May 24th, 2007:

Fri May 25, 2007 1:30 AM BST

LIMA, (Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) is among 37 companies to have expressed an interest in bidding for oil exploration concessions in Peru, the government said on Thursday.

Shell sent a letter of interest to the Peruvian government, said Daniel Saba, head of state agency Perupetro, adding however: “We don’t know if they will finally take part yet”.

Saba declined to name the other 36 but said they were all large or medium-sized companies. read more

May 24, 2007 7:10 pm US/Eastern

(CBS News) MEQUON, Wis. It’s not just drivers who are sick of high gas prices. Sky-high numbers at the pumps have prompted some Wisconsin service stations to boycott their own high prices and stop selling fuel.

With Memorial Day— the traditional start of the summer driving season — upon us, AAA says prices at the pump have continued to rise, though increased supplies might help prices start leveling off in time for the long weekend.

It says the national average for regular unleaded gas has topped $3.22 a gallon; that is up 37 cents from a month ago. Illinois had the highest state average price for regular unleaded, $3.52. read more

HOUSTON and MADISON, Wis., May 24 /PRNewswire/ — Shell Hydrogen LLC (Shell Hydrogen) and Virent Energy Systems, Inc. (VirentTM) today announced a five-year joint development agreement to develop further and commercialize Virent’s BioFormingTM technology platform for hydrogen production.

Virent’s technology enables the economic production of hydrogen, among other fuels and chemicals, from renewable glycerol and sugar-based feedstocks. The vast majority of hydrogen today is produced using fossil fuels, including natural gas and coal. read more

By Bill O’Reilly  
 
Every time you gas up your vehicle and that hose locks into the tank, you, American person, are getting hosed. The energy scam we are presently experiencing is one smooth operation. This time the Arabs aren’t raising prices on barrels of oil. This time it’s not saber rattling from Iran that is driving up the price of gas. No, this time the problems are in Whiting, Ind., and Norco, La.

There are oil refineries in both those towns, and they’ve had a few annoying problems. A little power outage here, a small fire there. And whenever the speculators hear of any problem in an American refinery, they bid up the price of oil. The oil companies see that and immediately tell your gas station guy to charge more. read more

May 24th 2007 | FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA
From The Economist print edition

The allure and perils of investing in Alberta’s oil sands

EACH tyre on the massive trucks carting gritty black goo around a mine in northern Canada weighs as much as four cars, an engineer explains excitedly; the trucks, in turn, can carry 400 tons. They are driving around a hole in the ground that is several hundred metres deep, several kilometres wide, and growing fast. Open-cast mines like this are planned for some 3,000 square kilometres of the surrounding area, and subterranean ones beneath a further 35,000 square kilometres. read more

May 24, 2007, 12:58AM
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Here in the nation’s capital, discussions about the oil industry are just nothing like the conversations heard at Houston energy conferences.

When oil industry officials have addressed the record-high gasoline prices, they’ve pointed to unexpected downtime at refineries, political unrest in Nigeria and lower imports from Europe.

Lawmakers at a Joint Economic Committee hearing Wednesday talked about breaking up the oil companies. read more

Staff have begun an indefinite strike at Nigeria’s largest state oil refinery over welfare and to protest against privatization.
LAGOS –  Thursday , 24 May 2007

Staff of Nigeria’s state oil company began an indefinite strike on Thursday over welfare and union leaders said they would target oil production if their demands are not addressed within days.

The strike, which is also to protest against the privatisation of the country’s largest oil refinery last week, is expected to first hit domestic fuel supplies. read more

EXTRACT: The shores of Zanzibar are attracting interest from international oil giants, like Royal Dutch Shell.

May 24, 2007

PARIS: Oil companies, both western and Asian, are hunting in earnest for oil and gas in East Africa, a still largely under-explored region, as energy nationalism in Russia, Venezuela and the Middle East closes off opportunities in more proven areas.

“East Africa, for a frontier area, is experiencing one of the highest levels of investment in the world right now – but we’re only seeing the beginning,” said Chris Matchette-Downes, vice president of business development at Black Marlin Energy, an oil service company based in Dubai and specializing in the region. About $500 million is being spent on research but so far only about 479 wells have been drilled from Eritrea to Cape Town including Madagascar, compared with as many as 30,000 in northern and western Africa, he said. read more

Thursday, May 24 2007

Total, a French firm, has reportedly made a bid to acquire Esso’s Caribbean operations.

French integrated energy giant Total, the fourth largest oil company in the world, is bidding to purchase Esso’s Caribbean operations, including those in Jamaica, for a sum in excess of US$400M the Business Observer has said.

Last week, Total’s managing director in Jamaica, Luke Mache, was non-committal when he was contacted for a comment. “That is a matter for head office in France,” he told the Business Observer. “Local subsidiaries do not comment on acquisitions of this nature, but if you do hear anything further, do let me know.” read more

Onyema Okonkwo | 24 May 2007

WARRI, Nigeria — It takes two hours by boat to get to Deibu, an isolated outpost of about 17,000 people in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The town is cut off from civilization by the River Nun and a thick mangrove forest, and first-time visitors who make the journey are struck by the poverty they find — a stretch of rickety mud houses, with canoes lying by the riverside.

Deibu is trapped in another age. Children and adults bath naked in the Nun. There is no electricity service or plumbing. The village’s only sign of modernity is a battered health center, a primary school built by the villagers, and a six-classroom secondary school donated by the Shell oil company. read more

The Associated Press
Thursday, May 24, 2007

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A diplomatic spat between two west African nations based on allegations of multimillion-dollar corruption in the oil industry will be untangled by the International Court of Justice, after judges ruled Thursday they have jurisdiction in parts of the dispute.

The case, which likely will take years to settle, involves Guinean entrepreneur Ahmadou Sadio Diallo, who was jailed by Congolese authorities and then deported in 1996 following a dispute over millions of dollars (euros) that Congolese oil companies owed to two trading companies he had set up. read more

(As gas prices hit another record last Friday, Jeff Curro couldn’t take it anymore. Photo/Michael Sears)

By THOMAS CONTENT
[email protected]
Posted: May 23, 2007

After owning the Shell gas station at 3075 N. 124th St. in Brookfield for 20 years, Jeff Curro has stopped selling gas. As gas prices rose, his profit margin dropped.

He wasn’t a motorist at the pump fed up by the blur of numbers spinning higher as he filled his tank.

Curro is a gas station owner who has stopped selling gas to his own customers. read more

May 24th 2007
From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire

Russian regulators are doing a final check of alleged licence violations at the giant Kovykta gas field, which is majority owned by BP’s Russian joint venture. The licence could be withdrawn in a matter of weeks, but it is also possible that a deal could be reached to bring in state gas company Gazprom as the majority shareholder in the field, just as Shell and its partners did at Sakhalin-2. A comparison of the two cases, however, points to an outcome at Kovykta even less favourable for the foreign investor. read more

By Gemma Daley and Angela Macdonald-Smith

May 24 (Bloomberg) — Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation energy ministers will next week discuss carbon emissions as they seek to improve energy security while reducing environmental effects, an Australian minister said.

The talks by energy ministers from 21 APEC nations, including the U.S. and China, will feed into the leaders meeting in Sydney in September, Australian Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said today. APEC nations, which include the U.S. and China, are responsible for 60 percent of global energy demand. read more

05.24.07, 6:32 AM ET

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) – A subsidiary of Russian-British oil major TNK-BP Holdings could lose its license for the massive Kovykta gas field in Siberia before June 1, a top environmental official warned today.

Checks on licence compliance at the field have begun and in the event that they reveal ‘substantial violations, they could lose their license before June 1,’ Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, told AFP.

‘According to the law, the likelihood is 100 pct,’ he said. read more

05.24.07, 6:13 AM ET

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Russian authorities are looking for Prana, the unknown company which paid 3.9 bln usd to acquire key assets of bankrupt energy empire Yukos, beating rival Rosneft in a dramatic bidding war on May 11.

The country’s anti-monopoly service had extended a deadline for ruling on the deal until August 2 after documents sent to Prana’s registered address in Moscow were returned to the sender.

‘There’s no way of finding out the ownership of this company. We have no contact with them. That’s the whole problem,’ said Alexander Pirozhenko, an official from the anti-monopoly service. read more