September 22nd, 2006:

By David Pilling in Tokyo and Arkady Ostrovsky in Moscow: Published: September 22 2006 03:00 | Last updated: September 22 2006 03:00

Russia’s withdrawal of a permit for the $20bn Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas project could be a “massive blow” to Tokyo’s plans to secure a strategic energy partnership with Russia, a senior Japanese official said.

The official, who did not want to be identified, said: “If this contract is eventually cancelled, it will demonstrate how vulnerable LNG contracts are to the geopolitical intentions of host nations.” read more

By Mark Odell
Published: September 22 2006 03:00 | Last updated: September 22 2006 03:00

Premier Oil is ramping up its exploration programme over the next year by targeting nine prospects that management believes have the potential to significantly boost reserves.

The oil and gas exploration and production company is planning to spend some $50m (£26m) in the next 12 months, drilling some of its most promising prospects spread across its four regions: Asia, West Africa, the Middle East and Pakistan, and the North Sea. read more

By Lucian Kim and Garfield Reynolds

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — First Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked OAO Yukos Oil Co. Now it’s Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

This week’s threat to shut down Shell’s $20 billion development on Sakhalin Island, the country’s biggest foreign investment, is another maneuver to force companies operating in Russia to share more profits with the government, analysts said. It’s a reminder of the tactics used in Putin’s dismantlement of Yukos, whose assets were transferred to state-run OAO Gazprom and OAO Rosneft after the government filed $30 billion in tax claims against the company. read more

AFP , TOKYO
Friday, Sep 22, 2006,Page 10

Japanese stakeholders in the huge Sakhalin-2 energy project said yesterday they will continue negotiating with Russia after it revoked a permit in an apparent bid to reassert control over its resources.

On Monday Russia canceled an environmental permit for a Shell-led consortium to develop the fields, threatening a halt to work on the US$20-billion project and sparking a sharp riposte from Japanese government officials.

Two Japanese trading companies — Mitsui and Co and Mitsubishi Corp — hold a 45 percent stake in Sakhalin-2, the world’s largest privately funded energy project designed in part to supply oil and gas for energy-short Japan. read more

21/09/2006 11:36
By: Gareth Tredway

Johannesburg – Anglo American, the global mining giant, said in a statement that it had signed a joint development agreement with oil giant, Shell on the Monash Energy project in Victoria, Australia.

During next year, the first phase of the deal would have been completed, according to Anglo. This phase will see advisers from both companies studying the commercial and technical aspects of the project.

“If successfully concluded, the study will form the basis for the feasibility phase and demonstration activities,” said the statement. read more

MARK WILLIAMSON September 22 2006
 
Oil majors’ relations with the authorities in Russia came under renewed strain when a senior official raised the prospect of taking ExxonMobil’s licence for the giant Sakhalin-1 development off the company as a punishment for possible cost overruns.

Sergei Fyodorov, head of geological and subsoil use policies at the Ministry of Natural Resources, said it had been told on a preliminary basis that the US firm’s costs for the project in Siberia could rise to $17bn (£8.9bn) from an initial £6.7bn. read more

BY JENNIFER SMITH
Newsday Staff Writer

September 21, 2006, 11:00 PM EDT

Some local environmentalists have accused Shell Oil of trying to buy local support for a liquefied natural gas terminal proposed for Long Island Sound.

The Shell Marine Habitat Program donated $130,500 to a federally controlled conservation fund whose grants were announced last week. It is the first time the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, which pools federal and private money for Sound-related projects, has received money from Shell, whose Broadwater Energy subsidiary is proposing the gas terminal. read more

Singapore (Platts)–21Sep2006

Shell, one of the largest suppliers of jet fuel in Asia, took its cargo
buying this month to at least 14 shipments of 100,000 barrels each, leaving
observers struggling to work out where the oil was headed.

     The major, which was said by traders to have also built up a long
September jet swaps position, bought a further two cargoes Thursday, one from
Morgan Stanley and another from BP.

     “Shell has huge demand (this month), but I don’t know where it’s coming
from,” said one Asia-based trader. read more

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: September 22, 2006

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 — A top official at the Interior Department said on Thursday that she would not try to recover $1.3 billion in royalties that the government lost as a result of flawed oil and gas leases it signed in the late 1990’s.

“That would be very hard to recoup,” said Johnnie M. Burton, director of the Minerals Management Service of the Interior Department, at a forum held by Platt’s, an oil industry newsletter.

Ms. Burton added that she had little or no bargaining power — and did not want any — to force more than 50 companies to renegotiate offshore drilling leases that currently allow them to escape as much as $10 billion in royalty payments over the next decade. read more

Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:40 AM BST
By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will not seek $1.3 billion (683 million pounds) in back oil royalties on some Gulf of Mexico drilling leases but is negotiating a deal with BP and Shell to make payments on those offshore tracts in the future, a government official said on Thursday.

The Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore energy exploration, mistakenly left out language in drilling contracts signed with energy companies in 1998 and 1999 that would have ended a waiver of royalties when oil prices rose to certain levels. read more