Posts from ‘February, 2011’

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo and Dulue Mbachu – Feb 17, 2011 11:00 PM GMT+0000

Oil exploration in Nigeria has slumped to the lowest in a decade after producers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA backed away from investment until the country’s petroleum law is passed.

Just one exploration well was drilled in Nigeria in the past two years, the lowest since 1999, according to official figures released by the Petroleum Ministry. The number of wells peaked at 34 in 2002.

“Funds have not been available” for exploration, said Belema Osibodu, a spokeswoman for the Department of Petroleum Resources, in a telephone interview yesterday.

Fewer wells meant the government missed its targets to boost reserves to 40 billion barrels and output to 4 million barrels a day by 2010. Nigeria’s total crude oil and condensate reserves of about 37 billion barrels are the second-largest in Africa after Libya. The country is the continent’s biggest producer, with current oil output of about 2.1 million barrels a day, according to the state oil company.

While the government has struggled to meet its share of contributions to joint ventures, international oil companies have slowed exploration projects as they await new fiscal terms in a proposed bill before parliament, Osibodu said.

The law to reform the way the oil industry is funded and regulated, which has been in the legislature for more than two years, is expected to be passed by the current government before its tenure runs out in May, President Goodluck Jonathan said Feb. 2. Energy companies say the proposed law will hand too much profit and control to the state and make new investments in deep water oil fields unprofitable.

Armed Attacks

Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total and Eni SpA run joint ventures with state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp that pump about 90 percent of the country’s oil.

Attacks in the south by armed groups including the Movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, cut more than 28 percent of the country’s oil output between 2006 and 2009, also deterring new investment.

While the attacks decreased after thousands of fighters accepted a government amnesty in 2009, MEND refused to disarm, saying its demands weren’t met. MEND wants the region to have exclusive control of its resources, while paying tax to the central government.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net; Dulue Mbachu in Abuja at dmbachu@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

SOURCE ARTICLE

By Kamlesh Bhuckory – Feb 18, 2011 5:31 AM GMT+0000

The Stock Exchange of Mauritius said it has suspended trading of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Mauritian unit’s shares, according to a statement published on the bourse’s website.

The suspension follows an article published in Le Mauricien newspaper Feb. 17 stating that Shell Mauritius Ltd. had reached a buy-out agreement with Vitol-Helios Investment, the Port-Louis based bourse explained.

Shell has been requested to publish a press release “to inform shareholders and the public in general of the status of any agreement currently being discussed by Shell and the outcome thereof, if any”, the Stock Exchange of Mauritius said.

Dealings are suspended until the statement is published or until such date as shall be communicated by the exchange, the bourse said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kamlesh Bhuckory in Port Louis at kbhuckory@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Agnes Nikoi at anikoi@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

Feb. 18, 2011, 2:08 a.m. EST

By Eric Yep

MUMBAI (MarketWatch) — India’s Essar Energy PLC (ESSR.LN) is likely to sign an initial agreement this week for a possible acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s (RDSB.LN) Stanlow refinery in the U.K., a person with direct knowledge of the matter said Friday.

London-listed Essar Energy and Shell are in the final stages of discussions and will likely announce exclusive talks on the refinery sale this week, the person, who declined to be named, told Dow Jones Newswires.

Essar Energy, part of diversified conglomerate Essar group, is the holding company for Essar Oil Ltd. (500134.BY).

SOURCE ARTICLE

FT.com

By Sheila McNulty in Houston

Published: February 17 2011 17:38

Oil companies on Thursday launched a spill containment system in the Gulf of Mexico in a bid to restart the issuance of permits stalled after BP’s fatal Macondo well disaster.

ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips unveiled the interim containment system, which they said was open to all operators in the gulf.

The Obama administration issued a moratorium on gulf drilling following BP’s fatal Macondo disaster in April 2010. But even though the moratorium has been lifted, activity remains constrained.

FULL FT ARTICLE

Published on 15 February 2011

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

By RUSSELL GOLD And ANGEL GONZALEZ

HOUSTON—Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, is struggling to find more oil.

In its closely watched annual financial report released Tuesday, the company said that for every 100 barrels it has pumped out of the earth over the past decade, it has replaced only 95.

It’s a conundrum shared by most of the other large Western oil-producing companies, which are finding most accessible oil fields were tapped long ago, while promising new regions are proving technologically and politically challenging.

Exxon said in the report that it more than made up for the shortfall in oil by stocking up on natural gas, mostly through its acquisition of XTO Energy Inc. last year.

But the shift toward gas is troubling some investors, because gas sells for less than the equivalent amount of oil. Many observers feel the move toward gas—a trend across the oil industry—is dictated more by shrinking access to oil fields than by a strong desire to emphasize gas production.

“The good old days are gone and not to be repeated,” says Fadel Gheit, an analyst with Oppenheimer and Co. Bringing additional reserves from gas “is not going to give you the same punch” that oil would, he said.

Finding the equivalent, in either oil or natural gas, of a barrel in the earth for every one the company produces—a 100% reserve replacement rate—has become extraordinarily tough. Exxon boasted this was the 17th consecutive year of hitting this mark, but analysts agree that without the XTO deal, Exxon would have fallen far short this year.

Investors look at these reserve figures as an important gauge of future profitability and business strength.

Exxon now has more natural gas in reserve for future production than oil. And while the company has been very successful at finding or buying new natural gas, it has struggled to do the same with oil. For every 100 cubic feet of gas it has extracted , it has found or bought an additional 158.

Company spokesman Alan Jeffers says the company’s “focus is on resources and projects that add shareholder value.” That can be accomplished by finding oil, he says, but value can also be delivered through a corporate acquisition.

Exxon has become the largest U.S. company by market capitalization with a business model that stresses size and integration of assets. It has traditionally found crude oil, refined it into gasoline and other fuels and then sold these products.

But the stock market has recently favored oil companies, such as ConocoPhillips, that are shedding assets to get smaller. Smaller oil and gas finds can have a material impact on slimmed down companies.

The shift toward gas—and troubles with finding oil—has emerged as a theme for the giant Western oil companies. Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s chief executive said last month the European company will produce more gas than oil next year for the first time in its 104-year history.

In the past few years, new technologies have unlocked vast resources of natural gas, depressing prices in North America and raising the possibility of falling prices in other regions also. Meanwhile, growing demand from emerging economies has sent crude-oil prices up strongly since prices cratered in 2008 during the worst of the recession. Natural gas prices closed today at $3.98 per million British thermal units, down 25% from a year ago, whereas a barrel of West Texas crude is up about 9.5% over that time, closing at $84.32 in trading on the NYMEX Tuesday.

Big oil companies are having trouble cashing in on the strong prices for crude oil. They have limited ability to drill in many oil-prone regions, such as Russia and part of the Middle East, due to politics. And even in promising Iraq, where many Western companies have won contracts, much infrastructure must be rebuilt. Exxon and others have also flocked to the oil-rich sands of Northern Alberta, Canada, but digging out the oil across vast swathes of forest comes at relatively high cost and generates concerns about the environmental impact.

One place where Western oil companies have found open doors is in deep-water exploration, because state-backed oil companies in Russia, China and the Middle East have little experience drilling these tricky wells. This has given Western companies access to new opportunities, such as Exxon’s recent deal with Russian oil giant OAO Rosneft to explore the Black Sea.

The hunt for oil explains why these companies are so keen to restart work in the Gulf of Mexico, after a halt imposed by the Obama administration following the Deepwater Horizon spill. Some companies also are seeking permission to drill exploratory wells above the Arctic Circle. The Arctic remains one of the few unexplored regions of the world and the region above Alaska and western Canada is believed to be oil rich.

But deep-water projects take a long time to turn from a prospect that a geologist has identified into a producing asset. Chevron Corp.’s chief executive said last week that he expects to add new barrels of oil to its reserves from “several major deep-water projects” in future years. In 2010, he warned that Chevron added only one new barrel for every four it produced.

Given the difficulties these companies are facing, some investors have begun to wonder if Exxon bought XTO last year to “mask the extent of their replacement problem,” said R. Blair Thomas, chief executive of EIG Global Energy Partners, an energy asset -management firm.

The market didn’t like Exxon’s announcement, sending the bellwether stock down 2.3% to $82.97 in 4 p.m. trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com and Angel Gonzalez at angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com

SOURCE ARTICLE

POSTING BY AN OUTSPOKEN FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USA

John,

I recently read about Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan forming a jointly owned corporation to produce ethanol in Brazil. We all know how Shell treats the Nigerians, and how they have treated the Brazilians from previous revelations about their ‘drins’ production facilities.

Now RD Shell appears to be sleeping with the devil again. Cosan is a corporation that allegedly has a nasty reputation for engaging in human slavery to cut ethanol and sugar production costs. Apparently, RD Shell management’s lust for profits know no bounds (see attached links).

Anything goes as long as it is profitable.

Walmart Won’t Buy Cosan Sugar Amid Slavery Blacklist (Update2)

Cosan Falls on Slavery Charges; BNDES Pulls Loans (Update3)

Cosan loses BNDES financing after slave work scandal, Brazil, Oil …

The Hand That Feeds U.S. – Exposing Brazil’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’

Anti-Slavery – 030210 Shell makes deal with Cosan in Brazil …

Once again RD Shell has revealed its true attitude towards peoples in the so-called ’3rd world’. And once again they are apparently willing to use slave labor, as they did in their facilities in Germany during the days of the Third Reich. Attitudes at RD Shell have apparently changed little over the years. What is new in their business practices after the shame of the reserves scandal is actually a page from the past and the days of Deterding and his unsavory buddies in the Third Reich.

You gotta love these guys at Royal Dutch Shell. They are consistently reprehensible in their business practices, if nothing else. RD Shell is indeed ‘A company you can count on’. Shell Uber Alles.

RELATED ARTICLES

Royal Dutch Shell Reports Strong Earnings for Fourth Quarter: NOVEMBER 2010

(EXTRACT: Mr. Voser said he expects total investments of as much as $27 billion this year, including $1.6 billion for a biofuels joint venture in Brazil with Cosan, a Brazilian company that harvests and processes sugar cane.)

Cosan, Shell sign binding deal on ethanol venture: August 2010

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell and Brazilian sugar and ethanol giant Cosan signed on Wednesday a binding agreement to create a global ethanol business, looking to benefit from growing demand for biofuels.

The joint venture, with estimated annual sales of $21 billion, was modified since its initial announcement in February to include all of Cosan’s energy generation business and 500 million reais ($283.6 million) in debt owed to Brazilian development bank BNDES.

Cosan, the world’s largest sugar and ethanol producer, also said in a securities filing that the initial accord was changed to make the venture a global biofuels provider. As a result of that, Cosan and Shell are barred from competing with the new entity.

“Unfortunately, like Shell, the claims of ethical trading by Carsons/Countrywide are a sham if the dire experience of my nephew, Richard Denton, is any guide.  He has had the misfortune of being a client of Carson & Company Estate Agents, a subsidiary of Countrywide Plc. Some of their employees have turned out to be decidedly shady.”

By John Donovan

For over a decade we have been drawing attention to the gap between Shell’s globally advertised General Business Principles compared with its track record of securities fraud, IP theft, price fixing cartels, fictitious trades, horrific pollution, evasion of UN sanctions, embedding spies in the Nigerian government, and involvement in torture, murder and human rights abuses.

Simply put, the oil giants evil deeds to not match the fine words in its much proclaimed ethical code, which is clearly designed to fool the public and investors.

The UK’s largest estate agency (real estate) and lettings network, Countrywide plc, with 46 well known high street brands, also claims to operate on an ethical basis.

“We are regulated by the Ombudsman for Estate Agents and are therefore required to adhere to the code of practice. Our service standards are closely and regularly monitored. We always and only act in our clients best interests, giving you confidence and peace of mind that we will act with integrity and professionalism.”

Estate agents have a toxic reputation on a par with second hand car dealers, so many people may feel that it would be safer to deal with a major chain, owned by a public company. Selling a house is a major event and it helps if you can trust the estate agency acting for you.

Unfortunately, like Shell, the claims of ethical trading by Carsons/Countrywide are a sham if the dire experience of my nephew, Richard Denton, is any guide.  He has had the misfortune of being a client of Carson & Company Estate Agents, a subsidiary of Countrywide Plc. Some of their employees have turned out to be decidedly shady.

Despite Carsons claims of offering “consistently higher standards of performance, a more efficient service, better advice and faster results…”, they acted in a grossly negligent manner resulting in a living nightmare for Richard, who was made homeless for over a year after acting on their advice. As a further consequence, he was embroiled in extended legal proceedings before successfully evicting the alleged prospective purchaser. It was not better advice, but disastrous advice, possibly motivated by personal gain on the part of a Carsons employee, who was supposed to be representing Richard, not the prospective purchaser.

Although Carsons was only ever instructed to put the property up for sale, Richard was maneuvered by them into letting it to the prospective purchaser, supposedly on a very short term basis, using a disastrously flawed “Lettings Agreement” suggested, recommended, supplied and implemented by a Carsons employee, Christian Wicks, who has since admitted receiving a vintage bottle of champagne as a reward from a person now described by Carsons as a ‘con artist’.

In October 2009, Carsons introduced a prospective purchaser who made an acceptable offer. Richard was later informed by Christian Wicks, that there was a delay in funds allegedly in transit to the purchaser, but that the purchaser still wanted Richard to vacate the property by 6 November 2009. Richard advised that he was not comfortable to continue on such terms. The following day, Richard received a telephone call from Christian suggesting that the lettings division of Carsons could draw up a tenancy agreement to protect him so that he would be safe to vacate and allow the purchaser to move in.

Richard was however surprised when he arrived at Carsons office on the afternoon of Friday 6 November to sign the agreement (having vacated his home that day) to discover that the terms set out were scant, amounting to a few lines of text and that the date on the agreement was 9 November 2009. The whole agreement could have fitted on one page, but was spread over three, presumably to make it appear more substantial. Richard was assured by Christian that everything was in order and that he should take Christian’s advice and sign the agreement. Richard felt backed into a corner, but trusted that Carsons had the lettings expertise to safeguard his position, as they had claimed. Unfortunately his faith was misplaced.

The provenance of the so called “Lettings Agreement” is obviously at the heart of this matter.

Carsons/Countrywide has carried out two investigations.

The first by Regional Director Russell Mitten attempted to distance Carsons/Countrywide from any connection or responsibility for the hopelessly flawed “Lettings Agreement”. Mitten stated in his letter dated 4 November 2010:

“Mr XXXXX asked us to type up on plain paper an agreement between both parties for him to take possession of the property. This was not a Carsons letting Agreement and was totally nothing to do with Carsons Earley office.”

For legal reasons I have removed the name of the person in question described by Mr Mitten in the same letter as a very good and effective ‘con artist’. Mr Russell referred to the letting agreement transaction as “illegal dealings”.

Instead of accepting liability for its role in the “illegal dealings”, Carsons/Countrywide has tried to evade responsibility by engaging in a cover-up.

Richard has just received the results of a second investigation, this time by Carsons/Countrywide Managing Director, Steve Annells.

His letter dated 10 February is full of inaccuracies (and inconsistencies compared with the information set out in the first investigation). I will just deal with the key issue, the provenance of the “Lettings Agreement”.

Contrary to the earlier assertion that the defective agreement had nothing to do with Carsons Earley office, there is no denial by Annells that it was printed on Carsons paper, by a Carsons employee, at Carsons Earley office.  However, it is now claimed that a Carsons employee, John Munday, never mentioned by Mr Mitten, typed out the agreement dictated to him over the phone by my nephew. This is totally at variance with the explanation given by Russell Mitten in the first investigation. Richard has no legal, estate agency or property lettings expertise whatsoever and would not know where to start in drafting a Lettings Agreement, or indeed any other legal agreement. The claimed telephone conversation is a total invention. It never happened.

In response to the cover-up contained in the Annells letter, Richard on 14 February 2011 made a Subject Access Request to Carsons/Countrywide under the Data Protection Act. Under UK law, Carsons/Countrywide must now supply him within a prescribed period, all information held by them in which his name appears or reference is made to him. This includes all correspondence, reports, emails, drafts, legal advice etc. Since false evidence has been manufactured, he has asked Carsons/Countrywide to notify all involved employees of criminal offenses under The Data Act relating to the withholding or destruction of any such information. People willing to manufacture false evidence are just as likely to destroy evidence.

Correspondence relating to this matter can be viewed here

I believe that many people who read the correspondence will share the conclusions and views I have expressed in this article.

Further information will be published shortly.

If I were Grenville Turner, the Group Chief Executive of Countrywide, I would intervene immediately to find out the truth about the provenance of the so called Lettings Agreement foisted on my nephew in very dubious circumstances. It is in the best interests of Countrywide Plc investors that the cover-up is exposed and stopped before more damage is done to the reputation of the Group. Gemma Stacey at Countrywide plc head office was notified about this case on 19 January, so the parent company had plenty of time to establish the facts and ensure the matter was dealt with properly.

When we first approached Shell senior management getting on to 20 years ago, they resorted to a cover-up, which led to our determined campaign against the company involving 6 high court actions, including two for libel, plus a county court action and proceedings by Shell through the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Shell has never won a single case and has been engulfed in negative publicity throughout this period. Carsons/Countrywide has set out on the same cover-up path.

I invite Carsons/Countrywide plc to issue defamation proceedings against me. Indeed, I challenge the company to do so. If Mr John Munday has made the claim attributed to him, let’s see if he is prepared to commit perjury in a sworn witness statement and repeat that perjury under oath in the witness box, where his evidence will be subjected to cross examination. Does he really want to run the risk of potential imprisonment if he is part of a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, designed to evade responsibility for the financial consequences for the “terrible ordeal” suffered by my nephew (the unsolicited apt description given by Russell Mitten). His “terrible ordeal” arose from the gross negligence and/or reckless incompetence of Carsons/Countrywide plc employees.

Countrywide Plc: The UK’s largest estate agency and lettings network. 46 high street estate agent brands.

Abbotts Countrywide; Buckell & Ballard; Alan de Maid; Chappell & Matthews; Austin & Wyatt; Bairstow Eves Countrywide; Bridgfords; carsons; Dixons Estate Agents; Entwistle Green; Faron Sutaria; Frank Innes; Freeman Forman; Fulfords; Gascoigne-Pees; John D. Wood & Co; Mann Countrywide; Miller Countrywide; Morris Dibben; PS Palmer Snell; Countrywide Scotland; Geering & Colyer; Hetheringtons Countrywide; Slater Hogg & Howison; Spencers Countrywide; Stratton Creber Countrywide; Taylors Estate Agents; Watson Bull & Porter; Wilson Peacock Estate Agents; King & Chasemore; Lock & England; R A Bennett & Partners; Rentons Countrywide; SLM; Andrew Butler; HamptonsInternational

POSTING BY AN OUTSPOKEN FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USA

POSTINGS ON SHELL BLOG BY USCitizen

John,

This business with USCitizen is very tiring. Where does he find the time to write his diatribes about ‘glorious Shell’? Cheese Louise, the North Koreans need to think about employing that fellow. He comes close to outdoing their propaganda organs in their praise of the ‘glorious Communist dictatorship’. What a brain-washed dolt.

And that makes me wonder if USCitizen is one person or a small group of individuals (as in Shell’s PR department) fronting as one individual. No competent Shell manager I knew would stoop to spending time on this kind of nonsense. They all had ‘real business’ to attend to. Then again, maybe this guy isn’t all that competent and, as reward for his mindless loyalty, he has been stuffed away somewhere as a ‘manager without portfolio’ so he cannot do any real harm.

All hail ‘Glorious Shell’. Ra! Ra! Sis! Boom! Ba!

Don’t look now, but the emperor has no clothes.

In any event, this poor fellow needs to get a real job and do something useful with his life.  Defending Shell is an exercise in futility.

I wonder what this fellow’s epitaph/legacy will be? ‘I bought all their Bull**’? Maybe he won’t have one. They will simply chisel a Shell logo on his gravestone with the word ‘Fool’ underneath.

COMMENT BY JOHN DONOVAN

My guess is that uscitizen is genuine and determined to defend Shell against what he apparently considers to be hate attacks.  Although often annoyed by some of his over-the-top comments, we welcomed his contributions from the outset because they provide some balance to our own outspoken comments. It is beneficial and livens up the website to have a regular contributor speaking up for Shell. Hence, although sometimes tempted to banish him, we have refrained from doing so. This website apparently has a magnetic attraction to him, so both sides are happy despite outward appearances.