Posts on ‘December 13th, 2006’

Thursday, December 14, 2006. Issue 3561. Page 5. Reuters Pressure from the authorities is beginning to threaten the timetable of the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, the venture’s operator said Wednesday. “The activity of the regulatory bodies who are slowing down the process of getting an agreement is beginning to have an effect on [...]

Crude-oil futures rose to more than $61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the federal Energy Information Administration reported across-the-board draws in U.S. petroleum stocks, including a surprisingly large decline in crude inventories. Here is Wednesday’s roundup of oil and energy news: * * * OPEC MAY HOLD STEADY: OPEC may keep [...]

By GREG WALTERS December 13, 2006 1:06 p.m. International energy consortium Sakhalin Energy said it will probably miss a January target to start drilling for natural gas at the Lunskoye gas field offshore Russia. The delay comes because the Russian state environmental regulatory agency Rosprirodnadzor, which has criticized the company in recent months over its [...]

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY Energy: President Vladimir Putin insists he wants Russia to be a respected member of the community of nations. Why, then, does he keep doing things that remind us of the bad old days of the USSR? Russia talks a good game about wanting more trade and investment with the West. But then [...]

EXTRACT: “…there are a few companies that investors might be better off avoiding in the near term. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDSa) is one such company. In simple terms, Royal Dutch Shell faces a number of troubling issues that include a relatively weak production profile, one of the lowest reserve replacement ratios among the majors, [...]

EXTRACT: Co-founder Mr Hambro said his firm had seen its shares slump by almost a half since Russia’s environment agency – part of Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources – called for the withdrawal of the company’s 54 licensing agreements.  The boss of a London-based gold mining company is to fly to Russia for urgent talks [...]

Rakteem Katakey / New Delhi December 14, 2006    It’s been almost a year since the country’s largest upstream company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the one of the world’s largest oil companies – Royal Dutch Shell – for co-operation in both the upstream and downstream sectors, [...]

By Vladimir Socor Wednesday, December 13, 2006   First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev An unprecedented flurry of warnings by top Russian energy officials on a single day, December 12, may mark that date as a Black Tuesday for Western energy companies investing in Russia. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Gazprom president Alexei Miller, [...]

14:07 | 13/ 12/ 2006  MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s environmental watchdog will hold a meeting with managers of London-based Peter Hambro Mining, the second-largest gold producer operating in Russia, the Natural Resources Ministry said Wednesday. Last month, the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources asked the ministry to terminate five [...]

Bloomberg December 13, 2006 — OAO Gazprom said it may buy 50 percent in Royal Dutch Shell’s $22 billion Sakhalin-2 project after months of Russian government pressure, helping President Vladimir Putin tighten his grip on the world’s biggest energy industry. Gazprom may pay cash or a combination of cash and assets to buy the stake [...]

EXTRACT: “They’re not going to pay money to get their hands on these assets. They will just use a lot of pressure…” POSTED: 7:03 a.m. EST, December 13, 2006 By Simon Hooper for CNN (CNN) — In the days after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 it became common to refer to Russia [...]

By Fred Pals Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) — The Argentine government may risk an economic slowdown by fining Royal Dutch Shell Plc for failing to supply service stations with enough diesel fuel, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly report. In September and October, some areas of Argentina faced diesel shortages for several days as [...]

14:39 | 13/ 12/ 2006  MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s water management watchdog said Wednesday the issue of withdrawing water use licenses issued to the operator of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the country’s Far East could be raised February 1. “If they fail to rectify the violations that have [...]

13:49 | 13/ 12/ 2006 MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Boris Kaimakov) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has reproached the West for resorting to unscrupulous competition. Speaking to the students of Moscow State University, unfamiliar with political correctness of diplomats, the minister did not try to conceal his concern about “ideologization of international relations.” Feeling [...]

Wed 13 Dec 2006 MOSCOW (Reuters) – Pressure from Russian authorities is beginning to threaten the timetable of the Shell-led Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, the venture’s operator said on Wednesday. The Natural Resources Ministry has mounted a campaign of inspections by environmental agency RosPrirodNadzor and threats of administrative sanctions against Sakhalin-2, the only big [...]