November 6th, 2007:

November 6, 2007 6:14 p.m. EST 
Paul Icamina – AHN News Writer

San Francisco, CA (AHN) – Industrial noise and oil spills could disturb or harm endangered bowhead whales, polar bears, fish and birds that sustain the Inupiat subsistence culture in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.

These were the arguments put forward by native whale hunters, environmentalists and the North Slope Borough when they sued successfully to stop Shell’s exploratory efforts in Camden Bay this summer, saying they fear the risks to wildlife and the environment. read more

Tue Nov 6, 2007 7:00pm GMT 

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dutch firms are looking for more gas exploration opportunities in Russia, the world’s biggest gas producer, a Dutch minister of foreign trade told reporters on Tuesday.

“Dutch companies are looking at possibilities to explore gas fields in Yamal… it’s very cold, it’s very difficult, but there’s a lot of gas,” Frank Heemskerk said on the sidelines of a state visit by Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende to Moscow. read more

Tue Nov 6, 2007 10:58am EST 
By Tom Bergin and Michael Erman – Analysis

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – If $100 dollars a barrel becomes a long term oil price, shares in top crude producing companies should benefit, but the dramatic boost implied by traditional financial models is unlikely.

Analysts’ existing assumptions indicate as much as a 50 percent uplift in profitability and as much as a 100 percent rise in asset values among companies such as Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research), should prices settle at a new norm above the record $96/bbl seen last week. read more

By Julie Ziegler

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — Nigeria, Africa’s biggest producer of crude oil, is planning to stop funding joint ventures with major oil companies and instead wants the money raised on international capital markets.

President Umaru Yar’Adua said that money spent by the government to finance partnerships with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and others would be better used for public works and social services.

“Part of the reasons why we are restructuring our oil sector is to free the resources that we pay the oil companies under joint venture agreements for critical areas like power, education and health,” Yar’Adua said Nov. 2 in Wiesbaden, Germany, according to a statement from his office in Abuja, Nigeria. read more

Tue Nov 6, 2007 5:59 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil leapt more than a dollar on Tuesday, rebounding to above $95 a barrel as financial players drove volatility.

Investors, wary of global equity markets where the full impact of the credit crunch has yet to become clear, see oil as a good bet, especially given tight fuel supplies in the run up to the northern hemisphere winter.

U.S. crude rose $1.23 to $95.21 a barrel, closing in on its peak of $96.24 hit last week.

London Brent crude jumped $1.26 to $91.75 a barrel. read more

Former Royal Dutch Shell Brand Executive, Paddy Briggs, comments on todays Washington Times article…

The Washington Times: Socialist oil death spiral (6 November 2007)

November 6th, 2007 04:37

I am surprised that a newspaper in America’s Federal capital would give space to an article so woefully short on logic and verifiable facts. To suggest that America’s car fleets will be electric powered in ten years time is just hokum! And to charge that oil producing States with as diverse political systems as Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are “socialist” is equally absurd. I wonder how the Saudi King Abdullah would react if someone said to his face that he is a “socialist”!

Richard Rahn’s right-wing rant does not only misuse its invective (the use of “socialist” as a term of abuse, for example) but adds little or nothing to the furthering of the debate about the realties of the energy world. To suggest that the multinational oil companies would prefer that the oil price be determined by a “truly free market” is ignorant in the extreme. The huge profits in recent years of Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and others have been primarily driven by high oil prices. Nothing that an oil Major does in the short term (acquisitions aside) has any discernable affect on their profitability for a very long time. The lead times of the industry are just too long for there to be an immediate response in profits to any action taken today. Even the predilection for cost-cutting (that has led to disasters like the BP Texas oil refinery explosion) produces only a small blip on profit performance. So oil companies are adept at managing things in such a way that the higher the oil price the better their results. Whilst I would not charge that there is a conspiracy between the national oil companies and the oil majors to keep prices high there is undoubtedly mutual advantage! read more

This Day (Lagos)
6 November 2007
Chika Amanze-Nwachuku
Lagos And Omon-Julius Onabu in Warri

Utorogu Gas Plant, belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), has been reopened.

The plant was shut in the wake of the fire that gutted the 10-inch Utorogu-Ughelli Pumping Station condensate trunkline mid last month.
 
SPDC official who confirmed this in a telephone chat with THISDAY said, the company has resumed gas supply to the national grid which was suspended since the fire incident.

The condensate trunkline was been repaired a few days after the fire incident, but some leakages were discovered, a development which forced the company to again shut down the gas plant. read more

Information released by Shell Media Office
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 310

The development of sustainable biofuel took a step forward today as Royal Dutch Shell plc expanded its collaboration with Codexis Inc. to develop new super enzymes to convert biomass to fuel.

The new agreement covers five years of research collaboration and includes Shell making an equity investment in Codexis and taking a seat on the company’s board. Research will focus on adapting enzymes to improve the conversion of a range of raw materials into high-performance fuels. It will assist Shell in developing the next generation of biofuels as it explores a number of non-food bio materials, new conversion processes and alternative fuel products. read more

Shell discovery documents added on 6 November 2007

Shell Confidential Economics, Planning and Portfolio Analysis (EPPA) Review – SNEP Co: Nov 2000 (32 pages)

http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/425_4.pdf

Note From: A A Barendregt Group Reserves Auditor to A J Parsley, Director, SEPIV BV 8 February 1999: Confidential (13 Pages)

http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/425_5.pdf

Shell Confidential: Petrol Resource Volume Guidelines Resource Classification and Value Realisation: SIEP EPB-P SEPTEMBER 2001 (49 pages) read more

By Daniel Hannan

One of the many tragic consequences of the Iraq war is that it has made it harder to act against Iran. The geographical and alphabetical proximity of the two countries tempts us into false comparisons. Look at the mess the neo-cons made in Iraq, we think. We surely can’t let those clots try the same failed strategy against Iran. Nor do you hear this argument only from tousled students.

Mohammed El-Baradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, says that Iraq should serve as a warning to those who want a forward policy against Teheran. read more

· Energy company shares triple in value on flotation
· Analysts warn that China’s market boom is a bubble

Jonathan Watts in Kunming and Graeme Wearden
Tuesday November 6, 2007

PetroChina became the world’s first trillion-dollar company yesterday after shares in the business almost tripled in value on its flotation on the Shanghai stock market.
The energy company’s soaring valuation underlines the frenzy among Chinese investors for new stock despite concerns that a bubble has formed in the country’s closed equity markets. read more

By Gordon Feller
For the Journal

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ordered his advisors to draft a detailed plan to develop Sakhalin Island’s infrastructure in the wake of a major earthquake there earlier this year.
The situation in Sakhalin “should be radically improved,” Putin told a cabinet meeting Oct. 1.

In the meantime, Russia’s state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, questioned the commercial relevance of one Sakhalin offshore project. The East Kaigan deposit was discovered within the framework of the Sakhalin-5 project, but reserves there are yet to prove large enough to be considered commercially viable, according to Rosneft CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov. read more

Richard W. Rahn
November 6, 2007

Socialism always plants the seeds of its own destruction, and state-owned oil is no exception. Most people do not realize that about 90 percent of the world’s liquid oil reserves are controlled by governments or state-owned companies. Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest privately owned oil company, owns only 1.08 percent of the world’s oil reserves, and the five largest private global oil companies together own only about 4 percent of the world’s oil reserves. read more

LONDON, November 5 (IranMania) – Iran warned foreign oil and gas firms that it will implement major projects with domestic companies alone if they do not speed up the completion of negotiations, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Acting Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said the signing on Sunday of a subcontract for Iran’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with an Iranian contractor showed that Tehran was prepared to ignore foreign partners.

His comments come amid growing pressure from Washington and pro-US EU countries on energy giants to reduce their new business with Iran at a time of mounting tensions over its nuclear programme. read more

By TANYA MOHN
Published: November 6, 2007

Life-threatening blood clots and flying have been linked for more than 50 years, but a new study of business travelers confirms the risk, particularly for those who take long flights or fly frequently.

Michael G. Reiff, an executive with Royal Dutch Shell, was hospitalized with blood clots several years ago. He has cut his flying time since then.

Immobility is considered a major factor behind the condition, called deep vein thrombosis.

But while it is often referred to as “economy-class syndrome” because of the cramped seating there, D.V.T. also occurs among those who fly in business class and first class, the researchers found. read more