October 20th, 2006:

By: Anna Maria Samsudin,
Published: Oct 20, 2006

AS THE year-end deadline looms, Malaysian telecommunications companies (telcos) are using Shell petrol stations nationwide to register prepaid customers.

Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd, Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, and Maxis Communications (Malaysia) Bhd will collaborate with Shell Malaysia to enable prepaid registration at Shell Select convenience stores nationwide.

As of today, 180 of these stores will be equipped with a special terminal to enable prepaid customers to register their lines. read more

Published: Oct 20, 2006

THE first independent opinion poll on the controversy over Shell’s plans to build a 200m terminal in north-west Mayo has revealed that almost half of voters in the county are opposed to the project.

A total of 45pc of voters sampled by new newspaper, the ‘Mayo Advertiser’, said they supported the campaign of lobby group ‘Shell to Sea’ to have the terminal moved offshore.

Just 15pc of those surveyed across the county said they supported Shell, but a significant 40pc said that they had no opinion on the controversy. read more

By Craig Smith and Howard Ward

Published: October 20 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 20 2006 03:00

Britain is a leader in the field of corporate social responsibility, home to many of its foremost thinkers, campaigners and practitioners. Yet many of these experts believe CSR is at a turning point and may be facing a quiet death.

Worldwide practices have long been shaped, in good and bad ways, by the experiences of UK companies, non-governmental organisations and governments. The exploits of the East India Company, for instance, still colour Indian attitudes to foreign investment. In contrast, the Lever soap factory at Port Sunlight, opened in 1884, was a widely emulated alternative model of industrial development. read more

By Carola Hoyos in Doha
Published: October 20 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 20 2006 03:00

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel that controls 40 per cent of the world’s supplies, yesterday declared its resolve to defend $60 as a new minimum international oil price. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, backed an immediate Opec output cut of 1m barrels a day and warned that a second reduction would be considered in December.

The strong message from the world’s most influential oil producer yesterday pushed up oil prices even before Opec had agreed a final declaration and overcome the divisive issue of how to share the burden of cutting production and revenue. Nymex and Brent crude futures, the world’s two international benchmarks, both jumped almost a dollar in the moments after Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, made the kingdom’s position clear. read more

By Carola Hoyos in Doha

Published: October 20 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 20 2006 03:00

In fashion, every few seasons, brown is the new black. In life, 40 has become the new 30. For Opec, $60 a barrel is the new $30.

That became clear for the first time when Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister and perhaps the most influential man in the sector, yesterday revealed the kingdom’s resolve not to let international oil prices – which are at about $60 a barrel – slip any further. read more

BY GREGORY PHILLIPS : The Herald-Sun
[email protected]
Oct 19, 2006 : 9:15 pm ET

DURHAM — Amid a 50-city tour to claw back some credibility for his much-maligned industry, Shell Oil’s president visited Durham Thursday to explain why Americans need to know more about how they get their energy.

“We the industry have trained people to be entitled to low-cost gasoline, never having explained how difficult it is to keep that low-cost gasoline in supply,” John Hofmeister told more than 100 students, faculty and other observers at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. read more

Friday October 20, 1:29 PM

MOSCOW, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s joint venture with Russian oil firm Sibir Energy, Salym Petroleum Development, has been hit with a back-tax claim of more than $10 million, the Vedomosti business daily said Friday.

Vedomosti quoted a source close to the company as saying the back-tax claim was for the 2002-2004 period and that the venture — one of the largest onshore energy projects in Russia — was disputing the claim, while a Russian tax official confirmed to the paper that the claim existed. read more

Web posted Sunday, October 22, 2006

By Tim Bradner
Alaska Journal of Commerce 
 
YUZHNO, Russia – The multibillion-dollar Shell and Exxon Mobil oil and gas projects off Sakhalin Island, in Russia’s Far East, could be just the start of major oil discoveries in the region.

Oil discoveries are being made by BP and its Russian partner, Rosneft, in deeper waters is the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Sakhalin, although it isn’t yet known if the discoveries can be developed commercially. Rosneft is also in the early stages of exploration in another area further north, just offshore the Kamchatka Peninsula. read more

EXTRACT: Shell’s $20 billion oil and gas project in Sakhalin looks likely to fall victim to the Kremlin’s strategy to reassert central control over energy.

THE ARTICLE

October 20, 2006

In the Finnish lakeside city of Lahti tonight, the European Union’s coveted “soft power” comes face to face with Vladimir Putin. It looks to be a sobering encounter. No matter how good the wine or emollient the words or grand the pageantry, the Russian president is in no mood to play nice.
 
It’s about time that Europe faced up to a few realities of global politics, and Mr. Putin is an ideal teacher. In recent months, the Kremlin has changed its opinion of the EU from bureaucratic irrelevance to a serious threat to Russian interests. Europe, the idea and place, has proved all too attractive to former Moscow vassals, providing a lot of the emotional fuel for democratic turnovers in Ukraine and Georgia and guiding much of Central Europe into the West through its enlargement process. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
October 19, 2006 5:30 p.m.

Crude-oil futures jumped after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister backed OPEC production cuts, with the front-month November contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rallying 85 cents to settle at $58.50 a barrel. Here is Thursday’s roundup of oil and energy news:

* * *
SAUDI BACKS OPEC CUTS: Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Naimi said he firmly backs a plan by OPEC to cut one million barrels a day from current production levels, and pledged to pare output again in December if needed. Mr. Naimi’s remarks put to rest speculation that Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer and exporter, wasn’t enthusiastic about the output cut. read more

So the state has now shelled out more than three-quarters of a million euro on Gardaí protecting Shell workers in North Mayo.

Depending on your point of view, this waste of money is down to the local protesters who won’t go away or to the oil company who won’t go to sea.

But whichever side of the argument you’re on, the one thing that’s beyond debate is that it is an appalling waste of money.

More importantly, if there is spare Garda capacity, there are far more critical locations for these 110 boys in blue – rising to a high of 170 on occasion – to ply their trade. read more

By Clare Byrne

Published: Thursday October 19, 2006

By Clare Byrne, Mayo, Ireland- For over two weeks the site of a planned gas terminal in north-west Ireland has been the scene of tense early- morning standoffs between police and prayer-chanting protestors. The protestors, ranging in age from teens to retirement age and generally numbering around 100, say that praying helps them to focus as they begin their daily picket outside a Shell refinery at Bellanaboy, County Mayo.

The protest peaks each day with the arrival around 8 a.m. of a police-protected convoy of jeeps transporting workers, usually to jeers from the crowd. read more

UPDATED: 2006-10-19 17:10:39 MST
By TODD SAELHOF, CALGARY SUN
 
Another slick fundraising campaign by a major oil player is helping improve the lives of needy Calgarians.

Employees of Shell Canada and the company have raised a whopping $3.6 million for United Way, as announced today by the oil company’s president and CEO, Clive Mather.

“The amount is a measure of the heart of this company, the generosity of the staff and retirees and the care they have for this great city of Calgary,” Mather said. read more