March 6th, 2007:

 17:03 | 06/ 03/ 2007 

MOSCOW, March 6 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian technical standards body approved Tuesday an industrial safety assessment of the first oil platform for the Sakhalin II oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific Coast.

The ambitious project, formerly led by Shell, was subjected to months of intense pressure last year from Russian authorities, who accused it of causing serious environmental damage to Sakhalin Island, including deforestation, toxic waste dumping and soil erosion. read more

Tue Mar 6, 2007 8:01am ET

HOUSTON, March 6 (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co.’s 156,000 barrel per day (bpd) San Francisco Bay-area refinery in Martinez, California, tripped a safety flare on Monday night, according to a notice filed with the California Office of Emergency Services.

The filing stated only that the release of sulfur dioxide was due to a trip of the flare gas compressor.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER SHAWN McCARTHY looks at the head of Lukoil, the key to Russia’s bid to build oil firms that can compete with Western majors

MOSCOW — OAO Lukoil chief executive officer CEO Vagit Alekperov is a Darwinian success story: An oil industry oligarch who has evolved and thrived despite President Vladimir Putin’s drive to reassert state control over Russia’s energy sector.

A former deputy energy minister, Mr. Alekperov was president of the Soviet-era oil company that was privatized in 1993 to become Lukoil, a process that made billionaires of the company’s top executives, including him. read more

By Fred Pals and Karl Maier

March 6 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said a pipeline spill in the Niger River delta has cut production by 187,000 barrels a day and forced the closure of 10 pumping stations.

Shell, the biggest international producer in Nigeria, doesn’t know what caused the leak or how long it will take to repair the pipeline, spokesman Andre Romeyn said today in a telephone interview from The Hague.

Previous attacks by militant groups have forced Shell’s Nigerian operations to slash output by about 500,000 barrels a day, almost a quarter of the country’s production. Shell has a 30 percent share in its Nigerian venture. read more

By Gregory Feifer 
 
March 5, 2007 

During the Cold War, military parades on Red Square were part of a massive show of force. The practice stopped during the 1990s, but now it has been revived.

Last May, Russian President Vladimir Putin led an elaborate ceremony marking the country’s victory in World War II and showcasing Moscow’s new wealth.

Russia is back. Fifteen years after the collapse of what Washington used to call the “evil empire,” the rhetoric from Moscow is once again confrontational, and often directed against the West. read more

Headline: Animals trip L.A. refineries, boost gasoline prices

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A raccoon and an opossum separately set off electrical power disruptions at two Los Angeles-area refineries on Sunday night and Monday morning, boosting gasoline prices on the U.S. West Coast.

Wholesale gasoline prices jumped 7 cents in the Los Angeles market at word of the upsets on Monday morning.

An opossum in a Southern California Edison commercial customer substation and a raccoon in a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power substation upset power supplies to the refineries within an hour of each other late Sunday night. read more

By Edward G. Hollett
Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Australian oil production may rise 15% in 2007, with gas rising 22%, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

The full report includes some interesting observations about trends in the oil and gas industry globally that have echoes in the local political environment. For example:

Increased costs

Costs of developing new projects and production have increased universally across the world’s minerals and energy industries over the past four or five years. Increased costs have been associated with an almost unprecedented increase in the demand for a range of inputs, such as equipment, materials, skilled labour and mining services, required to bring on new capacity. In some cases the available supplies simply cannot meet demand and the associated delays add further costs, reducing production and delaying the start up of new projects. read more

Published: Tuesday, 6 March, 2007, 08:51 AM Doha Time
Business Reporter

DOHA: Qatargas–III will come online in 2009 as scheduled, a senior executive has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Middle East Gas Summit yesterday, ConocoPhillips Qatar president Mike Stice said Qatargas-III was on budget and schedule despite rising costs and tight supplies of raw materials.

Qatargas Train 6, which will be set up under Qatargas–III, is a joint venture among QP (68.5%), ConocoPhillips (30%) and Mitsui (1.5%). read more

A round-up of headlines from across the financial sectors, provided by Bloomberg News.

ENERGY

• BP said it bought Chevron Corp’s 31pc stake in the Nerefco oil refinery in Rotterdam, bringing the facility under its full ownership.

• Royal Dutch Shell won two exploration permits off the north-western coast of Australia as it intensifies a search for natural gas supplies for LNG production.

• Sibir Energy, a company that extracts oil in Russia, agreed to pay $50m (£26m) for licences to eight oil blocks in the Khanty-Mansiisk region of western Siberia. read more

Tue 6 Mar 2007
FRANK URQUHART

SHELL, the oil giant, was served with ten improvement notices relating to its offshore operations last year by the government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – the highest of any of the North Sea’s main operators, it emerged yesterday.

The HSE said the number of notices reflected continuing concerns over Shell’s need to improve its performance, two years after it was fined a record £900,000 for safety failings which led to a massive gas escape in 2003 on the giant Brent Bravo installation in which two men died. read more