October 8th, 2007:

Robert Lea, Evening Standard
8 October 2007, 12:13pm

Dreadful. It’s the word that BP chief executive Tony Hayward has chosen to describe the oil major’s operational performance. And it is the word that sparked the latest sell-off in shares of a giant that the City is finding difficult to trust.
 
As the oil price hovers around record highs of $80 a barrel, many economists and analysts like those at Goldman Sachs believe it is but a staging post on the way toward the $100 barrel.

The price has quadrupled over the past decade, bringing back the twin spectres of the £1-a-litre petrol price and £1000-a-year household energy charges once the gas price has been dragged back up, as well as the rising general costs that forced the Bank of England to admit it had failed to keep a lid on inflation. read more

08 Oct 2007 | 12:29 PM ET

NEW YORK (AP) – The following is a summary of top stories in the energy sector at midday Monday.

Energy Futures Down in Low Volume Trading Energy futures fell in quiet holiday trading as investors, questioning whether oil will keep surging to new highs, decided to cash in some of their recent profits.

Trading volumes were low as many traders were off for Columbus Day in the U.S. and for a national holiday in Japan.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell $1.98 to $79.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline for November lost 4.93 cents at $2 a gallon, while Nymex heating oil gave up 5.87 cents at $2.1648 a gallon. read more

By Anthony DiPaola and Nariman Gizitdinov

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — Eni SpA will likely reach an agreement with the Kazakh government in a dispute over escalating costs and delays at Kashagan, the world’s biggest oil discovery in 30 years, Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said today.

“We find it the most probable solution,” Scaroni told reporters in Astana, the Kazakh capital. Negotiations to break the deadlock over Kashagan began officially on Oct. 5 and will likely conclude with a package of concessions to Kazakhstan, according to the head of Italy’s biggest oil company. read more

Mon Oct 8, 2007 4:34pm BST

LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) last week lifted a force majeure declaration on shipments from its Forcados oil export terminal in Nigeria, a company spokeswoman said on Monday.

Enough crude was now available from storage and current production to honour its contracts, the official said.

The spokeswoman said there was only a small amount of output from the oilfields, which pumped about 500,000 barrels per day before militant attacks shut production. read more

Mon Oct 8, 2007 2:00pm BST

LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Iraq has sold nearly 5 million barrels of Kirkuk crude to buyers in Europe and the United States and plans to issue a new sales tender in the coming days, an Iraqi oil ministry source said on Monday.

Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), Cepsa (CEP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), Tupras (TUPRS.IS: Quote, Profile, Research), Erg (ERG.MI: Quote, Profile, Research), and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) had been awarded a total of 5 million barrels, he said. read more

Mon Oct 8, 2007 1:18pm BST
(The following statement was released by the ratings agency)

Oct 8 – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that it revised its outlook on international oil and gas integrated company Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and its Canadian subsidiary Shell Canada Ltd. to positive from stable.

At the same time, the ‘AA/A-1+’ long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on both entities were affirmed.

“The outlook revision follows Shell’s consolidation of its excellent business profile over the past two years, by continually improving upstream operating performance and maintaining solid downstream performance,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Emmanuel Dubois-Pelerin. read more

By Ben Farey

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — The International Energy Agency, an adviser to oil-consuming nations, said a lack of openness hampers the development of reserves in the Caspian, a region containing about 5 percent of the world’s oil and gas.

Turkmenistan, the second-largest gas producer in the former Soviet Union, hasn’t had a full, independent audit of its reserves, said the Paris-based IEA. The central Asian nation, along with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, ranks among the 31 most corrupt countries in the world, according to annual rankings by Transparency International. read more

ERIC REGULY
Globe and Mail Update
October 8, 2007 at 7:01 AM EDT

When other Canadian oil executives were enthralled with Alberta’s oil sands, Jim Buckee was leaping into far-flung hot spots like Sudan. When the industry was talking about virtually endless oil supplies, he was saying peak production was imminent.

He retired last month as CEO of Calgary’s Talisman Energy, one of Canada’s biggest oil producers. His job went to John Manzoni, BP’s former head of refining.

Mr. Buckee, 61, talked to The Globe and Mail about his contrarian strategies and views, global warming, whether mighty Suncor will fall prey to foreign buyers and why Australia is in his future. read more

By LILYA ERZHANOVA 10.08.07, 6:44 AM ET

ASTANA, Kazakhstan – Kazakhstan’s president pledged Monday not to review a major oil development contract with an international consortium led by Italy’s Eni SpA amid a row sparked by production delays.

“We are not talking about revising the contract that we signed (with the consortium) 10 years ago,” said President Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, he warned that the government will take measures in line with the national law against any foreign investor who “breaks the existing contracts.” read more

By Chris Morrison 10.7.07

LS9, a Silicon Valley startup that hopes its technology may one day help replace petroleum, has taken $15 million more in funding.

The San Carlos, Calif. company uses synthetic biology to modify microorganisms in order to produce high-energy fuels, including to power cars (see our previous coverage).

According to the company’s own projections, it is two to three years from commercializing and selling a synthetic fuel. LS9 recently recruited president Robert Walsh, who brings several decades of supply-line experience from Royal Dutch Shell. read more

By Upstream staff

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said today its first-quarter net profit rose to 217 billion roubles ($8.68 billion) from 191 billion roubles in the same period of last year.

Gazprom said its revenue rose to 612 billion roubles in the period, from 586 billion roubles in the first three months of 2006.

Gazprom’s net debt nearly halved to 468 billion roubles in the first quarter of 2007 from 808 billion roubles as of 31 December 2006.
——————————————————————————–
08 October 2007 07:38 GMT  | last updated: 08 October 2007 07:58 GMT read more

By Ben Bland
Last Updated: 12:39am BST 08/10/2007

With Russian resource nationalism rearing its ugly head again, you might think that these are not the best times to be a Western-backed, UK-listed oil company with all of its assets in Siberia. Royal Dutch Shell handed back control of Sakhalin II, the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas project, last year after pressure from Russia’s environmental watchdog.

Aim market

Other Western resource companies operating in Russia have also had their licences threatened on environmental grounds – although most analysts believe nationalism is the real driving force. read more

Bob Weber, THE CANADIAN PRESS
October 08, 2007

Climate change may make Canada’s Arctic energy resources easier to reach but it could also make them harder to exploit, a U.S. scientist will tell an international conference this week.

“With significant changes to (sea) ice cover, we’re going to have to pay very close attention to how that’s changing,” said Hajo Eicken of the University of Alaska.

Eicken is one of the presenters from at least five countries scheduled to speak at a workshop on oil spills in ice-choked waters. The conference in Anchorage, Alaska, starts Wednesday and is organized by Ottawa-based SL Ross Environmental Research Ltd. read more

The Associated Press: Published: October 8, 2007

ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Italy’s prime minister met with top officials in Kazakhstan Monday on a visit that comes amid a dispute between the oil-rich Central Asian nation and an international consortium led by Italy’s Eni SpA.

The Kazakh government wants to renegotiate with the consortium the terms of the development of the massive Kashagan oil field in the northern Caspian Sea over delays in commercial production and cost overruns.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who is on his first trip to Kazakhstan, is expected to try to soften the ex-Soviet republic’s stance in the dispute during his talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Karim Masimov. read more

EXTRACT: Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA LN): Shell’s refinery in Martinez, California, had an unplanned flaring which released about 500 pounds of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, according to Steve Lesher, a company spokesman.

By Trista Kelley and Sarah Thompson

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — The following stocks may rise or fall in U.K. and Irish markets today. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from the last market close.

The benchmark FTSE 100 Index rose 47.90, or 0.7 percent, to close at 6,595.80. The FTSE All-Share Index advanced 21.26, or 0.6 percent, to 3,387.06. read more