Posts from ‘July, 2011’

By Tara Patel – Jul 1, 2011 11:22 AM GMT+0100

French senators voted to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, making France the first country to pass a law banning the technique for extracting natural gas and oil.

“We are at the end of a legislative marathon that stirred emotion from lawmakers and the public,” French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said late yesterday before the vote. Hydraulic fracturing will be illegal and parliament would have to vote for a new law to allow research using the technique, she said.

Energy companies that plan to use fracking to produce oil and gas in France will have their permits revoked and its use could lead to fines and prison, according to the law passed by a vote of 176 in favor, 151 against by the senators in Paris.

Lawmakers of the ruling UMP party voted in favor of the bill while the opposition Socialists rejected the proposal for not going far enough. Before the French vote, the ban had moved between the upper and lower houses of parliament since March.

Fracking, widely used in North America, uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals injected under high pressure to break dense rock to release trapped oil and gas. Green groups and politicians led protests across France, saying the method could cause environmental damage. Government ministers and industry representatives say it is the only method currently available to extract hydrocarbons from the rock.

Ban ‘Deplored’

Oil companies operating in France “deplore” the French ban, according to the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres, or UFIP, which represents Total SA (FP) and other explorers and refiners. UFIP, it said in a statement, “considers that the law will prevent an evaluation of shale hydrocarbon resources and their impact on the French economy.”

The French energy ministry has already granted permits to companies including Total, Vermilion Energy Inc. (VET), Toreador Resources Corp. (TRGL) and Schuepbach Energy LLC for shale oil and gas exploration. Shares of Toreador, which has the most permits to explore for shale oil around Paris, surged 10 percent in French trading today to cut their drop to 76 percent since Jan. 1.

Losing Permits

Kosciusko-Morizet has raised the possibility of lawsuits by oil companies facing the prospect of losing permits that have already been granted by the French government.

“We could have a court case, yes, probably there will be one,” she said on LCI television on June 22. During debate yesterday in the Senate, she said “financial and legal risks have been limited.”

Under the bill approved yesterday, companies with exploration permits will have two months to declare whether they intend to use hydraulic fracturing. If they do, their permits will be revoked.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

By Katarzyna Klimasinska – Jul 1, 2011 5:38 PM GMT+0100

Risteard O’Domhnaill’s stirring documentary shows a community’s fight against big business

The Pipe DVD is now for sale on http://thepipe.myshopify.com/ and Amazon in the UK and Ireland only, at £12.99 and €14.99.

Trailer

Recent US TV interview with Risteard O’Domhnaill, the director of the award winning documenary: http://www.linktv.org/video/6648/filmmaker-risteard-odomnhaill-on-the-pipe

In 1996 natural gas was discovered off the west coast of Ireland. Shortly afterwards, Shell UK announced plans to run a pipe through the waters and land of Rossport in County Mayo to an inland refinery. Risteard O’Domhnaill’s remarkable film tells what happened next. In short (and there was nothing short about it) the community came together to save the destruction and pollution of the fishing grounds, peat bogs and the natural beauty of the place they call home, while Shell, backed by the money-hungry pre-economic collapse Irish government, ran roughshod over their civil and civic rights.

O’Domhnaill’s unobtrusive camera catches every disturbing moment, as groups of passionate rural souls with Father Ted accents make the journey to being classed as terrorists by the state and their corporate paymasters.

It’s impossible not to be moved watching these ordinary folk being beaten and arrested by the police as they begin to realise there is one rule for biochemical giants and another for themselves. Their multi-pronged campaign is a marvel of community activism and it runs the gamut from direct blockade action and a hunger strike to complex legal action that takes them to the courts of the European Union. The people of Rossport are the real action heroes.

Source Article

Royal Dutch Shell and its partners are to ask the Kazakh government for an extension to the 2013 deadline for the first oil from their troubled Kashagan field.

By Richard Orange, Almaty, Kazakhstan

5:40AM BST 01 Jul 2011

SOURCE ARTICLE

June 30, 2011

HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- There was no emergency in oil markets to warrant the globally coordinated oil release announced last week, a top executive from oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) said Thursday.

“That oil is there for emergency purposes. Do I consider now an emergency? I have to say I don’t,” said Marvin Odum, president of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. unit of the Anglo-Dutch giant. “It doesn’t change the middle- to longer-term picture. The conversation we need to be having is about the long-term supply issue.”

The executive said the best way to combat high oil prices was letting oil companies to increase crude production by tapping U.S. hydrocarbons resources.

The International Energy Agency said last week it would offer 60 million barrels of oil in an effort to offset oil supply disruptions in the Middle East. Half of these 60 million barrels will come from the U.S., which was accepting bids this week.

Separately, Odum said the company will make a decision in the next three or four months on whether it will be able to drill in Alaska’s Arctic waters next year. He said the company is hopeful it will be able to obtain the pending permits the company need in order to start drilling because there was a ” coordinated” effort from the Obama administration to help the company get through the process.

Shell still has to obtain a number of permits from the federal government in order to go ahead with its $3.5 billion investment to drill in the state’s Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Shell’s plans have been delayed by environmental lawsuits and permit issues on top of calls for better spill prevention and containment capabilities following BP PLC’s (BP, BP.LN) oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

-By Isabel Ordonez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9207; isabel.ordonez@ dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires 06-30-111753ET Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

SOURCE

An artist’s drawing of the Royal Dutch Shell’s future Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas project in Australia, the world’s first floating LNG facility, is an idea Shell Canada is considering with its partners China National Petroleum Co., Korea Gas Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. Photograph by: Courtesy, Royal Dutch Shell

CALGARY — Shell Canada has partnered with China National Petroleum Co., Korea Gas Corp. and Mitsubishi Corp. to look at building a liquefied natural gas export facility in British Columbia.

Spokesman Larry Lalonde confirmed the company, the Canadian subsidiary of global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, is in early but exclusive talks with the Asian firms.

rpenty@calgaryherald.com
© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

SOURCE

By John Donovan

In the article below, part of a major PR campaign, Shell Oil President Marvin Odum (right) asks a public concerned about Shell onshore operations, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), to place its trust in the integrity of Shell and its global operating principles.

It is therefore timely to reflect on the repeated assurances of Shell business principles and code of ethics contained in the Form 20-F returns Shell filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission in the run up to the reserves scandal, which turned out to contain fraudulent declarations of oil and gas reserves.

There are links below to one such declaration filed by Shell in March 2003: Every page was marked “FOIA Confidential Treatment Requested” – a request for exemption from the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. This particular Form 20-F was filed 10 months before news of the reserves scandal broke.

Why should anyone believe Shell this time, when it conned investors and the public so recently in one of the biggest securities frauds in history? A scandal which brought to an end the Shell Transport/Royal Dutch Petroleum partnership which had lasted for a 100 years.

Examples of the repeated references to Shell business principles and related code of ethics can be found on pages 2,12 & 23 of “Part 3″ accessible below.

Form 20F Return in 5 Parts

Part 1 (31 pages)

Part 2 (31 Pages)

Part 3 (41 Pages) (see pages 2, 12 & 23)

Part 4( 41 Pages)

Part 5 (39 Pages)

Examples of news articles arising from the fraud:

The Times: How Shell blew a hole in a 100-year reputation: 10 January 2004

The West Australian: Investors howl for Shell’s blood: 12 January 2004

London Evening Standard: Shell bosses lied to the City: 19 April 2004

(Former executives, led by ex-chairman Sir Philip Watts, admitted they had repeatedly lied to investors about the true level of Shell’s oil and gas reserves.)

Houston Chronicle: ‘Sick and tired about lying’ at Shell: 19 April 2004

Bloomberg: Shell Loses AAA Credit Rating: 19 April 2004

Shell bosses ‘fooled the market’: 19 April 2004

The Guardian: Trail of emails reveals depths of deceit at the heart of Shell: 20 April 2004

he Guardian: Shell admits it misled investors: 20 April 2004

The Independent: Lies, cover-ups, fat cats and an oil giant in crisis: 20 April 2004

The Scotsman: Shell admits reserve ‘lies’: 20 April 2004

SHELL ARTICLE: Shell Principles Provide Framework, Accountability for Company’s Global Tight/Shale Oil and Gas Operations

ASPEN, Colo., June 29, 2011 /CNW/ — Today, from the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival, Shell makes its Global Onshore Tight/Shale Oil and Gas Operating Principles available to the public with examples of how the company delivers them. Shell has a rigorous set of five global operating principles that provide a tested framework for protecting water, air, biodiversity, and the communities in which Shell operates.

Shell is openly sharing these operating principles to address public concern about tight/shale oil and gas development – especially regarding hydraulic fracturing – encourage feedback and challenge from our stakeholders, and drive continuous improvement. Shell also supports regulation and enforcement that reinforces responsible operating practices and continues to improve the industry’s overall performance.

“We understand there is concern around the development of shale gas, and we must give the public more knowledge of how we operate,” said Marvin Odum, President, Shell Oil Company. “People have asked the industry for transparency; we have listened and are responding.”

Specific on water, hydraulic fracturing has attracted a great deal of attention in recent months. As an example of how we deliver these principles, which are now described online, Shell mandates a stringent well construction standard that focuses on the use of safe drilling and completion processes, including reducing the risk of water contamination.

Further, Shell supports the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids, monitoring of groundwater, and a reduction in the amount of water used in the drilling process. Shell does not fracture wells unless it has pressure tested the wellbore for integrity. And, the company recycles as much water at each project as reasonably practicable. For example, in the Marcellus Shale, Shell recycles almost 100% of produced fluids, substantially reducing our fluid waste and reducing the amount of water volumes needed for hydraulic fracturing.

In the last decade, the industry has discovered an abundance of natural gas. Of the world’s 250-year supply of gas estimated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), almost half is contained in shales, tight sandstones, and coal beds. More than one-third of the global gas-production increase, forecasted by the IEA over the next 25 years, could come from these sources.

“If the innumerable benefits of natural gas are to be realized, we must address the concerns of citizens and share the principles that we hold ourselves to at Shell,” said Odum. “These principles manage the risk we know exists when producing energy, but just as importantly, they demonstrate our operational integrity and focus on collaboration, underpinning our belief that natural gas can be produced safely and responsibly.”