The Associated Press
Published: September 22, 2006
WASHINGTON The United States is very concerned by recent Russian government actions threatening the revocation of permits granted to Royal Dutch Shell PLC for oil and gas projects, the State Department said Friday.
Spokesman Tom Casey said the actions cast doubt on Russian commitments, including those made at the G-8 summit this summer in St. Petersburg, Russia.
At the summit, Russia agreed to “transparent, efficient and competitive energy markets, as well as specific obligations to uphold contracts,” Casey said.
He urged Russia to abide by the commitments.
September 22nd, 2006:
International Herald Tribune: U.S. says Russian actions against Shell’s projects violate summit commitments to G-8
Dow Jones Newswires: U.S. Raps Russia for Obstructing Shell
Published: September 22, 2006 2:45 PM
WASHINGTON (AP)–The U.S. is very concerned by recent Russian government actions threatening the revocation of permits granted to Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) for oil and gas projects, the State Department said Friday.
Spokesman Tom Casey said the actions cast doubt on Russian commitments, including those made at the Group of Eight summit this summer in St. Petersburg, Russia.
At the summit, Russia agreed to “transparent, efficient and competitive energy markets, as well as specific obligations to uphold contracts,” Casey said.
Reuters: US says “very concerned” by Russian steps on Shell
Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:24 PM BST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Friday it was “very concerned” by Russia’s threat to revoke the environmental permit at Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas filed project.
“The United States is very concerned by recent Russian government action threatening the revocation of Shell’s environmental permit for the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.
The Australian: Sakhalin row risk to energy alliance
David Pilling, Tokyo
Saturday September 23, 2006
RUSSIA’S withdrawal of a permit for the $US20 billion ($26billion) Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project could be a “massive blow” to Tokyo’s plans to secure a strategic energy partnership with Russia, a senior Japanese official said.
The official, who did not want to be identified, said: “If this contract is eventually cancelled, it will demonstrate how vulnerable LNG contracts are to the geopolitical intentions of host nations.”
Bloomberg: Russian Ministry Renews Attempt to Annul Shell Permit (Update3)
By Garfield Reynolds and Torrey Clark
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry resubmitted a request to revoke Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s license for its Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, maintaining a government threat to halt construction work at the $20 billion venture.
Rostekhnadzor, the federal industrial safety service, said today it wasn’t authorized to grant the Natural Resources Ministry request. It then retracted the comment, saying in an e- mailed statement that the earlier declaration had been sent because of a technical error.
Financial Times: On London: Tough times for resource stocks
By Chris Brown-Humes
Published: September 22 2006 18:09 | Last updated: September 22 2006 18:17
Times are tough for the bulls on oil and commodity stocks. The sharp falls in oil prices since July have coincided with fresh bouts of troubles for sector heayweights BP and Shell. That has raised doubts about one of the biggest and most successful trades of the last few years – overweight oils and miners. But the the bulls should hold on. The story is not yet over, even if the ride is going to get bumpier.
Bloomberg: Shell Faces Sakhalin Grab; Putin Seeks Energy Control (Update1)
By Lucian Kim and Garfield Reynolds
Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — First Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked OAO Yukos Oil Co. Now it’s Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
This week’s threat to shut down Shell’s $20 billion Sakhalin Island project, the country’s biggest foreign investment, is another maneuver to force companies in Russia to share more profits with the state, analysts said. It’s a reminder of the tactics used in Putin’s dismantlement of Yukos, whose assets ended up at state-run OAO Gazprom and OAO Rosneft after the government filed $30 billion in tax claims against the company.
Reuters: Dutch PM wants answers on Sakhalin
Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:21 PM BST
By Tom Miles
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin late on Thursday to demand an explanation for Russia’s tough line on a project run by British-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research).
Russia withdrew ecological permits for Shell’s Sakhalin-2 venture this week because the firm doubled the estimate of costs for the project to $20 billion (10.5 billion pounds), infuriating the Kremlin and gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), which wants to join Sakhalin-2.
Daily Mail: Shell’s Russia row reaches United Nations
Margaret Beckett
By Sam Fleming
Friday 22 September 2006
THE crisis over Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project has erupted into a diplomatic row between Britain and Russia.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett challenged her counterpart Sergei Lavrov over the issue at the United Nations in New York, it emerged yesterday.
The UK is said to be making ‘high-level’ representations amid fears that the Western energy industry is under concerted attack by the Kremlin.
Relations between the countries were strained earlier this year after Russia threatened to turn off gas supplies to the Ukraine and expressed interest in buying British Gas owner Centrica.
This is Money: Shell buys into Chinese lubricants firm
22 September 2006
Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell secured third spot in the world’s fastest growing consumer market for lubricating oils today.
Shell bolstered its position in China by acquiring 75% of Tongyi, which sells lubricants for cars, motorcycles, trucks and industrial customers through a network of 2,000 distributors and 90,000 retailers.
The move for China’s leading independent brand will increase Shell’s finished lubricants volume by 8% and give it the third largest share of a market expected to grow by 10% a year at least until 2010.
The Scotsman: S.Korea in talks for extra LNG if Sakhalin delayed
By Moon Hae-won
Fri 22 Sep 2006
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s dominant liquefied natural gas importer is in talks to secure alternate supplies in case its shipments from Royal Dutch Shell’s $20 billion (10.6 billion pound) Sakhalin LNG project are delayed, a company source said on Friday.
Importers in Japan, which is counting on Sakhalin-2 to meet some 6 percent of the country’s growing gas demand, said they were considering their options after Russia revoked key environmental permits and Shell warned of potential further set-backs.
Dow Jones Newswires: Russia Agency: Sakhalin Statement Was Released In Error
Friday September 22nd, 2006 / 14h45
MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- A statement saying a government agency wouldn’t agree to cancel a key environmental permit for a $20 billion oil and gas project led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN) was mistakenly released and doesn’t reflect the agency’s position, a spokesman for the state body said Friday.
The spokesman for the agency, known as Rostekhnadzor, said: “This press release was sent out by mistake, and it does not reflect the official position of Rostekhnadzor.”
Dow Jones Newswires: Nigeria To Strip Shell Ogoni Oil License-Official
Friday September 22nd, 2006 / 14h13
By Arien Stuyt and Spencer Swartz
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- The Nigerian government will revoke Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s (RDSB.LN) oil license in the country’s Ogoniland, although the timing hasn’t been officially set, a Nigerian oil official said Friday.
“We are going to revoke Shell’s license to operate in Ogoniland,” Bamibele Ogedenjbe, an assistant director at the Nigeria Department of Petroleum Resources, told reporters on the sideline of an energy conference here. DPR oversees the permitting of Nigeria’s hydrocarbon licenses.
International Herald Tribune: Russian regulator denies report it refused to revoke Shell permit
Full headline: Russian regulator denies report saying it refused to revoke Shell permit at Far East project
The Associated Press
Published: September 22, 2006
MOSCOW A Russian state regulator quickly refuted a report Friday claiming that it had refused to revoke a key environmental permit at a giant liquefied natural project controlled by Royal Dutch Shell PLC.
A spokesman for the state technological safety agency, Rostekhnadzor, told The Associated Press that the information carried by the Prime-Tass agency was incorrect and based on a news release that had since been annulled.
Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said Monday it would pull the permit at Shell’s Sakhalin-2 project and would seek approval for the move from Rostekhnadzor. On Friday, Prime-Tass had reported that Rostekhnadzor had referred the decision back to the ministry, arguing that it was its responsibility.
The ministry’s move rattled investors in Russia’s energy sector: Analysts have interpreted it as a bid to seek a stronger position for Russian companies in the project.
AFX News Limited: Russia Loses Millions in Deals with Western Oil Majors
Russia is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenues under deals signed with Western oil majors in the 1990s, a senior official said in an interview.
Taxes from the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s far east “could amount to 300-400 mln usd” per year, Sergei Fyodorov of Russia’s ministry of natural resources told the official daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
Instead, Fyodorov said, “we receive around 20 mln usd in royalties” under a production sharing agreement (PSA) that spares the Shell-led consortium from paying the government a share of revenues until the project turns a profit.
Reuters: UPDATE 1-Russia snubs Exxon field claim, chooses Rosneft
Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:29am ET
MOSCOW, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Russia said on Friday it would snub claims by Exxon Mobil for a small field located near the U.S. oil major’s giant Sakhalin-1 project, as it will grant it to its state oil firm Rosneft.
The move shows the Kremlin is keeping up pressure on production sharing deals with foreign majors, which fell out of Moscow’s favour after global oil prices rose and the state decided to gain more control over top industries.
“There was one bid at the auction and it came from Rosneft. It means that it will be automatically granted a licence after the auction commission meets,” a Resources Ministry official told Reuters.