April 2nd, 2007:

April 3, 2007
Steve Hawkes

Royal Dutch Shell will face a showdown with shareholders next month amid claims that it is not doing enough to tackle climate change, The Times has learnt.

The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum is concerned that the oil group’s directors can earn too much of their annual bonus by hitting “easy” carbon emission targets.

It has written to Jorma Ollila, the Shell chairman, asking for an explanation, and has threatened to urge investors to vote against Shell’s remuneration report at its annual meeting in May. read more

Apr 2, 2007 3:02:00 PM MST
 
CALGARY (CP) _ Royal Dutch Shell remained discreet on the future of Shell Canada projects after announcing Monday its success in acquiring 99 per cent of the Canadian subsidiary‘s shares.

However, few analysts foresee any shifts in direction, as Royal Dutch Shell had already been majority owner of Shell Canada‘s oil and natural gas assets, refineries in Alberta and Ontario and more than 1,600 gasoline stations.

“They‘ve been running it as if it were their company with a minority tag-along,‘‘ said Tom Ebbern, an analyst with Tristone Capital Inc. read more

Tuesday 3 April 2007

ECONOMIC FORUM / Energy strategy needs rethink / Battle to secure sufficient oil supplies requires new initiatives

By Yoshikuni Sugiyama

A series of articles titled “Shigen Sodatsu” (The Battle for Resources) that has been carried by The Yomiuri Shimbun on its business pages from January hogged the limelight on March 2, when the House of Councillors Budget Committee brought up contents highlighted in the series.

With the price of crude oil lingering at a high level and oil producing countries trying to corral their resources, the articles explored ways for Japan to come up with new energy strategies. read more

Monday, April 02, 2007

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell Plc. has won the right to buy out the remaining minority shareholders in Shell Canada, after securing more than 90% of the outstanding shares in an extended share offer, the oil major said on Monday.

Shell Canada Ltd. shareholders holding 94.5 percent of the shares Shell did not already own tendered their shares at the offer price of C$45 per share by the end of the extended offer period on March 30, Shell said.

The result represents a defeat for those shareholders, including many hedge funds that had hoped Shell would make a higher offer. read more

Monday, 02 April 2007 
BY ANN HEALY

The daughter of Shell to Sea activist Maura Harrington told a garda sergeant he would be out of a job when she was finished with him, after she went in an intoxicated state to Galway Garda Station and demanded to see her mother, who was under arrest there at the time.

Sheila Mangan (21), with a rental address at 13 Eglinton Court, Eglinton Street, Galway, pleaded guilty at Galway District Court last week to being drunk and a danger to herself and others and to refusing to leave Galway Garda Station when directed to do so by Sergeant Senan Wall in the early hours of April 22 last year. read more

02.04.2007, 15.34
 
 MOSCOW, April 2 (Itar-Tass) – A probability of a strong earthquake on Kuriles and Sakhalin in April remains, an official of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s information department told Itar-Tass on Monday.

The high seismic activity in the area of the Kurile Range is related to aftershocks events after a violent earthquake that occurred in the Pacific Ocean east of the Simushir Island.

The magnitude of the quake was 8.

Besides, the activity of Shiveluch, Bezymyanny and Klyuchevskoy volcanoes remains high. read more

Shell said it had signed a deal to sell its liquified petroleum gas (LPG) businesses in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Romania, Spain, and Switzerland to France’s Rubis.

The sale is part of the Anglo-Dutch oil major’s strategy to streamline its downstream activities. Shell did not give financial details.

“The LPG business is making significant progress in simplifying our portfolio, reducing complexity and operating costs,” Erwin Friederich, vice president for Shell’s global LPG business, said in a statement. read more

TAVIA GRANT

After a five-month battle, Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Monday declared victory in its plan to buy the rest of Shell Canada and take the company private.

The offer was extended to last Friday, and an additional 75.7 million Shell Canada shares were tendered, at $45 a share.

Royal Dutch, one of the world’s largest energy firms, now owns about 98.8 per cent of the Canadian company. The offer, which had been seen by some shareholders as too low, has now expired.

Shell Canada’s current management keeps responsibility for the company’s operations and projects, Royal Dutch said in a release. read more

Mon Apr 2, 2007 11:51AM BST
By Tom Bergin

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pumped twice as much oil as it found last year, forcing the company to rely on traditionally lower-margin natural gas and oil sands to boost its reserves.

Figures issued on Monday echoed a trend across the industry as resource holders increasingly shun the oil majors.

A spokesman said on Monday that Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) reserve replacement ratio (RRR) — the extent to which reserves additions matched output — was a healthy 158 percent, well ahead of the 100 percent level oil companies usually target. read more

Royal Dutch Shell today announced the sale of 45% of the newly created Shell Technology Ventures Fund 1 BV, an independent energy technology fund, to Coller Capital, a leading global investor in private equity secondaries and corporate venture assets. Shell will remain the majority shareholder in the fund.

The new fund will consist of Shell Technology Ventures’ existing portfolio of 34 technology investments, including investments in Enventure Global Technology LLC, Well Dynamics B.V., Swellfix B.V. The fund will be independently managed and will focus on investing in Shell and third party Exploration and Production technologies. The fund will not include Shell proprietary technologies developed for exclusive use in Shell’s own operations and joint ventures. read more

OSLO (AFX) – Statoil ASA said its mammoth Troll gas field in the Norwegian Sea is now once again producing at full capacity, after the firm succeeded in repairing two gas compressors which had reduced output at the end of last week.

A spokesman for Statoil confirmed output was back up to ‘normal levels’, but declined to give any details on the implications of the problem.

Troll is the largest gas field offshore Norway, containing 60 pct of the total gas reserves on the Norwegian continental shelf. read more

Monday, April 2, 2007
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 291

Shell Investments Limited (“SIL”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, announced that as at the expiry time of the extended offer period on March 30, 2007, an additional 75,711,093 common shares in the capital of Shell Canada Limited (“Shell Canada”) were validly deposited to SIL’s offer to acquire, at a price of C$45.00 cash per common share, all of the outstanding common shares of Shell Canada not already owned by SIL or its affiliates. SIL has taken up all such common shares deposited to the offer during such period and payment has been or will be made for such common shares on or before Wednesday, April 4, 2007. read more

U.K.-Iran Standoff
Has Traders Pricing
In Risks of a Disruption
By MASOOD FARIVAR and IAN TALLEY
April 2, 2007; Page C3

As the standoff over Iran’s capture of British sailors drags on, oil traders are thinking more about one of the top nightmares for Western governments: an obstruction of oil traffic through the Persian Gulf.

Under the scenario, Iran, in a bid to pre-empt or respond to U.S. military action, closes the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf chokepoint through which 20% of the world’s oil supply passes. The consequence would be swift: By most experts’ reckoning, oil prices, which ended the week just below $66 a barrel, would soar to $100 and even higher, potentially plunging the world economy into a depression. read more

Rules Keep a Key Fuel
Out of Some Stations;
Car Makers Push Back
By LAURA MECKLER
April 2, 2007; Page A1

President Bush, domestic auto makers, farmers and others tout ethanol as a home-grown alternative to imported oil. Across the Midwest, plants that make the fuel out of corn are multiplying at a torrid pace. Yet so far, only a tiny fraction of U.S. service stations let a driver fill up with ethanol. There are a number of reasons, but one big one is resistance from oil companies.

Although some oil executives voice enthusiasm for alternative fuels, oil-company policies make it harder for many service stations to stock a fuel called E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. read more

By Christian Schmollinger and Angela Macdonald-Smith

April 2 (Bloomberg) — Oil was little changed near a six- month high on concern the stand-off between the U.K. and Iran over the capture of British naval personnel may disrupt crude supplies from the Middle East’s second-largest exporter.

The U.K. condemned film footage on Iranian state television yesterday of the British captives standing in front of a map of the Gulf region, describing how and where they were detained. Oil prices have risen 5.5 percent since the sailors and marines were taken by Iran on March 23. read more

Edited by Martyn Wingrove,
Published: Apr 02, 2007

TECHNIP has clinched another subsea contract in the US from Shell to install water injection systems on the Ursa and Princess oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

The French contractor will use its pipelay vessel Deep Blue from the fourth quarter this year to lay water injection flexible flowlines and risers, which will be manufactured at Technip’s Mobile, Alabama facilities.

Four subsea water injection wells will be tied back to the Ursa tension-leg platform, which lies in the Mississippi Canyon area to boost production next year. read more