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Shale gas blasts open world energy market

The reason is shale gas — a new and abundant source of natural gas, trapped in rock formations. Oil companies have known about it for decades but always dismissed it because it was too expensive and difficult to extract. In the past few years new technologies that pump water underground to fracture the rock and free the gas have been perfected. The breakthrough has opened a new frontier for the energy industry and turned long-held assumptions about the world’s dwindling supplies on their head. Suddenly, America is awash with gas. Tony Hayward, chief executive of BP, said it had created a “a revolution in the gas fields of North America”.

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Russia invites Shell back to Sakhalin as finances plummet

In a surprise move, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin invited Royal Dutch Shell to help develop two new oil and gas fields on Sakhalin Island, just three years after the government forced the company to cede majority control in the Sakhalin 2 project to state-controlled group Gazprom.

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Russia to Cooperate With Shell on Sakhalin 3 and 4

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is prepared to cooperate with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil producer, on oil and gas projects in the Russian Far East known as Sakhalin-3 and Sakhalin-4, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

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Putin invites Shell to join Sakhalin 3, 4 projects

MOSCOW, June 27 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has invited Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) to participate in Sakhalin-3 and Sakhalin-4 natural gas projects at a meeting with Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer on Saturday.

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PM Putin to discuss Shell’s Russia expansion with CEO

REUTERS

Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:03am ED

MOSCOW, June 26 (Reuters) – Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) CEO Jeroen van der Veer on Saturday to discuss possibilities for the company’s expansion in Russia, Putin’s spokesman said on Friday.

“They will talk through the perspectives of the company’s activity’s expansion in the Russian Federation,” Dmitry Peskov said. A Shell spokeswoman confirmed that the meeting would take place but declined to comment on its agenda. read more

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Gazprom sways as Russia plays hardball

Gazprom paid $13 billion to buy Sibneft oil company from billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2005, and a year later forced Shell to cede its controlling stake in the Sakhalin II project in Russia's Far East for $7.5 billion.

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Putin has given us a wake-up call: we’re vulnerable to blackmail

Gazprom under Mr Putin is about control. Gazprom has been moving downstream in Europe, buying up hunks of gas infrastructure and developing joint ventures with European companies all the way “from the well to the end consumers”. It is moving in on Europe's energy assets unobstructed despite the strict limits - and foul play - that dog foreign investors in Russian oil and gas fields, where Royal Dutch Shell and BP have got badly burnt.

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Gazprom, Once Mighty, Is Reeling

Investors are now fleeing Gazprom stock...

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Russia look to control world’s gas prices

The Russian national anthem blared over the loudspeakers as dozens of oilmen and officials braved the freezing cold to watch the tanker come in, celebrating the launch of year-round oil production from Sakhalin-2, the largest oil and gas project in the world.

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Oil’s Crash Stirs Unrest in Russia as Slump Hits Home

Public panic is one of the Kremlin's greatest fears.

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Mismanagement of Russian Economy Could Lead to Social Unrest

Foreign investors were given some serious lessons, when the state took over the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project...

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From the Kremlin to Caracas, how oil collapse changes everything

As the price of a barrel falls to below $50 for the first time in years - to a third of its value just a few months ago - petrol will be cheaper but the shockwaves mean crisis for oil-producing nations and further instability for a battered global economy

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A Run on Russia

Investors woke up to the systemic risk to property rights and the lack of any rule of law in Russia. They did so belatedly, we'd add, considering the attempted or successful expropriation of Yukos, BP and Shell assets and the blatant use of state resources to menace private business.

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Russia threatens to seize swathe of Arctic

President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia should unilaterally claim part of the Arctic, stepping up the race for the disputed energy-rich region.

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Beware the bear trap

In the oil sector, all the major companies have been drawn into the Kremlin's new great game. Shell has lost majority ownership of its vast Sakhalin project; Total has been reduced to the status of a services company; BP seems on the verge of having 25% of its reserves expropriated by Russian oligarchs.

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Gazprom, the Russian gas company, is six times bigger than Royal Dutch Shell

Long-term, the price of oil will stay over $100 a barrel, he said, because of Vladimir Putin. The Russian prime minister understands better than anyone the connection between energy and political power.

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Been Riding the Russian Boom? It’s Time to Cash In Your Chips

Royal Dutch Shell was pressured last year into selling local investments at a bargain price to Russian interests.

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Is Russia Becoming an Investment Gulag?

Late in 2006, another of Europe's Big Oil contingent,Royal Dutch Shell was pushed into selling its assets on remote Sakhalin Island to Gazprom at a below-market price.

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Blood in the Street, Danger in the Market

When Russian authorities target a company, there can be dire consequences... Last year, Royal Dutch Shell(RDSB) was strong-armed into ceding control over its Sakhalin oil field to Russian companies

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Vladimir Putin makes Robert Maxwell look small-fry

The largest Western companies, Shell and BP included, have been bullied, intimidated and forced into concessions by the Kremlin and its cronies.

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Kremlin ‘Capitalism’ Is a Threat to the West

Gazprom wrested control of the $22 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project from Royal Dutch Shell for a fraction of market value.

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Moscow transforms real-world game of RISK

For BP, the Russian invasion of Georgia could turn into a nightmare...

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The Bear’s market

After corporate warfare, real war.

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Georgia: We must unite to resist Russian aggression

Russia under Putin has energy wealth and thus the money to spend on arms and aggressive foreign policy. Moscow continues to bluster and threaten the Baltic states, has cut off energy supplies to countries it wants to lean on and, as Britain knows, has bullied the British Council, interfered in BP and Shell's commercial operation...

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Kremlin’s heavy hand triggers foreign exodus

"The market is panicking and foreign investors are pulling out of equities," said Michael Ganske, a Russia expert at Commerzbank. "People fear that the rule of law is breaking down...

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Russia’s Crony Statism

By now, the jilted investor in Russia is a bear-bites-man story. No one who puts serious cash in Vladimir Putin's realm, not least in its flush gas and oil fields, can be surprised to find himself fleeced, run out of town, jailed in a Siberian gulag or worse.

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Mechel and TNK-BP Finish Off Save Haven

In a note to investors Friday, Roland Nash, head of research at Renaissance Capital, said the TNK-BP and Mechel events, combined with the falling oil price, had "finished" Russian equities' "reputation as a safe haven."

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TNK-BP Risk Pushing Markets Downward

With its chief executive scuttling off to a secret location, dozens of foreign employees flooding out of the country and the threat of impending court battles, TNK-BP's messy shareholder dispute has helped push Russia's indexes into a downward spin.

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Russia reaches investors’ tipping point after BP affair sours

"The last train carrying the optimists out of Russian equities has just left the station," was one reaction. "The place looks rotten to the core," was another.

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TNK-BP row ‘is bad for Russia’ says British Foreign Office

Investors began to bail out of Russian-focused shares in London as concerns grew about the ability of Western companies to do business in the country.

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Paying the price for Russia’s ‘loveable rogues’

Russian stocks are in freefall, spooked by threats of anti-trust inquiries by Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, falling oil prices and the chicanery over TNK-BP.

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The retreat from Moscow

"ExxonMobil is the only one that could really pull it off but it is more logical for BP to do a merger of equals with Shell with Tony Hayward running both companies," Gheit added.

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BP Losing 23% of Production Looms as Russians Assail Investment

Nothing will happen to TNK-BP without the say-so of the Kremlin,'' says Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Financial Corp., a Moscow-based brokerage. ``The endgame is clear with Putin's government having set up the model of state control.''

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The Bitter Battle To Lead TNK-BP

Ultimately, these people say, the Kremlin is seeking to gain control over the venture for a state company like OAO Gazprom, likely leaving BP as a minority partner.

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BP withdraws remaining TNK-BP specialists

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, reiterated that view on Tuesday but added “we can only hope that such decisions by BP do not negatively impact the activity of the company”.

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The Russia-Venezuela Alliance: Using Energy for Geopolitical Advantage

When Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez touches down in Moscow on July 22 to meet with the duumvirate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, he will be ready for more than the usual diplomatic photo-op. This odd trio will be well-positioned to plan substantial international mischief.

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In Dispute With BP, Kremlin’s Hand Is Seen

The Kremlin has been methodically reasserting control over the oil industry since effectively renationalizing the Yukos oil company from private owners just as oil prices began to spike in 2004. Subsequently, the Anglo-Dutch company Shell, the Russian company Russneft and TNK-BP have all been compelled to sell assets or renegotiate deals.

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Russian Group Suggests Ending TNK-BP Fight by Buying BP’s Stake

The dispute comes after Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's second-biggest oil company, was forced in 2006 to cede control of its biggest project in Russia to the country's natural-gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom.

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Russia chides oil majors on production

Letters have been sent to Exxon Neftegaz, Sakhalin Energy Investment Company - where Shell is the No. 2 shareholder after Gazprom - and Total. The auditor has also forwarded details of its claims to the Finance Ministry and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.

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BP’s rivals shift in Russian tussle

A similar barrage of official harassment was unleashed in 2006 against Royal Dutch Shell to force it to sell a controlling stake in its giant Sakhalin gas venture to Russia's state-dominated energy champion Gazprom.

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From Russia With Contempt

The truth is that the rule of law in Russia was mocked, not strengthened, under Vladimir Putin, and it remains a sham. It offered no more protection for Shell (squeezed out of the Sakhalin-2 gas project after being threatened with a $30 billion environmental lawsuit) or Yukos (dismantled by the Tax Ministry and sold off to Kremlin allies) than it does now for BP or 140 million ordinary Russians.

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Russia, TKN TNK-BP and the rule of law

Whatever expectations one has of the Russian government and civil institutions, they always disappoint.

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BP accused of arrogance and incompetence by oligarch partner in joint Russian venture

BP's reputation in Russia came under attack yesterday when the billionaire oligarch at the centre of a row over the company's troubled Russian joint venture accused BP of "arrogance" and Nazi-style behaviour

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Possible way out of a minefield

The deals to oust Royal Dutch Shell as the majority shareholder in the Sakhalin 2 project, and to displace TNK-BP from the Kovykta gas field, both favoured Gazprom. Signs of the changing attitude were apparent at the St Petersburg Economic Forum last weekend. One Russian government official said: "For BP, it is it the best scenario if Alfa sells out to Gazprom.

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BP ups stakes by accusing Putin of failing to stop hijack by oligarchs

The treatment of BP is seen as a bellwether of Kremlin attitudes to foreign investors, following the effective seizure of assets from Shell at Sakhalin after a long period of destabilisation.

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BP vents its frustration on Russian partners

BP chairman Peter Sutherland warned that unless President Dmitry Medvedev backed up his promises to restore "the rule of law", Western companies would likely turn their back on the country...

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Boardroom Brawl Roils BP’s Russia Venture

In 2006, environmental regulators threatened to shut down a vast oil and gas project off the Far East island of Sakhalin operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Shell was forced to sell half its stake to state-owned Gazprom.

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MEMO FROM ST. PETERSBURG

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — The lineup told it all about Russia’s importance today. There, on one stage, sat the leaders of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Total, Schlumberger and Dow Chemical, as well as the chairman of the Russian energy giant Gazprom and the president of the Russian oil company Lukoil.

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Kremlin leaves BP shaken, but it won’t stir

There have also been allegations about visa breaches and infringements of corporate law that remind observers of the campaign waged two years ago against Shell, which reluctantly surrendered control of a huge oil project on the Russian island of Sakhalin.

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Russia Probes BP Exec in Attempt to Reclaim Energy Sector

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) was forced to relinquish control of its Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project to OAO Gazprom (OGZPY.PK) for $7.45 billion when the Russian government threatened to block investment plans by canceling building permits on environmental grounds. And just last year, TNK-BP was talked into selling its 62.8% stake in one of the world’s largest gas fields, the Kovytkta field, to Gazprom, after Russian authorities threatened to revoke the company’s license to develop it.

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