August 14th, 2007:

HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 14, 2007–Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. (NYSE:DO) today reported that the semi-submersible rig Ocean Guardian, operating in the U.K. sector of the North Sea, experienced a fire in its engine room at 18:20 U.K. time today. The rig’s fire suppression system was activated and the fire was extinguished. All personnel have been accounted for and there were no injuries. The well remained under control throughout the incident and is secure. A damage assessment is underway. Appropriate authorities have been notified. read more

Updated: 20:30, Tuesday August 14, 2007

A fire has broken out on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland.

The blaze broke out on a rig 100 miles north east of the coast of Aberdeen, a spokesman for RAF Kinloss said.
 
Oil rigs hazardous place for fireHelicopters have been evacuating workers from the platform, understood to be operated by Diamond Offshore, to nearby installations.

The coastguard confirmed that 32 personal had already been evacuated and that the fire had been brought under control.

The Ocean Guardian rig, which was built in 1985 and has a potential drilling depth of 25,000ft and is located around 120 miles north east of Aberdeen in the North Sea. read more

Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:00AM EDT

DUESSELDORF, Germany, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Energy groups Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) plan to sell their German natural gas network operator BEB in a deal worth billions of euros, an online German business magazine reported on Tuesday.

Citing industry sources, manager-magazin.de said the two oil companies had determined the joint venture was not a core business and said that the sale process was far advanced. read more

SANTO DOMINGO. – The anti-corruption agency (DPCA) will today continue to interrogate executives of the company Shell and the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa), for the altered fuel freight and purchase invoices, a probe which “only the death” of the suspects would detain.

DPCA director Octavio Líster said the fact Shell has sold its refinery shares doesn’t interrupt the investigation. He cited Justice minister Radhamés Jiménez’s warning that though Shell sold its shares it won’t deter the probe into the altered invoices “under any circumstances.” read more

Updated: 19:46, Tuesday August 14, 2007

An emergency evacuation is being carried out from an oil platform north of Aberdeen where the crew are fighting an “out of control” fire.

More than 30 people are being airlifted from the oil platform by helicopter more than 125 miles north of Aberdeen in the North Sea.

Michael Milford, of RAF Kinloss, said the coastguard was mounting a “major effort” to evacuate the rig in conjunction with Norway in an international rescue operation.

He told Sky News: “There are 87 people on board and the first helicopter has taken 37 off and that leaves people to fight the fire and keep the rig going. read more

By Robert Armstrong
August 14th, 2007

Shell Oil Company when it bought Texaco inherited a problem of Texaco stations with abandoned underground garage sumps with toxic wastes and car hoists with hydraulic fluids destined to leak into the environment.

One is in Corona, California and is only 957 feet from a clean water aquifer. Shell is actively trying not to have the problem uncovered so it will not have to clean up some former 13,000 Texaco stations.

Shell has sold all of it stations to its retailers to not only hide the Texaco problem but to dump their failing tank containment systems on their retailers and the insurance industry and to effectively abandon all their retail environmental responsibilities in the United States. read more

Tuesday, 14 August 2007 
Áine Ryan

SIX months after an initial application was made to re-route the Corrib gas pipeline an Bórd Pleanála (ABP) has still failed to decide whether the case comes under the jurisdiction of the recently-instituted Strategic Infrastructure Act or will revert to the local authority (Mayo County Council).

However, independent consultants RPS have confirmed to The Mayo News that such a determination is contingent on the full planning application being made once a specific route is decided upon. read more

 Washington (Platts)–13 Aug 2007

Even if a US Appeals Court Tuesday allows Royal Dutch Shell to begin exploration efforts off the Arctic coast of Alaska, work in the area is unlikely to begin until at least mid-September, making it unlikely the major will complete the three-well drilling program planned for the area this year.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in mid-July ordered Shell to halt exploration activity pending a hearing on whether the US Minerals Management Service adequately analyzed the that effects drilling or a potential spill could have on wildlife and the environment when MMS granted Shell authority to move ahead with its 2007-2009 Beaufort Sea drilling plan. read more

By Upstream staff

Malaysia and Brunei are still working to resolve a boundary dispute that has held up offshore oil exploration for the past four years, local media said today, contrary to earlier reports suggesting the dispute had been settled.

“The boundary issue is in the process of being resolved through meetings between senior officials from both countries,” Malaysia’s New Straits Times newspaper quoted the country’s Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying during bilateral talks in Brunei. read more

PR Newswire (US)
Published: Aug 13, 2007

NEW YORK, Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ — As the fastest land animal in North America, the pronghorn antelope is also proving adaptable to science-informed development, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which has just released its second annual report on the interactions of pronghorn with oil and gas development in the Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming. Similar to the first annual report published last summer, the new data suggest that the population of the pronghorn antelope herds remain strong throughout the Anticline at the current level of development. The ongoing five-year study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) utilized input from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). read more

Abigail L. Ho
Published: Aug 14, 2007

AFTER YEARS OF DELAY, THE Shell group of companies in the Philippines will finally start selling compressed natural gas (CNG) by the end of next month.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said in an interview that Shell country chair Edgar Chua himself had made a firm commitment to start selling CNG to buses plying the Batangas-Manila route next month with the operation of refilling stations.

We spoke on the phone and thats what he told me. We also discussed the details of the station to be set up in Binan, Laguna, he said. read more

Alexis Douglas B. Romero,
Published: Aug 14, 2007

Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes yesterday vowed to promote the wider use of natural gas to lessen the country’s dependence on imported oil.

In a press conference, the newly appointed Energy chief said the department will particularly push for natural gas infrastructure to make the alternative fuel available not only for power but also for transport, commercial and industrial use.

“Natural gas is the fuel of the future. [It] provides energy independence, stable and secure energy supply and clean and efficient fuel. We are currently using this for power alone but we need to promote it in the transport, industrial and commercial sectors,” Mr. Reyes said. read more

Published: Aug 14, 2007

Imagine you recently closed a deal that made you a multimillionaire at 45, then you get a call from a group of soon-to-be-unemployed miners who’d like you to lead their new venture and raise in excess of $100-million.

Instead of doing the sensible thing — hang up — Guy Turcotte took the group under his wing, pitched in $25-million of his own cash and, in mid-1999, when oil prices were weak and the Athabasca oilsands deposits unknown, launched Western Oil Sands Inc. read more

Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, Irish Times
Published: Aug 14, 2007

The North Mayo Shell to Sea campaign has called on Shell E&P Ireland to disclose details of its sponsorship of local organisations in Erris, following the controversy over funding of the Feile Iorrais arts festival.

The campaign was commenting on what it has described as “unacceptable” heckling experienced by Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins during her recent reading at the international folk arts festival.

Ms Higgins was among several artists booked for the event who had expressed disappointment that they had not been informed beforehand of Shell’s financial support. Shell’s sponsorship appeared on the festival website, but not on the printed Feile Iorrais programme. read more

Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:15PM EDT
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Coast Guard cutter is headed to the Arctic this week on a mapping mission to determine whether part of this area can be considered U.S. territory, after recent polar forays by Russia and Canada.

The four-week cruise of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy starts Friday and aims to map the sea floor on the northern Chukchi Cap, an underwater plateau that extends from Alaska’s North Slope some 500 miles northward. read more

The commissioner for Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Hon. Ikalama T. Awongo has charged the management of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) to evolve policies and programmes that would bring economic empowerment to the people of their host communities.

Ikalama said this during a meeting with representatives of the company on the proposed truckline project.

Ikalama who urged the company to assist the state government in the resuscitating of Craft Development Centres, also stressed the need for the company to take the issue of unemployment seriously especially in its host communities. read more