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February 22nd, 2007:

Jiji Press: JBIC to Continue Assistance to Russia’s Sakhalin II Project

Published: Feb 22, 2007

Tokyo, Feb. 22 (Jiji Press)–Japan Bank for International Cooperation Governor Kyosuke Shinozawa indicated Thursday the government affiliate will continue to assist the Sakhalin II oil and gas exploration project in the Russian Far East even after Russia’s Gazprom assumes a controlling stake.

The project remains significant for Japan in securing stable supplies of natural gas, Shinozawa said at a press conference.

He said the JBIC is waiting for requests from the operator of the project concerning what kind of assistance is needed. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Reuters: Shell sticks to $18 bln Qatar plant price tag

Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:53 AM GMT
By Odai Sirri

RAS LAFFAN (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it was sticking to its maximum cost estimate of $18 billion (9.2 billion pounds) for its Pearl superclean fuel plant in Qatar after a local official said the cost would exceed $20 billion.

“We stick to our guidance of $4 to $6 per barrel, and for total output of 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent,” Shell’s Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told Reuters at a ceremony to break ground at the 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) gas-to-liquids project. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

AmericanChronical.com: Burning the Oil – Development and Inter-Ethnic Tension

By Sam Vaknin Ph.D.
February 22, 2007

“Sustainable Development” is a worn out cliché – but not where it matters the most: in developing countries. There, unconstrained “development” has led to inter-ethnic strife, environmental doom, and economic mayhem. In the post Cold War era, central governments have lost clout and authority to their provincial and regional counterparts, whether peacefully (devolution in many European and Latin American countries) – or less so (in Africa, for instance). As power shifts to municipalities and regional administrations, they begin to examine development projects more closely, prioritize them, and properly assess their opportunity costs. The multinationals, which hitherto enjoyed a free hand in large swathes of the third world, are unhappy. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The National Post (Canada): Costs threaten global oil megaprojects

EXXON SCRAPS QATAR PLAN: Escalating prices of labour and steel taking toll

BY JANET MCBRIDE AND PEG MACKEY
Reuters

LONDON • Multi-billion-dollar energy projects are under threat from rising steel and labour costs — and the more ambitious the scheme the more vulnerable it is.

Exxon Mobil Corp. abandoned its plans yesterday for a US$15-billion plant to turn Qatari gas into ultra-clean fuel. Qatar’s Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said budget overruns lay behind the decision to scrap the gas-to-liquids scheme. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

UpstreamOnline: Shell hands out $10bn in Pearl GTL jobs

By Upstream staff

Shell said today that to date it has handed out contracts worth a total of $10 billion for construction work on its Pearl gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar.

Shell’s project is facing rising costs that may push the final price tag to more than $20 billion. Original estimates put the project’s cost at $5 billion.

The contracts cover all the engineering, procurement and construction work, Shell said.

Shell and Qatar were holding a ceremony to break ground at the Pearl gas-to-liquids project today. Actual construction began in the third quarter last year and Shell aims to start production of clean fuels from gas at the plant by the end of the decade, the company said. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Yahoo! News: ATT, Microsoft take patent battle to US Supreme Court

Bby Veronica Smith
Wed Feb 21, 5:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Microsoft, backed by the US government and heavyweight corporations, took its patent battle with telecommunications giant AT and T to the Supreme Court Wednesday, in a case that has wide implications for US firms doing business abroad.

The nine Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in the case that hinges on whether patented US-made software code is subject to US patent law overseas.

AT and T holds a patent on voice-recognition software that Microsoft licensed to use for US sales of its Windows operating system, which runs more than 90 percent of the world’s personal computers. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Peninsula On-line: Shell says Pearl GTL project will be profitable

Web posted at: 2/22/2007 9:15:40
Source ::: Agencies

Dubai • Royal Dutch Shell Plc is pressing ahead with a scheme to turn Qatari gas into superclean fuel even after soaring costs forced ExxonMobil Corp to drop a similar project.

Exxon’s withdrawal leaves Shell as the only large international oil company with such plans in the Gulf. Shell’s project is facing rising costs that may push the cost to $10bn from an earlier estimate of $5bn.

Inflation through the oil and gas industry globally has exacerbated rising costs in Qatar. Shell said it had incorporated higher costs when it gave the go-ahead for its Pearl GTL project last year. “Nothing has changed,” said Andy Brown, Shell’s manager of operations in Qatar. “All the cost information was included in the final investment decision.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Daily Sentinel (Colorado): Public’s input on oil shale not recorded

By BOBBY MAGILL
Thursday, February 22, 2007

A meeting Wednesday night in Grand Junction that Royal Dutch Shell billed as a chance to hear the public’s concerns about the company’s Piceance Basin oil shale research projects and “definitely implement” public comments turned out to be something a bit different.

Shell neither solicited public comments nor took any effort to write them down.

The meeting was the third of four public open-house sessions presenting information about Shell’s four Piceance Basin oil shale research and demonstration projects, including its private Mahogany Research Site and three other proposed projects on public land. Those three sites are now beginning the state permitting process, which could take about a year. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Daily Sentinel (Colorado): Club 20 keeps an eye on Piceance water study

By BOBBY MAGILL
Thursday, February 22, 2007

The Club 20 Oil Shale Task Force is keeping an eye on a proposal for a federal study of the availability of water for energy development in the Piceance Basin — a study in which oil shale development company Royal Dutch Shell plans to provide information.

The task force agreed Wednesday it will invite a representative of the U.S. Geological Survey to its next meeting in late March to update the group on a groundwater monitoring project for the Piceance Basin that will study how energy development, including oil shale, will affect water quality there. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Lloyds List: Soaring costs scupper Qatar’s gas-to-liquids export plant plans

Published: Feb 22, 2007

QATAR has dumped plans for building a gas-to-liquids export plant in favour of supplying gas to its own industrial facilities thanks to soaring costs, writes Martyn Wingrove.

Qatar Petroleum and US super-major ExxonMobil decided to halt their GTL plans, as costs have spiralled out of control, to pursue development of the Barzan gas project instead.

Both companies intend to develop the Barzan section of the giant North gas field in several phases, with the first scheduled to supply 1.5bn cu ft of gas per day to local industrial plants from 2012. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Irish Times: 12 objections lodged over Corrib gas licence ruling

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent,
Published: Feb 22, 2007

Shell and its Corrib gas partners and An Taisce are among 12 objectors to the Environmental Protection Agency’s preliminary licensing approval for the Corrib gas refinery in north Mayo.

The 12 objections include at least four requests for an oral hearing into the preliminary decision by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency has at least four months, and perhaps longer, to rule on the hearing applications before making a final decision on the licence. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Financial Times: Cash handouts hit investment

By Carola Hoyos,Chief Energy Correspondent
Published: February 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 22 2007 02:00

Oil and gas companies have faced similar questions to miners about whether they are returning too much cash to shareholders instead of investing it in new production.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP, the UK’s largest energy groups, have returned a total of $120bn (£61.32bn) in cash to shareholders in the past three years, raising fears that their largesse reflects an inability to grow their business by finding and producing more oil and natural gas. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Financial Times: A sea change down Gulf of Mexico way

By Sheila McNulty in Houston
Published: February 22 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 22 2007 02:00

Back in the 1980s, the Gulf of Mexico was viewed as the “Dead Sea”, according to Larry Nichols, the chief executive of Devon Energy.

The area close to shore already had been picked over and limitations with technology made it impossible to move further out and drill in the 6,000-10,000-foot depths known as the “Deepwater”.

Yet, since 2000, Mr Nichols says, technological advances have enabled the energy industry to not only see below salt formations that had once left oil companies with blind spots below the ocean floor, but also explore in water depths of 10,000ft and drill 30,000-foot wells in those depths. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: A Dangerous Partnership

EXTRACT: Already, other foreign multinationals have begun to take their cues from Beijing. Royal Dutch Shell has, along with Spain’s Repsol, just concluded a preliminary agreement with the Iranian regime worth an estimated $4.3 billion for the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant and port terminal in the Islamic Republic. 

THE ARTICLE 

By ILAN BERMAN
February 22, 2007; Page A14

Financial pressure by the U.S. and other Western governments in recent weeks is beginning to have a real impact, chilling investment into Iran’s energy sector and ratcheting up the costs of the regime’s atomic effort. But these gains are in danger of being erased, thanks to the growing economic partnership between Tehran and Beijing. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bloomberg: Roughnecks Get Maids as Shell, Exxon Battle Oil Worker Shortage

By Joe Carroll

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Donnie Lewis says he’d quit the coldest, dirtiest job he’s ever known — drilling in Canada’s oil-rich bogs for Suncor Energy Inc. — if it wasn’t for the free private room, maid service and five-course meals.

“I wouldn’t do it if I had to share a room with six other fellows, all snoring and making a racket when you’re trying to get a few winks,” says Lewis, 41, who doubled his wages from his last job. “The oil companies really take care of you and do everything they can to make your time here easy.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Gulf Times (Qatar): Shell’s gas project ‘to cost over $20bn’

Published: Thursday, 22 February, 2007, 09:23 AM Doha Time
By Odai Sirri

COSTS have soared above $20bn at a Royal Dutch Shell project to turn Qatari natural gas into superclean liquid fuel, a senior Qatari official said yesterday.

That would be up from an original budget of $5bn in 2003 and above even the highest estimate of roughly $18bn that Shell has indicated for its Pearl gas-to-liquids plant.

Rising prices for materials such as steel and shortages of manpower are boosting costs in the oil and gas industry. ExxonMobil Corporation pulled out of a similar project in Qatar on Tuesday because of rising costs. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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