In transactions involving both Shell and BP, Mr. Putin met directly with corporate executives. For a time, Kremlinologists thought that he might segue into the chairman’s job at Gazprom; executives say Mr. Putin, a former spy, shows a keen interest in the oil and gas business.

Rick Wallace of Wallace, King, Domike & Reiskin, who represented Chevron and Shell in the settlement, said that the companies should not be penalized, because MTBE was added in response to federal rules seeking to promote cleaner combustion.

Some of the nation’s largest oil companies have agreed to pay about $423 million in cash to settle a lawsuit brought by more than a hundred public water providers, claiming water contamination from a popular gasoline additive.

Nigerian production dropped by 160,000 barrels, to an average of 1.88 million barrels a day, the country’s lowest level since August 1999. The country’s output suffered from a strike by Exxon Mobil workers. Adding to these troubles, rebel militants have apparently resumed their attacks on oil companies in the Niger Delta, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to reduce production.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL: Big Oil’s Friends in the Senate

Published: May 5, 2008

Listen to almost any politician, President Bush included, and you’ll hear that the fight against global warming cannot be won without cleaner technologies that will ease dependence on fossil fuels. Yet these same politicians are on the verge of allowing modest but vital tax credits to expire that are crucial to the future of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.

These credits are necessary to attract new investment in renewable sources until they become competitive with cheaper, dirtier fuels like coal. When the credits disappear, investments shrivel. The production tax credit for wind energy has been allowed to expire three times. In each case, new investment dropped by more than 70 percent. The credits for wind and solar expire at the end of this year, so action now is important.

Though there is plenty of blame to go around, Mr. Bush and Senate Republicans bear a heavy burden. The House approved, as part of last year’s energy bill, a multiyear extension of the credits, while insisting — under its pay-as-you-go rules — that they be offset by rescinding an equivalent amount in tax credits for the oil companies. The oil companies (though rolling in profits) screamed, Mr. Bush lofted veto threats, and the Senate, by a one-vote margin, refused to go along.

Senator John McCain — who is far ahead of his party on climate change — missed that crucial vote. He could be a hero if he now rode in off the campaign trail and corralled the Republican votes needed to extend the tax credits; his vote alone might be enough.

The Senate is still trying — but not hard enough. Three weeks ago, it approved a bipartisan measure that would authorize a one-year extension of the production tax credit for wind and a multiyear extension of the investment tax credit for solar power.

With other bells and whistles, it would cost $6 billion. The bill still does not rescind any oil company tax credits, so it does not meet the House’s legitimate demand for offsets. Like the House, we believe strongly that Congress must pay as it goes.

So the burden remains with the Senate. And the choice for the senators, in particular the Republicans, is simply this: They can extract a few billion dollars from the ridiculously rich oil companies (Exxon alone made more than $40 billion last year), or they must explain to the American people why protecting the oil companies is more important than protecting the planet.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Chevron to Pay $30 Million to Settle Kickback Charges

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 15, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (AP) — Chevron has agreed to pay $30 million to settle charges that it had made illegal kickbacks to Iraq for oil purchased in 2001 and 2002 under the United Nations’ oil-for-food program.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that Chevron had agreed to the settlement under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act without admitting or denying the charges. But the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York said Chevron could still be prosecuted for criminal tax violations.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, Calif., agreed to remit $25 million in profits and pay a $3 million civil penalty. The company will also pay $2 million to the Office of Foreign Asset Controls of the Treasury Department.

Of the $25 million, Chevron will forfeit $20 million under an agreement with the United States attorney’s office in New York and pay $5 million under an agreement with the district attorney’s office in Manhattan.

The S.E.C. said in its complaint that Chevron found out in 2001 that the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organization was demanding surcharges and that the company adopted a policy prohibiting payment.

The company then purchased, through intermediaries, about 78 million barrels of crude oil from Iraq under 36 contracts from April 2001 to May 2002. But these traders failed to follow the company’s prohibition against kickbacks, and Chevron’s management did not ensure compliance, the S.E.C. said.

A company spokesman, Donald Campbell, said in a statement: “The U.S. government advises us that one former Chevron crude oil trader participated in transactions when he knew or should have known that surcharges were to be paid by the third-party merchants from which Chevron purchased the crude oil.

“There are no allegations that Chevron paid surcharges, and the trader is no longer affiliated with Chevron.”

The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis meet some basic needs under the United Nations sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The program let the Iraqi government sell oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods. It was later found that the program was often used as a means to funnel kickbacks.

Four other companies have agreed to settle S.E.C. corruption charges stemming from suspected kickbacks to the Hussein regime: the El Paso Corporation, Textron, Ingersoll-Rand and York International, which was purchased in 2005 by the auto supplier Johnson Controls. Chevron’s financial penalty is by far the largest of the five.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/business/worldbusiness/15chevron.html