November, 2006:

EXTRACT: More controversially, he takes the Kremlin’s side in the dispute with Royal Dutch Shell, facing the threat of expulsion from Sakhalin after investing $22bn in the world’s biggest liquefied gas project. “Russia is an unrecognisable country since the day that Shell deal was signed, and the price of oil is much higher. I agree with the Russians that the original terms were unfair,” he said. “Shell are posturing. They say they’ve got a contract, and the Russians say you’re quite right and if you look closely it says you must not tread on green-throated frogs,” he said. “The big guys can change the rules on you. We watched them do it in the UK when they put windfall taxes on the North Sea. Governments do it all the time.” read more

Last Updated: 12:23am GMT 30/11/2006

A round-up of headlines from across the financial sectors, provided by Bloomberg News.

ENERGY

• BP has been ordered to show it hasn’t broken a pledge to pay the medical bills of three workers hurt in a blast at a Texas refinery in March 2005 that killed 15 people and injured hundreds more.

• Russia’s environmental oversight agency finished its probe into Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-2 project and will issue a report after December 15, said Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of the agency. read more

Marianne Barriaux
Thursday November 30, 2006

Russia said it was looking at revoking the licences of Peter Hambro, the gold mining company, in a fresh challenge yesterday to western businesses operating in the country. The Russian authorities have already attacked Shell, TNK-BP and ExxonMobil over their environmental records. Shares in Peter Hambro fell nearly 14% to £10.25, wiping more than £130m off the value of the Aim-listed firm.

Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of Russia’s environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, has said Peter Hambro is not exploiting and developing two of its gold licences nor three chrome ones. read more

Julia Finch
Thursday November 30, 2006

Just two months ago in this column we quoted George Soros’s view of Russia as “a country that does not hesitate to use its monopoly power in devious and arbitrary ways”. Mr Soros was referring to letting the state-controlled Rosneft list in London, but his view was also a good description of events that had just unfolded at the huge Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project. Just as the state-controlled Gazprom was agitating to buy a 25% stake in the $20bn (£10bn) venture, Shell lost its operating licence on environmental grounds. read more

There will be a demonstration in Dublin outside the Shell Headquarters, 52 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin (corner of Adelaide Road) on Saturday December 2nd at 2PM.

Speakers will include local people from Rossport including Willie Corduff and Bríd Ní Sheighin, Finbar Dwyer from the Rossport Solidarity Camp, and a representative of Dublin Shell to Sea. Des Bonass of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions will also speak on the importance of the question of the giveaway of the country’s natural resources by the government. Mary Mullen will sing the traditional song Michael Davitt to set the tone for the protest. read more

EXTRACT: Doing business in Russia is risky.. An example is the giant Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project, led by Shell, which has come under pressure from the Russian authorities since the Anglo-Dutch oil major said costs would double to $22 billion.

THE ARTICLE

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Doing business in Russia is risky and a major reason why steel and mining company ratings in the country lag those of the government, rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Wednesday.

“The key constraint in Russia is country risk, which is not the same as sovereign risk,” said Moscow-based Elena Anankina, a director at S&P. read more

The European Commission has fined five oil and chemical companies £519m ($682m) for price-fixing.

Italy’s Eni faces the largest fine, of 272m euros (£183m; $357m), while Royal Dutch Shell was fined 160.8m euros.

The EU imposed the fine after learning that five firms were fixing the price of synthetic rubber used for tyres.

The fine is the second largest the commission has imposed for a cartel. It came after Germany’s Bayer told EU lawmakers of the price-fixing.

The move gave Bayer immunity from any fine, which could have amounted to some 204m euros. read more

(Police swoop on a Shell filling station in Westfield Road. Picture: ROWLAND HOBSON)

THREE men have been arrested today (November 29) in early morning raids in connection with an alleged card cloning scam in Peterborough.

Fraud squad detectives and police officers swooped on seven properties, including three filling stations, in and around Peterborough shortly after 7am today and arrested three men, aged 29, 37 and 38, on suspicion of conspiracy to steal.

The move comes after unsuspecting residents complained to police that they had their cards cloned and money syphoned from their accounts after they used them to buy petrol. read more

HOUSTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Shell Oil Co.-Pemex joint venture Deer Park Refining on Wednesday began restarting a gasoline-producing catalytic cracking unit at the 340,000 barrel per day refinery in Deer Park, Texas, according to a notice filed with the state pollution regulation agency.

Normal start-up procedures were to be followed, according to the notice filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The 67,000 bpd cat cracker was shut on Nov. 4 for repairs to its regeneration section. read more

By Matthew Newman

Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, Eni SpA and three other chemical makers were fined 519 million euros ($682 million) by the European Union for fixing the prices of ingredients in rubber used in tires and shoes.

Eni received the biggest penalty at 272.2 million euros, followed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc at 160.9 million euros and Dow at 64.6 million euros, the European Commission, the EU’s Brussels- based antitrust authority, said in a statement today. read more

16:33 | 29/ 11/ 2006 

MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s environmental watchdog will present a final report on the Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the country’s Far East by mid-December, a senior service official said Wednesday.

The service said earlier this month that project operator Sakhalin Energy, controlled by Royal Dutch Shell, is in breach of Russia’s environmental regulations, and asked the agency overseeing the use of water resources to consider stripping it of 19 licenses. read more

By Jessica Resnick-Ault Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Last Update: 6:38 AM ET Nov 28, 2006

In yet another blemish to its accident-marred U.S. division, BP PLC (BP) Monday confirmed that two contract workers at its U.S. drilling operations died in on-the-job accidents in mid-November.

The first fatality occurred on the Alaskan North Slope on Nov. 13, when a worker walking across a drill pad apparently fell, striking his head, said BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell.

The second man died Nov. 17, after the drilling of a well in Eastern Oklahoma had been completed. That contract worker was helping to prepare the rig to be moved when he also sustained a fatal head-injury. read more

by Mark Scheinbaum
American Reporter Correspondent
Lake Worth, Fla.

The Oil Crisis: U.S. taxpayers are paying to send oil to Iraq. Shall we try this again? Okay, the ruptured petrochemical infrastructure plus sabotage in Iraq means that Iraqis are using gasoline U.S. troops bring into the oil-rich country.

Meanwhile, Royal Dutch Shell for the second year in a row has failed to pump as much oil from planet earth as they sell – dipping into their reserves. Shell now predicts that they (and others?) may only be able to find 70 to 90 percent of the oil resources needed each year. read more

bbj.hu11. 29, 2006. Wednesday 07:44

The talks include the portion of the €16.7 billion ($22 billion) project cost to be borne by Gazprom and existing investors, Utsuda said in an interview in Tokyo.

Mitsui & Co. President Shoei Utsuda said talks by partner Royal Dutch Shell Plc to resolve environmental concerns at Sakhalin-2 and to include OAO Gazprom in the Russian gas project “will not take a long time.” Shell owns 55% of the venture, Mitsui, Japan’s second-largest trading company, owns 25% and Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s largest trading company, owns 20%. read more

By: MARK STEEL
Published: Nov 29, 2006

They must be bemused in Chechnya. Because they had about 50,000 people blown up by Putin and no one gave a toss. They probably made countless attempts to interest politicians and reporters from the West, who said: “Hmm, you’ve had your hospital destroyed by a tank, have you? Well it’s a bit 1940s I’m afraid. Have they killed any of you with rocket-propelled bird flu or a remote-controlled piranha – something a bit sexy?”

While Putin’s army was destroying Chechnya, Tony Blair welcomed him to Britain, and described him as a “great moderniser”. And that certainly applies to whoever killed Mr Litvinenko. Because there can hardly be a more modern way of murdering someone than with radioactive sushi. In many ways the two men are so similar that when Putin makes a statement on the incident, he might say: “This is not a betrayal of KGB values. It represents traditional assassination in a modern setting.” read more

By Doug Norlen: Published: November 29 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 29 2006 02:00

From Mr Doug Norlen.

Sir, Arkady Ostrovsky’s article “Out on a limb” (November 23), on the controversy-plagued Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia, quotes Ian Craig, chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, as claiming that environmental problems are temporary. One could say the same about a mugging in the park, but that does not make it excusable. Mr Craig also claims that many project violations are fixable, without explaining why so many have not been fixed. read more