April 26th, 2007:

25th April 2007
By Clare Watson

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is reportedly installing food corners in 58 of its 102-strong network of Bulgarian petrol stations in partnership with Bulgarian ice cream company Jimmy’s, according to local publication Dnevnik.

The five-year agreement will see Jimmy’s install food stands to provide ice cream, sandwiches, snacks and beverages to Shell’s fuel retail customers, Dnevnik said.

The publication cited Teodora Koleva, the oil giant’s commercial director, as saying that the move comes as part of Shell’s aim to focus on its fuel retailing activities by passing on the management of the non-core operations across its fuel network to outside companies. read more

State regulators are accepting public comment through May 16 on Shell Frontier Oil and Gas Inc.’s plan to get oil shale locked in rocks on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Shell is researching how to get vast oil resources out of oil shale rocks in western Colorado by heating the rocks and melting the oil.
 
The company received federal approval for leasing acreage to conduct the research in 2006 and is now working on getting the necessary state permits for operations related to the research. read more

DEAL OR EXILE: Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its partners reached an agreement to pay a substantial annual dividend to the Russian government as part of a deal to salvage the $20 billion Sakhalin-2 project. The move demonstrates just how far major Western oil companies apparently must go to remain in the good graces of oil-producing countries such as Russia, as governments tighten control over natural resources.

The previously undisclosed agreement was part of a settlement that ended months of pressure from Russian regulators who had threatened to shut down Sakhalin-2, a huge oil and natural-gas project in Russia’s remote Far East. The pact essentially changes the terms of the Sakhalin-2 agreement, while avoiding the legal complexities that would be involved in formally revising the contract. In addition to ceding a controlling stake in their flagship Sakhalin-2 project to the Russian state gas company last week, they will pay to the Russian government from 2010 onward a so-called priority dividend that will be linked to the price of oil. read more

By GUY CHAZAN
April 26, 2007; Page A3

MOSCOW — In addition to ceding a controlling stake in their flagship Sakhalin-2 project to the Russian state gas company last week, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its partners also agreed to pay a substantial annual dividend to the Russian government as part of a deal to salvage the $20 billion venture, according to people familiar with the situation.

The previously undisclosed agreement was part of a settlement that ended months of pressure from Russian regulators who had threatened to shut down Sakhalin-2, a huge oil and natural-gas project in Russia’s remote Far East. The pact essentially changes the terms of the Sakhalin-2 agreement, while avoiding the legal complexities that would be involved in formally revising the contract. read more