September 22nd, 2007:

Robert Mugabe has put the BP’s Zimbabwe operation at the top of the list for takeover under a new law to bring foreign companies under local control, write Michael Gwaridzo and Stephen Bevan.

He told a meeting of his ruling Zanu-PF party’s politburo that the oil giant would be one of the first companies to be targeted, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Ministers said the move was intended as retaliation for what they claim is Britain’s “invisible hand” in a recent decision by Australia to expel eight students whose parents are senior Zimbabwean officials. read more

By Jim Kennett

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said it was returning to normal operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico after evacuating personnel who were under threat of a potentially dangerous storm.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the largest producer in the Gulf, also began returning workers to some offshore platforms late yesterday, the company said on its Web site. BP planned no further updates on the status of its operations, the company said on a media hotline today. read more

Email Print Normal font Large font Angela Macdonald-Smith
September 22, 2007

ROYAL Dutch Shell, the world’s biggest non-state producer of liquefied natural gas, said the jump in construction costs that had been delaying new supply projects was set to ease as engineering companies expanded.

For the first time in at least two years, engineering contractors were starting to seek new work in LNG project design, Linda Cook, the executive director of Shell Gas & Power, said yesterday in an interview. Technology advances such as floating LNG plants would also help overcome cost hurdles, she said. read more

Vol. 12, No. 38  Week of September 23, 2007

9th Circuit reaffirms temporary injunction against Beaufort Sea drilling until 3 appeals against Shell’s exploration plan resolved

Alan Bailey
Petroleum News

The controversy surrounding the push spearheaded by Shell to extend oil and gas development into Alaska Arctic offshore revolves to a considerable extent around fundamental issues relating to the world’s endless appetite for energy and the concerns of an ancient but fragile Native Arctic culture. read more

By John Donovan
Saturday 22 September 2007

Guest 6011 joins the debate about Malcolm Brinded and David Greer with postings on Saturday 22 September 2007

Guest 6011: I am not 8656 but I do know both Brinded & Greer from my own time with Shell: Greer was a typical bully, who could be very good to those who supported him, but could never tolerate any form of debate or dissent. Brinded is a talented man but his behaviour at Expro condoned corruption (anyone who knows about the Graham Birnie issue will know his role in it.) and had taken this “ends justifies the means” approach forward to a larger role with greater opportunity for corrupt practice. read more

HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- A newly approved refinery expansion may provide the latest option for processing Canadian crude.

Motiva Enterprises LLC’s decision to double the size of its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery provides an outlet capable of handling an additional 325,000 barrels a day of heavy, sour grades of crude.

Final approval of the $7 billion expansion was announced Friday, after more than two years of deliberations by the joint venture’s co-owners, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) and Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. read more

UK, France and Russia plan to exploit new UN rules to claim huge swaths of ocean

John Vidal, environment editor, and Owen Bowcott
The Guardian Saturday September 22 2007

Britain is poised to get much bigger. South Africa, Russia, France, Brazil, Australia and Ireland are hoping to expand too. In fact, 45 countries with coastlines qualify for potential “extended underwater territory” rights under the new UN Law of the Sea Convention.

This new law, due to come into force in a few years time, has provoked a scramble for underwater land almost as fierce as the one for Africa in the 19th century when European countries divided up the continent between them. read more

Speculation caused oil prices to reach record highs after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut eased concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown. (By Hasan Jamali — Associated Press)

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page D01

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may have cooled off the credit crisis by cutting interest rates, but he may also have heated up oil prices this week.

For seven consecutive business days, crude oil prices have hit new highs. Even after dropping slightly yesterday, crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange finished the week at $81.62 a barrel, up a third since Jan. 1 and not far short of the inflation-adjusted peak set in January 1981, when Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was at war with Iran. read more

Speculation caused oil prices to reach record highs after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut eased concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown. (By Hasan Jamali — Associated Press)

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; Page D01

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may have cooled off the credit crisis by cutting interest rates, but he may also have heated up oil prices this week.

For seven consecutive business days, crude oil prices have hit new highs. Even after dropping slightly yesterday, crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange finished the week at $81.62 a barrel, up a third since Jan. 1 and not far short of the inflation-adjusted peak set in January 1981, when Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was at war with Iran. read more

Port Arthur refinery will, by 2010, produce
enough fuel to fill 1.5m cars each day

By Russell Hotten Industry Editor
Last Updated: 2:19am BST 22/09/2007
 
Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company are to spend at least $7bn (£3.5bn) to more than double the size of a refinery in Texas in what is the most significant investment in such facilities in the US for 30 years.

Motiva Enterprises, a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco, says its Port Arthur refinery will, by 2010, be the largest in the US – producing enough fuel to fill 1.5m cars each day. read more

By Michael McQuillan
NewsLeader
Sep 21 2007

Shell Canada filed a law suit this week seeking damages following the July oil spill in North Burnaby.

The Calgary-based company is looking to recover costs from the City of Burnaby, Kinder Morgan and Cusano Contracting. Shell operates the Shellburn Distribution Facility at the north end of Kensington Avenue. It receives petroleum products from the Kinder Morgan pipeline which was damaged, then shut down July 24.

It’s estimated that 234,000 litres of crude oil were spilled when a Cusano excavator struck the pipeline, sending a geyser into the air in the 7200-block of Inlet Drive. The geyser coated the neighbourhood with oil. read more

EXTRACT: Washington has repeatedly pressed European banks and energy companies to cease investing in a state it lists as a state sponsor of terrorism. Firms that could be hard hit include the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Shell, which is considering a multi-billion pound project in Iran to produce natural gas.

THE ARTICLE: Bush may bypass UN with tough sanctions against Iran

September 22, 2007
Tom Baldwin in Washington

President Bush is prepared to bypass the United Nations and instead work with European allies on imposing tougher sanctions against Iran’s defiant stance on its nuclear programme. read more