Posts on ‘September 20th, 2006’

By Arkady Ostrovsky and Carola Hoyos in London Published: September 21 2006 Russian prosecutors have threatened to suspend an exploration license for TNK-BP, the Anglo-Russian joint venture, to develop Kovykta, the massive gas field in Eastern Siberia. A source familiar with the situation said prosecutors in Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, demanded that a [...]

By Paul Betts Published: September 21 2006 A few years ago, Jeroen van der Veer admitted to Stanford MBA students he had “very big ears”. This has proved a useful asset for Shell’s self-effacing boss. After all, he explained, the rule of the game in running a multinational business was quite simple – “politicians speak, [...]

21 September 2006 Regulatory risk comes in many sizes and measuring it is notoriously difficult. There is the variety that utilities worry about – the threat, say, that an appointed regulator will tighten the price cap a couple of revolutions more than anticipated – and then there is the scarier sort that puts travelling British [...]

By Carola Hoyos in London Published: September 21 2006 The costs of finding additional reserves of oil and gas have soared, an industry study shows, adding to the malaise of international oil companies. “Reserves replacement costs surged 73 per cent as increased capital spending did not translate into incremental reserve additions,” a study of 200 [...]

By Upstream staff The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said today it would not decide whether to extend a key loan to Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell’s Sakhalin 2 project until it settles a dispute with the Russian government. Earlier this week Russia suspended the Shell-led Sakhalin Energy Consortium’s environmental permit to proceed with the [...]

Company says it will stick to its longtime price assumption, plans on expanding refinery capacity. September 20 2006: 4:41 PM EDT AUSTIN (Reuters) — Shell Oil Co. is maintaining its oil price assumption for evaluating projects at between $30 to $40 a barrel, despite the recent slide in oil prices, the company’s president told Reuters [...]

By Rich Smith (TMFDitty) September 20, 2006 “All I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten,” goes the saying. Here, at least. Over in Russia, I’m guessing it goes more like: “What I didn’t learn in dyetsky sad, I never learned.” Case in point: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s acting less like a “Vladimir” [...]

Big News Network.com Wednesday 20th September, 2006 (UPI) Japan, Britain and the European Union are pressuring Russia not to renege on a signed agreement with foreign investors to develop a huge oil and gas field. In the 1990s the Kremlin signed a series of production-sharing agreements, known as PSAs, with various western energy companies to [...]

By Andrew E. Kramer Published: September 20, 2006   MOSCOW A top executive of Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, expounded Wednesday in a speech at an economic forum on his company’s sweeping plan for controlling supplies in the Asia-Pacific region – one some analysts say would replicate in Asia a strategy that served the [...]

By Stephen Voss Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development needs to know whether Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $20 billion Sakhalin-2 project in Russia has a valid permit before it can decide whether to provide funding. The bank has already twice delayed its decision on a loan as an internal EBRD [...]

By Fred Pals Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — The Dutch Foreign Ministry wants an explanation from the Russian government for the cancellation of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s permit for the $20 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project. Russia’s industrial safety inspectorate is expected to authorize by tomorrow a Natural Resources Ministry order canceling a key Sakhalin-2 [...]

By Christian Schmollinger and Shigeru Sato Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — Russia’s government denounced projects led by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc for breaching environmental rules, as President Vladimir Putin seeks tighter control of the oil and gas industry. Exxon’s Sakhalin-1 venture failed to complete safety measures at De Kastri, a Far East [...]

Wednesday September 20th, 2006 / 17h20    LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s (RDSB.LN) environmental and contractual issues with the Russian government on the Sakhalin II project could trigger a knock-on effect on talks to get a $500 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD, people familiar with the [...]

A WALL STREET JOURNAL NEWS ROUNDUP September 20, 2006; Page A11 Russia’s move to revoke an environmental permit for a $20 billion oil-and-gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC sparked protests from Europe and Japan. Meanwhile, Russia’s OAO Gazprom said talks aimed at bringing the state-controlled gas monopoly into the giant project on the [...]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE September 19, 2006 5:22 p.m. Crude-oil futures tumbled on the New York Mercantile Exchange, shedding more than $2 a barrel to settle at less than $62, their lowest close since late March, after an OPEC official suggested the cartel wouldn’t cut production any time soon. Here is Tuesday’s roundup of [...]