By Flavia Krause-Jackson and Ali Sheikholeslami – Sep 30, 2010 6:30 PM GMT+0100

Total SA of France, Statoil ASA of Norway, Italy’s Eni SpA and the Netherlands’ Royal Dutch Shell Plc have “pledged to end their investments in Iran’s energy sector,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said.

Steinberg said the pledge means the companies are “eligible” to avoid U.S. sanctions. “These companies have provided assurances they will stop or are taking significant verifiable steps to stop their activity in Iran and have provided assurances not to undertake new energy-related activities in Iran that may be sanctionable,” he told reporters in Washington.

The U.S. also announced that it is imposing sanctions on an Iranian energy-trading company operating in Switzerland. The action was taken against Lausanne-based Naftiran Intertrade Co., also known as Nico. The company is involved in the trading of oil and refined products and seeks to invest in energy projects, according to its website. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin – Sep 29, 2010 10

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, plans to invest about $40 billion in the Americas through 2014 to boost production by 40 percent.

Shell’s oil and gas output in the region may reach 1 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the period, The Hague-based company said in a statement.

Operations in the Americas have the potential to generate over $10 billion in cash flow in 2012, Simon Henry, the chief financial officer at Shell, said in a video interview posted on the Internet. It’s “a very good position to be in, very much fits our global ambition for financial growth and the strategy to allocate more capital” to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development region. read more

Daily Telegraph

When BP became a sponsor of the US Olympics team for London’s 2012 games in February, Tony Hayward could have been forgiven for thinking he deserved a pat on the back, if not quite a medal.

By Richard Blackden
Published: 6:00AM BST 30 Sep 2010

Tony Hayward’s fate was sealed as the scale of the disaster emerged, though the public-relations gaffes did not help Photo: Getty Images

Five years on from the explosion at its Texas City refinery, the company had recovered its position in the country where people consume more oil than anywhere else.

The chief executive of Britain’s biggest energy company had made the Gulf of Mexico central to hitting BP’s aggressive production targets. The Tiber discovery in September 2009 had seen the drilling of a well to a record 35,000 feet, and the Gulf’s deep waters were a stage for BP to do what the company had long believed distinguished it from rivals: find oil and gas in places no one else could. Hayward also liked the US, describing to an audience in Houston the special American traits of being “can-do, adventurous and optimistic”. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin – Sep 30, 2010

Regal Petroleum Plc, the U.K. explorer focusing on natural-gas projects in Ukraine, fell to the lowest share price on record after Chief Executive Officer David Greer quit and as gas wells failed to stabilize output.

Regal dropped as much as 31 percent to 18.25 pence in London trading, the lowest price since Sept. 27, 2002. The stock was at 21 pence at 10:03 a.m. local time, valuing the company at 66.86 million pounds ($106 million). The shares have fallen about 80 percent in the last year. read more

"The outlook for deep water remains positive, despite the current drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico," the Dutch oil giant said in a prepared statement.

Calgary-based Nexen Inc. and its partner Royal Dutch Shell PLC are trumpeting a major oil find in the Gulf of Mexico, a discovery that will serve as a test of feared regulatory gridlock in the prolific oil-producing region.

By Ed Crooks in New York Published: September 29 2010

Royal Dutch Shell is planning a rapid expansion of its North American business to raise production by 40 per cent to 1m barrels equivalent per day in 2014, including gas, Canadian oil sands and deepwater oil.

The strategy, announced in Canada on Tuesday, is part of Europe’s largest oil company’s plan to meet its “aspiration” of producing 3.7m barrels per day in 2014, compared with 3.15m last year.

One of its announcements included approval for a deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico where BP is a junior partner. read more

In the two months before the UN voted through its fourth set of sanctions, on 9 June, affecting finance, insurance and shipping sectors, Shell's trading company, Satsco, spent at least $778m on Iranian crude, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

By Joe Carroll – Sep 28, 2010

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest energy company, gave final approval to an investment in an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell, based in The Hague, said in a PR Newswire statement that the Mars B platform will pump the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of crude a day when it begins output sometime after 2014. The dollar amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Shell owns a 71.5 percent stake in Mars B and will operate the platform, according to the statement. BP Plc of London also owns an interest in the project. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)–The Brazilian unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSB, RDSA.LN, RDSB.LN) discovered oil in the Santos Basin during the company’s first exploration attempt in the region famous for its deepwater discoveries, the company said Tuesday.

Shell Brasil’s first well in the BM-S-54 block showed indications of hydrocarbons, the company said in a statement emailed to Dow Jones Newswires. Earlier Tuesday, the discovery was also published on the Brazilian National Petroleum Agency’s website. read more

Sept. 28, 2010, 3:50 p.m. EDT

CALGARY, Canada, September 28, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Royal Dutch Shell plc (“Shell”) reconfirmed strong momentum in its businesses in the Americas for a group of shareholders and analysts today, visiting Upstream assets in Canada. Shell’s oil & gas production in the region could reach 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2014, an increase of some 40% on current levels, subject to the pace of investment, which could be some $40 billion for the 2011-14 period. read more

Sept. 28, 2010, 2:35 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK, Sep 28, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) today condemned Royal Dutch Shell for increasing its business with Iran. Rather than complying with the spirit of U.S. and EU law, Royal Dutch Shell over the summer conducted over a billion dollars’ worth of trade in crude oil. The U.S. sanctions that President Obama signed into law in July are targeted directly at Iran’s oil industry. The Guardian broke the news of Shell’s business in Tuesday’s newspaper. read more

By John Donovan

I am in possession of authentic Shell internal emails revealing that Shell prepared contingency plans out of concern at the prospect of a boycott of Shell in the USA, arising from Shell’s treachery in dealing with Iran.

The emails are available to the news media on request to [email protected]

Royal Dutch Shell is still trading with the fanatical Iranian regime despite: –

*Iran’s avowed intent to become a nuclear power…

*Sanctions imposed on Iran…

*Iranian threats to eliminate Israel… read more

BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 13 – 28 October 2010

Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s compelling and deeply moving documentary follows a campaign trying to prevent Shell lay a pipeline in county Mayo.

When it was discovered that there was a reserve of 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas 80km off the west coast of Ireland, a consortium led by Shell developed plans to lay a pipeline into County Mayo, through the village of Rossport. Without having been consulted in the planning process, the small farming and fishing community objected, fearing the risk of environmental damage, and understandably keen to protect their land, fishing grounds and, indeed, their very way of life. Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s compelling, moving film followed the campaign against Shell over four years. There are disturbing scenes of Irish Garda being deployed to remove protestors and drag people to jail; and implications that the Irish government is backing Shell, motivated by economic greed. Tension mounts when the protestors disagree on the best way to take Shell on, and individuals feel compelled to take increasingly more desperate action. Ultimately, The Pipe serves as a stirring tribute to the brave men and women fighting for their rights, and standing up to a corporate giant. Yet there’s poignancy, too, as its inhabitants accept, whether Shell stay or go, Rossport will never be the same again. read more

CBS News.com

September 28, 2010 6:28 AM

While its competitors bowed to international pressure against trade with Iran, the U.K.-registered oil giant Shell increased its purchase of crude from the isolated regime over the summer, according to a report in Tuesday’s Guardian.

The British broadsheet says it obtained confidential documents revealing that Shell paid Iran at least $1.5 billion for crude oil in the summer months alone, as competitors including BP halted orders from the Islamic Republic.

Iran is under strict economic and military embargoes implemented by the United Nations Security Council and many countries unilaterally, including, of course, the United States.

Shell’s only response to the Guardian’s report was to insist that the purchase of Iranian crude in no way violates any sanctions.

The importation of oil from Iran has not been banned by the sanctions currently in place, but most large petroleum companies have voluntarily stopped purchasing from the nation. read more

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote) has bought $1.5 billion worth of crude oil from the National Iranian Oil Company (NOIC), Britain’s Guardian newspaper said, citing sensitive trading documents.

The newspaper said the UK-registered company this summer stepped up its orders of Iranian oil while other major buyers — including BP (BP.L: Quote) and India’s Reliance Industries (RELI.BO: Quote) — halted orders following U.N.-imposed sanctions in June in reaction to Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.

Wide-ranging international sanctions implemented in June and July have excluded crude oil sales, but Western-allied powers have increased political pressure on countries to trade less with Iran. read more

Oil giant stepped up orders of Iranian crude while others halted trade amid sanctions imposed by UN, EU and US

Robert Booth

Monday 27 September 2010 18.37 BST

Iran’s oil depot at Kharg Island, the country’s main export terminal in the Persian Gulf. Oil is a major export for Iran. Photograph: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images

Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, paid the state-owned Iranian oil company at least $1.5bn (£0.94bn) for crude oil this summer, increasing its business with Tehran as the international community implemented some of the toughest sanctions yet aimed at constricting the Islamic republic’s economy and its lifeline oil business.

Sensitive trading documents seen by the Guardian show the UK-registered company stepped up its orders of Iranian oil at a time when other major buyers, including BP and Reliance Industries, India’s largest conglomerate, halted orders amid impending trade sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran’s perceived desire to acquire nuclear weapons.

Shell is not accused of acting illegally because the sanctions – enforced by the US, UN and EU – stopped short of banning the import of Iranian oil. But its trades with the state-owned oil company, a major contributor to the finances of a government which has made its nuclear programme a priority, are likely to expose Shell to growing political pressure. read more

On 7 November 2007 The Guardian published an article under the headline [3] The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that a Shell advertisement featuring flower heads emerging from refinery chimneys implying the oil giant used its waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers, breached ASA rules.

The energy multi-national Royal Dutch Shell, has faced campaigning activity on its safety record and Health and Safety working practices, particularly in relation to its North Sea platforms, following the tragic death of only two offshore workers after a gas leak on its Brent Bravo platform on 11 September 2003.

There have been concerns over Royal Dutch Shell over environmental and health and safety related issues as well as in respect of its businesses practices and priorities.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

DOHA (Zawya Dow Jones)–The first phase of Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSA) $18 billion Pearl gas-to-liquids, or GTL, project in Qatar will start up in the first quarter of next year, with both production facilities fully operational in the first half of 2012, a company executive said Monday.

“We’ll finish the construction process for phase 1 by the end of the year and then we’ll start up the first train,” Qatar Shell Commercial Manager Krey Stirland said on the sidelines of an energy conference in the Qatari capital, Doha. read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and partners are investing $2 billion in a program to end natural gas flaring in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, after the projects were delayed because of funding and security problems.

Non-Executive Chairman and former CEO of Nokia, Jorma Ollila is currently also the non-executive Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Lucky Shell.

From Addendum #1 to Riding The Dragon

Explosions & Fires: 1992-2002
Sampling of Incidents at Shell Group Companies & Joint Ventures

Information about the book can be found on Amazon

Related comments from a former employee of Shell Oil USA

Something on the ‘drins’, etc., from the book ‘Riding the Dragon’.

http://gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=148

I found this story to be very interesting, because I remember the internal reaction at Shell to that incident. Shell management lies to everyone, most especially their own employees.

http://gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=283

You might want to attach this link for those who would like a review of the book ‘Riding the Dragon’. read more

By Stephen Bierman – Sep 24, 2010

Royal Dutch Shell Plc may seek to develop coal-bed methane in Siberian Russia after a meeting with regional officials.

“The Kemerovo region is Russia’s leading coal province and may be of interest for Shell given our expertise and advanced technologies in coal-bed methane,” Vera Surzhenko, a spokeswoman for Shell, said by telephone from Moscow today. “At the moment it is too early to say anything specifically.”

Russia, holder of the largest natural-gas reserves, may have as much as 87 trillion cubic meters of coal-bed methane, OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller said in February. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the time said this was the equivalent of two OAO Gazproms. read more

When you consider what Shell is proposing to use in the harsh Arctic environment to drill its exploration wells (the refurbished but antiquated Frontier Discoverer, with the obsolete and beat-up Kulluk as a backup rig), one wonders whether Shell USA management truly understands the nature of the environment they are going to be operating in.

From a former employee of Shell Oil USA

Attached is a link to an article about the ODECO Ocean Ranger (right), a large modern semi-submersible rig that sank during a storm. It was drilling a well for Mobil (now ExxonMobil) in the Hibernia oil field, offshore Nova Scotia, Canada.

(Ocean Ranger vanishes off Canada)

This case is interesting because there are parallels with the problems BP had with its production platform ‘Thunder Horse’, which almost sank in a hurricane that is was supposedly designed to withstand.

‘A design flaw (porthole too low) and poor worker training were the cause of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger. Poor worker training was essentially the cause of the Deep Water Horizon disaster. And a design flaw, a valve installed backwards, almost sank BP’s Thunder Horse production platform in the hurricane. All three incidents/accidents were avoidable if oil company and rig company management had been doing their jobs.’

Did I ever mention ‘Murphy’s Law’ to you? read more

“I suppose Cable’s experience of this murky world came while enjoying his comfortable existence as a well paid employee of Shell.”

Comment from the Daily Telegraph article: Emotional Anti-Business Secretary should be an odd man out of a job

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Shell ‘softened’ damning environmental report to break lease

Saffron Howden Friday September 24, 2010

SHELL abandoned an old petrol station in Sydney knowing it was contaminated, then told its health risk assessors to change their report to ”soften” their findings, the Supreme Court has heard.

Yesterday Shell Australia was found to have deceived and misled the new owner of the Cabramatta land, Haissam Assafiri, and to owe him more than $1 million. In his judgment, Justice Robert McDougall said the petrochemical company did not remediate the Hume Highway site, which was a petrol station for 30 years, to the level required under its final ”demolition” lease in 2007. Instead, Shell left a concrete slab that was too ”severely deteriorated” to contain the polluted soil. read more

Shell, Exxon Shift Away From Refining, Eye Output, JPMorgan Says

By Fred Pals – Sep 23, 2010 10:12 AM GMT+0100

The world’s biggest oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc will continue to sell refining and other non-core assets and focus on exploration and production to create more value, JPMorgan Cazenove analysts said.

“We see a continued shift upstream; downstream looks destined to become an equity value driver of diminishing relevance,” London-based JPMorgan analysts Fred Lucas and Nitin Sharma wrote in a note today. “Certain integrated names are gradually morphing into hybrid exploration and production companies.” read more

Three years to drill a relief well. I suspected as much. I knew it would take at least a year, perhaps a year and a half, under best conditions. People don’t realize that. So, a blow out in the Arctic will gush free for at least one year. Imagine that.

The Kulluk (above) is a refurbished old rust bucket rescued from mothballed oblivion in Northern Canada, and one that no drilling contractor wanted to invest a dime in.

Comment from a former employee of Shell Oil USA on the Calgary Herald article…

Regulators warn drilling oil-spill relief well off Canada’s Arctic coast would take three years

Three years to drill a relief well. I suspected as much. I knew it would take at least a year, perhaps a year and a half, under best conditions. People don’t realize that. So, a blow out in the Arctic will gush free for at least one year. Imagine that.

This estimate comes from Canadian sources which are more realistic than the politically motivated ‘opinions’ of the MMS and Shell. read more

Workers on the deck of a drill ship set up a well for the Devon Energy Corp. in Canada’s Beaufort Sea. Photograph by: Archive, Calgary Herald

OTTAWA – Drilling a relief well in the ice-infested waters of the Beaufort Sea would take at least three years, leaving an oil spill off Canada’s Arctic coast to gush until the job is done, Canadian regulators warn in newly released documents.

Under the current policy of the National Energy Board, which regulates drilling in the Canadian side of the Beaufort, oil companies must demonstrate the capacity to drill a relief well in the same season in which they dig their original well. read more

The Irish Times – Wednesday, September 22, 2010

LORNA SIGGINS Western Correspondent

SHELL EP Ireland has resumed investigative work on the proposed new Corrib pipeline route in north Mayo, following suspension of activity when two Shell to Sea campaigners boarded one of the drilling rigs.

The two campaigners from the Rossport Solidarity Camp secured themselves with a hammock under the drilling rig for 12 hours on Monday from shortly after 7am until 7pm. They were wearing dry suits and had food, and left voluntarily when work was due to finish on the drilling rigs under the licensing terms. read more

The takeover of gas producer Arrow Energy Ltd. by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina Co. will generate a A$326 million ($308 million) profit for shareholder New Hope Corp., giving the coal miner more cash for acquisitions.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc, which permanently sealed its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well this weekend, said on Monday it is joining the industry's $1 billion effort to contain future subsea oil spills.

CALGARY - Alberta's energy watchdog has given Shell Canada some leeway in approving the company's plans to deal with waste from its Muskeg River oilsands mine.

The United Nations Foundation and Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Shell Foundation plan to help organize an effort to raise as much as $100 million over five years to provide clean-burning cooking stoves to the world’s poor, according to a document outlining the plan.

Eric Kayne For the Chronicle: Matt Allen, an engineer, works at Shell’s real-time operations center this month in Houston. The center monitors data from wells around the clock.

Shore-based engineers for Shell monitor offshore rigs 24/7 from high-tech centers

By BRETT CLANTON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Sept. 18, 2010, 8:18PM

In the months since the Deepwater Horizon accident, Eric van Oort has received inquiries from competitors, investigators and even BP about the network of high-tech centers Shell uses to keep watch over its offshore wells from land.

Shell may gather the same real-time well data other oil companies collect today, but its centers have drawn attention because the company staffs them with engineers who monitor the data around the clock for problems. read more

GreenBiz.com: What Matters Most: Shell Oil’s CSR Crisis in the North Sea: “Shell’s actions — and Greenpeace’s reactions — had created a full-scale international incident.”: “What Greenpeace had helped Shell to realize what that its reputation was a far more valuable and perishable commodity than the Brent Spar itself”

Posted 19 Sept 04

The following is an excerpt from “What Matters Most: How a Small Group of Pioneers Is Teaching Social Responsibility to Big Business, and Why Big Business Is Listening.” The book, by Jeffrey Hollender and Stephen Fenichell, examines in detail how companies have successfully handled public-relations crises related to corporate responsibility.

For 15 years, Royal Dutch Shell’s 460-foot-tall oil storage tanker and loading platform the Brent Spar floated inconspicuously at anchor in the North Sea, 120 miles off the island of Shetland, of no particular concern to anyone outside the company. But in 1991, having outlived its useful life, the platform was decommissioned. For the next two years, an independent committee of scientific and engineering advisors retained by Shell pondered the problem of what to do with it, which came down to how best to get rid of it. read more

Pete Slaiby, head of Shell’s Alaska operations, says his company has budgeted $130 million for its 2010 work in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas program. This, despite the federal hold on offshore drilling. PHOTO/Michael Dinneen/for the Journal

September 17, 2010

By Tim Bradner
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Despite another holdup in Arctic outer continental shelf exploration drilling, Shell has a substantial summer research program under way in waters off the north Alaska coast, company officials in Anchorage said Sept. 14. read more

In a separate opinion in the case, Second Circuit Judge Pierre Leval criticized the majority ruling. “So long as they incorporate,” he wrote, “businesses will now be free to trade in or exploit slaves, employ mercenary armies to do dirty work for despots, perform genocides or operate torture prisons for a despot’s political opponents, or engage in piracy—all without civil liability to victims.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By NATHAN KOPPEL SEPT 18, 2010

Plaintiffs will have a harder time suing oil companies and other multinational groups over human-rights abuses overseas following a federal court ruling on Friday.

The Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 federal law that allows suits for violations of ‘the law of nations,’ has been used in recent years to target a number of U.S. companies including Chevron Corp. for alleged crimes committed overseas.

Alien tort suits have particularly targeted companies that partner with foreign governments in oil exploration. read more

Shell… arrived in 1952 and for three decades produced chemical pesticides, such as dieldrin, that Shell sold worldwide for agriculture.

After 23 years and $2.1 billion, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal is ready to be removed from the nation’s Superfund list of environmental disasters.

Environmental Protection Agency officials are transferring a final 2,500 acres at the 27-square-mile site to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This clears the way for the arsenal’s new incarnation as a national wildlife refuge.

U.S. taxpayers paid for the bulk of the cleanup — done by the Army and Shell Oil under a legal settlement.

For half a century, the arsenal at Denver’s northeast edge loomed as a secretive complex of more than 250 buildings with signs around it warning “Use of Deadly Force Authorized.” There, the Army made chemical weapons and later, Shell made pesticides. read more

Comment from a former employee of Shell Oil USA

After several decades of working in the oil industry in the exploration side of the business I have learned that Murphy’s Law pretty much rules. If it can happen, it will happen. Soon or later the laws of statistics catch up with you.

Some examples are:

– $150 million wells that are supposed to be ‘sure discoveries’ are dry holes (e.g., the Mukluk prospect in Alaska).

– Gas pipelines that are not well maintained explode in the middle of residential neighborhoods (last week in California). read more

By Alfred and John Donovan

We note that our article “Royal Dutch Shell Fat Cat Malcolm Brinded: Big Brain but no scruples” published in May 2009 on Blogger News Network has now been read over 8,000 times. The outcome of a related investigation by Grampion Police into alleged corruption and HSE issues regarding Shell and the Brent Bravo explosion is still pending. Click here to read the whistleblower email which sparked the Police investigation.

Why has Shell still not taken legal action against the us or Bill Campbell, the former HSE Group Auditor of Shell International, to defend the reputation of Mr Brinded? Shell currently has 1800 in-house legal staff, including 800 lawyers. Where are they all hiding? read more

Shell has been dropped from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The Anglo-Dutch oil company says it does not know why this has happened. The company has always been included in the ranking since the index was introduced in 1999.

The list includes firms deemed to be among a particular branch’s top 10 percent most sustainable companies. This year, Shell fell well short of the threshold.

Shell spokesman Peter van Boesschoten says: “We are still trying to identify the reasons behind the decision.” read more

Shell wants to go quite far, all the way to the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas of Arctic Alaska to get the oil that is there. And they want you to support them in their journey, which is why they say, “Let’s Go.”

THE HUFFINGTON POST

Subhankar Banerjee: Photographer, writer, activist, founder ClimateStoryTellers.org

Last Sunday, after I posted my most recent blog, “Climate Educators Wanted,” I visited the Green page in HuffPost. My eyes lit up. Before my eyes, the GREENscape slowly turned into a story. Stories are nothing but fragments from life put together. Here’s how this story came together.

About midway down the left column, my earlier post, “Letter to Young Americans” was still visible. Right above it was a Shell oil ad. The ad and the story each occupied an equal amount of space, so that was a good beginning. Here is a quick read: the ad says, “Let’s Go,” asking all of us to join in. The story asks all young people to join in. The ad says, “Go Further,” telling us to progress into the future. The story says, “Start the climate revolution now,” for the purpose of a brighter future. The ad and the story outwardly appear to be saying the same thing and peacefully cohabiting in the HuffPo GREENscape. read more

Mr Putin cited the successful participation of Shell in the Sakhalin-2 project, as well as its cooperation with Gazprom, Gazpromneft, Rosneft and other Russian companies. In turn, Mr Voser called Russia a key investment partner and expressed satisfaction with the results that have been achieved through cooperation with Russia in a variety of sectors.

17 Sept 2010: Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Voser, Shell has been operating in Russian for a long time and with good results. You have several major joint ventures with local partners, including the ambitious Sakhalin-2 project. Last year, we launched the first Russian gas liquefaction company as part of this project. And I must say that in this area, in hydrocarbons, in particular for the production and sale of gas, we have our own plans, which are to increase the production and export of LPG – up to 10% of our total exports by 2020 and up to 15% by 2030. read more

New York Law Journal

Mark Hamblett September 20, 2010

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected outright Friday the theory that corporations can be held liable in the United States under the Alien Tort Statute for violations of international law in foreign countries.

In a sweeping decision rebuffing a lawsuit against The Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and others for allegedly aiding and abetting human rights violations during oil exploration in Nigeria, the court declared that “corporate liability is not a discernible — much less universally recognized — norm of customary international law that we may apply pursuant to ATS (Alien Tort Statute).” read more

Fri Sept 17, 2010 2:08pm EDT

* Corporations not liable for rights violations -court

* Dissenting opinion calls it blow to international law

* Case involves Nigerians executed over 1990s protests (Adds Alien Tort expert says strong dissent suggests further appeal likely)

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday dismissed a case against Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) in which the oil company was accused of helping Nigerian authorities violently suppress protests against oil exploration in the 1990s.

Judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York ruled that until the Supreme Court deemed otherwise, corporations could not be held liable in U.S. courts for violations of international human rights law. read more

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo – Sep 17, 2010 3:01 PM GMT+0100

Nigeria acquired a 50 percent stake in three “major oil mining leases” from Royal Dutch Shell Plc, according to the state-owned energy company.

The licenses, known as 4, 38, and 41, can produce as much as 180,000 barrels a day, Austen Oniwon, chief executive officer of Nigeria National Petroleum Corp., said in an e-mailed statement today. Financial details weren’t disclosed.

They will be operated by the Nigeria Petroleum Development Co., the exploration and production arm of the parent company. read more

Both oil concern BP and Royal Dutch Shell have been crossed off the list of most sustainable companies, writes the Dutch financial daily Financieele Dagblad on Friday based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Review 2010.

Published on : 17 September 2010 – 12:00pm | By Sophie van Leeuwen (Photo: EPA/ANP)

The oil leaks in Nigeria are comparable to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Both oil concern BP and Royal Dutch Shell have been crossed off the list of most sustainable companies, writes the Dutch financial daily Financieele Dagblad on Friday based on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes Review 2010.

The authors of the index want to speak with one voice. If BP is to be removed from the index, than Shell should be too, reports the newspaper, quoting anonymous sources. In a reaction, a Shell spokesperson said he is surprised. read more