March 8th, 2007:

Source: mad.co.uk | Author: Melinda Varley | Published: 08 March 2007 13:45

Fuel supplier Royal Dutch Shell is launching a new global marketing campaign created by MediaCom and JWT.

The aim of the campaign uses a series of long-format films to highlight the culture of innovation at Shell and aims to position the fuel company at the forefront of future energy solutions.

The films will be shown in cinemas, online, interactive TV and on DVDs. In the UK and USA, viewers with interactive television will be able to access a custom-built interactive viewing experience by pressing the red button when watching the ad. read more

2-8 March 2007
 
Russia and China are pursuing overtly nationalist policies in their grabbing of oil and mineral assets. An as we explain, Western firms – and shareholders – are losing out.

By

In a blaze of publicity over Christmas, the Russian government effectively expropriated from Shell and its Japanese partners a majority share in their flagship Sakhalin Energy liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. At the same time, Chinese state-owned Zijin Mining launched a bid for Alternative Investment Market (Aim)-listed copper miner Monterrico Metals. And then, in January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the leaders of global mining firms discussed how best to counter the Chinese investment surge into Africa, which some say is denying opportunities to Western players. read more

By Stephen Voss

March 8 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, will maintain its links with the biggest Dutch bank by naming ABN Amro Holding NV’s chief executive officer as a Shell director when a former ABN banker retires from Shell’s board.

Shell intends to elect ABN Amro’s Rijkman Groenink as a non- executive director at its annual general meeting on May 15, to replace Shell director Aarnout Loudon, The Hague-based Shell said in a statement today. Loudon is a former chairman of ABN Amro’s supervisory board, according to Shell. read more

Claudia Cattaneo Calgary Bureau Chief, Financial Post
Published: Thursday, March 08, 2007

CALGARY – Value Creation Inc., a closely held oilsands company, yesterday unveiled a new integrated oilsands project in northern Alberta it says can beat the two major obstacles facing the business — high costs and high greenhouse-gas emissions.

While other developers are delaying projects or starting smaller to overcome escalating costs, the startup, backed by wealthy Asian and Canadian businessmen, said its integrated Terre de Grace project in the Athabasca region near Fort McMurray uses “smart” technology that makes its costs the lowest in the business. read more

SELF-EXPLANATORY EMAIL SENT TO SHELL INTERNATIONAL GENERAL COUNSEL, KEITH RUDDOCK ON 08 March 2007

Copied to Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer, Malcolm Brinded (Executive Director Shell EP),  Jorma Ollila (SHELL Chairman), Richard Wiseman (General Counsel),  Michiel Brandjes(Company Secretary Royal Dutch Shell Plc) and Kieron McFadyen (Head of Shell HSE)

Subject: Shell Fatalities

Dear Mr Ruddock

We have received information from a trusted Shell insider source regarding Shell fatality statistics.

The following are extracts from communications received from the relevant source. read more

(Interfax News Agency Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) MOSCOW.

(Interfax) – Russian Federal Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Oversight Service (Rostekhnadzor) Director Konstantin Pulikovsky has approved an expert review on the safety of a new oil platform for the Sakhalin-2 project, the service said in a statement.

By  Hashem Kalantari        

TEHRAN: French energy major Total SA (TOT) has until the end of March to decide on its investment in the upstream development of phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian Oil Ministry official said Wednesday.

Akbar Torkan, managing director of the state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Co., which is affiliated with state-owned National Iranian Oil Co., or NIOC, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying Total hasn’t as yet delivered its final investment decision in the Liquefied Natural Gas-related project. read more

By KRISTEN HAYS

Exxon Mobil Corp. aims to start more than 20 new global projects in the next three years and increase exploration and production spending this year to cover higher costs of finding oil and natural gas, top executives of the world’s largest oil company told analysts Wednesday in New York.

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson said the Irving-based company plans to invest in mature areas of North America, Australia and the North Sea as well as growth areas in the Middle East, Russia, the Caspian area and West Africa. read more

By Trisha Huang

March 8 (Bloomberg) — Shanghai Secco Petrochemical Co., half owned by BP Plc, may expand its capacity to produce ethylene 28 percent by 2009, a company spokeswoman said.

Shanghai Secco may boost its ethylene capacity to as much as 1.15 million tons a year from 900,000 metric tons today, said Angela Qian, the company’s public relations supervisor by e-mail. The project is under consideration by the company’s board of directors, she said.

The plant, known as a cracker, processes naphtha into ethylene, the basic building block of plastic packaging and synthetic fibers. The cracker, one of the biggest ethylene plants in China, is 50 percent owned by BP Chemicals East China Investment Co. The remainder is held China Petroleum & Chemical and its unit Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. read more

2007-03-07 | MMS Allows Contentious Oil and Gas Exploratory Activities
to Move Forward Without Public Review

(Ed. Note: With apologies for late posting.)

Fairbanks, Alaska – Today (20 Feb.) the Minerals Management Service (MMS) announced that they will allow Shell Oil to conduct potentially damaging exploratory oil and gas activities in the Beaufort Sea without consulting public input or conducting an environmental impact statement (EIS).

REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands) a network of Alaska Native grassroots leadership is calling for MMS to issue an EIS. REDOIL and many other Alaska Natives are concerned that oil and gas development and exploratory activities would harm the delicate Beaufort Sea marine and coastal ecosystem. The subsistence rights of Alaska Natives must always be protected at all costs. The risks are high for potential damage therefore REDOIL is calling for MMS to issue an EIS to study the impacts of this kind of adverse activity to the region and allow the public to analyze and respond to the proposed off-shore oil and gas exploration plan. read more

Company Pegs Capital Spending at $20 Billion
By GRAINNE MCCARTHY
March 7, 2007 6:36 p.m.

NEW YORK — A hefty speculative premium in the price of oil — driven by concerns over the reliability of global supply — still remains, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s chief executive said. The company, meanwhile, plans to spend $20 billion annually on capital investments.

“With the price today and over the last years, what the market is saying is they’re uncomfortable with the reliability of supply,” CEO Rex Tillerson said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. “That premium seems to be in the $15-20 dollar range.”
 
Mr. Tillerson also said that Exxon is prepared to walk away from its oil project in Venezuela’s Orinoco river basin if it fails to reach agreement with the government on the transfer of ownership. “It will be a function of, can we shift ownership to a value proposition that works for us?” he said, “If not, everything else is moot because we won’t be staying, we’ll be leaving.” read more

By Fiona Harvey,Environment Correspondent
Published: March 8 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 8 2007 02:00

Gordon Brown is backing plans for a global conference on greenhouse gas emissions trading in London inan attempt to capitaliseon the UK’s lead in the field.

The chancellor’s commitment emerged yesterday as business leaders met Mr Brown at 11 Downing Street to discuss the need to strengthen the carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme.

The group of eight business people supported plans for a conference, to be led by the G8 leading industrialised nations, in London, which has become a global centre for the fledgling carbon trade. read more

Edited by Simon Goodley
Last Updated: 2:17am GMT 08/03/2007

Trouble for Shell, forced into a massive U-turn on its plans to race F1 cars around the City, part of an ad campaign scuppered by the City of London and the rozzers. “We’re looking for another city,” fumes an insider, who confirms that the ad will also be shot in Rome and New York. “But being an oil company, you know the kind of stuff we have to put up with.” In so many ways.