October 6th, 2007:

By ROB STAPLETON
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Oct 6, 3:03 AM EDT

BARROW, Alaska (AP) — There was no dancing, singing or Eskimo blanket toss at the North Slope Oil and Gas Forum on Sept. 19-21 in Barrow. Interested parties got right down to business, giving their perspectives on oil development on Alaska’s north coast.

In attendance were more than 200 people, representing residents of the North Slope Borough, as well as state, federal and oil industry officials. Hosted by the North Slope Borough, the event offered a detailed look at the various, and sometimes conflicting, sides of oil development in the Arctic. read more

IT’S COMMITTED: Oil giant says it has the experience to do the job right.

By ERIKA BOLSTAD
[email protected]

Published: October 6, 2007
Last Modified: October 6, 2007 at 02:13 AM

WASHINGTON — A Shell Oil executive who heads up exploration in the Americas said he’s been personally spending time on the North Slope, hoping to persuade borough officials and residents that the company’s exploratory efforts not only will be environmentally sound, but of economic benefit to the state. read more

Posted to the Web: Saturday, October 06, 2007

LAGOS — Nigerian oil output could rise by 500,000 barrels a day by July 2008 if security in the Niger Delta continues to improve and a new offshore field starts on time, industry sources said on Thursday.

The anticipated recovery in supply from Africa’s top oil producer follows almost two years of declining or stagnant exports due to militant attacks that closed a fifth of capacity in Feb. 2006, fuelling a global oil price rally.

Workers are slowly returning to the Forcados and EA oilfields closed by those attacks, and operator Royal Dutch Shell has already restored about 65,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the 477,000 bpd output lost in the western Niger Delta. read more

Washington (Platts)–5 Oct 2007

Any decision by the Alberta government to move forward with a proposal to raise royalties on oil and gas production likely would have a “big impact” on Royal Dutch Shell’s spending programs, but the major is not ready to talk specifics until it fully analyses the issue, Marvin Odum, Shell’s vice president for exploration and production in the Americas said Friday.

“We are still studying the proposal. Certainly, what has been proposed, if approved, will have a big impact,” Odum told reporters in Washington during a wide-ranging interview on Shell’s exploration activities in the US and Canada. He pointed out, however, that the Alberta government has not yet approved the measure, so “we are not going to toss out numbers” on something that may or may not happen. read more

Central Gulf of Mexico lease sale draws breathtaking $2.9B in high bids

Vol. 12, No. 40  Week of October 07, 2007
Ray Tyson
For Petroleum News

Companies opened their wallets in a spectacular display of spending at Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 205, plunking down $2.9 billion in apparent high bids, by far the best showing for a U.S. Gulf lease sale in more than two decades. The number of winning and losing bids combined totaled $5.2 billion, demonstrating the highly competitive nature of the Oct. 3 sale in New Orleans. read more

By Jeremy Lemer
Published: October 6 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 6 2007 03:00

Oil & Gas

Shell UK, part of the Royal Dutch Shell oil group, will take a pension contribution holiday. The company said its £12.1bn scheme was heavily in surplus and close to fully funded on a “full buy-out” basis – the most conservative method of valuation. Pensions fund holidays were common in the 1980s and 1990s but in recent years have been discouraged by regulators worried about difficult to predict long-term risks. read more

Fri Oct 5, 2007 9:41 PM BST
By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – It could be at least six or seven years before any oil starts flowing into the U.S. market from the new offshore leases Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) paid the government a record amount to drill on, a senior company official said on Friday.

The Interior Department this week accepted $554.6 million in high bids from Shell Oil for oil and natural gas leases in the deep waters of the central Gulf of Mexico. The bids were the highest amount the company has ever paid for Gulf leases. read more