June 8th, 2006:

By Dum-ale Tanee
(MOSOP Coordinator, Kansas City, U.S.A.) 

The recent appointment of Ken Saro Wiwa Jr as the special adviser on peace, conflict resolution and reconciliation to President Olusegun Obasanjo as reported in The Nigerian guardian newspaper, Friday June 02, 2006 has been received with mixed reactions from all quarters of Ogoni and the entire Niger Delta as well. While some reject such appointment because of the timing (few months for Obasanjo to stay in office), insincerity and insensitivity of the government, others welcome it with caution. read more

06.08.2006

LONDON (AFX) – Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC has signed a wide-ranging oil and gas exploration joint activity agreement with Ukrainian group Ukrgazvydobuvannya (UGV).

The agreement — which covers licences, agreed work programme levels and the terms of joint activities — was signed at Royal Dutch Shell’s headquarters in The Hague and was attended by Ukraine’s President, Viktor Yuschenko.

The venture is another milestone for Shell Exploration and Production after an agreement in May last year to carry out joint studies in the Dniepr Donets Basin, central-eastern Ukraine. read more

Thu Jun 8, 2006

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) – Continued unrest in Nigeria is likely to affect international oil companies’ attempts to develop hydrocarbon reserves in the country, credit ratings agency Fitch said in a report on Thursday.

Fitch said this would have implications both for companies such as Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), which has the biggest exposure of oil majors to Nigeria, and Nigeria itself.

“Delayed development of projects involving these companies may put pressure on their reserve replacement levels and also medium-term production levels,” it said in the report. read more

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Corrupt African leaders have stolen at least $140 billion (£95 billion) from their people in the decades since independence.

Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, at an African civic groups meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 2002 (The London Independent, June 14, 2002. Web posted at www.independent.co.uk).

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Testimony before the Committee on International Relations’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations House Sub-Committee on Africa, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C, Thursday, May 18, 2006. read more

Thursday, 8 June, 2006
 
AMSTERDAM: Total SA, Europe’s third-largest oil company, said it doesn’t expect to delay oil and gas projects, after rising costs forced competitors such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc to reconsider some energy investments.

Paris-based Total expects no delays to projects such as the $3.7bn liquefied natural gas project in Yemen scheduled to start in 2008 and the Dolphin project in Qatar, chief executive officer Thierry Desmarest said at a press conference at the International Gas Union Conference in Amsterdam yesterday. read more

June 8, 2006

LAGOS, Nigeria — Gunmen kidnapped five South Koreans in a raid on a southern Nigeria gas plant owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, a militant movement that claimed responsibility and officials said.

The Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta said it wanted to exchange the hostages for the delta region’s most prominent leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, who has called for autonomy for southerners and was jailed last year on treason charges. His release has been a top demand of militants since they took up arms earlier this year. read more

Oil prices tumbled $1.68 to settle at less than $71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday after the U.S. government reported swelling inventories of crude and distillates. Also weighing on prices were more signs of progress toward a peaceful resolution of the West’s dispute with Iran. Here is Wednesday’s roundup of oil and energy news.

GREENSPAN ON OIL: As Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan spent many an hour on Capitol Hill answering (or not answering) lawmakers’ questions about subjects having little or nothing to do with his lookout, monetary policy. Today, in his first trip back to Congress as a private citizen, Mr. Greenspan spent some time talking about one such subject: oil prices. The former Fed chair said flexibility has helped the U.S. economy withstand pricey petrol for the most part, but added that consumers seemed near the end of their ropes and that energy prices might finally be having an impact on growth. Perhaps more interestingly, Mr. Greenspan also jabbed a sharp finger in the eye of the powerful farm lobby, saying corn-based ethanol was probably not the economy’s salvation, encourging more research into cellulosic ethanol, made of sawgrass, wood chips and other materials. read more

At the moment, foreign victims of UK corporations are left with almost no ability to answer back

Published: 08 June 2006

At first glance, it seems almost comically boring, a triple dose of political Mogadon. The Company Law Reform Bill appeared for its second reading in the House of Commons yesterday, and although it’s easy to see why the biggest reform of Britain’s corporate rules in 150 years is a big deal, it’s hard to keep your mind focussed on the 900 pages of mind-numbing detail – until you realise one thing. There is a clear path running from these dry, jargon-packed pages to a human rights campaigner hanging by his neck on a rope in Nigeria and to the trashed rainforests of Indonesia. read more

LAGOS (AFX) – Royal Dutch Shell said that “a number of casualties” were sustained when militants raided its gas installation in southern Nigeria today, and kidnapped five South Koreans.

“The SDPC (Shell Petroleum Development Company) regretfully understood that there have been a number of casualties and that five Korean contractor staff (working for Daewoo and Kogas) have been abducted,” Shell said in a statement.

“The Cawthorne Channel Gas Plant in SDPC’s eastern area of operations was in the early hours of Wednesday attacked by an armed group. read more

www.washingtontimes.com

Published June 8, 2006

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen in speedboats shot up a Shell gas plant yesterday and kidnapped five South Korean contractors in the latest violence to hit Africa’s leading crude producer.

Six Nigerian soldiers and one of the assailants were killed in the raid, according to the Movement for the Emancipation for the Niger Delta (MEND), which took responsibility.

Police spokesman Haz Iwendi in the capital, Abuja, could not confirm any deaths, but said one police officer was in critical condition after being shot, and four civilians were injured.
 
MEND, the main militant group in Nigeria, has been responsible for a wave of attacks and abductions this year in the country’s oil-rich southern delta. The militants contend that impoverished southern Nigerians aren’t getting enough of the oil revenue.
 
The price of crude oil fell for a second day on global markets after President Bush said the reaction from Iran to an incentives plan intended to curb the country’s nuclear program was “positive.” read more

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) Wednesday said the decision of an English local council to reject a planning application for an onshore facility “sets back efforts” to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm, the London Array.

The Swale Borough Council in Kent turned down an onshore planning application to build a substation at Cleve Hill that would link the 1,000-megawatt wind farm to the U.K.’s power grid.

London Array is a project held in partnership with Shell WindEnergy Ltd., a unit of Shell, E.On U.K., the U.K. arm of German utility E.On AG (E.ON) and CORE Ltd.
 
A Shell spokeswoman said the company was “disappointed” and was currently “assessing our options” concerning the next steps that need to be taken. read more