October 5th, 2006:

5 October 2006

FEARS grew last night for four British oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria after a deadly attack on their living quarters.

They were among seven people working for oil firms seized at gunpoint in the Niger Delta a day after rebels freed 25 Nigerians captured 24 hours earlier.

Among those forced from their beds after a firefight which left two security guards dead was crane maintainer Paul Smith of Peterhead, near Aberdeen.

The father-of-two was one of three British staff of Aberdeen-based Sparrows taken. His dad John said: “This is our worst nightmare.” Others abducted were from Romania, Indonesia and Malaysia. read more

Created: 05.10.2006 11:20 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:24 MSK
 
Investors in Russia pulling in record profits in areas ranging from banking to retail were defiantly upbeat about their prospects at a conference on Wednesday, Oct. 4, despite the souring atmosphere for big energy deals.

Paul Melling, managing partner in Russia for international consultancy firm Baker & McKenzie, said things had never been better in his 18 years of working in Russia.

“There are issues for those involved in major oil and gas projects but that happens in other countries too when politics coincides with business,” he told a conference in Moscow organized by the Russian-British Chamber of Commerce. read more

Thu Oct 5, 2006 3:01 AM BST

LONDON (Reuters) – A Kremlin official turned up the pressure on Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) over its Sakhalin oil and gas project in an interview with the Times newspaper, published on Thursday.

Russia wants Shell either to keep its original cost agreement, renegotiate the terms of its deal with Moscow or sell up and leave, the newspaper said.

Arkady Dvorkovich, head of the Kremlin’s economic research department, told the Times: “As far as Sakhalin-2 goes, you know which side started changing the terms and who asked for expenditure to be doubled. It was clear … that the Russian side would never agree to this.” read more

October 05, 2006

WHILE BP’s mishandling of public opinion and the political process in the US has badly damaged its reputation in the short term, Shell’s misreading of government relations in Russia threatens to do it more lasting damage. For the economics of its $20 billion Sakhalin-2 gasfield are in doubt. And while Russia’s treatment of Shell may have been arbitrary, highhanded and duplicitous, it has not been surprising.

Vladimir Putin views energy assets as his predecessors once regarded nuclear warheads. They are the means of advancing Russia’s strategic ambitions in the world. (Ironically, George W. Bush, the first MBA president, has not used Corporate America but the Pentagon to define his foreign policy; Mr Putin, the former KGB agent, has sought to advance his international agenda by relying on the soft power of Russia’s big business and natural wealth.) President Putin seems to want Russia to maintain majority control of its oil and gas industry. Such economic nationalism is not new. What has changed is that, courtesy of a higher oil price, Russia is no longer as reliant as it once was on foreign investors to explore and develop oil and gasfields.
 
Shell is not the only one that will have to deal with this new reality. ExxonMobil has been sent the same message on its Sakhalin investment: scale back costs or sell out. BP may find it comes under pressure to renegotiate terms of the BP-TNK joint venture. read more

Debra Gruszecki
October 4, 2006

Riverside County on Tuesday announced a $6.5 million settlement involving a civil lawsuit against Equilon Enterprises and Shell Oil Co. for alleged failure to report leaking underground storage tanks at three gasoline stations in the Coachella Valley.

The leaks – discovered in June 2003 by county environmental investigators in the Equilon owned and operated stations – are located at 34-021 Date Palm Dr., Cathedral City; 43-411 Monroe St., Indio; and 4875 Ramon Road East, Palm Springs. Similar violations were uncovered at two other Equilon stations in the western end of Riverside County. read more

October 05, 2006
By Carl Mortished

FORGET whales, salmon and the preservation of the Siberian wilderness. The stand-off between Shell and the Kremlin over the giant liquefied gas project on Sakhalin Island is about dollars and cents, and not environmental permits.

A huge increase in the cost of the project, announced in July last year, has upset the Kremlin’s hopes of cashflow from gas sales, and a senior adviser to President Putin yesterday made clear that the overrun was unacceptable. “We want to keep the existing cost structure,” said Arkady Dvorkovich. 
 
The dispute between Shell and the Kremlin has been hugely damaging. It has poisoned the atmosphere for foreign investment and created huge anxiety in Japan and Korea, which have agreed to take most of the Sakhalin-2 gas. Several leading power companies, including Tokyo Electric and Kogas, are in a state of high anxiety over the risk that the first tankers of frozen fuel might not set sail as planned from Sakhalin in 2008. read more

Damascus – The Syrian oil ministry on Wednesday signed two 20-year contracts worth 42 million dollars with Royal Dutch Shell, giving the firm the right to explore for oil and gas in northeastern Syria.

Under a 20-million-dollar contract, Shell will be able to explore and excavate southwest of Deir El-Zour some 450 kilometres northeast of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

Another 22-million-dollar contract allows Shell to explore for oil south of Palmyra, which is 256 kilometres north of Damascus. read more

04.10.2006, 20.56
 
MOSCOW, October 4 (Itar-Tass) – Sakhalin Energy company that develops offshore oil fields under the Sakhalin II energy project, should make an offer on changing over to Russia’s national system of taxation, Arkady Dvorkovich, the director of the Kremlin’s expert analysis department said Wednesday.

This is necessary in the conditions of growing costs of oilfields development, he said while taking the floor at an investment conference dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Russo-British Chamber of Commerce. read more

October 05, 2006
By Julian Evans in Moscow, and Michael Binyon
 
THE Kremlin yesterday gave an ultimatum to Shell and ExxonMobil over their multibillion- dollar cost overruns on the $20 billion (£10.6 billion) Sakhalin-2 oil and gasfield project.

Russia is demanding that Shell and Exxon either stick to original cost agreements, return to the Kremlin and renegotiate the deal’s terms, or sell up and go. 
 
Arkadi Dvorkovich, adviser to President Putin, told The Times: “As far as Sakhalin-2 goes, you know which side started changing the terms and who asked for expenditure to be doubled. It was clear . . . that the Russian side would never agree to this.” read more

Tuesday, 03 October 2006 
Anton McNulty

A BANGOR businessman, who supplies machinery and equipment to Shell, has claimed he was blocked from leaving the Bellanaboy terminal site and was verbally abused by Shell to Sea supporters.

Mr TJ Carey, who employs ten people through his plant and tool hire business, told The Mayo News he was blocked from leaving the Shell site at 10.20pm on a Friday night recently by up to 30 Shell to Sea supporters. He claimed he was verbally abused and was only let out after the Gardaí arrived. He described the Shell to Sea supporters as ‘a law unto themselves’. read more