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December 4th, 2008:

The abundant fossil fuel you’ve never heard of

By Jeremy Kutner| Contributor of The Christian Science Monitor/ December 3, 2008 edition

At the edges of the Alaskan permafrost, a consortium of government and oil industry scientists are preparing to drill. They aim to tap one of the largest potential energy sources ever discovered, and one that few people have ever heard of: flammable ice crystals packed with hydrocarbons, called methane gas hydrates.

The project, a joint effort between British Petroleum, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the Department of Energy is set to begin in late 2009 or 2010 and marks the first large-scale production test of this unconventional substance. The group is nearing agreement on a drill site. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Says Fire Breaks Out at Pernis Oil Refinery

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A large fire erupted today in a pipeline at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Pernis refinery in the Netherlands, Europe’s largest plant.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Royal Dutch Shell Board appoints new non-executive director

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Board of Royal Dutch Shell plc today announced the appointment of Hans Wijers, Chairman of the Board of Management of Akzo Nobel NV, to replace Nina Henderson, who will be retiring as a non-executive director. 

Hans Wijers, who joins the Board on 1 January 2009, will stand for election at the Annual General Meeting in 2009. Nina Henderson has served as a director on the Board of The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company Plc from 2001 to 2005 and on the Royal Dutch Shell Board since October 2004. She is stepping down as part of the ongoing renewal of the Board announced at the time of the unification of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading in 2005. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Royal Dutch Shell Board appoints new head of downstream

 

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Board of Royal Dutch Shell plc today announced that Mark Williams will take over the responsibilities of Rob Routs for the Oil Products, Chemicals and Oil Sands business, as Downstream Director and a member of the Executive Committee of Royal Dutch Shell. 

Mark Williams succeeds Rob Routs effective 1 January 2009, when he retires from the company after a distinguished career of 37 years.

Williams, a US citizen has a PhD in physics from Stanford University. He joined Shell’s upstream business in 1979 in the United States. He has held a variety of upstream and downstream positions in the company, and is currently the Executive Vice President of Supply and Distribution in Oil Products. He is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, and Chairman of the Downstream Committee of the American Petroleum Institute. He is married with two children. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell shuts entire Dutch refinery after fire

LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell closed its Dutch Pernis refinery, the Europe's largest, after a fire on Thursday, trade sources said.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Northern Petroleum farms out 6 Italy licences to Shell

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Oil and gas explorer Northern Petroleum Plc said on Thursday it farmed out six of its offshore Sicily Channel licences in Italy to an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, sending its shares up 9 percent.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Corruption overseas – Britain’s bribery shame

The UK has been identified for several years by the OECD as one of the worst laggards... This is highlighted by the fact that the suspension of the Al-Yamamah investigation in 2006 – looking at alleged bribes paid by BAE Systems as part of a UK-Saudi Arabia arms deal

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Oil market watch: crude slips below $45 a barrel

The bear trend resumes, with oil prices dropping below $45 a barrel.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Commodities Collapse: Fast, Big and Still Going: Analyst who projected $200 oil should have lopped off a zero

The crash in oil, copper, grain and other commodity stocks in 2008 has outpaced the crash of technology stocks at the turn of this century -- with many taking only six months for the 80% wipeouts that took the tech sector two years.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Will the hoped-for green jobs materialise?

Although BP and Shell have pulled out of the UK offshore market, others such as Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government's investment vehicle for sustainable energy, moved to fill the gap. Masdar acquired a 20 per cent stake in in the £2bn London Array offshore wind project after Shell walked away.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Sibir’s bail-out of investor stuns market

The development of the Salym field in western Siberia, a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell, has been a huge success, taking Sibir's production to 76,700 barrels of oil per day last month, a very respectable amount for an independent. It has proved and tested reserves, under Russian definition, of 491m barrels of oil. An often-rumoured deal with Shell has so far come to nothing. But the reserves remain a valuable asset and the best hope for shareholders is that some way can be found to realise that value.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

As Kermit the Frog observed, it’s not easy being green.

Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo American yesterday became the latest natural resources companies to shelve a clean energy scheme. Their joint A$5bn project in Australia to convert coal into liquid fuels may go ahead, eventually, but not with development costs this high and an oil price this low.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Pipe dreams

The second assumption is that steep declines in non-Opec oil fields will be offset by increases in "non-conventional" oil production, such as the Canadian oil sands. This also looks unlikely. Oil sands projects are uneconomic at less than $80 per barrel, and several have recently been shelved.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Spending on oil and gas projects collapses

This week it emerged that Royal Dutch Shell had shelved plans for a $3 billion (£2 billion) coal-to-liquid fuels project in Australia. Last month the group announced a delay to the expansion of its oil sands mining project in Northern Alberta, Canada.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell opens expanded north shore training center

Shell's Robert Training and Conference Center, located in Tangipahoa Parish, already provides a range of energy sector training to about 3,000 students a month. But a $21 million expansion adds 55,000 square feet of space to the facility and doubles the number of students that can be trained, said Tom Broom, Shell's operations learning and development manager.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Platts Global Energy Awards Honor Royal Dutch Shell as ‘Company of the Year’

International energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, the Netherlands-based oil company, grabbed the esteemed award for "Energy Company of the Year" tonight at the 10th annual Platts Global Energy Awards.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.