May 8th, 2007:

GM is the first auto maker to join the group, which added several other new members today, including oil giant ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell’s U.S. subsidiary, insurance company American International Group and tractor maker Deere. Founding members of the group include BP’s BP America, Duke Energy, General Electric and DuPont.

GM and auto makers have resisted efforts to raise fuel-economy standards for their vehicles, saying the costs of compliance would be crippling and arguing that the burden of fighting carbon emissions should be shared throughout the economy. read more

May 8, 2007, 3:03PM
© 2007 The Associated Press

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer, angered by the high level of casualties at the company in 2006, has made the issue a priority this year, according to the company’s annual sustainability report issued Tuesday.

A total of 37 workers for Shell, most of them contractors, lost their lives on the job in 2006, one more than in 2005.

According to data provided by Shell, most of the workers who died were killed in car accidents, drownings or were victims of violence in the Niger Delta. read more

By Ben Moshinsky 
8-May-2007 

Shell has been accused of ignoring the rule of law in Nigeria, with one of the company’s own former lawyers leading the legal fight.

Peter Roderick was a lawyer at Shell between 1985 and 1991 and is now the co-director of the Climate Justice Programme at environmental charity Friends of the Earth.

Friends of the Earth is trying to stop Shell using gas flaring in Nigeria to burn off unwanted by-products of oil production. Gas flaring can cause high rates of leukemia and asthma and can damage vegetation through acid rain. read more

Associated Press 05.08.07, 4:00 PM ET

Royal Dutch Shell PLC Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer, angered by the high level of casualties at the company in 2006, has made the issue a priority this year, according to the company’s annual sustainability report issued Tuesday.

A total of 37 workers for Shell, most of them contractors, lost their lives on the job in 2006, one more than in 2005.

According to data provided by Shell, most of the workers who died were killed in car accidents, drownings or were victims of violence in the Niger Delta. read more

Updated: 12:37 p.m. ET May 8, 2007

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. on Tuesday became the first automaker to join a business coalition dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are tied to global warming.

The nation’s biggest automaker joined the United States Climate Action Partnership along with 13 other newcomers including Dow Chemical Co. and PepsiCo Inc.

The partnership is an alliance of big business and environmental groups that in January told President Bush that mandatory emissions caps are needed to reduce the flow of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. read more

EXTRACT: The acquisition of 50 percent plus one stock in Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. for $7.45 billion accounted for much of the value of deals in that sector.  

May 08, 2007

The M&A Intelligence analytical group has calculated the volume of merger and acquisition deals that included Russian companies in the first quarter of the year. The researchers found that the value of the deals had more than quadrupled in comparison with the same period of last year. The hydrocarbon and energy sectors have significant volume at present, but the potential for dramatic growth was noted in banking. read more

Primary Anti-Government Group Claims Attacks, Terminal Exports 200,000 Barrels Per Day

LAGOS, Nigeria, May 8, 2007

CBS/AP) The main militant group in restive southern Nigeria said Tuesday that it has bombed three major oil pipelines.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in a statement from an e-mail address frequently used by the group that it had attacked three major pipelines in Bayelsa state.

“Fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked and destroyed three major pipelines. … We will continue indefinitely with attacks on all pipelines, platforms and support vessels,” the statement promised. read more

Tue May 8, 2007 4:32 PM IST
 
LONDON (Reuters) – An environmental group said on Tuesday it would file complaints to three European regulators about a Royal Dutch Shell Plc advertisement that says the oil major uses waste CO2 to help grow flowers.

Friends of the Earth Europe said Shell advertising that its Pernis refinery near Rotterdam pipes CO2 to nearby greenhouses is misleading because only a fraction of the CO2 emissions are used in this way.

The environmental group said it would file complaints with advertising regulators in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. read more

By Julie Ziegler and Mathew Carr

May 8 (Bloomberg) — Three pipelines operated by a unit of Eni SpA and an export terminal in the Nigerian state of Bayelsa were shut down after an attack by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

The attacks closed the Brass export terminal, a facility run by Eni’s Agip unit that pumps about 200,000 barrels a day, Bayelsa state spokesman Ekiyor Welson said. Two of the pipelines were in the Akasa region, the other in Brass, according to a statement from MEND. The attacks cut off power at the Brass terminal, the statement said. read more

A Turkish oil company would be violating international law if it went ahead with plans to explore for hydrocarbons in a sea area already claimed by Cyprus, the island’s energy minister said on Tuesday.

The company, TPAO, has opened a tender for seismic studies on a 4,000 km (2,485 mile) area in the Mediterranean, apparently falling within an offshore area Cyprus plans to open for exploration.

Cyprus, which has been at loggerheads with Turkey for decades, has said it is still checking the report, which appeared on TPAO’s website on Sunday. read more

Judy Hua
HONG KONG
08-May-07

CHINA POWER INTERNATIONAL, helmed by the daughter of former Premier Li Peng, plans to spend up to US$4 billion by 2010 developing renewable energy as Beijing pushes to clean up its air and water and whittle down its reliance on imported resources.

To help bankroll the investment one of the largest planned investments in renewable energy ever announced by a corporation the company is studying listing shares on mainland stock exchanges, Chief Executive Li Xiaolin told reporters yesterday. read more

Total SA needs 4,000 workers for bitumen upgrader near Edmonton
DAVID EBNER

May 8, 2007

CALGARY — Total SA took the first step yesterday toward building a multibillion-dollar bitumen upgrader near Edmonton, a construction project that will require 4,000 workers – about what it took to build the iconic Hoover Dam.

Huge oil sands projects have become almost commonplace, but their enormous scale is still impressive. Each effort requires a work force that would populate a small town.

In the 1930s, it took an average of 3,500 workers – and a peak contingent of 5,200 – to build the Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, one of the largest construction projects undertaken to that date. read more

8th May, 2007: Shell: Meeting the Energy Challenge Sustainably

Royal Dutch Shell has released its tenth report on its environmental and social performance. The Shell Sustainability Report 2006 www.shell.com/envandsociety describes the company’s efforts to help meet the global energy challenge: providing more energy to raise living standards; keeping energy supplies secure; and doing both in environmentally and socially responsible ways.

It describes how, through its people, investment and technology, it is:
finding more oil and natural gas providing a diverse range of suppliers of natural gas developing substitutes for oil in the transport sector and alternative sources of electricity improving the environmental performance of its operations and products. read more

2007-05-08 09:13:53

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Royal Dutch Shell and BP PLC’s Russian joint venture TNK-BP are preparing bids for one of the last remaining assets of bankrupt oil giant Yukos, including around 500 gas stations, Russian dailies Vedomosti and Kommersant reported.

Tuesday, 08 May 2007 
Áine Ryan

THE GARDA Ombudsman Commission is due to begin work tomorrow, May 9, on a series of complaints about Garda behaviour over recent months during clashes at the proposed Corrib gas refinery in Bellanaboy.

The Garda Complaints Board has confirmed that three senior officers will investigate the 16 complaints, filed by 15 individuals in relation to alleged incidents involving over 20 gardaí. 

The majority of the complaints will be dealt with by Det Supt Michael Jackson, but Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has also appointed Chief Supt Paul Hargadon of Garda Headquarters and Chief Supt Gerry Mahon, head of the Clare division, to investigate two complaints that relate to Supt Joe Gannon of Belmullet Garda Station. read more

EXTRACT: …Royal Dutch Shell, which simplified its processes during the year by ditching joint auditor KPMG, cut its Sarbanes-Oxley costs by $17m.

Robert Lea, Evening Standard
8 May 2007

The audit fee bonanza enjoyed by the Big Four accountants over the past four years has continued into the current annual reporting season but there are signs the boom may be dramatically slowing.

The Evening Standard can reveal that amid top-level calls for the major accountancy firms to reveal the profits they are making from auditing, the 10 most lucrative listed company audit contracts in the UK yielded a record £196m in fees last year, nearly 9% higher than in the previous year. read more