Posting on Shell Blog by “John Johns “on Apr 23rd, 2010 at 8:03 am

REUTERS

NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co (RDSa.L) said Thursday it temporarily shut down a 75,000 barrel-per-day crude oil pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico as a precautionary measure due to its proximity to the Transocean rig fire.

The pipeline known as Nakika supplies the larger Delta pipeline system and Motiva’s Norco, Louisiana, refinery.

A company spokeswoman said Shell does not expect the pipeline to be shut for long and said the outage would have no material impact on the Norco refinery’s operations.

(Reporting by Joshua Schneyer and Rebekah Kebede)

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The sources said when these two letters arrived at the ministry, the evaluation team was asked to “accommodate” Shell at all costs. The sources said after some typical bureaucratic resistance, the official summary to be sent to the ECC contained the name of Shell, which was the highest bidder. The name of FF/Vitol was replaced with Shell. The report of the consultant opposing the award of contract to Shell was thrown in the dustbin.

Now, a multi-billion dollar LNG contract scam in Pak surfaces

Malaysia Sun

Thursday 22nd April, 2010

In yet another massive scam that could run into billion of dollars, the Pakistan Supreme Court has been told that a French company was awarded two contracts for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) without even participating in the bidding procedure.

During a hearing, Petroleum Ministry’s special secretary G A Sabari told the apex court that the French company, GDF Suez, had neither applied for the short term (five years) 3.5 million tons gas supply nor for the long term (20 years), as required under the bidding laws.

Despite that fact the French company was given both the contracts worth 25 billion dollars in February 2010 in the Economic Coordination Committee presided over by Shaukat Tarin on the recommendation of Petroleum Ministry bosses, The News reports.

The Supreme Court was also told that the that Sui Sounthern Gas Company had also recommended to give the short-term gas supply contract to Shell through a letter dated May 2, 2009, without calling any tenders and bids.

Sabari also told the court that initially 53 companies, which were finally shortlisted to 10, were in the race for the gas supply deal, but ultimately GDF-Suez, which didn’t even feature in the list was awarded the contract. (ANI)

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RIGGED SHELL CONTRACT TENDER

Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:41am BST

* Global gas demand seen rising 50 pct by 2030

* Sees LNG thirst doubling by 2020

* $5 trillion needed to produce new gas in next 20 years

PARIS, April 22 (Reuters) – Global demand for gas is set to rise constantly over the next 20 years amid plentiful reserves and its increasing use to produce power, a senior executive at Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said on Thursday.

“We see global gas demand growing by at least 2 percent a year over some decades, so by 2030 we look at gas demand hitting 4.5 trillion cubic meters of gas per year,” Malcom Brinded told an oil conference. “That’s 50 percent up from today’s level.”

Brinded was equally bullish on prospects for liquefied natural gas, which he saw growing “a lot faster” than overall gas demand, driven by China’s economic growth and higher demand in Europe and countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Pakistan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

“Despite the difficult market we’ve had in the last year in the recession, we… expect global LNG demand to double this decade,” said Brinded, who expects China’s gas demand to “double or treble” by 2020 from around 100 billion cubic meters today.

This boom in LNG demand will need to be matched by a similarly rapid increase in supply, which is currently growing by at least 6 to 8 percent a year, he said.

Brinded said he was confident this was possible.

“There is enough gas around, this is increasingly clear,” he said, citing data from the International Energy Agency showing recoverable gas reserves worth 250 years of current production.

Some $5 trillion would be needed over the next 20 years — or $20 billion per year — to extract this gas.

“These figures are staggering,” he said. “The gas is there, it is going to take investments and it needs a lot of new technology… This is truly an energy revolution.” “People are looking for certainty around three key issues: availability, affordability and environmental acceptability of gas. I think gas wins on all points.”

(Reporting by Muriel Boselli, Emma Farge and Marie Maitre; Editing by Michael Hogan)

© Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved.

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This image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon Wednesday April 21, 2010. The Coast Guard by sea and air planned to search overnight for 11 workers missing since a thunderous explosion rocked an oil drilling platform that continued to burn late Wednesday. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard)

PORT FOURCHON, La. — Families eagerly waited to welcome survivors of a thunderous blast that rocked the oil platform they were aboard as Coast Guard rescuers combed Gulf of Mexico waters Thursday for signs of 11 missing from the still-burning rig.

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Meanwhile, BP and Shell, reading the science and public mood, felt that it would be smarter to acknowledge climate change and shape their responses in advance.

upstreamonline

Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible drilling rig is listing 70 degrees and in danger of toppling 12 hours after an explosion that injured seven and left 11 people still missing.

Aleya Begum & Mark Hillier 21 April 2010 07:27 GMT

Local reports had said the 11 missing had been located but the Coast Guard told UpstreamOnline that the search operations are still underway with a pair of Coast Guard cutters.

A Coast Guard representative said the “fire is still raging” on the rig despite attempts from four fire boats to extinguish the blaze.

The representative added that the rig was gushing fuel into the sea.

An initial report from the US Coast Guard said that all 126 workers had “gotten off the rig”, which is working for BP on the Macondo prospect in the US Gulf, but seven were critically injured.

“Three (of the injured) were met by ambulance at Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans, two were medevaced to West Jefferson hospital in New Orleans by air ambulance and two were flown to Mobile Trauma Centre in Mobile,” said the Coast Guard in a statement.

“There are approximately 11 to 12 people who remain missing.”

A Transocean spokesperson said “a substantial majority of workers” have been evacuated from the rig, adding “a small number are still unaccounted for”.

“As far as we know there have been no fatalities, but this could change,” Greg Panagos said.

A BP spokesperson said:”All of BP’s on-board personnel are safe and have been accounted for”.

The US Coast Guard District Eight command centre first received reports of the incident around 2200 hours local time yesterday.

By 04.20 local time this morning, a Coastguard spokesperson confirmed the fire had not yet been extinguished.

He said the cause of the blaze is not yet known, but an investigation will be carried out.

“Any guesses on the cause of the fire now would be pure speculation,” Panagos said, adding that Transocean’s focus at this stage was the safety of its crew.

Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters are still at the scene, about 84 kilometres south-east of Venice, Louisiana. The Macondo prospect is in the north Mississippi Canyon area.

Deepwater Horizon was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries at the shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea.

It is a Reading & Bates Falcon RBS-8D dynamically positioned design with accommodations for up to 130 people.

Deepwater Horizon can operate in waters up to 8000 feet and can drill to 30,000 feet.

The current dayrate on the rig is believed to be around $500,000.

Deepwater Horizon cost an estimated $350 million when delivered but replacement costs for a similar unit today could approach double that amount.

Published: 21 April 2010 07:27 GMT  | Last updated: 21 April 2010 16:25 GMT

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By Newsolio Editor

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana- An oil rig off the coast of Louisiana near the the petroleum town of Venice has exploded, leaving at least 8 injured.

Local TV news reports said the Deep Water Horizon oil rig, owned by Transocean (NYSE: RIG) and operated by BP (NYSE:BP ), was on fire after the explosion late Tuesday evening April 20 2010.

The US Coast Guard was called to the Atlanic Oil rig and had pullled several people from the water. At least 8 of the injured were described as “critical.”

120 workers were on the Deep Water Horizon oil rig when the explosion occured. All people on the oil rig were being evacuated to shore by the US Coast Guard.

Post updates with more information as it comes in….

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Transocean Deepwater Horizon is on fire