Posts on ‘May 18th, 2015’

Article by Rakteem Katakey published 18 May 2015 by Bloomberg.com

U.S. President Barack Obama is balancing the need to meet oil demand and concerns about climate change as his government considers final approvals for Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Arctic drilling plans, according to a state department official.

“If you go up to Alaska and speak to many Alaskans, as I have, they feel like the President is shutting down the Arctic,” Robert J. Papp Jr., U.S. Department of State special representative for the Arctic, told a conference call Monday. “When you talk to the environmental groups, they feel the president is opening up the Arctic.” read more

KING-5 TV, Seattle and Associated Press: May 18, 2015

Arctic oil protesters rally at Seattle port where Shell rig is docked

SEATTLE — People protesting Arctic oil drilling marched Monday to the entrance of Terminal 5 at the Port of Seattle Monday, where a massive floating drill rig is parked on the waterfront.

Police say arrests are possible, but they expect the demonstration to be peaceful.

Port spokesman Peter McGraw says there are minimal operations at Terminal 5 on Monday “so there’s not much to block.”

The demonstration entered the street at 11 Avenue Southwest and Southwest Spokane Street after 7 a.m. Pacific. Protesters reached Terminal 5 just before 8 a.m. read more

Commodities | Mon May 18, 2015 6:23pm BST

SEATTLE | BY VICTORIA CAVALIERE

About 200 protesters gathered at the Port of Seattle on Monday to block access to a Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig headed for the Arctic this summer to resume exploration for oil and gas reserves.

Holding signs reading “Shell No” and “Seattle Loves the Arctic,” protesters gathered early to prevent workers from reaching the rig, one of two that Shell will store in Seattle before sending to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska. read more

By Daniel J. Graeber     |   May 18, 2015 

Shell picked wrong city, Seattle protesters say

Company using city ports as staging ground for arctic drilling campaign.

SEATTLE, May 18 (UPI) — Energy company Royal Dutch Shell picked the wrong city to serve as a base of operations for its offshore Alaska program, advocacy groups said Monday.

A flotilla of kayakers took to the waters off the coast of Seattle during the weekend to protest the presence of Shell drillships bound for the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. With federal approval in hand, Shell said it may start its drilling campaign as early as this summer.

Matt Maiorana, a Seattle campaigner for advocacy group Oil Change International, said the western U.S. city wants to wash its hands of Shell’s arctic ambitions. read more

14 MAY 2015

BP Plc, the former state-owned oil company with operations from Russia to Iraq, appointed the retired chief of Britain’s overseas spying network as a board member. John Sawers was head of the MI6 service until November 2014.

Oil company involvement with spies is nothing new. 

On 17 June 2001, The Sunday Times published a front page lead story on the spying activities of Shell and BP directed against perceived enemies, including Greenpeace.

Confronted with irrefutable evidence, the spying by Hakluyt and Company, a corporate intelligence firm set up by former senior MI6 officers, was admitted by both oil giants.

Titled Shell directors were also directors and major shareholders in Hakluyt. 

Shell has continued to use Hakluyt and also runs its own internal unit staffed by former spooks.  read more

By Jess Davis

Law360, Dallas (May 15, 2015, 7:02 PM ET) — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday held that a report Shell Oil Co. made to the U.S. Department of Justice about a possible Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violation is absolutely privileged and cannot be the basis for an employee’s defamation claim.

Siding with Shell and reversing a Houston appellate court, the high court held that the company’s internal investigation report is entitled to an absolute privilege, not merely a qualified privilege, in light of the DOJ’s possible criminal prosecution of the company. The court said factors… read more

Terry Macalister read more

Shell’s Arctic voyage marks beginning of peak oil era

Anglo-Dutch company’s search for resources in the Arctic is a sign that the world is running out of options for new oil reserves

By Andrew Critchlow, Commodities editor

In his critically acclaimed 2005 book ‘Twilight in the Desert’, the prominent oil economist Matthew R. Simmons predicted that Saudi Arabia’s oil wells would soon run dry.

His argument was based on the age of the seven main fields, which the kingdom still to this day depends upon to pump the bulk of its 10m barrels per day (bpd) of crude. These fields in the main have been producing for over a generation and, despite official figures placing Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves at over 260bn barrels, Mr Simmons argued that the kingdom would struggle to increase its output to keep pace with the projected increases in the demand over the next half century marking the beginning of a period known as “peak oil”. read more