May 12th, 2007:

Saturday 12 May 2007

SHELL’S top brass are facing a shareholder revolt in protest at the oil giant’s executive pay policy and one investor body advised a vote against its remuneration report, writes Karl West.

Pensions Investment Research Consultants is urging its members to veto Shell’s boardroom pay report at its annual meeting on Tuesday because it ‘does not disclose the performance conditions attached to outstanding share option awards’.

Shell chief Jeroen van der Veer was paid £2.5m in cash last year and could earn another £2m from a long-term incentive plan that covers the three years from beginning of 2006 to the end of 2008. read more

BARRIE MCKENNA
May 12, 2007

Washington — After his KGB spy days and before becoming President of Russia, Vladimir Putin busied himself by writing a PhD thesis at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute.

The seminal, 218-page work – “Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations” – still guides his economic thinking today. In it, Mr. Putin floated the idea of nurturing “national champion” companies and harnessing Russia’s natural resources to create an economic superpower. read more

May 12, 2007

Colombo – The Sri Lankan unit of Royal Dutch Shell suffered damages of at least $700,000 in an air attack by Tamil Tiger rebels last month.

Two bombs exploded at the Anglo-Dutch company’s storage facility on the outskirts of Colombo, damaging one of its four storage terminals and disabling its fire-fighting operations, the company said.

“There was big damage to our fire-fighting facility and we estimate it will cost us in excess of $700,000 to put things back,” Shell’s Sri Lankan country director, Hassan Madani, told reporters here. read more

By VOA News
12 May 2007
 
The Nigerian government sold only about half of 45 oil-exploration licenses it put up for auction Friday, with interest coming mostly from little-known investors.

Most bids submitted bids for the 45 exploration blocks came from domestic companies.  Nigerian officials said international companies declined an offer of priority bidding rights for certain fields.

Oil-industry experts blame the lack of interest on the auction’s timing, less than three weeks before a new Nigerian administration is due to take office.  The change of power on May 29 has triggered worries that deals made now could be annulled in the future. read more

By SPENCER SWARTZ and CHIP CUMMINS
May 12, 2007; Page A3

Chevron Corp.’s decision Friday to pull workers from oil fields in the south of Nigeria deals a blow to thirsty global oil markets and to the African country’s effort to smoothly hand over power to a new president later this month.

Attacks by self-styled militants have ratcheted up significantly this month in the wake of nationwide elections that local and international observers condemned as deeply flawed and unreliable. While the country has avoided popular demonstrations against the polling, election-related attacks against foreign oil companies in the oil-rich Niger Delta have significantly cut into the country’s already-diminished crude output. read more

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: May 12, 2007

Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.

Missing Oil Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.

The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry. read more

By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: May 12, 2007

MOSCOW, May 11 — A last big piece of the Yukos oil company, once Russia’s largest company, was sold at a bankruptcy auction on Friday. And like much else about the dismembering of the company, the sale raised more questions than it answered.

First, there was the price paid for the glass and steel Yukos headquarters building and other assets — $3.9 billion, which was four and a half times the starting price in a sale that analysts had not expected to draw much interest. read more

Saturday 12 May 2007

Rijkman Groenink, ABN Amro’s chief executive, came under fresh pressure after Dutch media reports that a powerful shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell planned to vote against his appointment as a nonexecutive director of the oil company at its annual meeting next week.

Mr Groenink has already faced calls for his resignation from ABN from shareholders angry at his rejection of the Royal Bank of Scotland-led break-up approach. (Patrick Hosking)
 
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/article1779879.ece read more

HOUSTON, May 11 /PRNewswire/ — Shell Oil Products US announced today that it has completed the transaction to sell its Los Angeles Refinery, Wilmington Products Terminal and approximately 250 retail sites and supply agreements in and around Los Angeles and San Diego to Tesoro Corporation.

This transaction is consistent with an ongoing strategy at Shell to streamline and concentrate the Downstream portfolio.

The retail sites to be sold to Tesoro will remain Shell-branded. Shell will continue to have a strong brand presence and supply network in California and West Coast markets. The company continues to grow and enhance the Shell brand in California while providing customers with the best value in high- quality fuels and services. read more