By Manirajan Ramasamy and Barry Porter

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — Malaysia unveiled 67 billion ringgit ($22 billion) of private-sector investments spanning energy, property and health, including oil and gas projects by Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Exxon Mobil will jointly invest more than 10 billion ringgit in a production-sharing project with Petronas Carigali Sdn., the exploration arm of state oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters outside Kuala Lumpur today. Shell’s Malaysian unit will spend another 5.1 billion ringgit on three projects, he said.

“The feel-good factor for investing in Malaysia is returning,” International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said. “We have set a target for investments in 2011 amounting to 83 billion ringgit and we’re confident of achieving it.”

Last September, the government outlined $444 billion of potential private company-led projects this decade as part of a so-called economic transformation program. These ranged from nuclear energy to mass rail, and included the oil and gas industry. Najib gave details of 19 of these today.

Exxon Mobil and Petronas Carigali plan to drill existing fields in the Tapis and Telok projects to find new reserves, Najib said.

“Investment in these projects will help develop and deliver energy supplies to meet Malaysia’s growing energy needs,” the prime minister said.

Tax Incentives

The government announced tax incentives in November to encourage companies to explore less-profitable fields in a bid to extend the size and life of the country’s petroleum reserves. Malaysia, Southeast Asia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, has domestic crude oil reserves to last 24 years and natural gas for 38 years, the finance ministry said Oct. 15.

Shell plans a deepwater development off Malaysia’s eastern Sabah state, as well as a diesel-processing unit in Port Dickson, Najib said. The company will also upgrade and expand its Bintulu plant in Borneo, he said.

“Malaysia is one of our heartlands,” Shell Malaysia Chairman Mohd. Anuar Taib said at the event in Putrajaya today. “In the upstream, new reserves and production are getting harder to come by.”

Selangor-based Dialog Group Bhd. will lead a consortium investing 5 billion ringgit in a deepwater petroleum terminal at Pengerang, in Malaysia’s southern Johor state, Najib said, confirming an earlier announcement. The facility will have storage capacity of 5 million cubic meters and is being developed in partnership with the Johor state government and Royal Vopak NV, he said.

‘Tremendous Opportunities’

“There are tremendous spinoff opportunities from the Pengerang project and it will eventually attract adjacent investments worth tens of billions of ringgit from other companies,” Ngau Boon Keat, Dialog’s chairman, told reporters.

In the property sector, Guocoland (Malaysia) Bhd., the property arm of Hong Leong Group, will invest 1.9 billion ringgit in a mixed development in Kuala Lumpur, Najib said. The project will include offices, retail, a hotel and apartments, he said in a statement.

UM Holdings Bhd., a unit of Universiti Malaya, will invest 1.2 billion ringgit in a healthcare development in Selangor, outside Kuala Lumpur, the statement shows. MyTelehaus Sdn., CSF Group and Teliti International will invest a combined 671 million ringgit in data centers, according to the statement.

–Editors: John Viljoen, Jane Lee.

To contact the reporters on this story: Manirajan Ramasamy in Kuala Lumpur at rmanirajan@bloomberg.net; Barry Porter in Kuala Lumpur at bporter10@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Dear Mr. Donovan:

I have been reading your blog and I am highly distressed at your continued slandering and defamation of ‘fat cats’ by associating us with Royal Dutch Shell management. I and my colleagues are in no way affiliated with, or in collusion with, Royal Dutch Shell management. I must therefore demand that you cease and desist with your defamatory comments about ‘fat’ cats. Otherwise, I and my fellow ‘weight challenged’ felines will have no choice but to seek remedy through the legal system.

I would suggest that a ‘fat rat’ analogy would be better suited to your purposes, although I know many ‘fat rats’ that would also object to being associated with Royal Dutch Shell management.

Sincerely yours,

Big Boy

Drop in Production by BP, Others Threatens to Push Oil Toward $100 a Barrel

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company

Workers discovered the pipeline leak at a pump station, above, and isolated its source as of late Saturday.

JANUARY 10, 2011

By GUY CHAZAN

BP PLC and other oil producers were forced to shut down nearly all their output on Alaska’s North Slope, after a leak led to the closure of the Trans Alaska Pipeline.

Analysts said the shutdown of the 800-mile pipeline network could trigger a jump in oil prices unless the flow of oil resumes quickly, as the region represents a significant slice of domestic U.S. oil output. Some analysts said the disruption could help drive crude-oil prices toward $100 a barrel from below $90 now.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which operates the pipeline network, said the spill has had no apparent impact on the environment or wildlife. Alyeska said no oil was leaking as of Sunday evening. About 10 barrels of oil had been spilled and most of it had been cleaned up, Alyeska said.

The shutdown, however, was a “significant event,” BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said. BP and other oil companies operating on the Slope, including ConocoPhillips, have periodically been forced to cut output because of major power outages or when heavy winds interrupted tanker loadings at the port of Valdez, he said. But the latest shutdown means “a big reduction” in the middle of winter “when we have temperature and weather challenges” as well, Mr. Rinehart said. The temperature at the pump station where the incident occurred is about four degrees Fahrenheit.

BP said it was too early to say what impact the shutdown would have on the company’s first-quarter earnings.

Total production on the North Slope is around 630,000 barrels a day—about 9% of total domestic U.S. output.

Associated Press

The Trans Alaska Pipeline runs from Alaska’s North Slope to Valdez. Above, a section north of Fairbanks in 2005.

Alyeska shut down the pipeline system at 8:50 a.m. local time Saturday after workers discovered oil leaking into a basement at a pump station on the North Slope.

Alyeska then told BP and other producers in the region to reduce their output by 95%. Alyeska is owned by BP, Conoco, Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp. and Koch Industries.

Alyeska said it didn’t know how long it would take to reopen the pipeline system, which carries oil from northern Alaska to the southern coastal city of Valdez, the northernmost ice-free port in North America.

An extended pipeline outage in the middle of Alaska’s harsh winter could complicate efforts to restart production. Oil becomes waxy and gelatinous when subject to freezing temperatures. To get it moving again, it would need to be reheated. BP has deployed crews to pump methanol, an antifreeze, to keep its own pipelines from freezing.

Alyeska said it is considering bypassing the damaged underground line using nearby pipes.

The area expected to be hardest hit is the U.S. West Coast, whose refineries rely heavily on Alaskan crude and whose drivers pay some of the highest prices for gasoline in the U.S.

“You can’t replace 600,000 barrels per day overnight, especially when there’s no other production close by,” said Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse.

While the pipeline shutdown is just a “seasonal blip” for the time being, if it drags on “it could be a strong factor in potentially pushing up oil towards $100 a barrel,” he said. If Saudi Arabia decided to increase production to compensate, it would take more than 60 days to do so. Crude-oil futures in New York closed Friday at $88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In after-hours screen trade on Nymex on Sunday evening, crude futures were at $89.56 a barrel.

With West Coast inventory levels already tight, analysts said it would take only a few days for the shutdown to have an appreciable impact on the oil market.

Yet analysts said there is little likelihood of severe supply shortages on the West Coast—at least for now. A large volume of crude oil is held in storage at the Valdez terminal, and refineries can buy more Middle Eastern, Russian and Latin American grades on the spot market. And once the pipeline returns to service, it will be relatively easy for companies to catch up on lost production, a BP spokesman said.

Alyeska said the source of the leak appeared to be underground piping that is encased in concrete. It said the source had been isolated and crews began recovering oil from the site at 4 p.m. local times on Saturday.

Alyeska briefly shut down the network last May, after a power outage at a different pumping station caused a tank to overflow and spill several thousand barrels of oil into a gravel containment area. While the system was shut down, Alyeska ordered producers to cut their pipeline shipments to 16% of normal, according to a statement on Alyeska’s website.

—Cassandra Sweet contributed to this article.

Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com

WALL STREET JOURNAL SOURCE ARTICLE

SOME ADVICE FOR INVESTORS FROM DR JOHN HUONG (RIGHT), A SENIOR SHELL INSIDER OF ALMOST 30 YEARS…

Investors – “You cannot be sure of Shell” growing your funds. Potential employees – do not trust your career and aspirations to Shell until you understand the true inside story. If Shell is unwilling to undergo radical change at every level in the organization for the better, Shell’s negative and evil ingrained cultures will ultimately destroy the little which remains of its former reputation.

Just consider the recent appalling headlines as follows.

The Independent: “Lies, cover-ups, fat cats and an oil giant in crisis”

The Guardian: “Trail of emails reveals depths of deceit at the heart of Shell”

The Scotsman: “Shell admits reserve ‘lies’”

Daily Telegraph: “Memos expose Shell’s years of lying”

London Evening Standard: “Shell bosses lied to the City”

Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Dutch/Shell Group exec was ‘sick and tired’ of lying”

(PART OF THE ADVICE THAT RESULTED IN DR HUONG BEING BURIED IN DEFAMATION PROCEEDINGS BY EIGHT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL COMPANIES BEFORE THEY DECIDED IT BEST TO SETTLE THE MATTER OUT OF COURT – SAME AS WITH THE NIGERIAN CASE AGAINST SHELL ALLEGING MURDER, TORTURE AND OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY SHELL AND ITS AGENTS/ACCOMPLICES. SHELL HAS ALSO SETTLED MULTIPLE CASES OF IP THEFT BEFORE THE ACTIONS CAME TO TRIAL.)

RELATED ARTICLE: Royal Dutch Shell terrorist tactics against Malaysian whistleblower

Sun Jan 9, 2011 2:25pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) – At least 18 consortia are working on bids for Nigerian oil rights being sold by Royal Dutch Shell and partners, the Sunday Times newspaper said, citing unidentified sources close to the process.

The newspaper said Nat Rothschild, scion of the banking dynasty, was backing one group of bidders, while Russian gas group Gazprom was leading a bid with Nigerian resources firm Equinox Group.

London-listed oil industry services group Petrofac has joined forces with Nigerian gas firm Seven Energy to bid for one of the blocks being sold, while London-listed oil group Afren also plans to make an offer, it added.

Another bidding group includes London-based oil firm Perenco, Nigeria’s Oando and Addax & Oryx, which is controlled by billionaire Jean Claude Gandur, the paper said.

Sweden’s Lundin family is also interested, and working with logistics firm Intels Nigeria, it said.

Shell, which is selling four onshore fields along with partners Total and Eni, declined to comment.

Shell has said it hopes local companies would bid and analysts think there could be a preference for local players.

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved

REUTERS SOURCE ARTICLE

FROM A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USA: REPUBLISHED WITH UPDATED INFORMATION SUNDAY 9 JANUARY 2011

Comment by a former employee of Shell Oil USA on Dr Huong controversy

John,

Re: Your articles on Dr. John Huong.

How in Perdition’s good name do the Malaysian courts think that they have legal jurisdiction over what is published on your website? What the Devil is that BS all about?

Furthermore, in the UK RD Shell must prove their case in court and obtain a similar form of court order against Dr. Huong and you in order to prevent Dr. Huong from speaking out publicly, and you from publishing his comments. Without such a court order Dr. Huong and you both have your legally well protected rights of freedom of speech given that Dr. Huong no longer works for RD Shell.

I can only presume that RD Shell’s failure to seek, let alone obtain such a court order, means that senior management and their lapdog attorneys decided that such an exercise would have been both foolish and completely futile given that they don’t (yet) have the power to corrupt the British courts.

I don’t know that criminal charges were brought against RD Shell or Shell management w/ regard to their reserves scandal but they should have been. That fraud was long running and approved at the highest levels of RD Shell management, including Shell USA management. Phony and inflated reserve bookings were a problem at Shell USA 20 years ago. I am only surprised it took until 2004 for the ‘chickens to come home to roost’.

My sympathies to Dr. Huong and his family. They have been done a great injustice by what amounts to an RD Shell internal management ‘crime syndicate’.

RELATED ARTICLE: Royal Dutch Shell terrorist tactics against Malaysian whistleblower

7 January 2011

An explosion and fire at the Horizon Oil Sands facility in Canada’s Alberta province has injured four workers and forced the site to suspend operations.

The blast at the plant, owned by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, ignited the upgrader, part of the plant that converts bitumen into synthetic crude.

The company said the fire had been isolated and brought under control.

Alberta’s oil sands are the largest petroleum reserve outside the Middle East.

Plumes of smoke

Oil production has been halted at Horizon Oil Sands and it is unclear when it will resume, Canadian Natural Resources said in a statement.

The blast, which occurred at 1530 local time (2130GMT) in northern Alberta on Thursday, sent flames and smoke hundreds of metres into the air.

Four workers were injured in the incident, with three sent to hospital, Canadian Natural Resources said.

One of the workers was reportedly treated for second and third-degree burns, with another treated for first-degree burns, the company said, adding that all workers were in stable condition.

Alberta Occupational Health and Safety has sent at least two officers to look for potential safety violations at the facility, the Canada Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.

BBC NEWS SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED BBC NEWS STORIES

• Canada censured over oil sands 22 DECEMBER 2010, US & CANADA
• Investors face tar sands campaign 22 FEBRUARY 2010, BUSINESS

By Dr. John Huong (right)

Below is a letter I last wrote on 3rd June 2004 to Shell Malaysian Management, hoping that if both sides entered into a constructive dialogue on a “without prejudice” basis, the matter could be resolved amicably despite the threats I had received on 17th May 2004 from their legal Manager Mr. Thavakumar Kandiahpillai.

It is significant that legitimate questions (“Confidentiality versus Shareholder’s interests”-25th May 2004) I posed to him about Shell’s ethical practices have remained unanswered.

I am still waiting for a reply to both of my letters from you Thavakumar and/or those in authority above you!

Date: 3rd June 2004
SUBJECT: WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dear Mr. Kandiahpillai and et.al. (including Jeroen Van der Veer, Malcolm Brinded, Jon Chadwick, etc.)

It is obvious that I posed some difficult questions as I have not received any response. I was not trying to be awkward.

I simply want Shell to deal with me sympathetically as a long-term employee who was very deeply hurt by the unfortunate way my employment with Shell ended. It was terribly distressing for me after so many decades.

Frankly it would be much preferable for this matter to be resolved directly with Shell if that is at all possible, rather than continuing to be embroiled in acrimony.

On my part, I am very willing to make in good faith attempt to resolve the matter amicably if Shell is willing to do likewise. As they say, it takes two to tango.

If we could find a solution from discussions held on a “without prejudice” basis, it would save further Shell management time and avoid potentially substantial lawyers’ fees.  It would also bring me some peace of mind.

I therefore believe that this is a sensible proposal which could produce a mutually beneficial result.

I am making this proposal to demonstrate that I am a reasonable person seeking a reasonable solution.

Sincerely,

John Huong

Dr. John Huong Yiu Tuong

LETTER ENDS

It seems that my letters including the above were not good enough for Shell management to take steps in resolving the conflicts.  I have not even received the courtesy of a response to the above proposal made in good faith. As a loyal and faithful employee of nearly 30 years standing I was unreasonably axed while protecting the shareholder, national and stakeholders interests. I am now taking steps to reveal to my extended family, the international audience, the predicaments and nightmares I have to go through in trying to abide with Shell’s SGBP.  At the end of the story you will understand the pervasive nature of Shell’s corporate culture which has unfortunately escalated to appalling gigantic proportions, resulting in the repeated downgrades of Shell oil and gas volumes which have made headlines around the globe.

If a company loses the trust and respect of its shareholders, employees, and customers, as Shell Management has done on a truly spectacular basis, then there’s only going to be a rather empty shell left.  It will obviously be a very long time before Shell could ever again use the famous advertising slogan “you can be sure of Shell”.

It seems that Mr. Jeroen van der Veer and Mr. Malcolm Brinded could not command any effective solutions to Shell management in the Operating companies in resolving my case. I am just wondering how Jeroen and Malcolm can have the time to consider the well-being of an individual axed-employee when they have to think around the clock for ways and means in undoing and/or hiding their own personal and professional wrong-doing? If only they could institute discipline and fair-minded management at the workplace, then Shell’s reputation will be given a breathing place to recover from being torn to pieces by the immoral self-serving attitude of Shell top management who appear to place their fat cat remuneration/pension packages above all other considerations, moral and legal.

HOUSTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) – A crane lifting pipes for a crude capacity expansion at Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur, Texas, refinery toppled over backward on Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the project, the second crane accident on the project.

While the accident was not initially expected to delay the expansion, an investigation into the incident was just getting underway, the sources said.

‘They dodged a bullet,’ said one of the sources of the accident.

Motiva is working to complete the project by early 2012 that will lift the refinery’s crude capacity from 285,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 600,000 bpd, making it the largest U.S. refinery

A company spokeswoman offered few details about the incident.

‘At approximately 10:15 a.m. (CST 1615 GMT), a crane incident occurred inside the Motiva Port Arthur Refinery,’ said Motiva spokeswoman Verna Rutherford in a statement. ‘There are no injuries and no impact to the community. The area has been secured.’

One worker was killed in an April crane accident.

A spokesman for the regional U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration office had no information immediately available about the incident.

‘The project continues as scheduled,’ Rutherford she said.

The $5-billion project, begun in 2007 was stopped for over a year in late 2008 due to concerns by Motiva partner Saudi Aramco about the cost and management of the expansion. Work resumed in 2009.

Motiva is a joint-venture between Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Saudi Aramco.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Alden Bentley)

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Motiva Port Arthur crude units shut–sources

* FCC production cut back by about 20,000 bpd

* Restart of one vacuum unit may begin next week

* OSHA investigating crane collapse (Add details, background)

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – All vacuum distillation units, which do the initial refining of crude oil, and a coking unit were shut at Motiva Enterprises 285,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, following the collapse of a crane, sources familiar with refinery operations said on Thursday.

The refinery’s gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit was running at reduced rates using intermediate feedstocks, the sources said.

A Motiva spokesman declined to discuss operations at the refinery.

Motiva hopes to begin restarting the smaller of the two vacuum units, with a 70,000 bpd capacity, by next week, the sources said. The larger unit may take at least two weeks to restart.

No one was injured when the 200-foot (61-meter) tall crane toppled over backwards while lifting pipe on Tuesday morning, knocking out electrical power lines and striking piping to the vacuum units, the sources said.

“Restart of the bigger one is related to the electrical lines,” one of the sources said. In addition, to repairing the power lines, checks and possible repairs of pipes supply the vacuum units will have to be done.

The 90,000 bpd cat cracker is running at about 70,000 bpd.

Shutdown of the 58,000 bpd delayed coking unit was due to loss of the feed because the vacuum units are shut.

The crane was lifting pipe as part of the crude capacity expansion project aimed at making the refinery the largest in the United States with a 600,000 bpd crude throughput capacity by early next year.

This is the second crane accident during the expansion project, which began in 2007. In April 2010, a worker was killed when a part fell off a crane.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an investigation into Tuesday’s crane collapse.

The latest accident is not expected to stop the expansion, the sources said.

“They’ll make adjustments in the schedule to work around it and get it done,” one of the sources said.

Shortly after Tuesday’s crane collapse, Motiva said the expansion would proceed as scheduled.

One challenge will be removal of the fallen crane boom, which will likely have to be cut into pieces to avoid causing further damage to the refinery.

REUTERS SOURCE ARTICLE