December 10th, 2006:

Shell Accountability Campaign

PUBLIC ASKED TO PUT NAME TO SHELL ADVERT PETITION

Thousands of people around the world are being called on to add their name to an advert petition to call on Anglo Dutch oil giant Shell to invest its profits in reducing the damaging impact of its operations around the globe.

People can sign online http://www.shelladvert.org/index_engels.html

Friends of the Earth and community groups from all over the world, working together in the Shell Accountability Campaign, will use the signatures to publish large advertisements in Dutch and UK newspapers when Shell announces its 2006 results on February 1, 2007. read more

(Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, left, and Trutnev talking at Friday’s meeting.)

Monday, December 11, 2006. Issue 3558. Page 6.
Combined Reports  
Vitaly Belousov / Itar-Tass
 
More than 10 percent of Russia’s oil output, nearly 1 million barrels per day, is being produced illegally, Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said Friday.

Trutnev made the statement during an official meeting intended to work out measures to tighten official controls over the extraction of mineral riches. read more

Monday, December 11, 2006. Issue 3558. Page 7.
Reuters

The Natural Resources Ministry, which has led criticism of foreign oil firms such as Shell, dissolved into infighting between officials Friday, with the oil giant’s top critic shut out of a meeting and calling for his own boss to be sacked.

Oleg Mitvol, the outspoken deputy head of the ministry’s environmental inspectorate, was barred from a meeting about withdrawing firms’ licenses at the Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency.

Mitvol’s office said in a statement that he was not allowed to attend the meeting despite having been recently appointed to the commission on licensing compliance. read more

EXTRACT: Leasing was stopped nearly two decades ago following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill offshore Alaska in Prince William Sound. …Royal Dutch Shell PLC and other oil companies… have lobbied the White House to lift the offshore drilling ban.

Week of December 10, 2006

President Bush is considering lifting a ban on oil and gas leasing in federal waters off Alaska’s Bristol Bay in the North Aleutian basin.

Leasing was stopped nearly two decades ago following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill offshore Alaska in Prince William Sound. read more

Week of December 10, 2006

Russian state-controlled oil company OAO Rosneft said Nov. 30 it had signed an agreement with BP PLC to work together in developing energy projects in Russia’s Arctic region.

The companies will work together to obtain exploration and production licenses in the far north, where Rosneft already has subsidiaries operating and where it plans to expand. Rosneft has also said it plans to bid for the Trebs and Titov fields, which hold some of the largest crude oil reserves in the region. Russia’s biggest oil producer, OAO Lukoil, has also said it would bid for the two fields. read more

Technip lands major contract for ‘ultra-deepwater’ oil development project in Alaminos Canyon; three discoveries to be tied back

Ray Tyson
For Petroleum News
Week of December 10, 2006

Shell Offshore has awarded a major contract to French oilfield services company Technip to provide engineering, procurement and construction of a spar hull and mooring system for what could be the first oil production from the highly acclaimed Lower Tertiary play in “ultra-deepwater” Gulf of Mexico. The contract amount was not disclosed. read more

Publish Date: Sunday,10 December, 2006, at 09:47 AM Doha Time 
 
WASHINGTON: The House approved legislation allowing oil and gas companies like ExxonMobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to drill in untapped, federally controlled areas of the Gulf of Mexico.

The House voted 367-45 for a tax measure that includes a proposal to expand drilling in the gulf by 8.3mn acres, a 20% increase, and give states a share in royalties from the oil and gas produced off their shores. The area is estimated to hold 1.26bn barrels of oil and 5.8tn cu ft of natural gas. read more

AP, NEW YORK
Sunday, Dec 10, 2006, Page 10

Oil prices fell on Friday, ending the week 2.2 percent lower as traders anticipated warmer weather and an upcoming OPEC meeting, and shrugged off violence in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer.

After initially climbing by more than US$1 a barrel, light sweet crude for delivery next month fell by US$0.46 to settle at US$62.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

January Brent crude at London’s ICE Futures exchange fell US$0.37 to settle at US$$62.20 a barrel. read more

Sunday 10 December 2006

On Wednesday, Shell will learn whether it will have to fork out hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to the Russian government, for alleged breaches of the country’s environmental regulations.

Of course, the report by the Ministry of Resources is little more than a convenient brickbat with which to batter Shell. Russia is, after all, hardly known for its environmental credentials.

The reality is that the Russian government is desperate to grab more revenues from its giant gas fields and is now less dependent on Western companies to provide the necessary investment than at the time when these deals were signed. read more