April 18th, 2008:

Peter Voser Shell/USB director

The Times: Luqman Arnold buys bigger UBS stake and steps up reform campaign

April 19, 2008
Patrick Hosking, Banking and Finance Editor

Luqman Arnold, the rebel shareholder pushing for boardroom reform at UBS, has bought about another £150 million of shares in the beleaguered Swiss banking group.

Purchases over the past two weeks have lifted the stake of Olivant, Mr Arnold’s investment boutique, from 0.7 per cent of UBS to 1.1 per cent.

Mr Arnold revealed the stakebuilding yesterday and expressed himself pleased after meeting two UBS independent directors – Sergio Machionne, the head of Fiat and the deputy chairman of UBS, and Peter Voser, the finance director of Shell – on Thursday. read more

AFP: Oil hits 117 dollars on talk of Nigeria pipeline attack

April 18, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Oil prices rebounded to a new record high of 117 dollars a barrel here Friday as traders refocused on supply fears after talk of a pipeline attack in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer.

New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, surged 1.83 dollars higher to a record close of 116.69 dollars. It had hit an intraday all-time peak of 117 dollars around 1850 GMT. read more

CNNMoney.com: Royal Dutch Shell names Mark Quartermain president of Shell Energy N. America

April 18, 2008: 01:09 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO, Apr. 18, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc (NYSE:RDS A) on Friday named Mark Quartermain president of its natural gas and power marketing and trading subsidiary, Shell Energy North America, and certain of its other subsidiaries and affiliates, and head of U.K.-based Shell Energy Trading Ltd.’s leadership team.

Quartermain currently serves as senior vice president of the south region for Shell Energy North America, with responsibility for managing gas and power
trading, including emissions trading, and marketing in 14 states. read more

We have published a number of articles concerning chip and pin card cloning fraud at Shell UK petrol stations. It appears from an email received today that this dreadful activity continues.

Dear Mr. Donovan

I came across your website today whilst trying to find a contact address to write to the Head of Shell UK regarding very irregular dealings at our local shell garage.
 
As your website was the first one I came across I wonder if you are able to assist and point me in the right direction.
 
The police are aware but I thought it is also important that somebody at Shell should be aware of the bad name the workers at the Shell garage have given to their brand name over the last couple of years.  It came to a head yesterday when I found out that both my father and sister have had their cards cloned after using them at this garage.
 
Thanks in anticipation of any answer you may give. read more

MarketWatch: Nigerian rebel group says it’ll step up attacks on oil companies

By Adam Smallman
Last update: 6:27 a.m. EDT April 18, 2008Print E-mail RSS Disable Live Quotes

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the rebel group that lays claim to many of the attacks on oil infrastructure in Nigeria, said Friday that it will step up its attacks on oil companies there, and feed explosives to communities to use against them.

In an e-mailed statement signed by Jomo Gbomo, MEND said oil companies working along the coastal region of Nigeria “are in for a raw deal as the military is not in the position to protect them.” read more

Reuters: Nigerian rebels say attack major Shell pipeline

Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:24am

(adds Shell spokeswoman comment)

LAGOS, April 18 (Reuters) – Rebels in Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta said on Friday they sabotaged a major pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), and a company spokeswoman said it was investigating reports of an explosion.

A statement from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it attacked the Shell pipeline, which crosses from the Cawthorne Channel to the Bonny terminal, at Adamakiri in Rivers state late on Thursday. read more

10 April 2008

Dear Shareholder,

I am pleased to invite you to the Company’s Annual General Meeting which will be held on Tuesday May 20, 2008.

The principal meeting place for the AGM will be in The Hague, with an audio-visual link to a satellite meeting place in London.

Our venue in The Hague remains the same as last year, however please note that this year we have a new venue in London, namely The Barbican Centre. This venue is more centrally located in London and we hope shareholders will find it more convenient. read more

africasia.com: Nigerian militants claim attack on Shell oil pipeline

18/04/2008 08:42 LAGOS, April 18 (AFP)

The most prominent militant group in Nigeria’s southern oil-producing region said Friday it had sabotaged a major oil supply pipeline belonging to Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statement that it had carried out the sabotage operation on Thursday evening in Rivers state.

The group also promised “many more” similar attacks to follow. read more

FoxBusiness.com: Amazon Watch Blasts Consultant Sam Singer for Designing Chevron Attack on Goldman Prize Winners

SAN FRANCISCO, April 16, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Says Singer Helping Oil Giant Hide $16 Billion Liability from Shareholders

Amazon Watch today blasted San Francisco consultant Sam Singer for letting himself be used by Chevron to wage a personal and unsubstantiated attack on two renowned Ecuadorian environmental activists in town to receive the Goldman Prize.

“Sam Singer should be ashamed of himself for helping Chevron do its dirty work against two environmental heroes who are trying to hold the company accountable for its blatant legal violations in Ecuador,” said Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch Executive Director. read more

Lauren Mills, Daily Mail, 18 April 2008, 9:16am

More than a third of BP investors protested against £1.5m ‘retention’ bonuses in a rebellion over pay at the oil giant’s AGM.

Some 9% of shareholders who voted, cast their vote against directors’ remuneration packages and a further 27% registered their displeasure by withholding their votes.

The anger centred on two of the company’s top five executives – Iain Conn and Andy Inglis – who are each in line for a £1.5m ‘special retention award’ that will be paid in shares over the next three to five years. read more

Terry Macalister, The Guardian, Friday April 18 2008

Investors yesterday accused BP of repeating past mistakes by investing in Iraq as the board came under fire from shareholders at the annual meeting in London.

Protest groups used their stakes to attack BP for developing tar sands in Canada and there was criticism of high executive pay.

The board said BP was moving back on track after a year of falling profits, management reshuffles and an underperforming share price.

Peter Sutherland, the chairman entering his last 12 months in office, admitted performance in 2007 had not been good but rebuilding by new chief executive Tony Hayward meant BP was now “much better placed and we are seeing forward momentum”. Hayward accepted BP needed to “raise its game” further but was optimistic that prioritising safety, people and performance was paying dividends. read more

Bloomberg: BP Investors Protest Against Oil-Sands Venture, Times Reports

By Lenka Ponikelska

April 18 (Bloomberg) — A group of BP Plc shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in London objected to the oil company’s decision to extract the fuel from Alberta oil sands, the London-based Times reported.

Eleven U.S. and British fund managers yesterday said BP’s decision to form an oil-sands venture with Canada’s Husky Energy Inc. last year was “deeply disappointing” and represented a step backward, the Times said. read more

Daily Telegraph: BP ‘bureaucratic and overburden by costs’

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 2:18am BST 18/04/2008

BP chief executive Tony Hayward has told shareholders that the restructuring of the oil major should begin feeding into higher profits this year.

Speaking at BP’s annual general meeting yesterday, he said the company was too bureaucratic and burdened by a higher cost base than many rivals. But he assured investors BP was moving in the right direction. “There is forward momentum,” he said. read more

Brazil’s President Defends Biofuels

A WALL STREET JOURNAL NEWS ROUNDUP
April 18, 2008; Page A11

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made an impassioned defense of biofuels, denying that their production contributes to food scarcity and rising global prices.

He also sharply criticized industrial countries for subsidizing agricultural output, which he blamed for undermining the competitiveness of developing nations and reducing world production.

“Biofuels aren’t the villain that threatens food security,” he said at the start of a Latin American meeting of the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization. “On the contrary…they can pull countries out of energy dependency without affecting foods.” read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Surge in Natural-Gas Price Stoked by New Global Trade

Further Gains Likely
Despite 93% Spike;
Bidding With Japan
By ANN DAVIS and RUSSELL GOLD
April 18, 2008; Page A1

Americans feeling the pain of record gasoline prices now face the likelihood of another fuel shock, from natural gas.

Prices in the U.S. have risen 93% since late August as power-hungry nations like South Korea and Japan compete in a global natural-gas market that scarcely existed a half-decade ago. Still, U.S. prices are as low as half the level of some overseas markets, suggesting they have much further to rise.
 
Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Futtsu Thermal Power Station seen from aboard the LNG Pioneer, a liquefied-natural-gas carrying ship. read more

Financial Times: Hope springs from Africa’s offshore oil installations

By Matthew Green
Published: April 18 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 18 2008 03:00

Seen from the porthole of a Super Puma helicopter skimming over the Atlantic, the future of African oil exploration appears for a second like a giant, fire-breathing dragon.

Towering 12 storeys above the waters off Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell’s mammoth Bonga facility puffs a constant plume of flame as it sucks oil from below the ocean floor. read more

Financial Times: BP shareholders criticise executive pay deals

By Tom Burgis and Kate Burgess
Published: April 17 2008 20:27 | Last updated: April 17 2008 20:27

Britain’s leading investors sent out a stern warning to boards on Thursday that they take a dim view of the hefty retention bonuses increasingly offered to executives who have been passed over for the top job.

More than a third of BP’s shareholders failed to support last year’s executive pay packages at the oil company’s annual meeting, a level of protest seldom seen in the UK. The revolt was caused by one-off bonuses proposed for two executives, passed over for the job of chief executive. read more

The Guardian: Letters

Friday April 18 2008

Tristram Hunt misses a key point when he suggests governments and charities are better suited to tackling social issues than the growing breed of “philanthrocapitalist” – who are applying business and market thinking to social issues (The business of giving, April 17). Many of these new actors have been motivated precisely because governments and charities have failed for decades to deliver, particularly in the developing world, where the delivery of aid has an atrocious record. Do we want to continue with the status quo or apply some fresh, inherently efficient and potentially very effective thinking to find new solutions to old problems? I would suggest the latter. read more

The Guardian: Oil price record triggers £1.6bn private equity buyout of UK specialist

· Veteran oilman Pickens predicts $125 a barrel
· Expro sold in crunch-defying takeover scramble

Larry Elliott and Terry Macalister
Friday April 18 2008

Oil prices could hit $125 a barrel over the coming weeks amid fears of supply shortages and a continued fall in the value of the dollar, one leading investor said last night. The soaring price of crude, which reached another new record of $115 yesterday, has triggered a buyout scramble in the sector with oil services specialist, Expro International, announcing a £1.6bn takeover by Candover and other private equity groups. read more

Mayo Advertiser: Route identified for Corrib onshore pipeline

Current Publication Date: 18/04/2008
Toni Bourke

After 11 months of public consultation and 14 months of environmental and technical assessment of all route corridor options, a route for the Corrib onshore gas pipeline has been selected.

Route C1 is the chosen one because “it strikes the best balance between the competing priorities of local community concerns, environmental issues and the technical aspects of the project,” according to Mr PJ Rudden, RPS Group Director. read more

Irish Independent: Shell boss tells of his regret as pipe route is revised

By Paul Melia
Friday April 18 2008

THE head of Shell in Ireland has admitted the company didn’t do a “very good job” addressing local people’s safety concerns over plans to put a gas pipeline in Co Mayo.

Announcing a revised route for the controversial pipeline yesterday, managing director Andy Pyle said gas pipelines were “normal practice” in many countries and the company had “probably” failed to explain that to local residents. read more

17 April 2008

The announcement today of a pipeline route by Shell and Statoil signals further failure by the Corrib developers. The reality is that there is no consent for an inland refinery or any production pipeline in our community.

This proposed route announced today literally cuts through the heart of our community. It exposes not just the people of Rossport but the people of the entire parish of Kilcommon to unprecedented and unacceptable risk. We do not give our consent to this and will resist it through every legal, political and campaigning means open to us, even though this could lead to more years of unnecessary conflict. read more