June 26th, 2006:

By Dum-ale Tanee
MOSOP Coordinator

The recent statement published by Bussinessday Friday June 8, 2006, credited to Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Edmund Daukoru that Shell Petroleum Development Company will soon resume oil exploration and production activities in Ogoniland is very disturbing. I considered such statement from Edmund Daukoru, reckless, irresponsible and out of place.  There is no way we will let Shell into our land under any name or pretext. This is because Shell had every opportunity to make peace with the Ogoni people before the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa the great, and 8 other activists but it chose not to do so, therefore it remains “persona non grata” in Ogoni forever.                                                       
 
Ogoni people do not want Shell, rather it is Shell that needs Ogoni and the entire Niger Delta for its continues existence in Nigeria, and that is why the company should put on a human face while dealing with its host communities. Shell, one of the main financiers of apartheid in South Africa and the killing of Ogoni people in Nigeria has no respect for human rights and lives.  The company may have been responsible for more deaths in the Niger Delta than every other known disease in the area combined, that is why it continues to stand on the way of any environmental impact assessment study.     
 
Despite billions of dollars that Niger Delta has produced to the government and the oil companies, the region has yet to see any development. Could Edmund Daukoru point to any successful development programmes that has been undertaken to address the needs of Niger Delta?  The answer is NO.                  
 
Therefore, if denying the Ogoni people a fair share of their oil revenue after over $30b dollars worth of oil revenue have been taken from their land and killing them for demanding it is not evil, then according to President George Bush, “evil has no meaning.” read more

STATEMENT BY “SHELL TO SEA” CAMPAIGN

26 June 2006

Thursday marks the first anniversary of the imprisonment of the
Rossport Five. The issues that led to the men’s jailing remain as unresolved
as ever. Despite their claims, Shell, Statoil and Marathon continue to
refuse to listen to the demands of the communities directly affected by
their proposed project in North Mayo. It is now clear that Shell has
refused the compromise solution of an off-shore processing of the Corrib
gas. The consequence is that, because they do not have the consent of
those communities for their present proposal, Shell’s project cannot
proceed. read more

From The Guardian – United Kingdom; Jun 26, 2006

The energy debate hots up: Turkey bridges the petroleum-rich countries of the Caspian and the Gulf, and the energy-consuming markets of continental Europe, making it a strategic centre for the oil trade. But what of its own internal energy security?

A country that has little in the way of its own natural resources and has to import three-quarters of its energy needs is an unusual one to be at the centre of a global energy debate. Yet Turkey is a key nation in the increasingly politicised sector because it stands close to the biggest oil and gas deposits in the world with Russia, the Caspian and the Gulf region all on its doorstep. read more

From The Financial Times

Oil and gas companies are still scrambling to repair billions of dollars worth of hurricane-related damage to Gulf of Mexico energy infrastructure, even as this year’s hurricane season gets under way.

Last season’s triple hit – from hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma – cost the industry an estimated $31bn in damage, some of which will never be fixed. Chevron, for example, recently sank its Typhoon platform instead of investing in costly repairs.

The result is that 15 per cent of daily oil production in the Gulf remains offline, as does 11 per cent of daily gas production. It could take years to restore all the production companies plan to bring back online. Indeed, companies are still fixing damage from Hurricane Ivan two years ago. read more

From The Financial Times
By Sheila McNulty

Published: June 26 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 26 2006 03:00

On Highway 23, a Chevron sign beckons motorists. Under the sign, a steady trickle of drivers fill up at a dilapidated pump that Jody Guilbeau brought from Alabama. His four pumps – and the rest of his station – were washed away in Hurricane Katrina last year.

Nearby, Mr Guilbeau has set up a metal shed, with vending machines, an ice chest and a cooler of beer. Packages of pecan pies, pain relievers and cigarettes line the shelves. read more

FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES
By Carola Hoyos in London

Published: June 26 2006 03:00 | Last updated: June 26 2006 03:00

Anadarko Petroleum has taken a big bet that oil and gas prices are going to stay at their record highs with the acquisition last week of Kerr-McGee, a smaller rival.

In so doing the fifth-largest US oil and gas company contributed a brush stroke to the changing landscape of the mid-sized US energy industry.

If 1998 marked the birth of the super major as Exxon merged with Mobil, BP with Amoco and Total with PetroFina, then the past 12 months appear to haveheralded the beginning of the end of the US mid-tier oil companies. read more

From DailyIndia.com, NY
By DPA

Singapore, June 26 (DPA): As demand for fuel grows strongly in Asian markets, petroleum major Shell plans to build a filling station a week in India, China and Indonesia, said an official of the Anglo-Dutch company. 

Unlike the mature retail markets of Europe, the potential in some Asian markets is limited only by how fast petrol stations can be built and staff recruited and trained, said Leslie Van de Walle, executive vice-president of the company, in a report published Monday. read more

From The NEW YORK TIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 25, 2006
Filed at 8:10 p.m. ET

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (AP) — Two Filipino oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria’s southern oil delta were released Sunday after five days in captivity, a state government spokesman said.

The freed hostages were brought to Port Harcourt — the hub of Nigeria’s oil industry — Sunday afternoon and handed over to a Philippines embassy representative by Nigerian officials.

”We thank God you were released to us unconditionally and unharmed,” state government representative Odein Ajumogobia told the men. The hostages looked tired but relieved. read more

The oil giants are beating a path to Downham Market as Norfolk enters the alternative fuels rush

From The Daily Telegraph
By Tom Stevenson (Filed: 26/06/2006)

In Bill Forsyth’s 1983 film classic Local Hero, a Scottish fishing village is turned upside down by the arrival of a Texan oil giant with a lorryload of cash and blueprints for a refinery.

Wissington, near Downham Market in Norfolk, finds itself in a similar position after being singled out by the combined forces of BP, American chemicals giant DuPont and Associated British Foods as the shop window for their latest combined foray into the fast-growing biofuels market. read more