REUTERS

SAO PAULO | Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:59am EDT

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell and Brazilian sugar and ethanol giant Cosan signed on Wednesday a binding agreement to create a global ethanol business, looking to benefit from growing demand for biofuels.

The joint venture, with estimated annual sales of $21 billion, was modified since its initial announcement in February to include all of Cosan’s energy generation business and 500 million reais ($283.6 million) in debt owed to Brazilian development bank BNDES.

Cosan, the world’s largest sugar and ethanol producer, also said in a securities filing that the initial accord was changed to make the venture a global biofuels provider. As a result of that, Cosan and Shell are barred from competing with the new entity. read more

In a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell, Codexis aims to be first to market with a next-generation biofuel.

A horde of startups have smart ideas. But the challenges are many, and the winners likely will be Shell, BP, DuPont, and other majors

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

APRIL 13, 2009, 8:09 AM ET

By Keith Johnson

Crude oil futures fell below $51 a barrel as the market reacted to the IEA’s bearish oil-demand forecast, Bloomberg reports.

And the demand picture is indeed weak, especially in the U.S., where gasoline demand apparently peaked in 2007 and won’t return. That’s due to a cocktail of higher fuel-efficiency, shifting transportation habits, and the growing role of biofuels, in the WSJ. Speaking of which, the University of Texas boasts what could be the world’s largest collection of algae, suddenly in demand as a biofuel feedstock, also in the WSJ. read more

BP is further along than its rivals in pursuing biofuels, but other large oil companies are paying attention. Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Rex Tillerson said in a speech this week that the company's executives have "turned our attention to next-generation biofuels" through in-house research. Royal Dutch Shell has taken small equity stakes in several fledgling biofuels companies.

Today, burning crops like corn, soybeans and sugar cane for fuel is policy in the U.S., Brazil and the European Union -- while almost 1 billion of the world’s 6.8 billion people are hungry, the most in a generation.

Mr. Routs talked with the WSJ’s Neil King about the world’s thirst for oil, the challenges facing Detroit and the U.S. transportation sector, and where oil prices are heading.

Last week, the Monash Energy venture, a $5 billion project sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell and Anglo American to convert coal from Victoria’s Latrobe valley into cleaner liquid fuel was suspended because of rising costs.

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.

Cosan is the world’s largest producer of ethanol from sugar cane.

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Anglo American Plc have delayed plans to develop a A$5 billion ($3.2 billion) project in Australia to convert coal into clean fuels, citing higher costs.

The demonstration marked the 13th anniversary of the death of Saro-Wiwa. As reported in Student Direct, Shell has recently joined forces with the University of Manchester to develop biofuels.

Shell has spent $1 billion in the past five years on carbon capture, biofuel and solar and wind energy projects to cut emissions of greenhouse gases led by carbon dioxide, Graeme Sweeney, executive vice president for future fuels & CO2, said in Singapore today.

OIL giant Shell is teaming up with Manchester University experts to work on the development of biofuels.

I'm always amazed that people think that oil companies they are just for the money and greedy and like to do a lousy job

Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell") today highlighted its approach to biofuels innovation, announcing six new research agreements with experts in academic institutions across the world

Shell's Game

I am puzzled by the logic used by Shell to justify its intention to extract coal-bed methane in the Klappan area.

"This deal puts us at the front of the cellulosic biofuels game," said Sue Ellerbusch, president of BP Biofuels North America, in a statement.

Very few hydrogen centres exist in Britain – there is a station in Birmingham and one in Wales – but officials insist that oil giants such as BP and Shell have the design experience and safety expertise to install hydrogen pumps on forecourts.

Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil group, and Iogen, the Canadian biotech company, have agreed to extend their commercial alliance...

Royal Dutch Shell is stepping up investment in research into “second generation” biofuels, putting more money into its joint venture with Iogen, a Canadian biotech company, in spite of having made only slow progress so far.

Shell is stepping up its share of Iogen to 50 per cent from 26.3 per cent. The oil firm first invested in Iogen in 2002.

As prices have risen, worries about energy security and long-term climate effects have reached a fever pitch.

The confidential report, based on a detailed economic analysis of the effect of biofuels, will put pressure on the American and European governments, which have turned to biofuels in attempts to reduce the greenhouse gases associated with fossil fuels and to reduce their reliance on oil imports.

Shell and BP are also exploring the possibilities of second-generation biofuels, the latter in partnership with the chemicals company DuPont.

Thirst for energy will double in the first half of the century, but increased biofuel production and carbon storage could help the world stabilize greenhouse gas levels by the 2020s, oil giant Shell said on Wednesday.

Van der Veer, who is due to retire next year after almost four decades with the company, is in Malaysia to meet top Shell executives.

The invasion of Iraq by Britain and the US has trebled the price of oil, according to a leading expert, costing the world a staggering $6 trillion in higher energy prices alone. Goldman Sachs predicted last week that the price could rise to an unprecedented $200 a barrel over the next year, and the world is coming to terms with the idea that the age of cheap oil has ended, with far-reaching repercussions on their activities.

A Royal Dutch Shell executive said there's "plenty of oil in the world," but whoever restricts supply -- read Saudi Arabia, Venezuela et al -- are in fact spurring alternatives such as wind, solar and nuclear energy and Canadian tar sands.