July 30th, 2006:

EXTRACT: ..regulators confronted Shell/Equilon officials after issuing a string of citations to its gas stations in 2000. Company leaders signed a legal agreement with the air district that year, promising to start an enhanced inspection and maintenance program. Since then, however, records show that the air district has cited Shell/Equilon 371 more times.

Fines may be too small to spur pump upkeep

By Mike Lee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 30, 2006

Most drivers filling up at a gas station lately probably focus on the pump’s fast-rising money counter. But the pump is doing more than selling gasoline – it’s fighting air pollution. read more

EXTRACT: Since this is not going to be a very long letter I intend to address one of you who I assume is the most culpable of the lot. That is the British and Dutch oil interest known as Shell Petroleum Development Company. You are all guilty of the same offences to some degree but Shell is seen as the King Kong of injustice in the region and it deserves special mention and attention in this patriotic letter.

Letter published by The Daily Independent (Nigeria), on Monday 24th July, 2006

By Michael John, [email protected] read more

EXTRACT: Oil Profits Gush: Exxon Mobil’s profit jumped 36%, to $10.36 billion, the oil company’s second-highest quarterly profit ever. Shell’s profit rose 40%, to $7.32 billion. BP’s earnings jumped 30%, to $7.27 billion as the firm unveiled measures to improve U.S. operations following safety and regulatory problems. Chevron reported an 18% rise in profit to $4.35 billion on surging oil prices.

THE ARTICLE

July 30, 2006

INVESTOR’S CALENDAR

This Week

Profit Patrol: Look for earnings reports from United Airlines’ parent UAL tomorrow; Archer-Daniels-Midland, Burger King, Eastman Kodak and Verizon Tuesday; Procter & Gamble and Starbucks Wednesday; Tyco International and Unilever Thursday, and Toyota Motor Friday. read more

July 30, 2006

Special Report

Prospectors are scouring Africa and the US deserts in search of black gold.
By Tarquin Hall  
 
“FOLKS call me Cactus on account of a friend of my dad’s,” said Charles E Schroeder III, as he emerged from a Texas steakhouse where he had devoured an enormous plate of prime rib for lunch.

“When I was born he took one look at me and said, ‘that boy don’t look like no baby! He looks like a cactus!’ So the nickname kind of stuck.” 
 
Cactus is the real deal: one of the last independent oil prospectors in northwest Texas — a genuine wildcatter. He sports a Stetson, ostrich-skin cowboy boots and drives around with a .308 rifle in the cab of his SUV (bumper sticker: “Don’t mess with Texas!”). read more

EXTRACT: It was not the first time Browne and Sutherland had clashed. They also failed to see eye-to-eye over a tentative plan hatched last year for BP to merge with Shell. The potential mega-merger, which could have created a global energy giant worth more than £250 billion, was discussed between board members, but the idea was dropped. Browne was thought to be in favour but Sutherland argued it would be impossible to execute. BP has also cast its eye over French oil firm Total.

THE ARTICLE

July 30, 2006 read more

(Filed: 30/07/2006)

BP’s decision requiring him to step down as chief executive in 2008 came as a blow to Lord Browne. Sylvia Pfeifer describes the events leading up to the announcement and looks at the potential successors

It never gets too hot in the Andalucian mountains in southern Spain, even during the brutal summer month of August. A cooling breeze will no doubt be welcome when Lord Browne, the chief executive of BP, meets his chairman, Peter Sutherland, there next week.

Browne will be staying with Sutherland and his wife at their house. It was a holiday that had been arranged long before last week’s extraordinary events at the oil company, which saw two of the biggest personalities in British business clash. At issue was nothing less than the succession at Britain’s biggest company.
 
Peter Sutherland told Lord Browne: ‘John, you need to give people a retirement date’  read more

July 30, 2006, 12:07AM

LYNN J. COOK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

John Hofmeister: President, Shell Oil Co.

High prices, war in the Middle East and global warming concerns have transformed energy from a dull industry taken for granted by many Americans into a top-of-the-mind pocketbook issue for consumers.

The Chronicle posed 10 questions to several top executives of the world’s major oil companies on topics ranging from gasoline prices to U.S. energy security to hefty company profits.

Some of the CEO answers — delivered by e-mail last week as BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips were reporting their second quarter financial results — might be surprising. read more

What does it take to quench America’s mighty thirst for gasoline?

Pulitzer-winning correspondent Paul Salopek traced gas pumped at a suburban Chicago station to the fuel’s sources around the globe. In doing so, he reveals how our oil addiction binds us to some of the most hostile corners of the planet—and to a petroleum economy edging toward crisis.

STORY BY PAUL SALOPEK, TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT
RESEARCH BY BRENDA KILIANSKI, TRIBUNE RESEARCHER
PHOTOS BY KUNI TAKAHASHI, TRIBUNE PHOTOGRAPHER

About the project Paul Salopek (left) and photographer Kuni Takahashi traveled to the distant sources of the South Elgin Marathon’s gas. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-oil-about-story,0,7014967.htmlstory

Chapter 1: The pay zone A Marathon station in South Elgin, Ill., serves as an ideal prism to examine the coming end of the oil age. http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oil-1-story,0,2482956.htmlstory

Chapter 2: The frontier Americans have hitched their 210 million autos to Africa, forcing the planet’s last superpower to rattle its half-empty oilcan at the world’s poorest continent. http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-oil-2-story,0,2941709.htmlstory

Chapter 3: The war The hidden costs of our oil addiction include everything from U.S. job losses to the medical bills of American troops wounded in Iraq. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-oil-3-story,0,80570.htmlstory

Chapter 4: Last call An energy cold war over oil threatens to become the defining struggle of the 21st Century. An early flash point: the United States and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-oil-4-story,0,539323.htmlstory

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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