October 17th, 2006:

Tue Oct 17, 2006 6:24am ET

MOSCOW, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Russia’s resources ministry will meet state prosecutors next month to discuss joint action in its campaign against ecological violations by international oil majors, it said on Tuesday.

The General Prosecutor’s Office has become one of the most feared institutions among Russia’s investment community since the demise of private oil company YUKOS (YUKO.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), in which prosecutors played a key role.

Oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) have come under pressure from the ministry in recent months over ecological and technical violations. read more

Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:36am ET
 
MOSCOW, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it was confident of resolving all the environmental issues around its huge Russian Sakhalin-2 project within a week.

Chris Finlayson, head of Shell in Russia, said the firm had already dealt with 97 percent of claimed breaches of environmental rules and would have resolved 100 percent of the issues by Oct. 24, the date of an inspection by Russian Natural Resource Minister Yuri Trutnev. read more

Published: Oct 17, 2006

OAO Lukoil and OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil companies, are being investigated by the Natural Resources Ministry, and state-controlled OAO Gazprom and others may follow, as the government extends a crackdown on oil producers.

Lukoil may lose some licences for failure to develop fields, Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of the Natural Resource Ministry’s environmental inspectorate, said yesterday in Moscow.

Mr. Mitvol has led efforts to cancel a key permit for Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s US$22-billion Sakhalin-2 venture on environmental grounds. read more

Tuesday, October 17, 2006. Issue 3520. Page 5.
Reuters

The Natural Resources Ministry has asked the Federal Tax Service to provide information on 398 licenses held by LUKoil, the ministry said Monday.

The request followed the ministry’s threat to withdraw 19 of the company’s licenses to develop oil fields in northern Russia due to violation of licensing agreements.

“We have requested the information on how LUKoil paid subsoil use and mineral resource taxes on these licenses,” ministry spokesman Nikolai Gudkov said. “The logic is, if the taxes are not paid or delayed, it means that there are problems with fulfilling licensing agreements.” read more

(Vladimir Filonov / MT
Trutnev, pictured at the conference on Monday, appeared dissatisfied with Shell’s clean-up efforts in Sakhalin-2. )

Tuesday, October 17, 2006. Issue 3520. Page 1.

By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer  
 
Foreign executives appealed to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and senior economic officials for clarity and transparency Monday amid a major review of many of the country’s largest foreign investment projects.

They warned that corruption, administrative barriers, entangled bureaucracy and selective application of the law were casting a shadow over the country’s strong economy and scaring away potential investors. read more

Terry Macalister
Tuesday October 17, 2006

The Russian government tightened the pressure on Shell over the Sakhalin-2 gas project by warning that failure to sort out environmental problems would lead to “absolutely any sanctions”.

The tough stance from the resources minister, Yuri Trutnev, came even though Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, said his company had already sorted out the bulk of the problems.

The Sakhalin-2 scheme, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas project, has been dogged by ecological difficulties and soaring financial costs. read more

17.10.2006, 03.12
 
MOSCOW, October 17 (Itar-Tass) – Moscow’s Presnensky court on Tuesday will consider the action filed by the Rosprirodnadzor Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources against the Ministry of Natural Resources, demanding overturning of the Ministry’s instruction to endorse the feasibility study of the complex development of the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye licensed areas /2nd phase of the Sakhalin-2 project; operator is Sakhalin Energy/.

The action was filed because of the operator’s failure to meet a number of recommendations stated in a concluding report by the state environmental expert examination, as well as numerous deviations from the Sakhalin-2 feasibility study. read more

Bibi van der Zee
Tuesday October 17, 2006

Campaign of the week

The Shell sponsorship of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award – hosted by BBC Wildlife and the Natural History Museum (and handed out tomorrow night) – is causing a bit of a headache. According to Friends of the Earth, as one of the world’s major oil companies, Shell is a “wildlife destroyer” and “has played a significant part in contributing … to climate change. Shell’s sponsorship of the award completely undermines its value.” read more

· Foundation was out of line, says commission
· Independence ‘must be clearly demonstrated’

Rob Evans and Terry Macalister
Tuesday October 17, 2006

Shell’s efforts to improve its image as a socially responsible company have suffered a major blow after the charity it set up was rapped over the knuckles by the official watchdog.

The criticism from the Charity Commission came after the Guardian revealed that the charity, the Shell Foundation, jointly lobbied a cabinet minister with the head of the multinational’s UK commercial operations. read more

Last Update: 9:40 PM ET Oct 16, 2006
(This article was originally published Monday.)

LONDON (MarketWatch) — A Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.LN) manager sent e-mails in 2002 expressing concern that the designs for oil and gas wells on Russia’s Sakhalin Island didn’t properly address seismic risks.

The e-mails from Hans Bouman, a natural-gas field manager, to Engel Van Spronsen, then Sakhalin Energy’s technical director, raise the possibility that the company’s risks at the Sakhalin II project go beyond the river bank erosion now under Russian government scrutiny. read more