October 12th, 2006:

(Adds comment, detail on problem, likely length of closures)

OSLO (AFX) – Norway, the world’s third largest exporter of crude oil, could see its daily output cut by up to 200,000 barrels per day for ‘between days and weeks’, after authorities suspended two oil platforms due to safety reasons.

The closure of the Shell-operated Draugen platform and the Statoil-operated Snorre A platform risks cutting off 200,000 barrels of oil per day, a slightly-less-than 10 pct reduction of Norway’s normal daily oil output. read more

October 12th, 2006

A small part of North Mayo is now under occupation by the Irish police who are facilitating multinational corporations in their exploitation of Irish resources and abuse of Irish citizens.

Ordinary decent people are being abused, intimidated, assaulted and arrested. The mainstream media is endorsing Shell spin that seeks to smear and misinform.

Independent news sources including www.Indymedia.ie and www.ShelltoSea.com continue to play a critical role in ensuring the truth is getting out. read more

Indonesia has revoked a contract with US energy giant ExxonMobil to develop the Natuna offshore gas field.

Exxon has spent $350m (£189m) exploring the field but is finding the gas costly to extract and difficult to sell.

Indonesia’s oil minister has said that state energy firm Pertamina could be given the rights to develop the field.

Exxon insists that its contract to develop the site runs until 2009, and that it has made “significant” progress in finding a buyer for the gas.

Dwindling production read more

12:17 | 12/ 10/ 2006 

WASHINGTON, October 12 (RIA Novosti) – The U.S. secretary of commerce has highlighted disturbing trends in the economy and press freedom in Russia, which he said can affect economic growth and the investment climate in the country.

Speaking at the U.S.-Russia Business Council, which represents over 300 American companies working in Russia, in New York Wednesday, Carlos M. Gutierrez also emphasized Washington’s commitment to resolving issues hampering Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. read more

13:26 | 12/ 10/ 2006
(adds paragraphs 3-14)

MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said Thursday it will not revoke the license held by French oil major Total to develop a field in the north of European Russia.

“No action is being taken to revoke the license,” Yury Trutnev said. “Just as with regard to other subsoil users, this is absolutely routine work related to overseeing the implementation of licensing agreements.”

The Ministry said in late September it would start probes into deposits developed by French oil major Total and the Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP. read more

EXTRACT: Some suspect the battle over the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 energy project, which officials accuse of environmental breaches, may be evidence of one bone being fought over.

THE ARTICLE

11 Oct 2006 11:37:19 GMT
By Elif Kaban

MOSCOW, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Winston Churchill once likened Kremlin politics to watching two dogs fight under a carpet — you know there’s a furious spat going on but can’t see what’s happening.

Now the carpet is stirring ahead of presidential elections in 2008, and investors are getting out of the way. read more

(Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters: A vessel leaving an oil platform at Sakhalin-1’s Chaivo field on Tuesday.)

Thursday, October 12, 2006. Issue 3517. Page 5.
By Dmitry Zhdannikov
Reuters  

NOGLIKI, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk — Federal authorities are still checking a new oil terminal built by the ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin-1 group and it may take two months before full operations are allowed, project members said Wednesday.

They also said full-scale oil production of 250,000 barrels per day could be delayed to the first quarter of 2007, from the end of this year, as the facilities needed more work. read more

The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006
 
MOSCOW A top government official said Thursday that Russia was not seeking to revoke French company Total SA’s license to tap the Kharyaga oil field, Russian news agencies reported.
 
Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev spoke amid widespread probes of Western-led energy developments that analysts says are an attempt to secure a bigger role for Russian companies.
 
The reports quoted Trutnev as saying that no work was under way to revoke Total’s license. A statement in September by the head of the ministry’s government policy department that said that the license was being officially reviewed for possible cancellation due to underdevelopment.
 
But Trutnev appeared to stress that checks under way at Kharyaga and elsewhere were routine. “General monitoring is being conducted, it is being conducted with many companies and is aimed at making sure the licenses are fulfilled,” he was quoted as saying.
 
Total has a 50 percent interest in Kharyaga, while Norway’s Norsk Hydro has 40 percent. An oil company controlled by the regional government holds 10 percent.
 
Western investors have been rattled by a series of moves by authorities at large oil and gas developments controlled by foreign companies. In September, Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s saw its environmental permit suspended amid allegations of serious environmental violations at its giant Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project.
 
Soon after, prosecutors warned BP PLC’s local joint venture that its Kovykta natural gas field was pumping less gas than agreed in the original 1994 license and the company could see its license pulled. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Sakhalin-1 project is also undergoing an environmental review.
 
The probes provoked an international outcry and have been interpreted as a move by the government to rejig old energy agreements — signed when state coffers were empty and investment was desperately needed — to better suit Russian companies.
 
Russia’s natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom is negotiating to join the Shell project in an asset swap deal. Meanwhile BP needs Gazprom’s permission to send gas from Kovykta to China, which the monopoly has so far refused in what analysts have said is a hardball tactic to secure control of the field.
  read more

(The photograpgh is from the lobby in the Shell Dublin HW during the occupation. There are lots more photos on www.indymedia.ie)

Report from Sea to Shell campaign on protest activities carried out on Wednesday 11 Oct 2006

Mayo:
At 8 a.m. Wednesday morning in Mayo sit down protestors blocked the transport of workers to Shell’s construction site in Ballinaboy, before being moved on by police.

The state thugs, whose official title is “guardians of the peace”, threw one young woman to the ground and trampled on her, she was subsequently hospitalised. read more

The Associated Press
Published: October 12, 2006
 
LONDON Combating global warming won’t bankrupt Britain’s economy and could be worth billions for business, says an oil company-sponsored report released Thursday.
 
The cost of action will amount to 0.3 percent of Britain’s economic output, but that works out to business opportunities worth 30 billion pounds (€45 billion, US$55 billion) over the next decade, said the report published by Shell UK as part of its Springboard project to encourage business action on global warming.
 
Globally, the report said the market could be worth a trillion dollars (€800 billion) in the next five years, the report said.
 
The report said business opportunities were mainly in developing products and systems to comply with regulations designed to cut energy use. That includes tighter building standards, supplying biofuels for road transport and renewable energy generation.
 
“The cost-benefit equation of action to tackle climate change is favorable. That’s true not just for the U.K. but internationally as well,” Shell UK Chairman James Smith said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
 
To encourage innovation, the report proposed that the government offer prizes — as it did in 1714 when it offered a reward to the person who solved the problem of measuring longitude.
 
“The main value of the prize would not be in the prize money itself, but in having some of the most important problems addressed, and in helping the prize-winner to achieve a reward in recognition of his or her innovation,” the report said.
 
It suggested prizes might be offered in several categories, including energy supply, industry, mobility and buildings.
 
 LONDON Combating global warming won’t bankrupt Britain’s economy and could be worth billions for business, says an oil company-sponsored report released Thursday.
 
The cost of action will amount to 0.3 percent of Britain’s economic output, but that works out to business opportunities worth 30 billion pounds (€45 billion, US$55 billion) over the next decade, said the report published by Shell UK as part of its Springboard project to encourage business action on global warming.
 
Globally, the report said the market could be worth a trillion dollars (€800 billion) in the next five years, the report said.
 
The report said business opportunities were mainly in developing products and systems to comply with regulations designed to cut energy use. That includes tighter building standards, supplying biofuels for road transport and renewable energy generation.
 
“The cost-benefit equation of action to tackle climate change is favorable. That’s true not just for the U.K. but internationally as well,” Shell UK Chairman James Smith said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
 
To encourage innovation, the report proposed that the government offer prizes — as it did in 1714 when it offered a reward to the person who solved the problem of measuring longitude.
 
“The main value of the prize would not be in the prize money itself, but in having some of the most important problems addressed, and in helping the prize-winner to achieve a reward in recognition of his or her innovation,” the report said.
 
It suggested prizes might be offered in several categories, including energy supply, industry, mobility and buildings. read more

LAGOS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Nigerian villagers who overran a Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) facility in the delta have freed all the 60 oil workers and troops they held hostage, officials said on Thursday.

Armed youths from the Oporoma community in Bayelsa state seized the facility on Tuesday, forcing Shell to shut the Nun River flow station, which produces 12,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, further cutting output from the world’s eighth biggest exporter after a week-long resurgence of violence. read more

12/10/2006 
  
Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (RasGas) made its first delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the shores of Qatar to Mexico on October 8, a press release issued by RasGas said yesterday.

This historical event followed a spot sale to Shell Western LNG B V by Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II).

The LNG cargo was loaded on board the LNG tanker Fuwairit, and departed from Ras Laffan, on September 16, the press release added.

The voyage of 22 days over a distance of 9,915 nautical miles was routed through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Gibraltar to the Terminal de LNG de Altamira, Mexico. read more

(An aerial view of the Yastrev (Hawk) land rig at Sakhalin-1’s Chaivo field, some 1,000km (621 miles) north of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk on Tuesday.)

Published: Thursday, 12 October, 2006, 10:11 AM Doha Time 

When ExxonMobil finishes drilling the world’s longest oil on Sakhalin island next year, it hopes to leave behind something more than just technological innovations. The world’s biggest energy firm hopes that the unique technology it says it brought to Russia will help ease the Kremlin’s pressure on production sharing deals with foreign majors read more