News and information on Shell Plc
Thu Apr 19, 2007 3:04 PM BST
CALGARY, Alberta, April 19 (Reuters) – Shell Canada Ltd.’s
Royal Dutch Shell, one of the biggest oil majors, secured the minority shareholding of Shell Canada last month with a C$8.7 billion ($7.7 billion) bid to gain full control. Shell Canada is known for its vast Alberta oil sands reserves and natural gas business.
The Shell to Sea campaign received very good news from the High Court on Wednesday.
• The stance of the Rossport Five and Brid McGarry has been legally vindicated.
• The original pipeline route through Rossport, for which Shell had obtained Compulsory Acquisition Orders, is now defunct.
• Shell will have to pay the €1 million costs, including most of those of the Rossport landowners.
• The campaign against the pipeline and refinery scheme continues.
Shell was applying to drop the permanent injunction against several local landowners. They had dropped the interlocutory (temporary) injunction in September 2005 in order to get the five men out of prison. Since the middle of 2006 they have been trying to drop the permanent injunction.
What do you do when an aggressive goliath-like state company takes a keen interest in one of your largest foreign investments in the world, and uses the thin legality of the environmental agency to put you under the gun? As they muscle you up against the wall to whisper a clear threat: “give up majority control of this project and make it look legal, or lose everything in what would be seen as large scale investment-jacking,” what would be your response?
For Royal Dutch Shell, the difficult answer was the former, and today they are going about putting on the good face as they pass over the lunch money to the big bully Gazprom – a $7.5 billion majority stake of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project. Of course there is an argument that Shell is just looking out for the short term interests of its shareholders, and hoping to put a tourniquet on this financial wound, but in the long term, these gestures of surrender to Russia playing quasi-legal hardball only embolden these hostile tactics against foreign investors. Need proof? Look no further than the environmental watchdog (or attack dog, if you prefer) Oleg Mitvol, who is already busy putting the squeeze on Imperial Energy’s license in Siberia, causing a 17% dip in the share value.
Oleg Mitvol called upon the economic security department of the Federal Security Service to review certain foreign companies that have allegedly exaggerated their reserves and sold shares on foreign exchanges between 2003 and 2007. (royaldutchshellplc.com)
Front page / Russia: 04/19/2007 17:00 Source: AP ©
Some of the foreign oil, mining and gas companies have exaggerated their reserves to boost their share price, the deputy head of Russia’s environmental watchdog agency said Thursday.
Oleg Mitvol called upon the economic security department of the Federal Security Service – the KGB’s main successor _ to review certain foreign companies that have allegedly exaggerated their reserves and sold shares on foreign exchanges between 2003 and 2007.
*Alfred Donovan, a patent lawyer whose blog covers Royal Dutch Shell, takes a look at the largest patent filing in history. Shell thinks they have a sound method for getting top quality oil out of oil shale rock, which would remain profitable as long as oil stayed above $30/barrel. If it works, it would also be better for the environment than conventional drilling.
If they’re right, the US would add a truly vast amount of oil to its reserves. Indeed, the USA accounts for 62% of the world oil shale resources, and USA, Russia and Brazil together account for 86% in terms of shale oil content. Other countries with significant oil shale include, in order, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Morocco, Italy, Jordan and Canada (we’re focused on the tar sands, so haven’t fully explored), among others. Then there’s Israel.
04.19.07, 7:48 AM ET
COPENHAGEN (Thomson Financial) – AP Moller Maersk said oil production at its partly owned Dansk Undergrunds Consortium’s 14 oil fields in the North Sea totalled 281,300 barrels per day during March 2007, down 8 pct from a year earlier.
However, production increased 5 pct from February 2007, the group added.
The production of gas reached 426 mln cubic metres in March, down from 878 mln cubic metres a year earlier and 777 mln cubic metres in February, said AP Moller Maersk.
Created: 19.04.2007 10:45 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 10:45 MSK
On Wednesday, April 18, Russia’s state-run gas monopoly Gazprom has taken formal control of Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in the Far East. As MosNews reported, the gas giant bought a majority stake in the project from Royal Dutch/Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi in December 2006 for $7.45 billion. The partners agreed to part with half of their stakes after months of pressure from the Russian environmental oversight agency, which accused the project’s operator of gross environmental violations.
By Jim Kennett
April 19 (Bloomberg) — As head of a U.S. oil and gas company with operations in more than 40 countries, ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva travels the world, spending almost half the year outside of headquarters in Houston.
Those travels, and growing scientific certainty that burning fossil fuels is raising the Earth’s temperature, convinced Mulva that the U.S. was falling behind in combating climate change. So he became the first U.S. oil industry leader to back legislation to fight global warming, enrolling ConocoPhillips in an industry coalition that seeks a federal cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
By Julianna Goldman and Kristin Jensen
April 19 (Bloomberg) — “Double-dipping” — giving donations to two political candidates in the same race — isn’t uncommon, nor are contributions from chief executive officers.
What’s less common is when the double-dippers are top executives giving to both parties. In the first three months of this year, at least 35 chairmen or chief executive officers, including Verizon Communications Inc. CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Brady Dougan, who becomes head of Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group next month, have contributed to both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, according to Federal Election Commission figures.
By Matthew Craze and Dan Helft
April 18 (Bloomberg) — Bolivia resumed natural gas transmissions to Argentina after soldiers suppressing a riot near a pipeline partly owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc killed a protester, the pipeline’s operating company said.
Supply was disrupted yesterday when demonstrators stormed control stations at a compression plant that processes 90 percent of the gas Bolivia ships Argentina about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the border, the Hydrocarbons Chamber said. Operations have returned to normal, said Peresita Arandia, a spokeswoman for pipeline company Transredes SA.
By Angela Macdonald-Smith
April 19 (Bloomberg) — Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second-biggest oil and gas producer, said rising costs may lead it to sell assets and scrap exploration ventures in riskier countries.
High levels of exploration and production are driving up costs, particularly in Western Australia, Chairman Charles Goode said today in an address to be delivered at the Perth-based company’s annual shareholder meeting in the Western Australian state capital. Woodside’s two largest proposed investments are the Pluto and Browse liquefied natural gas projects in Australia.
By Grant Smith
April 18 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., Repsol YPF SA and Centrica Plc were among companies attending a Nigerian oil ministry presentation today on the auction of exploration rights in Africa’s biggest producer.
Nigeria plans to complete the auction, delayed from last year, of 41 on- and off-shore blocks next month. Repsol and Centrica, along with Cnooc Ltd., China National Petroleum Corp. and Korea National Oil Corp., are among 10 companies being offered preferential bidding rights on 17 of the blocks.
Joe Guy Collier, Detroit Free Press – Michigan
Published: Apr 18, 2007
A strong movement is forming to help wean U.S. consumers off gasoline, but key challenges must be overcome for alternatives to work, a panel of experts said Wednesday at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in downtown Detroit.
Powerful forces are lining up to drive change, said Margo Oge, director of the office of transportation and air quality for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Congress has made addressing climate change a top priority. President George W. Bush has set goals to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil.
Published: Apr 19, 2007
NIGERIAN crude exports are likely to rise rapidly from the end of May as Royal Dutch Shell is expected to restart operations at the Forcados terminal in the Niger Delta, writes Martyn Wingrove.
Energy Minister Edmund Daukoru believes the terminal and associated oil fields could be reopened by the end of May to increase his country’s crude exports.
The Forcados oil fields were able to produce 380,000 barrels per day before they were damaged by militant attacks early last year.
By Rebecca Bream,Utilities Correspondent
Published: April 18 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 18 2007 03:00
Richard Budge, the mining entrepreneur once known as King Coal, has joined the race to build the UK’s first full-scale “clean coal” power station, following a technology deal with Shell, the oil and gas group.
Mr Budge is in the process of reopening the historic Hatfield colliery near Doncaster in south Yorkshire, and is due to have mining equipment installed at the coalface by September.
Terry Macalister
Thursday April 19, 2007
Shell and its partners put a brave face on a final deal signed yesterday to hand over a 50% stake in Sakhalin-2 – the world’s largest oil and gas export project – to Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom. They said the “uncertainty is over” and the deal should offer “growth opportunities”.
The $7.5bn (£3.7bn) sale coincided with an agreement that alleged environmental violations raised by the Kremlin could be sorted out at no extra cost and with no delay to the wider project in a move that will be seen by critics as evidence the charges were trumped up to put pressure on Shell to sell its stake.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
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