Posts from ‘September, 2011’

FINANCIAL TIMES ARTICLES CITING THE WEBSITE: Royaldutchshellplc.com

ENERGYSOURCE BLOG December 3, 2009

Spot news

…French companies dismiss claims of political fix (FT) Shell critic says oil major targeting his website Royaldutchshellplc.com operator cites released emails (Reuters) Nigerians urge Yar’Adua to step down Warnings of power vacuum… Kate Mackenzie

ENERGY SOURCE BLOG February 12, 2010

Shell’s directory leak shouldn’t be taken lightly

…corporations (in western countries)” to campaign for change in corporate practices. Meanwhile John Donovan at royaldutchshellplc.com is irked , because he says Shell asked him not to make the directory public for security and personal reasons… Kate Mackenzie

ENERGY SOURCE BLOG November 9, 2009

Shell image-making falls short on the forecourt

…Shell has changed its mind about the poppies and published a rather abject apology about the whole affair. Royaldutchshellplc.com - probably company’s most eagle-eyed watchers – have published the whole thing and even gave them a pat… Kate Mackenzie

September 4, 2009

Shell set to unveil job cuts

…exploration and production business into two divisions: one for the Americas and one for the rest of the world. Royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by present and former Shell staff, said: “Although precise figures have… By Ed Crooks

February 12, 2010

Shell staff contact list leaked to environmental campaign groups

…for this year.The e-mail was sent to a handful of campaign groups, including Greenpeace, and to www.royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air grievances about Shell.One campaigner who was sent the e-mail said it did not… By Ed Crooks in London

February 12, 2010

Shell employees’ details leaked to environmental campaigners

…announced a further 1,000 job losses for this year.The e-mail was sent to a handful of campaign groups, including Greenpeace, and to www.royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air grievances about Shell.Energy M&A surge, Page 14 By Ed Crooks in London

February 11, 2010

Shell staff details leaked to campaign groups

…for this year. The e-mail was sent to a handful of campaign groups, including Greenpeace, and to www.royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air grievances about Shell. One campaigner who was sent the e-mail said it did not count… By Ed Crooks in London

December 30, 2007

Shell looks to outsource about 3,200 IT jobs

…outsource most of its IT division, which numbers about 3,600 people. According to Shell protest website royaldutchshellplc.com, an e-mail from Goh Swee Chen, vice-president of IT infrastructure, was leaked by a Shell employee… By Rebecca Bream

ENERGY SOURCE BLOG July 20, 2009

The Source: Nissan’s batteries; oil in Angola and Kurdistan; Exxon’s algae; where is Saudi Arabia’s gas; ethanol from corn cobs, and more

…marine power development… (Guardian) Energy storage + smart grid = cheap, cool (SeekingAlpha) Why royaldutchshellplc.com do what they do (The Times) North Dakota Democrat Senator won’t support cap-and-trade bill, citing… Kate Mackenzie

May 27, 2009

Cost cutting to top agenda of incoming Shell chief

…could be folded into two. Ms Cook’s departure has ignited speculation that such a move could be imminent. Royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air stories and complaints about Shell, reported yesterday that E&P and gas and power… By Ed Crooks

December 12, 2008

Shell pension scheme value falls 40%

…for workers whose employer has become insolvent without a fully funded scheme. The letter was published by royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air complaints against Shell. The letter said that its assets were 70 per cent invested… By Ed Crooks and Norma Cohen

December 13, 2008

Shell pension scheme value falls 40%

…for workers whose employer has become insolvent without a fully funded scheme. The letter was published by royaldutchshellplc.com, a website used to air complaints against Shell. The letter said that its assets were 70 per cent invested… By Ed Crooks and Norma Cohen

May 27, 2009

Shock exit as Shell braces for shake-up

…said they also expected a drive to cut costs in support functions such as human resources and accounting. Royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by Shell staff, said yesterday that more than 30 per cent of senior managers… By Ed Crooks and John O’Doherty

May 27, 2009

Shake-up looms at Shell as head of gas and power division departs

…said they also expected a drive to cut costs in support functions such as human resources and accounting. Royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by Shell staff, said yesterday that more than 30 per cent of senior managers… By Ed Crooks and John O’Doherty in London

Activists campaigning against Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic Ocean may be concerned at this development.

18 September 2011

By John Donovan

Hakluyt, the London corporate intelligence firm, which has been closely associated with Royal Dutch Shell, has recently opened a bureau in New York.

Titled Shell directors have been major shareholders in Haklut & Company Limited and were at one time the ultimate spymasters heading the company and an associated oversight foundation.

Ian Forbes McCredie OBE, the former/current MI6 senior official, who until December 2010 headed up Shell Corporate Security, has recently returned to the Hakluyt/MI6 spy nest.

Shell has used Hakluyt to carry out sinister undercover operations against its perceived enemies, including Greenpeace and Body Shop.

A Hakluyt operative, a serving German secret service agent working on a freelance basis, also carried out an elaborate operation in Nigeria directed against friends of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the activist leader hanged by the corrupt Nigerian regime armed by Shell.

SHELL CONNECTION WITH HAKLUYT & COMPANY LIMITED – THE EVIDENCE

Activists campaigning against Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic Ocean may be concerned at this development. Shell has used a private security firm to intimidate activists campaigning against the Corrib Gas Project in Ireland.

Shell has a track record of being involved in corporate espionage in the USA.

On 12 September 2001, under the headline: “No Secret’s Safe From These Sharp Eyes”, The New York Times published an article focused on corporate “cloak-and-dagger escapades”. Mr Stephen J. Wade, an executive of Shell International Exploration and Production, a Royal Dutch/Shell Group business, was revealed as being a “competitive intelligence analyst — management-speak for corporate America’s equivalent of a spy”. The report said that Mr. Wade “uses every trick in the book” and “may even dish out erroneous information…” Mr Wade was quoted as commenting: It isn’t James Bond. The article went on to say: “Still, like any good spy, Mr. Wade declined to give detailed examples of information gleaned this way”. It also pointed out that corporate spying “sometimes skirts ethical bounds”.

In October 2010, we broke the story: “U.S. Dept. of Defense Confirms NCIS Espionage Investigation of Shell.”

We have also reported that Shell has infiltrated agents into host governments and for good measure is also spying globally on its own employees.

By John Donovan

18 September 2011

Bloomberg has reported the release of a carcinogenic chemical -  butadiene – by Shell/Motiva at its Norco plant in Louisiana.

Butadiene is listed as a known carcinogen by the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry and the US EPA. At acute high exposure, damage to the central nervous system will start to occur. Symptoms such as distorted blurred vision, vertigo, general tiredness, decreased blood pressure, headache, nausea, decreased pulse rate, and fainting may be witnessed. As the exposure to butadiene occurs at a higher level and for a longer duration, the effects witnessed will become more serious. (INFORMATION FROM WIKIPEDIA)

The current incident follows Shell’s agreement in March 2010 to pay over  $3 million in civil penalties to the federal government as part of a Clean Air Act settlement and spend $6 million to install pollution control equipment at its refineries in Alabama and Louisiana to avoid such incidents.

Forbes: Shell refineries settle with government: Associated Press, 03.31.2010, 02:40 PM EDT

NASDAQ: Shell To Pay $9.5 Million In Settling Clean Air Act Allegations: Mar 31, 2010 | 3:00PM

Los Angeles Times: Shell refineries reach Clean Air Act settlements: By Associated Press March 31, 2010 | 12:02 p.m.

THE CURRENT INCIDENT

By David Wethe – Sep 18, 2011 4:24 PM GMT+0100

An unknown amount of butadiene and propylene were released into the air yesterday at the Norco plant in Louisiana run by Motiva Enterprises LLC, according to a filing to the National Response Center.

A clamp on a pipe at a chemical facility released the materials at 10:30 a.m. local time, according to the filing dated yesterday, which cited a report from an unidentified caller.

U.S. companies must notify the NRC if they release hazardous substances in excess of reportable quantities, according to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund. Motiva is a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

Bloomberg News couldn’t immediately verify that the information in the NRC filing was accurate.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Wethe in Houston at dwethe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED ARTICLE: Norco Plant Reports Accidental Chemical Release (Extract: NORCO, La. — An industrial plant in Norco has reported an accidental release of potentially toxic chemicals, though details on the amounts involved in the incident were not immediately available.

NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT PRIMARILY HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL TRAGEDY IN OGONILAND, WHILE ROYAL DUTCH/SHELL IS A PARTNER IN CRIME: Says MOSOP. 17 September 2011

A MOSOP Committee set up on the 18th of August, 2011 by MOSOP President/Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo to review the Nigerian Government threat that: “Pollution or no pollution, oil production will go on in Ogoniland as already planned,” submitted its report at a MOSOP General Assembly Meeting at Nonwa on Friday, 16th September, 2011. The Committee Report holds the Nigerian Government primarily responsible for the environmental tragedy in Ogoniland, saying that the Royal Dutch/Shell is a partner in crime. The Committee, which included representatives of ten affiliates of MOSOP, recommended what it calls “justifiable stiffer resistance,” against attempts to seize lands or resume oil production in Ogoniland. The resistance package includes use of tactics to protect Ogonis, their families and property against physical attack. The tactics are part of the indigenous Ogoni customary and traditional law, designed to prevent desecration of ancestral lands and sacred sites.

Tambari Deekor
Associate Editor, MOSOP Media
tdeekor88@gmail.com

The Press and Journal

Explosion warning over Shell platform

Saturday, September 17 2011

Front page lead story running on to page 2.

BY RYAN CRIGHTON

UNDER-PRESSURE oil giant Shell has been issued with an official safety warning over explosion risks at one of its ageing North Sea platforms.

The Health and Safety Executive is raising fears once again about the 35- year-old Brent Charlie platform, which has recorded 61 oil and gas leaks in a decade.

It emerged last night that the company has been served with an improvement notice over its failure to take action to identify “events” that could lead to a major accident, fire or explosion following a gas release.

Shell has been given until the end of the month to tackle the issues – which relate to one of the platform legs – or face further sanctions from the government body.

The company is already facing prosecution over the Gannet Alpha oil spill which spewed more than 200 tonnes of light crude into the North Sea last month.

A union boss said yesterday the company had “serious problems” at Brent Charlie that needed to be resolved before production resumed early next year.

All four platforms in the Brent field, 116 miles north-east of Shetland were shut down in January after a protective fender – thought to weigh about 25 tonnes – fell from the Brent Bravo installation.

Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo resumed production in the summer. Brent Delta is expected to follow soon, and Brent Charlie early next year.

Jake Molloy, of the RMT union in Aberdeen said: “The Charlie has only been producing sufficient gas to power the platform, but it still had another hydrocarbon release during the most minimal production – so there are serious problems which need resolved.”

Shell ‘has invested over £600m on North Sea upgrades’

WWF Scotland head of policy Dan Barlow said: “With yet another warning from the Health and Safety Executive, it seems that Shell is once again struggling to operate safely in the North Sea.

“Such notices give cause for concern about whether this company, with its ageing equipment, exposes us to a repeat of the recent Gannet Alpha oil spill.”

However, Shell hit back last night, saying it had invested  more than £600 million in recent years to    upgrade its North Sea facilities.

“Our overall performance has been improving,” a spokesman said.

“However, we are not satisfied with the number of hydrocarbon releases from our operations in 2009 and 2010, and we are committed to improve on our performance in this area.

“We have supported a recent proposal by Step Change in Safety – ‘which is a UK industry, HSE and trade union forum – to set an industry target, agreed in 2010, of halving hydrocarbon releases by 2013.

“We look to the great teams both offshore and onshore to achieve this important ambition.”

The company did not wish to put any of its bosses forward for interview yesterday.

Talisman has also been issued with a prohibition notice in recent weeks following four significant hydrocarbon releases from its Claymore platform. Work was halted on the platform – 100 miles north-east of Aberdeen – on August 16. However, no oil entered the sea.

Talisman UK senior vice-president Geoff Holmes said: “Any hydrocarbon release is unacceptable and our performance has clearly not met our own standards or those demanded by the HSE.

“Given the industry aim to cut hydrocarbon releases by 50% by 2012, they face an uphill battle.”

SOURCE ARTICLE

In a 2009 report on Brazil, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, mister James Anaya, wrote that Mato Grosso do Sul “has the highest rate of indigenous children’s death due to precarious conditions of health and access to water and food, related to lack of lands.”

From pages 22, 23 & 24 of “Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles” – Background report to the Erratum of Shell’s Annual Report 2010

The report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.

Joint venture with Brazil’s largest sugar and ethanol producer

On 25 August 2010, Royal Dutch Shell and the Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Cosan S.A. have signed binding agreements to form a joint venture in Brazil. The definite formation of the joint venture is expected to occur in the first half of 2011. The name of the joint venture will be Raízen. “Due to the size of its operations, Raízen will help sugarcane ethanol, a sustainable, clean and renewable source of energy, to consolidate itself worldwide and strengthen Brazil‘s position in the international biofuels trading business,” stated its appointed Chief Executive Officer, Vasco Dias.

Cosan is Brazil’s largest sugar and ethanol producer, accounting for about 10 percent of Brazilian production. Ethanol made from sugarcane has become the most popular fuel for cars in Brazil, surpassing gasoline. Cosan is the world’s fourth largest ethanol producer and probably the world’s largest ethanol producer from sugarcane.

The deal calls for Cosan to transfer its units for sugar and ethanol production, fuel distribution and energy generation to the venture. Shell will contribute its retail fuel and aviation fuel distribution business, and its participation in the biomass technology companies Iogen Energy and Codexis.

After state oil giant Petrobras, the proposed joint venture competes with Ipiranga, a unit of Brazil’s Grupo Ultra, to become the second-largest fuel retailer in Brazil. In the fuel area, the joint venture will sell approximately 20 billion litres of fuels to the transportation and industry markets and to its network of over 4,500 retail sites.

All Cosan’s 24 sugarcane producing mills are located in the South-Central region of Brazil: 22 mills are located in São Paulo state, one in Jataí city (Goiás state) and one in Caarapó city (Mato Grosso do Sul state).

Brazil’s sugarcane plantations are located in the South-Central and North-eastern regions. These regions account for 89% and 11% of Brazilian production, respectively. Within the South-central region most is grown within São Paulo state.

Some of Cosan’s assets will not be included into the joint venture: the lubricant businesses; the sugar logistics business called Rumo Logistica; the land prospecting and development business called Radar Propriedades Agricolas, the food retail brands Da Barra, Uniao and other minor brands.

Sourcing sugarcane from occupiers of indigenous land

Since June 2009, Cosan owns a newly-built sugarcane plant in Caarapó, Mato Grosso do Sul state. Presently, the plant has a capacity to crush 2.5 million tonnes of sugarcane a year.120 The former owner has expected that the capacity will be over 6 million tonnes in 2017/2018. The plant is included into the Shell-Cosan joint venture plans, so soon it will be half owned by Shell.

To supply the Caarapó plant, Cosan sources mostly from new sugarcane plantations in the neighbourhood. One of its known sourcing areas are the farmlands of the Santa Claudina farm. This farm is located within the indigenous territory Guyraroká of the Guarani-Kaiowá Indians. The federal public prosecutor in Mato Grosso do Sul stated in May 2010 that Cosan’s purchase of raw materials from indigenous areas demonstrates its lack of social and environmental criteria for selecting suppliers, and disrespect for the second largest indigenous population of the country. The Santa Claudina farm is owned by a state representative of Mato Grosso do Sul, Zé Teixeira. Cosan has confirmed that one of its suppliers operates in the region.

According to satellite images of the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), sugarcane plantations occupy already half of the indigenous territory Guyraroká. Since there are 26 “owners” of farmland within Guyraroká, there could be more suppliers to Cosan.

The indigenous territory Guyraroká, comprising over 11.000 hectares, was traditionally occupied by Guarani-Kaiowá Indians. According to the Brazilian constitution and United Nations conventions the land is theirs.

In October 2009, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice produced a directive as a step forward to final demarcation. The next steps for the Ministry are the administrative demarcation of the area and the withdrawal of the current occupants of the area. A signature by the Brazilian President, Ms Dilma Rousseff, is needed to make the demarcation definite. Generally, however, the demarcation process moves at a very slow pace. Moreover, the current occupants of the land are not likely to leave without resistance, be it in court or in the area itself. Violence by land occupiers and discrimination against the Guarani-Kaiowá Indians are frequently performed in Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Guyraroká is just one of the indigenous territories within the Central-South region of Mato Grosso do Sul, that has experienced serious delays in being demarcated. Dozens of Guarani-Kaiowá groups are waiting for their right to plots of land. Some 30,000 Guarani-Kaiowá live in Mato Grosso do Sul state. In the past they were pushed off their land and into reservations. Today, these reservations are severely overcrowded. The communities subsist mainly on government food aid. According to the federal public prosecutor of Mato Grosso do Sul, Dr Marco Antonio Delfino de Almeida, “the demography is comparable to being imprisoned in spaces so small that social, economic and cultural life are impossible to sustain.” In a 2009 report on Brazil, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, mister James Anaya, wrote that Mato Grosso do Sul “has the highest rate of indigenous children’s death due to precarious conditions of health and access to water and food, related to lack of lands.”

Sugarcane plantations are arising rapidly in Mato Grosso do Sul. The state area cultivated for sugarcane harvest amounted to 502,000 hectares during the 2010/11 season. For the 2005/06 season the figure stood at 160,000 hectares. Both Cosan and the Brazilian government havosane identified the Central-South region of Mato Grosso do Sul as one of the main areas for future growth. This is the same area as where dozens of different Guarani-Kaiowá groups are claiming plots of land.

A further extract from this section of the report will be published in the coming days:

“Cosan’s short-lived inclusion into the “dirty list” of slave labour”

THE COMPLETE 73 PAGE REPORT (with reference sources)

By Alexis Flynn

Published September 15, 2011 Dow Jones Newswires

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN) may be prosecuted for the U.K.’s worst oil spill in a decade after Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne confirmed an investigation into a 10-day leak from the oil major’s Gannet Alpha platform last month will be sent to Scotland’s public prosecutor.

“My department and the Health and Safety Executive have commenced investigations into the cause of the incident,” said Huhne, adding it would likely “take some months.”

“A full report will be sent to the procurator fiscal to consider whether a prosecution is appropriate,” Huhne said.

Previously, the DECC had said the findings of the investigation would only be sent to the procurator fiscal “if appropriate.”

About 218 metric tons of oil–equivalent to 1,300 barrels–spilled into the North Sea from a leaking undersea pipeline at the North Sea platform between Aug. 10 and 19.

Huhne said the DECC was initially informed on Aug. 10 of a surface oil sheen and told a leak had occurred. However, he was then told by Shell that the leak had been stemmed the following day.

On Friday Aug. 12, aerial surveillance in the late afternoon showed the leak was continuing “with significant potential for pollution,” said Huhne. Shell only confirmed the leak to journalists later that day, leading to criticism from some environmental groups and Scottish politicians about its slow disclosure of the incident.

Shell wasn’t immediately available to comment when contacted by Dow Jones Newswires.

Copyright © 2011 Dow Jones Newswires

A rig and supply vessel at work in the Gulf off the coast of Louisiana. Associated Press

By RUSSELL GOLD

The Gulf of Mexico has staged a comeback as a source of oil for big energy companies, little more than a year after the Obama administration largely shut down drilling in the wake of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The burst of activity comes as the government prepares to toughen its oversight of offshore drilling. On Wednesday, federal regulators probing the Deepwater Horizon disaster issued a report that recommended numerous changes.

Drilling has returned to near-normal levels in the Gulf. There are 23 rigs currently drilling wells in water deeper than 3,000 feet, according to federal statistics. That is the same number as two years ago.

The activity is being driven by a series of massive deep-water oil discoveries in the Gulf this year. They follow equally impressive finds in 2009 and early 2010, before the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The new oil is being found in deeply buried rock that is highly pressurized and drilling must be carefully monitored to avoid disasters.

The report issued Wednesday by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement included recommendations for more surprise visits to drilling-rig engine rooms. It also called for beefed-up requirements about disclosure of incidents where drillers nearly lost control of a well but got it under control.

On Tuesday, federal regulators proposed giving offshore workers the right to stop operations if they believe an activity poses a danger.

On Wednesday, Andy Radford, a senior policy adviser with the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, said that the recommendations are “in line with what industry and the government have already been doing” based on previous investigations.

A Bureau of Ocean Energy Management spokeswoman says the agency “has made a significant effort to educate operators on our rules, processes, and upcoming reorganization over the past year.”

It’s unclear how long the renewed love affair between the Gulf and Big Oil will last. The latest spate of finds is located very deep and many are close to the edge of U.S. territorial waters.

BHP Billiton PLC and Chevron Corp. last week announced separate oil discoveries. Both are over 100 miles out to sea in more than 4,000 feet of water. In all, they contain several billion barrels of oil, enough to keep the Gulf of Mexico a major producing region for years to come.

BP PLC, which contracted the Deepwater Horizon rig, is still actively, albeit quietly, pursuing the Gulf’s energy riches, despite facing massive civil litigation related to its exploded well. It has a large stake in the recent BHP Billiton discovery and has two rigs under contract working on developing its giant Atlantis deep-water find, according to federal filings. A BP spokesman declined to discuss its gulf activities, but said it has always owned up to its responsibilities for the spill.

The size of the discovered oil is good news for coastal communities fearful that the regulatory reaction to last year’s spill would scare away oil companies and reduce the number of high-paying offshore rig worker jobs.

“In talking to folks, there is a good sense of optimism, people are cautiously optimistic,” says Joey Durel, president of Lafayette Parish, La., a major hub of offshore support activity.

The exploration has been driven by high oil prices as well as improved technologies that allow geologists to remotely detect oil before drilling. “Every time you start to see something you think is played out, we get a new seismic image,” said Bobby Ryan, Chevron’s vice president for global exploration, “and we see opportunities in areas where we thought there weren’t any more.”

Recent announcements have bumped up the number of Gulf of Mexico oil fields with one billion barrels of recoverable oil to at least four fields. There have only been a dozen such “super giants” discovered in the U.S. over the past century.

The industry’s success is notable because of both the size of the finds and their complexity. Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s 2009 Appomattox discovery was the first time the industry tapped into a reservoir in the ancient Jurassic-era rocks. Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s Lucius find in 2009 and Shell’s 2010 Cardomon Deep discovery both hit oil beneath large salt canopies, using new technologies that allow companies to look beneath the opaque salt with seismic-search tools.

Tadeusz Patzek, chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at at the University of Texas at Austin, said the industry has a growing appetite for risky exploration.

“I would bet that many of these structures may have been known since the 1980s,” he said. But they are so difficult to drill—often in more than a mile of water and require five-mile long wells into high pressure, high temperature rocks—that companies haven’t tried to tap into them until recently.

Much has changed since April 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig caught fire and sank. The industry and government regulators say they have made strides to prevent a similar accident. Entirely new deep-water containment systems meant to stop out-of-control wells spewing oil on the seafloor have been built.

In 2010, companies produced about 1.54 million barrels of oil a day from the Gulf, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

A moratorium on deep-water drilling put in place in May 2010 and officially lifted in October hurt production. The U.S. will produce 1.43 million barrels of oil a day from the Gulf’s federal waters in 2011, according to projections from the Energy Information Administration. That’s 13.5% less than the 1.65 million barrels a day that the agency expected to produce this year in an estimate calculated just before the Deepwater spill.

Phil Weiss, an analyst for Argus Research, projects that the finds by Chevron and Billiton, as well as a recently disclosed one by Exxon Mobil Corp., could each add between 100,000 and 200,000 barrels of oil a day to production.

Marvin Odum, head of Royal Dutch Shell’s U.S. operations, said his company had all of its drilling rigs active again for the first time since before the Deepwater Horizon incident.

“The clarity around the rules that exist now is good and the fact that permits are moving through the system…should be a pretty clear signal that the system is working and is getting more efficient,” Mr. Odum said in an interview.

But some environmentalists worry the industry and government have moved too quickly to resume normal levels of activity in the deep water.

“We’re perhaps getting a bit ahead of ourselves,” says Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We have made some, but not adequate, progress.”

—Daniel Gilbert contributed
to this article.

Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com

SOURCE ARTICLE

That’s in marked contrast to Shell, which while operating Sakhalin-2 in 2006, was forced to execute a below-market sale of its operating position at bargain prices to Gazprom, the country’s giant gas gathering and distribution company.

By Anna Shiryaevskaya – Sep 14, 2011 4:04 PM GMT+0100

OAO Gazprom expects the Sakhalin-2 venture to produce enough fuel to support the expansion of Russia’s only liquefied natural gas plant as its partner Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) seeks resources outside the project.

The partners plan to extend the Piltun-Astokhskoye field to feed Sakhalin-2’s liquefied natural gas plant, Vsevolod Cherepanov, head of Gazprom’s gas, condensate and oil production department, told reporters today in St. Petersburg. Additional volumes from producing fields may feed the plant’s expansion or be shipped via the Gazprom-owned pipeline network, he said.

There will be enough gas for a third LNG train “if there is such a will,” Cherepanov said. The project’s two LNG units, called trains, are working at their full capacity, producing more than 9.6 million metric tons of liquid fuel a year.

Shell has been pushing to add a third LNG production unit at the $22 billion Sakhalin-2 venture north of Japan as the Hague-based producer seeks to boost gas production worldwide. Gazprom hasn’t yet agreed as it tries to balance its obligations to supply gas domestically against the attractiveness of exports to Asia’s growing markets.

Cameron in Moscow

Expansion of the LNG plant, which was designed to accommodate a third unit, was on the agenda for talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in Moscow earlier this week. Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser met with his Gazprom counterpart Alexei Miller yesterday, the Russian company said in a statement.

Producing gas at the southern part of Piltun-Astokhskoye, one of the two offshore fields that feed the plant, may be challenging as it lies under layers of oil and condensate, Cherepanov said. Gazprom, Shell and its partners in Sakhalin-2 Mitsubishi Corp. (8058) and Mitsui & Co. will seek to develop the extension as “the next stage,” boosting profitability, Cherepanov said.

Output at the Lunskoye field may be increased, a Kremlin official said ahead of Cameron’s visit.

The two producing fields may boost output by 4 billion cubic meters a year for as long as five years, Cherepanov said. The additional gas may be supplied to the LNG plant or into the pipeline system to supply to domestic consumers, he said. That volume would be sufficient for about 3 million metric tons of LNG, while the additional LNG unit may have a capacity to produce almost 5 million tons.

Supply Sources

“Sources of supply will be discussed by Gazprom and Shell as part of a protocol signed in November 2010,” Vera Surzhenko, a spokeswoman for Shell in Russia, said by phone today. They will include existing fields and potentially new fields, she said.

Gazprom and Shell in November agreed to expand cooperation in Russia and abroad. Shell may offer Gazprom assets in Asia in exchange for a deal to expand Sakhalin-2, people with knowledge of the negotiations said in February.

Gazprom last week opened a domestic pipeline from Sakhalin Island to the port city of Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast under government orders to build pipelines and supply gas to Russia’s infrastructure-poor eastern regions.

Output from Gazprom’s Kirinskoye field, part of the neighboring Sakhalin-3 project, will be the main field feeding the link after production starts next year. Reserves at Yuzhno- Kirinskoye, also part of Sakhalin-3, may rise by as much as 100 billion cubic meters to 360 billion cubic meters this year after new exploration data, Cherepanov said.

Shell looked at Gazprom’s nearby Sakhalin-3 development for reserves on concerns the Sakhalin-2 fields may not be sufficient for the expansion. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited Shell to participate in Sakhalin-3 during a meeting in 2009 with outgoing CEO Jeroen van der Veer and his replacement Voser. Gazprom has since said it wants to develop Sakhalin-3 without foreign partners.

Gazprom, Russia’s biggest gas producer and export monopoly, agreed in 2006 to buy just more than 50 percent of the Sakhalin- 2 venture for $7.45 billion. Shell controls 27.5 percent of the Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. operator, and Mitsubishi and Mitsui hold the balance.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net

SOURCE ARTICLE

EXTRACT FROM RELATED ARTICLE:

Will Exxon Be Safe in Russian Hands?

That’s in marked contrast to Shell, which while operating Sakhalin-2 in 2006, was forced to execute a below-market sale of its operating position at bargain prices to Gazprom, the country’s giant gas gathering and distribution company.

Half of the Nahua died after their land was first opened up by Shell for oil exploration in the 1980s.

Raya, a Nahua elder. More than half his people were wiped out after their land was opened up for oil exploration, Peru. © Johan Wildhagen/Survival

September 14, 2011

Isolated Indians in southeast Peru are being ‘bribed’ with painkillers and pens, as industry giants seek to open up their land to explore for gas.

Survival has learned that even members of INDEPA – the government agency set up to protect Peru’s tribes – have put pressure on communities so research can be carried out in the reserve where they live.

Workers from Argentine gas giant Pluspetrol have been into the Kugapakori-Nahua Reserve to conduct environmental tests on the land’s suitability. The reserve was created in 1990 to protect the territorial rights of vulnerable tribes.

Enrique Dixpopidiba Shocoroa, a Nahua leader, said his tribe have been given medical equipment, stationery, and promises of temporary work.

This worrying development comes as Peru’s President Ollanta Humala approves an historic law designed to guarantee indigenous peoples the right to prior consultation about any projects affecting them and their land.

But around 15 tribes have chosen to resist contact in the Peruvian Amazon, and several are inside the reserve. All face extinction if their lands are opened up.

Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry said, ‘Oil and gas drilling in uncontacted tribes’ reserves make a mockery of Peru’s new law. It also risks jeopardizing the government’s promise to protect uncontacted tribes, who are especially vulnerable’.

Half of the Nahua died after their land was first opened up by Shell for oil exploration in the 1980s. Today, uncontacted tribes still living in the region are at extreme risk of succumbing to diseases brought in by outsiders.

SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED ARTICLE: Threat to endangered tribes in Peru from oil and gas exploitation

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