April 20th, 2007:

By John Donovan

In view of the news reports over the past 24 hours featured below, it appears that some may wish to add the term “porn peddler” to Shell’s extensive list of sins in the USA.

Shell Oil Company seems to have got itself in an embarrassing mess as an activist group claims that a Shell executive responded to their email by telling them that the two well known magazines – Playboy and Penthouse, were no longer considered to be pornography. However, Shell apparently takes issue with this account. Three salient articles are accessible below. read more

By Felicia Loo and Jonathan Leff
REUTERS

5:04 a.m. April 20, 2007

SINGAPORE – Oil major Royal Dutch Shell is working hard to gain a foothold in China’s refining sector after hopes for taking a share in a new CNOOC refinery was dashed, a top company executive said on Friday.

But its eagerness to own a share of capacity in the world’s second-largest oil consumer is not matched in India, where a huge wave of new refining capacity should provide more than enough fuel to supply its plans to expand into the retail sector. read more

Current Publication Date: 20/04/2007

Shell E&PI has been allowed to drop long-running legal action against four Rossport people opposed to the Corrib gas pipeline.

However, the company now faces a bill of around €1 million to cover most of the legal costs of the defendants Philip McGrath, Bríd McGarry, James Brendan Philbin and Willie Corduff.

The High Court heard this week that Shell E&PI wanted to discontinue its legal action, without having to meet the costs of the four defendants. The company said its action aimed at restraining the interference of the defendants with the pipeline, was no longer necessary because the pipeline was to be re-routed. read more

April 20 2007 at 12:08PM 
 
Abuja – Gunmen attacked a vessel supporting a Transocean oil drilling rig in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, abducting three Nigerian staff and seizing weapons and equipment, security sources said on Friday.

Six people injured during the attack late on Thursday were airlifted out and the Trident 8 rig has been shut down, the sources said. No oil flow was affected.

“A security vessel, Mike One, supporting Trident 8, a Transocean rig drilling for Conoil in Brass, was attacked by armed men yesterday,” said a security expert working for a major Western oil company operating in the Niger Delta. Conoil is a Nigerian company. read more

Brian O’Connor
20 April 2007

Shares in Russian oil producer Imperial Energy slumped again as it came under fresh attack from aggressive Russian regulator Oleg Mitvol, who also savaged five other UK oil and mining companies.

Imperial fell a further 135p to 1092p on Thursday, from a peak of 1508p early on Wednesday. The London Stock Exchange has had a close look at the heavy share dealing over the two days.

Mitvol broadened his attack last night to investigate whether five other UK groups’ statements of reserves might be misleading. read more

Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:54 PM BST

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s top downstream executive said on Friday he hoped a $5 billion project to more than double the capacity at its Motiva joint-venture refinery in Texas will be granted final approval this year.

Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco, has been considering expanding its 285,000 barrels per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery to as much as 600,000 bpd, which would make it the largest in the United
States. read more

Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:00 PM BST

SINGAPORE, April 20 (Reuters) – The agreement of powerful French unions is key to oil major Royal Dutch Shell’s possible plan to sell off three refineries in the country, the company’s top downstream official said on Friday.

Shell has said it is reviewing a number of refining and petrochemicals feedstock assets, including the three French sites, amid moves by a number of oil majors including BP to cut exposure to the cyclical business for fear that new plants in Asia and the Middle East will drive down margins from 2010. read more

APRIL 30, 2007
 
A BP venture is the latest target as Moscow muscles in on producers

It’s one of John Browne’s biggest personal triumphs. In September, 2003, the CEO of oil giant BP (BP ) sealed a deal to create TNK-BP, a joint venture that would become Russia’s fourth-largest oil company and which today accounts for a quarter of the British company’s global production.

Now Browne’s designated successor, Tony Hayward, is surely counting on the project to keep the oil—and profits—pumping, particularly after a year that saw BP’s reputation and stock hammered because of repeated missteps in production and safety. One sign of TNK-BP’s importance: Browne and Hayward met with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin at his dacha outside Moscow in March to discuss the venture.  read more

By Eduard Gismatullin

April 20 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose on speculation violence in Nigeria will hurt the country’s exports and supplies from OPEC will decline.

Presidential elections are being held tomorrow in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, where militant attacks have already cut about a quarter of crude output. Exports by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may fall 0.4 percent in the month ending May 5, according to Oil Movements, a consulting firm.

Oil prices “increased before the weekend because of elections in Nigeria,” said Thina Saltvedt, an analyst at Nordea Bank AB in Oslo. OPEC “will wait and see how demand for crude turns out. They seem to be following the cuts they promised.” read more

Trust acquires assets in $350M deal
ASHOK DUTTA

Penn West Energy Trust plans the construction of a 300 kilometre pipeline to deliver Athabasca oilsands output via Nipisi through to Edmonton, a senior trust official said Thursday.

“We are scoping out an additional sales pipeline of capacity in excess of 100,000 barrels per day to serve multiple users,” William Andrew, Penn West’s president and chief executive acknowledged.

“As oilsands development proceeds in the province, there will be a need to transport additional volumes of products to be produced in the coming several years. The new pipeline will target existing refineries in Edmonton, in addition to new ones planned. Besides, Edmonton is expected to be the hub for oil pipelines planned to run from northern Alberta to markets in the U.S.” read more

Established firm’s ‘green’ credibility

SHAUN POLCZER

Shell Canada Limited on Thursday began the task of formally unwinding almost a century as a public company with the retirement of its CEO, Clive Mather.

Mather, a 38-year veteran of the parent company and its various affiliates, will be stepping down later this summer, Shell said in a statement.

Mather took over the company’s reins in August 2004 until it was taken private by majority shareholder Royal Dutch Shell.

Earlier this month, Royal Dutch completed the $8.7billion buyout of Shell Canada’s minority shareholders. read more

Mary Carolan,
Published: Apr 19, 2007

Shell E&P Ireland is facing a legal costs bill of more than 1 million after the High Court yesterday agreed to allow it end its long-running legal action against four opponents of the controversial Corrib gas pipeline.

The court allowed the company to discontinue its action on certain conditions, including that the company pay most of the legal costs of the defendants.

However, counterclaims by some residents against the company and the State which challenge the validity of ministerial consents for the pipeline are to continue. read more

Aine Ryan,
Published: Apr 20, 2007

Blame for the Corrib gas controversy was firmly laid on the doorstep of Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey and former minister Frank Fahey by an An Taisce member at the fourth day of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) oral hearing into the issuing of an integrated pollution prevention licence (IPPC).

Leo Corcoran, a former Bord Gais engineer, argued that the issuing of “dodgy consents” was the biggest mistake, and that the manner in which the project has been handled would never have been countenanced by Bord Gais. read more

Published: Apr 20, 2007

Reporting the EPA oral hearing into the pollution control licence for the Corrib Gas Terminal, Aine Ryan states that “the Garda presence at the hearing was a matter raised by an objector to the granting of the licence (Irish Independent, April 17).

Indeed there was a Garda presence on duty for the hearing and it was necessary and very welcome and reassuring.

I was present and heard the objection to the Garda presence.

I saw two uniformed Gardai outside the hotel and two plain clothes members inside. That to my mind is not very significant given what has happened in the area up to now in regards to this project. read more

Published: Apr 20, 2007

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Sibir Energy PLC said the oil reserves estimates of its Siberian fields were calculated based on Russia’s own standards.

“Sibir would like to state for the record that the reserves figures reported by the company are the Russian standard reserves as reported by the Russian State Committee on Reserves,” the company said in a statement.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Sibir’s reserves and those of the Russian State Committee on Reserves are one and the same,” it said. read more

By Catherine Belton in Moscow
Published: April 19 2007 11:35 | Last updated: April 19 2007 11:35

Oleg Mitvol’s calls yesterday for Imperial Energy’s licences to be revoked are not the first time the gruff Russian official has tangled with foreign resource companies, writes Catherine Belton in Moscow.

Mr Mitvol, who heads the Russian government’s environmental watchdog, hit the headlines when he ledthe state campaign last year against Royal Dutch Shell’s$22bn (£11bn) Sakhalin-2 oiland gas venture. read more