Published: Oct. 19, 2011 at 8:36 AM

NEW YORK, Oct. 19 (UPI) — Officials were divided on how a U.S. Supreme Court decision to hear a case against Shell filed by Nigerians reflects on Chevron’s legal issues in Ecuador.

The Supreme Court announced Monday it would hear a case filed by 12 Nigerians who claim Royal Dutch Shell is responsible for human rights violations in the Niger Delta in the 1990s.

Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer, told the Platts news service that ruling could have ramifications for a legal case against Chevron’s activity in Ecuador. read more

19 October 2011

Shell has been criticised for exaggerating a promotion for cost-cutting fuels.

The company has been banned from using two of its adverts which promote a money-saving fuel because they have been ruled to be misleading.

A direct mailing advert, sent in March, said Shell scientists had developed a regular fuel to help consumers save money.

It said: “Their latest fuels – Shell FuelSave Unleaded and Diesel – are designed to help you save fuel and money. These advanced fuels each have a special formula enriched with Shell Efficiency Improver combined with a special detergent package – designed to improve your fuel economy from the very first fill.” read more

By James Herron

Published October 18, 2011| Dow Jones Newswires

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s (RDSA, RDSB, RDSA.LN, RDSB.LN) new technology to produce liquefied natural gas aboard floating vessels will prove to be a game changer for the offshore gas industry, said the company’s Chairman, Jorma Ollila Tuesday.

“This game-changing technology will substantially reduce the cost and environmental footprint of developing offshore gas fields,” Ollila said at the International Energy Agency’s Ministerial Meeting in Paris. read more

Movement for Survival of Ogoni People president Ledum Mitee says the court’s decision sends a message that Shell must be held to account

James Butty

The president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People [MOSOP] said his group welcomes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a dispute between the Ogoni people and Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company.

The high court justices agreed Monday to hear a federal appeal by a group of Nigerians who alleged that shell was complicit in torture, wrongful deaths and other human rights abuses committed by Nigerian authorities against environmental campaigners during the 1990s.

MOSOP President Ledum Mitee said the decision sends the right message that Shell must be held to account. read more

THOMSON REUTERS

Alison Frankel

10/17/2011

Almost as soon as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit concluded last year in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum that corporations are not liable in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute for abetting overseas atrocities, the ruling looked like U.S. Supreme Court bait. As I’ve reported, the D.C. Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit, and the Seventh Circuit have all come to the opposite conclusion about corporate liability under the ATS. The only question was which ATS case the high court would choose as the vehicle for deciding whether corporations can be sued for helping foreign governments violate international human-rights law. read more

17 October 2011

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a lawsuit accusing Royal Dutch Shell of human rights abuses, a case that could make companies liable for torture or genocide committed overseas.

The plaintiffs — relatives of seven Nigerians killed by the country’s former military regime — sued the Anglo-Dutch energy giant and other firms for apparently enlisting the government to suppress resistance to oil exploration in the Niger Delta in the 1990s. read more

OCTOBER 17, 2011 12.35 P.M. ET

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will use a dispute between Nigerian villagers and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas.

The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of Shell. The case centers on the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute that has been increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad. read more

17 October 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will use a dispute between Nigerian villagers and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas.

The justices said Monday they will review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of Shell. The case centers on the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute that has been increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad.

The villagers argue Shell was complicit in torture and other crimes against humanity in the country’s oil-rich Ogoni region in the Niger Delta.

A divided panel of federal appeals court judges in New York said the 18th century law may not be used against corporations. More recently, appellate judges in Washington said it could.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

ADDED BY JOHN DONOVAN: SHELL IN NIGERIA

Shell’s horrendous track record in Nigeria includes embedding spies in the Nigerian government; paying rival militant gangs; engaging in corruption (not only in Nigeria); arming police spies; using a private spy firm (Hakluyt) partly owned and controlled by Shell directors, to infiltrate Nigerian activists (friends of Ken Saro-Wiwa) and linking Shell with murder and human rights abuses which are the subject of the above case. Questions inevitably arise about financial linkage to Shell of the militants responsible for the repeated attacks against Shell pipelines and infrastructure over many years, which has driven up the cost of oil. Shell has such a shameful record in Nigeria, including plunder and pollution on an epic scale, that it has even considered ditching the Shell global brand name. Such a radical move would also distance the company from its Nazi past. read more

Technology, high prices fuel oil rush in Arctic

By BRETT CLANTON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Updated 12:02 a.m., Monday, October 17, 2011

As the global hunt for oil gets tougher, the icy expanse of the Arctic – one of the last frontiers left for exploration – is looking more attractive to some producers.

Indeed, oil and gas activity in areas north of the Arctic Circle could grow considerably in coming years as several major oil companies aim to move forward with exploration plans and others weigh whether they should follow suit.

While it may be too early to call it a boom, there are clear signs of a building trend. read more

Business.Scoop

Edited by JONATHAN UNDERHILL & PATRICK SMELLIE

Auckland, Monday 17th October, 2011. This morning Greenpeace activists held a legal protest outside Port Taranaki against a ship that is due to depart imminently to start exploring for deep sea oil – the new frontier of oil development off New Zealand’s shores.

There was a heavy police presence at the port overnight and this morning – to protect the controversial ship, Polarcus Alima, which arrived in Taranaki this morning. It is due to leave shortly to start exploring for oil off Raglan at depths of up to 1600 metres, on behalf of US oil giant Anadarko (1). read more

Energy Business News

EBR Staff Writer: Published 17 October 2011

UGI Corporation has acquired the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution businesses of Shell in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

These businesses delivered about 300 million gallons of LPG in 2010, the addition of which will expand the scale of UGI’s European LPG business to over 700 million gallons.

UGI chairman and CEO Lon Greenberg said the acquired businesses provide UGI with an attractive opportunity to expand its footprint in northern Europe to LPG markets that are in close proximity to its existing operations in France and Central Europe. read more

From pages 48 & 49 of “Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles” – Background report to the Erratum of Shell’s Annual Report 2010

The report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.

The Sakhalin-2 project

According to its developers, the Sakhalin-2 project is the world’s largest integrated oil and gas project. The capital expenditure for this project amounted to USD 21.3 billion from 2001 through 2009, while total costs exceeded USD 24 billion.

The project is about extracting gas and oil offshore Sakhalin Island, in the Russian Far East. The fields are called Lunskoye (mostly gas) and Piltun-Astokhskoye (mostly oil). The company Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (Sakhalin Energy) is the operator of the project. Royal Dutch Shell is a partner and lead technical adviser to the operator. Under the shareholding structure of Sakhalin Energy, Gazprom holds 50% (plus one share), Shell 27.5% (minus one share), Mitsui 12.5% and Mitsubishi 10%. read more

VANGUARD

OCTOBER 16, 2011

By Emma Amaize in The Netherlands

NIGERIAN Embassy in The Netherlands,  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands and Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, avoided taking a risk, weekend,   when the  prosecution of  a Nigerian-Dutch activist, Comrade Sunny Ofehe, by the Netherlands government for alleged pipeline bombing in Nigeria reverberated at an international conference on the Niger-Delta in Rotterdam.

But Ofehe’s  lawyer, Mr. Ed Manders of Manders Advocaten, who spoke to journalists 24 hours earlier in his office in Rotterdam, said the case of terrorism by The Netherlands police against his client, who is the founder/president of the Hope for Niger-Delta Campaign, HNDC, was not provable, as the prosecution was merely relying on a phone conversation in which the activist requested for an opportunity to videotape an oil bunkering activity in Nigeria. read more

Never-seen-before problem shows importance of additional seismic work in areas earmarked for mining

The flooded pit at Shell’s Muskeg River mine now holds about seven million cubic metres of salty water after a deep crack formed in the rock below the mined-out area last year, allowing water from a deep aquifer to flow upwards. It was the first time an oilsands firm has faced such a situation. Shell is building a drilling pad in the pond and will inject hot asphalt and then cement into the crack to permanently seal the leak next year. Photograph by: Shell Canada, edmontonjournal.com

EDMONTON – When water started appearing at the bottom of a Muskeg River mine pit north of Fort McMurray last October, crews assumed it was normal seepage from surrounding rock. read more

14 October 2011
Vedomosti

Dysfunctional oil wells at Sakhalin-2 are threatening to decrease production at the field in Russia’s Far East and could be indicative of more serious problems.