April 24th, 2007:

By Ed Crooks
Published: April 24 2007 22:09 | Last updated: April 24 2007 22:09

Jorma Ollila, part-time chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, is arguably the most successful European business leader of his generation, having transformed Nokia from a struggling engineering group to a global power in mobile telephones. But he remains, he suggests, a “modest, down-to-earth Finn”.

Indeed, it has been suggested that some of Shell’s shareholders have found Mr Ollila rather too modest, grumbling that they would have liked to see more of him and hear what he has to say. read more

April 25, 2007
European briefing: Carl Mortished

Slumped in a mood of foreboding and grim anxiety, the audience at this year’s Russian Economic Forum were treated to a blast from the past as news of Boris Yeltsin’s death echoed through the concrete of the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster.

More than anybody else, Yeltsin created this annual jamboree of Russian business and politics. Not only did he dismantle the Communist state but he made the oligarchs, not just liberating a generation of entrepreneurs but giving a leg-up to the spivs and hustlers who took over large chunks of the Russian economy and then spent lavishly in London. read more

By Ed Crooks and Carola Hoyos
Published: April 24 2007 22:09 | Last updated: April 24 2007 22:09

Royal Dutch Shell is likely to appoint an insider as its next chief executive, the company’s chairman said on Tuesday , raising the prospect that Linda Cook, its head of gas and power, could become the first female head of a big international oil group.

Ms Cook is seen as a leading internal candidate to succeed Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive who recently put back his retirement by a year to June 2009. The other leading contender is Malcolm Brinded, the head of exploration and production. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin

April 24 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil was little changed, trading near a three-week high in New York, on concern conflict in Nigeria would disrupt supplies from Africa’s largest producer.

At least six people were killed in post-election violence in Port Harcourt, the heart of the oil-rich Niger delta. Unrest in the region has cut Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s production by almost half in Nigeria, the fifth-largest supplier of crude to the U.S.

“I think the consequences of the elections won’t be extreme,” said Wolfgang Kraus, chief energy and commodities trader at BayernLB in Munich. “The situation in Nigeria has been turbulent for many years.” read more

PROCESS UNDER FIRE: ‘The electoral process failed the Nigerian people’

BY KARL MAIER AND JULIE ZIEGLERBloomberg News
24 Apr 2007

ABUJA • Nigeria’s ruling party candidate, Umaru Yar’Adua, won Saturday’s presidential vote by a 4-to-1 marginover his nearest rival, the electioncommission said yesterday amid growing complaints by monitors that the polls were flawed.

Mr. Yar’Adua wonmore than 24.6 million votes, defeating former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, who gained 6.6 million votes, and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar with 2.6 million, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced in Abuja, the capital. read more

Strife in Mideast, Africa expected to keep prices high

BY ASHOK DUTTA

Geopolitical tensions and mega investments in pension and hedge funds will continue to keep oil prices at or near current highs for the foreseeable future, the Canadian Energy Research Institute annual oil conference in Calgary was told Monday.

“Until 2004, there was a strong relationship between U.S. crude stock and oil prices, but that has now changed with new factors coming in,” said Michael Lynch, president of Massachusetts-based Strategic Energy & Economic Research. read more

By Estelle Shirbon
Reuters
Tuesday, April 24, 2007; 6:31 AM

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) – The people of the oil-rich Niger Delta see the rise of one of their own to vice president as an opportunity to reduce poverty and violence although activists say time is tight.

Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State in the delta and running mate of president-elect Umaru Yar’Adua, will carry the hopes of many in a region troubled by militancy when he assumes his new role on May 29.

“We are happy about it. He will bring development to the Niger Delta,” said Nickson Ogoniba, who sells generator parts in the state capital Yenagoa, where there is almost no electricity. read more

British Trade Secretary Alistair Darling / Photo: Stephen Mansfield

Created: 24.04.2007 15:50 MSK (GMT +3)

Russia must stop mixing politics with business and steer clear of economic nationalism, British Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said on Tuesday, April 24, speaking at the Russian Economic Forum in London that has been boycotted by top Russian officials and state-linked firms.

“Commercial considerations should be paramount. Oil and gas companies should not be used to exert political pressure,” Darling said, quoted by Reuters. read more

By Stephen Voss

April 24 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said first-quarter profit fell 17 percent because of lower energy prices and falling production.

Net income declined to $4.66 billion, or 23.9 cents per share, from $5.62 billion, or 27.1 cents, a year earlier, London- based BP said today. By another profit measure, BP missed analysts’ estimates. Revenue fell 3 percent to $62 billion.

Most European oil companies are likely to report lower profit before growth resumes in the second quarter, Citigroup Inc. said. BP’s Tony Hayward will be tasked with restoring investor confidence, shaken by criticism of a fatal refinery explosion in 2005 and last year’s output decline, when he takes over as chief executive officer from John Browne on Aug. 1. read more

13:41 | 24/ 04/ 2007

MOSCOW. (Igor Tomberg for RIA Novosti) – PricewaterhouseCoopers analysts forecast that in 2010, one-third of natural gas traded in the world will be liquefied.

Meanwhile, Gazprom, a Russian monopoly with ambitions to be a global energy producer, is suffering from a bad shortage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and export facilities. The feeling at the company is that this shortage is increasingly damaging its prospects, and its management has lately made some major efforts to develop its own production and export infrastructure for LNG. Gazprom is making preparations to win a sizeable part of the market in order to dominate it by 2030. read more

Elisabeth Eaves, 04.24.07, 2:06 AM ET
 
It should have been a great moment for Nigeria — an elected president is stepping down, handing power to another elected leader, the first transfer of power from one civilian government to another in the country’s history.

Though governing party presidential candidate Umaru Yar’Adua has been declared the landslide winner, Saturday’s polling was marred by violence and fraud, feeding a spike in global oil prices Monday.

Nigeria is a major player in world oil markets: It’s the world’s eighth-biggest exporter and the fifth-largest oil supplier to the United States. read more

Hilary Osborne
7.15pm Monday April 23, 2007

An Irish farmer who was jailed for opposing Shell’s plans to build a gas pipeline on his land and an Icelandic businessman who saved north Atlantic salmon from the brink of extinction are among the winners of a top environmental honour.

Willie Corduff, from Rossport in Ireland, and Icelander Orri Vigfusson will be among six campaigners who will receive the Goldman Environmental prize at a ceremony at the San Francisco opera house this evening.

The winners of the award, which celebrates grassroots environmentalists around the world, will each receive $125,000 (£62,500) in recognition of their efforts. They have been selected by an international jury from nominations put forward by green groups and individuals. read more

Last Updated: 1:32am BST 24/04/2007

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

• Royal Dutch Shell plans to build a liquefied natural gas import terminal in Fos-Sur-Mer in southern France to boost shipments of the fuel into Europe.

• The number of households that changed energy suppliers in the first two months of 2006 rose by about a fifth, while a gap emerged between the most expensive and cheapest prices.

• Centrica won a licence to explore for natural gas in Trinidad & Tobago to expand supplies for its residential gas customers in Britain and North America read more

BP makes £24 million a day but the strong pound hurts dividend payments and output drops for the seventh quarter

April 24, 2007
Steve Hawkes

BP suffered a fresh blow today as it revealed that profits across the business have fallen nearly 20 per cent since the start of the year to $4.36 billion (£2.18 billion).

The oil and gas major blamed falling production and lower energy prices for the slump, which comes as it desperately tries to draw a line under one of the worst periods in its history.

Lord Browne of Madingley leaves as chief executive this July, 17 months ahead of schedule, following the fallout from the fatal Texas City refinery blast and a series of oil leaks at its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska. read more

By Christopher Weafer
Issue #1265 (131), Tuesday, April 24, 2007

More often than not the state’s interaction with the energy sector has created the impression that investment risk is on the rise in Russia. Starting with the Economic Development and Trade Ministry’s plan to raise taxes in the oil sector, unveiled in February 2003, and including the Yukos affair and the Sakhalin-2 production-sharing agreement dispute last year, the news has been about nationalization and state interference.

The concern is that greater state control is bad both for industry and ultimately for the economy. This concern is re-enforced by the fact that state companies were the laggards when industry was boosting production from 2001 to 2005, and that the state has not yet taken steps to develop several major hydrocarbon deposits that have been known of for more than a decade. read more