Exxon station in Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 13, 2007. Photographer: Gary Gardiner/Bloomberg News

By Joe Carroll

March 26 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp. regained the mantle as the world’s biggest company by market value, overtaking PetroChina Co., whose shares have slumped 58 percent since its listing in Shanghai.

PetroChina dropped for a fifth day, falling 2.5 percent to 18.54 yuan by the close, reducing its market capitalization to $453.1 billion. The Chinese company’s Hong Kong-traded stock dropped 1.3 percent to HK$9.69. Exxon Mobil was valued at $455.8 billion today after rising 13 percent in the past year on record energy prices. read more

Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:17am EDT

TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) – INPEX Holdings Inc (1605.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday its subsidiary has acquired a stake in the Sheffield Island offshore P799 license project in waters off the United Kingdom from a Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) subsidiary stakeholder.

An Inpex subsidiary was granted a 20 percent stake in the project.

Shell has a 38.5 percent stake and is the operator, while U.S. ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has a 25 percent stake. read more

26 Mar 2008 

Shell and Virent Energy Systems, Inc., (Virent (TM)) of Madison, Wisconsin USA, today announced a joint research and development effort to convert plant sugars directly into gasoline and gasoline blend components, rather than ethanol.

The collaboration could herald the availability of new biofuels that can be used at high blend rates in standard gasoline engines.  This could potentially eliminate the need for specialized infrastructure, new engine designs and blending equipment.

Virent’s BioForming(TM) platform technology uses catalysts to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules like those produced at a petroleum refinery.  Traditionally, sugars have been fermented into ethanol and distilled.  These new ‘biogasoline’ molecules have higher energy content than ethanol (or butanol) and deliver better fuel efficiency.  They can be blended seamlessly to make conventional gasoline or combined with gasoline containing ethanol. read more

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
OUR PLANET EARTH
By STEPHEN HESSE

If you ask British scientist James Lovelock about the future of humanity, be prepared for a shock.

Writer Decca Aitkenhead of the London-based Guardian newspaper recently spoke with the 88-year-old independent scientist, inventor and author, and found his predictions “unnerving” and “alarming” — especially because Lovelock has a solid record when it comes to making predictions.

Ironically, Aitkenhead also found Lovelock surprisingly cheerful and insistent that he is an optimist — at least over the long term. read more

SHAWN McCARTHY
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

OTTAWA — Under the original optimistic plans, nearly half a million barrels a day of crude oil should now be flowing from Kazakhstan’s Kashagan field, which contains the world’s largest untapped reserves.

Despite record crude prices, however, not a single barrel has made it out of the ground. Rather than stimulate production, the rising price of oil has actually contributed to lengthy delays with the Kashagan project.

Already facing extremely hostile physical conditions, the companies developing the project watched as skyrocketing oil prices fuelled inflation in construction costs and prompted the Kazakh government to revisit the production agreement. read more

Jose A. Martinez/Solena Group
GREEN GIANTS Algae, which have a high energy value per pound and consume carbon dioxide, are being cultivated at a biofuel demonstration facility run by the Solena Group in Alicante, Spain.

By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: March 26, 2008

IF the world is going to sharply reduce the amount of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by midcentury, then many businesses will have to go carbon neutral, bringing their net emissions of the greenhouse gas to zero.

But some could go even further by removing more CO2 than they produce. Instead of carbon neutral, how about carbon negative? read more

BEIJING, March 25, (KUNA): China’s fourth-largest oil firm Sinochem Corp will start processing Kuwait’s crude at its planned refinery in East China as early as January 2010 through a joint venture with the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Sinochem sources said Tuesday. “We reached a deal with our Kuwaiti partner for crude supply in June 2007, and the project is subject to approval of the central government,” company sources told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). Earlier this month, Sinochem President Liu Deshu also confirmed during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that his firm has sealed the purchase agreement with the KPC. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Saudi Desert’s Gas Mirage?

Boast of Vast Reserves Faces
Growing Skepticism as Firms
Go Dry in the Empty Quarter
By GUY CHAZAN and NEIL KING JR.
March 25, 2008; Page B1

Saudi Arabia’s boast that its southern desert region contains vast reserves of natural gas is facing growing skepticism, amid a string of exploration setbacks by international oil companies operating there.

The kingdom had hoped that gas in the Rub al Khali, a vast desert that translates into English as the Empty Quarter, would be a key source of fuel for its booming economy. If the region turns out to be as empty as its name implies, Saudi Arabia runs the risk of a gas-supply crunch within the next decade at today’s rate of demand.
South Rub al Khali Co. so far has failed to hit large pockets of natural gas.
If that happens, and the kingdom has less gas than expected, it will be forced to divert more of the oil it produces for its own use, leaving less to fuel the rest of the world’s cars, airliners and factories. read more

By GUY CHAZAN
March 26, 2008; Page B3

Putting more pressure on BP PLC’s Russian joint venture, Russian authorities disclosed a tax-evasion probe into one of its units five days after charging an employee with industrial espionage.

The probe, which came as TNK-BP admitted it was having trouble obtaining visas for 148 employees, casts further doubt over the company’s future. It coincides with a sharp rift in diplomatic relations between Russia and Britain and rising Kremlin pressure on Western oil companies as the Russian state seeks to increase its sway over the country’s mineral wealth. read more

REVIEW & OUTLOOK 
March 26, 2008

A senior executive at TNK-BP told us a few months ago that the oil company was “a poster child” for foreign investment in Russia. So it is turning out to be, only not in the way that he intended.

Blessed by Vladimir Putin at its creation in 2003, BP’s Russian joint venture is now getting the standard Kremlin treatment. Yesterday a “bureaucratic” visa problem forced the British company to send home 148 expatriate workers. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry launched a “tax evasion” probe into a TNK-BP unit. And last week, the (renamed) KGB raided the oil company’s Moscow offices and arrested a Russian employee for “industrial espionage.” read more

By Danny Fortson, Business Correspondent
Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Fresh doubts have surfaced about the security of BP’s business in Russia after its subsidiary TNK-BP told nearly 150 workers not to go to work after Russian authorities warned that their visas were no longer valid.

The development is the latest in a string of worrying incidents to have hit BP’s operations in the country, which accounts for more than a fifth of its global oil production. Last week, a junior TNK-BP worker and his brother, who worked as a consultant to the company, were arrested by state security officers and charged with industrial espionage. read more

March 26, 2008
Robin Pagnamenta and Tony Halpin in Moscow

BP’s problems in Russia escalated yesterday after the oil giant was forced to suspend 148 employees seconded to TNK-BP, its Moscow-based joint venture, after a dispute over visas.

Fears that BP had become the latest victim of an ongoing power struggle between the Kremlin and Western energy groups were compounded when the Russian Interior Ministry said that it had launched a criminal investigation into allegations of “large-scale tax evasion” at a former unit of TNK-BP. read more

By Catherine Belton in Moscow and Ed Crooks in London
Published: March 25 2008 19:24 | Last updated: March 25 2008 19:24

BP has recalled 148 foreign employees on secondment to its Russian joint venture TNK-BP because of visa problems as pressure on the UK’s biggest investment in Russia intensifies.

The 148 technical staff, mostly British and Americans, have been told to stay away from work until confusion about Russia’s new visa arrangements for foreign workers has been resolved. Most are still in the country. read more

By Lionel Barber, Catherine Belton and Neil Buckley
Published: March 25 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 25 2008 02:00

President-elect Dmitry Medvedev says he is a lawyer “to my bones”. Throughout a two-hour interview deep in the Kremlin, the 42-year-old successor to Vladimir Putin weighs every question, answering with precision and at length. But asked if Mr Putin was correct to say this month that the west will find it no easier to deal with Russia’s next president, his response is terse. read more

By Lionel Barber, Neil Buckley and Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: March 25 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 25 2008 02:00

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s incoming president, has warned that granting Nato membership to the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia could threaten European security.

Mr Medvedev’s comments, in an interview with the Financial Times, will step up pressure on the alliance not to allow the two states to join Nato’s “membership action plan” at a summit in Bucharest next week. Vladimir Putin, the outgoing Russian president, is due to attend part of the summit. read more

Alfred;
 
I have great respect for you, your website and what you are doing.  Please keep up the good work. 

I am writing to make some comments on the state of affairs in today’s “Shell” organization.  I was forced to retire 18 months short of my 30 yrs which means that I receive a pension reduced by 15 percent.  This also means that I must also pay my portion for my medical and dental etc plus 15 percent of their portion. 
 
When this was happening I protested that other employees, who had been let go during earlier “reduction in force”,  were bridged so that they received their full pension and did not have to pay medical etc the HR person looked me in the eye and  told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about because Shell “didn’t do things like that”.
 
I trotted out the names and dates of earlier “retirees” that were bridged etc to no avail.
 
It boiled down to I “retired” under their set of rules or I was out.
 
Today, thanks to some luck with investments, a frugal wife and my pension, I am living as well, if not better, than while I was working and do not regret for one minute retiring.  read more

By Cyrus Sanati

BP/Russia:  BP may not be able to escape the Russian political curse. Although the oil major gave up control of the big Kovykta natural gas field to state-owned Gazprom last year, it has so far navigated the treacherous waters of Russian politics better than rivals Shell and Exxon. That could be changing.

Last week, the headquarters of BP’s 50-50 joint venture, TNK-BP, was raided by Russia’s secret service. Then one of its employees was arrested, charged with industrial espionage. Now the country’s chief environmental cop, Oleg Mitvol, appears to be turning up the heat on BP – just as he did to Shell before the state moved in and grabbed control of its major fields in Sakhalin. read more

Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:58pm
(adds details)

LIBREVILLE, March 25 (Reuters) – A strike by oil workers at Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) Gabonese subsidiary has halted its production of 60,000 barrels a day of crude since Thursday in the central African country, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

“The company … has totally halted production since Thursday,” said Roger Ratanga, a spokesman for Shell Gabon, the country’s second-largest oil producer. “The national production of Shell Gabon is 60,000 barrels a day.” read more

Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Jeroen van der Veer
 
If governments do not intervene, industries will meet the growing demands for energy in the cheapest way possible, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will increase. That puts Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell plc, one of the world’s leading petroleum companies, in an odd position: a leading capitalist campaigning for more government regulation.

“What is the role for government? What is the role for Shell? What is the role for our consumers?” asks van der Veer. “If you don’t specify that, nothing will happen, and in 10 years you will say, ‘We didn’t make the goal.’ And that would be bad news, because I think CO2 is a serious problem.” read more

Alleged Visa Problems
Follow Police Raid
On Joint Venture

Associated Press
March 25, 2008 2:24 p.m.

MOSCOW — BP PLC is pulling 148 employees out of Russia because of alleged visa problems, a company official said Tuesday, following a police raid on a Russian joint venture and the arrest of an employee on industrial espionage charges.

Industry experts say the joint venture, TNK-BP, is the latest foreign energy company to be squeezed by the Kremlin as part of a campaign to bring major oil and gas assets back under government control. read more

Tuesday March 25, 2008

I am a retiree from Shell Oil Co. who retired in 2001.  I have just received the following email from another former Shell hand who retired in 1992.  He has received the following message via email.

I am sure that it is a scam but I cannot get anyone at SOC Houston’s “retiree hotline” to return my call.
 
If you think that it is worth it you might want to post it on your website as a warning to other Shell people who might be contacted in a similar manner.  I know most, if not all, of them would just delete it but there might be the one or two who could be tempted.
 
Regards, read more

Reuters, Tuesday March 25 2008 (Adds details)
By Dmitry Zhdannikov

MOSCOW, March 25 (Reuters) – BP’s Russian oil venture TNK-BP is struggling to renew visas for almost 150 people working on secondment from BP, industry sources said on Tuesday, amid pressure on the company from Russia’s security services.

The visa problems, caused by legal changes which came into force earlier this year, do not affect senior managers because they are TNK-BP employees, one of the sources said.

Last week offices of TNK-BP, half owned by BP and half by a group of Russian billionaires, were raided and an employee arrested for suspected industrial espionage. read more

By Miriam Elder and Max Delany
Staff Writers
Monday, March 24, 2008. Issue 3867. Page 1.  

The Natural Resources Ministry said Friday that it would investigate TNK-BP’s largest oil field, putting further pressure on the Russian-British firm one day after the Federal Security Service said it had charged an employee with industrial espionage.

Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the ministry’s environmental watchdog, will lead the investigation into the Samotlor field in western Siberia, the ministry said in a statement. read more

By Nadim Kawach on Tuesday, March 25 , 2008   

A Saudi-Shell gas venture said yesterday it had started drilling its fourth well and described the operation in the heart of the Empty Quarter as challenging.

The South Rub Al Khali (Srak) began drilling its fourth exploratory well (Kidan 6) on February 29 in contract area 1 near Shaybah in the heart of the Empty Quarter (Rub Al Khali) desert near the UAE border.

“This is a gas exploration well targeting the Palaeozoic Khuff carbonate section. The well is challenging as it is planned to be drilled to nearly 18,000 feet and is forecast to encounter both high H2S (sour) gas as well as high temperatures and pressures,” Srak said in a statement sent to Emirates Business. read more

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

March 25 (Bloomberg) — Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, said a delay in the start-up of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s $1.1 billion Neptune oil and gas project in the U.S. will reduce forecast production.

Output in 2008 will be reduced by an estimated 150,000 barrels of oil equivalent a month starting April 1 until the “issue” with the platform has been resolved, Perth-based Woodside, which owns 20 percent of the project, said today in a statement. The cut is equivalent to about 5,000 barrels a day. read more

Associated Press – March 24, 2008 7:14 PM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Representatives with Royal Dutch Shell met with officials at the University of Alaska to learn more about research the university is conducting.

The international oil company is expanding its presence in Alaska as it pursues several offshore drilling projects.

Company spokesman Curtis Smith says Monday’s tour gave Shell a “great introduction” to the capabilities of the university in the areas of engineering, research and development.” read more

In This Issue: Volume 5, Number 55
By Jonas Bernstein
Monday, March 24, 2008

Following last week’s raids on the Moscow offices of TNK-BP, the 50/50 joint venture between British Petroleum and three Russian oligarchs, the Federal Security Service (FSB) filed industrial espionage charges against Ilya Zaslavsky, a TNK-BP employee, and his brother Alexander, who heads the Alumni Club of the British Council, the organization that acts as the British Embassy’s cultural arm and that earlier this year was ordered by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to close its offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. read more

Iain Percival responds to anonymous postings / questions on this website.

For the record, I worked for Shell from 1973 – 2006 except for one year 1975 – 1976 during which I attended the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh following the (then) MEng (Petroleum Engineering) programme.

My final position in Shell from 2003 – 2006 began as Global Head Hydrocarbon Maturation and was quickly changed to Global Chief Petroleum Engineer. Yes, in answer to one of the many anonymous postings / questions, I was deeply involved in the follow up activities resulting from the reserve recategorisation and resultant process improvement. read more

Unleashed: Oleg Mitvol, head of Russia’s environment
watchdog, on an aerial inspection of Russia’s Sakhalin Island

By Upstream staff

Russia’s state ecology watchdog Rosprirodnadzor said it was launching a probe of the biggest oilfield controlled by BP’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP, days after security services launched a crackdown on the company.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) last week raided TNK-BP’s Moscow offices said it had arrested an employee for espionage. Analysts said the FSB’s actions could be the start of a Kremlin-driven attack on the joint venture. read more

March 23, 2008
 
James Kunstler’s “The Long Emergency” is something like required reading among peak oil activists, and it’s a great primer for those not yet familiar with peak oil’s full ramifications. But I know of no other book so deeply, consistently pessimistic; it’s a vision of a future that resembles Hieronymus Bosch’s nightmarish depictions of the apocalypse. Or maybe the movie Road Warrior.

But the scope of Kunstler’s inquiry and his scholarship make it uncomfortably plausible. read more

Mar 24, 2008 04:30 AM
Tyler Hamilton
CLEAN BREAK

Corn ethanol isn’t sustainable. Corn ethanol is jacking up food prices. Corn ethanol isn’t worth the energy that goes into producing it.

Okay, we get it already. Corn ethanol isn’t a long-term path for making renewable fuels, but does that mean ethanol itself is a bad thing?

“I think there’s a lot of disinformation out there,” says Frank Dottori, founder and former CEO of Tembec Inc., the multibillion-dollar forest products company. read more

By Chris Tighe
Published: March 23 2008 19:23 | Last updated: March 23 2008 19:23

From “environmentally friendly fuel” to the campaigners’ slogan “Don’t be fooled; biofuels”, few sectors have suffered such an abrupt switch in publicity.

Next month should have been a landmark for the UK’s fledgling biofuels sector, the government introducing on April 15 its Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) to underpin the home market for the UK’s early entrants, which are clustered mostly in Teesside and Humberside. read more

• Monday, Mar 24, 2008

Before 1776, the American people had faith and belief in what they can do to get freedom and to rule themselves. Their belief is stated in the American Charter as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuits of happiness.”

One of the biggest problems in Africa including Nigeria today is that there are people who still think that some tribes or people are inferior to others. Such people occupy themselves with these outdated idea and refuse to be in touch with the current realities of life. For instance, God blessed Nigeria and gave us numerous mineral resources including agricultural products for us to develop and improve our well-being. We saw what happen in the days of cocoa and groundnut pyramids. Farmers were better off with what they produced. read more

Miranda Marquit: Bio & more articles 

posted on: March 23, 2008
Russia has BP in its sights

MENAFN: Middle East North Africa Financial Network, Jordan
 
23/03/2008  
  
(MENAFN) An official at the Iraqi government said that Iraq may pay $2.5 billion for five major oil companies to boost the country’s oil output by nearly 25 percent, Iraq Directory reported.

According to the official, Baghdad will sign technical support contracts with BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total to add 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the country’s current production of 2.27 million bpd. read more

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Petroleum prices will range between $80 and $110 per barrel for the rest of 2008, OPEC President Chakib Khelil said on Saturday.

Khelil, who is also Algerian energy and mines minister, told Algerian television OPEC was under “big pressures” from consuming nations who liked to portray the group as responsible for high oil prices, when in fact the market was responding to U.S. economic problems and the falling dollar.

“Prices will continue to be high, and the prices for the rest of the year will be between $80 and $110,” he said. read more

By Mark Kleinman
Last Updated: 12:24am GMT 23/03/2008

A pack of the world’s biggest private equity firms is this weekend circling Infineum, a British biofuel additives producer owned by Shell and ExxonMobil that is valued at up to €2.5bn (£2bn).

Apollo Management, BC Partners, Carlyle Group, Cinven, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Vestar are all planning to submit offers for Infineum, which is based in Oxfordshire and employs 1,600 people globally.

The company, which is undertaking a strategic review initiated by its shareholders and handled by bankers at JP Morgan, is among the world’s largest manufacturers and marketers of petroleum additives for the fuels and lubricants industry. read more

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

March 23 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc, two of Australia’s four crude-oil refiners, apologized in Sunday newspapers for shortages of gasoline in the Sydney region amid accusations of unwarranted price increases.

Shell’s V-Power, 95-octane unleaded and premium unleaded gasoline have been unavailable “for some weeks” in New South Wales because of the shutdown of a refinery unit, the company said today in the Sun-Herald. BP cited production issues at local refineries and constraints on imports for an “unprecedented level” of fuel supply shortages. read more

MOSCOW, March 23, 2008 (AFP) — The arrest this week of two British-educated men on spying charges in Moscow was less a Cold War-style incident than a Kremlin power game around who controls oil giant TNK-BP, analysts say.

Russia’s secret service said Thursday that two Russian-American brothers had been charged with industrial espionage just a day after raids on the offices of TNK-BP and BP in Moscow.

“Business cards of representatives of the CIA and foreign defence departments” were found in the raid, security services said. read more

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce
Web posted Sunday, March 23, 2008
 
Another round in the debate over exploration for oil and gas in the North Aleutian Basin began March 18, with opponents asking if it should be allowed, while others discussed how exploration and fisheries could possibly co-exist.

The two-day North Aleutian Basin energy-fisheries workshop, for which Shell Oil contributed $25,000, got underway at a downtown Anchorage hotel. Meanwhile, a group representing residents, fishermen and environmental groups protested the event. read more

The Associated Press
Published: March 22, 2008

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Oil Ministry has invited local and international oil companies to bid for contracts providing technical support for two major oil fields in southern and northern Iraq.

Companies interested in providing 3D seismic surveys for the Kirkuk field in the north and Rumaila oil field in the south must meet the ministry’s deadline of April 30, said the ministry’s Oil Exploration Company in two tenders issued on the ministry Web Site. read more