Iranians train Taliban to use roadside bombs

Miles Amoore Kabul

TALIBAN commanders have revealed that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The commanders said they had learnt to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have been responsible for most of the deaths of British troops in Helmand province.

The accounts of two commanders, in interviews with The Sunday Times, are the first descriptions of training of the Taliban in Iran.

According to the commanders, Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses during the winter.

They were smuggled across the border to the city of Zahidan, in southeast Iran, an hour’s drive from training camps in the desert.

Instructors in plain clothes provided daily exercises in live firing. The first month was devoted largely to teaching the Taliban how to attack convoys and how to escape before Nato forces could respond.

During their second month they were shown how to plant IEDs in sequence so that the rescuers of soldiers wounded in one blast would be caught in further explosions.

The third month was spent on storming bases and checkpoints. A hilltop fort was among the locations used for practice by a Taliban platoon.

Local mediators persuaded the commanders to travel to Kabul to tell their stories. They were interviewed on separate occasions on the edge of the city.

Western officials troubled by growing Iranian support for the Taliban describe the accounts as credible. A military crackdown in Pakistan is thought to have encouraged Taliban leaders to look to Iran for more help.

One of the commanders said: “The military is pressuring the Taliban in Pakistan. It is certainly harder to reach places that were once easy to get into. I think more of my fighters will travel to Iran for training this year.”

Karl Eikenberry, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, recently described signs of co-operation between Iran and the Taliban as disturbing.

“Iran or elements within Iran have provided training assistance and some weapons to the Taliban,” he said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has publicly backed his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai. But American and British officials have accused Iran of playing a double game by giving covert backing to the Taliban.

Shi’ite Iran had long opposed the Sunni-dominated Taliban. The reason for the change was summarised by one Taliban commander who said of the Iranians: “Our religions and our histories are different but our target is the same. We both want to kill Americans.”

SUNDAY TIMES ARTICLE

March 20 (Bloomberg) — China may become of the world’s biggest natural gas markets by 2020 as the country seeks to reduce its carbon intensity by increasing the use of cleaner burning fuel, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser (above) said today at a forum in Beijing.

Shell is working together with PetroChina Co., the nation’s largest oil producer, to seek new energy sources in China, Voser said, according to a Web cast of the conference on the Web site of the official People’s Daily in the Chinese language.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 20, 2010 04:10 EDT

BLOOMBERG ARTICLE

By Sheila McNulty in Houston

Published: March 19 2010 22:33

Royal Dutch Shell has announced a “significant new oil discovery” in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico that has the potential to be a hub.

The discovery, located in the Appomattox prospect in 2,200 metres of water, follows three notable discoveries by Shell in the Gulf last year.

Shell is operator of the prospect, holding an 80 per cent interest, with partner Nexen holding 20 per cent.

FULL FT ARTICLE

Carrie Tait, Financial Post Published: Friday, March 19, 2010

Courtesy of Royal Dutch Shell Royal Dutch Shell PLC, under pressure from a small group of shareholders, has responded to critics’ concerns with a report detailing its activity in Alberta’s oil sands.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, under pressure from a small group of shareholders, has responded to critics’ concerns with a report detailing its activity in Alberta’s oil sands.

Shell said it published the 17-page report because it shares many of the same environmental and economic worries expressed by the shareholders who are demanding the oil and gas giant provide greater transparency with respect to its operations in northern Alberta.

“All aspects of oil price outlook, oil demand, regulatory framework, cost of CO2 and industry cost structure” are “taken into account when … investment decisions are considered,” Shell said in the easy-to-read document.

“When we assess the economic attractiveness of our major projects we include an expected future price for green house gas emissions (‘carbon price’) over the full life of the project,” Shell said. “Shell includes the expected carbon price in its economic assessments, which is higher than the current carbon price [of $15 per tonne for every tonne emitted above a certain reduction target] in Alberta, anticipating that potential future greenhouse gas regulation could lead to a higher carbon price.”

Shell expects to pay between US$2-million and US$3-million in Alberta for its carbon emissions in 2009, but did not provide further financial details regarding its carbon price predictions.

The company also talked about reclamation, the process of rebuilding the hills, forests, wetlands, and fens that are torn up as companies mine for bitumen. Shell takes a provision on its balance sheet for this process, booked as land is disturbed and reflecting the discounted value of the expected future costs.

Shell expects to spend between 3% and 5% of operating costs on reclamation, which it considers before starting a project, the report said.

Other financial, environmental, and social concerns were addressed in the online report. Shell’s oil sands operations churned out 78,000 barrels of oil per day in 2009 and it expects that to hit 150,000, or 4% of its total production, in the next few years. Mining is its primarily extraction method.

FairPensions, a British lobby group, rustled up enough shareholder support to get a resolution on the ballot at Shell’s upcoming annual meeting demanding more disclosure. It is almost certain that the resolution will fail.

But despite the resolution’s long odds, FairPensions attracted considerable media attention on both sides of the Atlantic, to the point where a British MP has tabled a resolution in the House of Commons asking the MPs’ pension fund to side with FairPensions.

Shell explicitly said its report is in response to the resolution.

“We’re quite cheered that Shell has taken a look at the resolution and decided it has some merit,” Duncan Exley, a spokesperson for FairPensions, said. “We need to look through [the report]…with our partners” before deciding whether it meets their disclosure demands.

BP PLC is facing the same shareholder resolution.

ctait@nationalpost.com

SOURCE ARTICLE

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/energy/story.html?id=2703351#ixzz0ifAy0FoK
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LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Canadian oil explorer Nexen Inc (NXY.TO) said they had made a “significant” discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, the latest in a string of big finds in the Gulf in the past year.

The companies said in statements on Friday that they had made the discovery at the Appomattox prospect in Mississippi Canyon blocks 391 and 392.

The companies added that the find lifted confidence in other unexplored sites in the area.

“The Appomattox discovery confirms our confidence in the play and provides a strong basis to evaluate the remainder of our significant acreage position in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico,” Nexen Chief Executive Marvin Romanow said.

Shell owns an 80 percent interest in Appomattox and Nexen owns 20 percent.

The Gulf of Mexico, one of the world’s most mature oil provinces, continues to be key to Western oil companies’s portfolios as new technology has opened ever deeper water to exploration.

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; editing by Simon Jessop)

REUTERS ARTICLE

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MARCH 18, 2010

By ROMY VARGHESE

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. offered its first corporate bond deal since 2008 as part of its plan to repay federal bailout funds, joining Shell and other borrowers tapping investor demand for new debt Thursday.

Shell International Finance, the finance arm of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, was marketing $4.25 billion in high-grade bonds, tying for the sixth-largest deal so far this year, according to Dealogic.

—Prabha Natarajan contributed to this article.

Write to Romy Varghese at romy.varghese@dowjones.com

FULL ARTICLE

Associated Press, 03.19.10, 08:03 AM EDT

AMSTERDAM — Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has made a significant discovery of oil 25,000 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company says the deposits were found at the Appotmattox prospect in the Mississippi Canyon of the gulf, an area where other rich deposits were discovered last year.

Shell said in a statement Friday it found oil at 25,077 feet (7,217 meters), then drilled an appraisal sidetrack and found more at 25,950 feet (7,910 meters).

Shell operates and holds an 80 percent working interest in the prospect, with the Canadian-based Nexen Inc. ( NXY – news – people ) holding the remaining 20 percent.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press.

SOURCE ARTICLE

FROM A SHELL INSIDER

May you please tell this story to the world, of how Shell continues to wreck lives, act unethical and bulldoze people. I have had this story a number of times but never believed it, cause I am part of this company but I have since seen the light.

It is common to hear that Shell doesnt need to be in South Africa because in fact we might pull out as we did in Ethiopia, Swaziland, Moz, Zim, … you get the picture. We are consolidating and looking more into our Upstream business as opposed to Downstream, hence the recent massive job cuts of downstream business.

Before we go further, I’d like to thank the Donovans for you are giving people a voice, may you put some focus on this one because it is a hot potato for the local Shell bosses.

In 2004 Shell initiated The Shell Retailer Development Programme, see attachment. 10 people were recruited into the Programme. Sowetan and Metro FM ran a story on this back in 2005 after their graduation.

What happened since then:
Two of the trainees you see on the picture have yet to own a Shell Service Station, 5 years after they graduated, one of them has been offered R100k to walk away, the other one is in the process of “obtaining” a service station, after 5 years.

Five have lost their businesses, all in one year (2009) Shell said these guys stole its money, it was appalling they way it was handled, Witness Mahlangu, the Project Manager went about the corridors telling colleagues how stupid and useless the BEE candidates were and he has a mandate from his leadership to terminate them. Shell has since made an out of court settlement with one (Durban High Court), the other 4 are in big s***, some of them went to the Department of Energy and to Luthili House but to no avail. Remember who owns Shell SA Marketing (it is an empowered company)
Only three are surviving, just surviving.

In 2006 Shell went on to recruit 10 more candidates (advertisements on the Sunday Times in) and this lot graduated in 2007.

What happened since then:

None of the TEN is running a Shell Service Station, in fact Shell is offering them R100k to walk away, after 3 years of waiting, lies, deception and corruption.

Mark Cookson, a senior manager at Shell said in August 2009 at Inanda Hotel at a Shell Conference ” BEE candidates will continue to receive support from Shell as long as they are cluster potential retailers” he further said ” The Shell Global approach is to exit any market where we are not No.1 or No.2, so we are reassessing our position in SA”

We as black employees in the company often wonder where Bonang Mohale is or the Department of Energy/ Department of Trade & Industry/ COSATU/ ANC/ Public Protector?

Apparently these candidates worked as pump attendants prior to joining the Programme, nor wonder the first group failed and they don’t want to go on about the second group.

Is it that these BEE candidates are sacrificial lambs in the race to be BEE compliant?

I would like the South African Media to investigate and tell the world about Shell in SA, in fact I challenge the ANC leadership of condemning and correcting this. What is R100k, for three years waiting and toiling, no I am not proud to be associated with this company.

I suggest that a pressure group gets formed before the World Cup so that Shell is shamed in front of the world, at some stage in our new democracy we need to stand up against bullies like Shell and this is it.

For more on the Shell DNA please go to royaldutchshellplc.com

Shell SA Employee

(IF ANYONE FROM SHELL SOUTH AFRICA WISHES TO COMMENT ON THE ABOVE ALLEGATIONS, IT WILL BE ADDED HERE ON AN UNEDITED BASIS)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By ROSS KELLY and CYNTHIA KOONS

FRIDAY MARCH 19, 2010, 2:00 A.M. ET

SYDNEY—Arrow Energy Ltd. has yet to strike an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and PetroChina Co. on a takeover offer, people familiar with the matter said Friday amid mounting speculation of a sweetened offer from the pair.

“There is no agreement at this point,” one person said.

It has been nearly two weeks since Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina offered 3.3 billion Australian dollars (US$3.0 billion) for Arrow’s Australian operations. The continuation of talks may cool speculation that an Arrow-endorsed deal is imminent.

Another person said it is “unlikely” a deal will be struck by the end of the day, but that anything is possible. Negotiations at this point involve “all aspects of the initial proposal”, the person said, without dismissing the possibility that a higher bid for the Australian assets could emerge.

Arrow said in a statement Friday that its shares will be halted from trading until Tuesday, or until it makes its next announcement on the offer.

All three parties have been locked in discussions for almost two weeks and a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday they’re “working really hard to see if there’s a deal here.”

Previously, a person involved with the talks said the separation of the domestic and international operations was a sticking point in negotiations. The original proposal would leave Arrow’s international operations in the hands of its existing shareholders.

Nik Burns, an energy analyst at RBS, said he is “very confident” of an improved bid and raised his target price on Arrow’s shares to A$5.45 from A$5.00.

Arrow hasn’t yet publicly responded to a A$4.45-a-share cash equal joint bid from Shell and PetroChina for its Australian assets, although most analysts agree the bid undervalues the assets.

“Arrow has been in active discussions with Shell and PetroChina over the past few days, probably thrashing out a revised offer,” Mr. Burns said in a note to clients. “With too much to lose on both sides if this deal falls over, we are very confident of an improved bid.”

Mr. Burns said Arrow needs a deal because more than 80% of its acreage is currently unexplored and the A$2.2 billion Fisherman’s Landing liquefied-natural-gas project in Queensland state was looking like a big ask from a funding perspective. “With no other bidder expected, maximizing the sale price should be Arrow’s primary objective,” Mr. Burns said.

Shell needs Arrow because it doesn’t have enough assets to back its claims that Australia is a key growth region with huge potential and PetroChina needs to secure long-term energy supplies, Mr. Burns said.

A spokesman for Arrow wasn’t immediately available for comment and a spokesman for Shell said the parties are still in talks.

PetroChina spokesman Mao Zefeng declined to comment specifically on the joint bid, saying the company would issue an appropriate press release if needed.

Merrill Lynch analyst Mark Hume said on Thursday that expected aggressive growth in Chinese demand for gas makes a sweetened bid for Arrow more likely.

—Aries Poon in Hong Kong contributed to this article.

Write to Ross Kelly at ross.kelly@dowjones.com

WSJ ARTICLE