July, 2007:

Article By Derek Brower, journalist

AS A beaten dog loves his master, so Shell loves Russia. However else does one explain the company’s attitude towards the authorities in Moscow? Humiliated last year on Sakhalin, the company’s first response was to grovel words of thanks to its tormentors in the Kremlin. Now it has followed this with a strategic pact with Rosneft, the state-controlled oil company, covering future undisclosed projects in Russia.

Everyone knew Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, was being disingenuous late last year in the aftermath of the Sakhalin affair. But the sight of him grinning beside President Putin as an “agreement” was announced to give control of Sakhalin Energy to Gazprom displayed just how much self-respect a businessman is willing to concede on his company’s behalf. read more

Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:00AM EDT

By Alex Lawler – Analysis

LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s three largest fully publicly traded oil firms are investing billions of dollars more this year and the extra spending has yet to result in higher production.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc posted falling second-quarter output, even though they plan up to a total of $61 billion in 2007 capital spending, up 5.5 percent from 2006.

“We’re in a transition for the supermajors where they are spending an awful lot to reinvigorate their portfolios,” said Jason Kenney, European oil analyst at ING in Edinburgh. “It takes time.” read more

July 30, 2007: 08:52 AM EST

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC PLC (RDSB.LN) said Monday a force majeure on exports from the Forcados oil tanker loading terminal in Nigeria is still in effect despite the first cargo sent in more than a year from the facility in recent weeks.

“We did one crude lifting, but the force majeure is still in place,” Shell spokeswoman Eurwen Thomas said.

The loadings came from oil in storage and not from new production, Thomas said, declining to comment on how much crude was pulled from storage and on when other loadings were likely. The Forcados platform operated at a capacity of 380,000 barrels a day prior to militant attacks that shut the terminal in February, 2006. read more

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC would not comment on reports the Kazakhstan authorities will review the Kashagan oil field contract, in which Shell holds a 18.52 pct stake, after operator ENI SpA announced further delays to the project.

A Shell spokesman said he would also not comment on how the impact of the delay — the new start-up date in 2010 is two years later than scheduled — would affect its own production forecasts.

‘On the issue of timing, because we are not the operator we don’t comment,’ he said. read more

By Eduard Gismatullin

July 30 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil slipped from a one-year high in New York as some traders speculated last week’s gains were unjustified.

Oil rose 2.8 percent on July 27 after the U.S. government said the nation’s economy expanded 3.4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace in more than a year. Asian stock market declines helped push oil lower.

“People were worried a little bit about the equity outlook today,” said Rob Laughlin, a senior broker at MF Global Ltd. in London. “The market overdid itself on the rally. The market volatility actually got a little bit carried away with itself.” read more

By Angela Macdonald-Smith

July 30 (Bloomberg) — Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia’s second-biggest oil and gas producer, will need to expand its proposed A$12 billion ($10.2 billion) Pluto liquefied natural gas project to improve returns on the investment, analysts said.

The Perth-based company needs to add a second and third LNG production unit to the project in Western Australia “to turn an OK project from an economic point of view into a good one,” said Frank Harris, global head of LNG at Wood Mackenzie Consultants Ltd. in Edinburgh. read more

Vanguard (Lagos)
30 July 2007
Emma Amaize
Warri

OIL producing communities in Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom, Warri South-West local government area of Delta State, weekend, barred the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) from resuming oil exploration and exploitation activities in their area until the rift between the kingdom and the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) over the commission’s Ijaw national budget project allocation is resolved.

It was not clear, yesterday, why the problem with DESOPDEC should be visited on the SPDC but the community has a lingering dispute with the oil company.
 
Representatives of the communities, Andrew Anegba (Ogbe-Ijoh), Clarkson Aribogha (Odidi I and II), Samson Oyimi (Ajuju), Chief Balogun (Eweregbene), Clement Takedor (Egwa II, Takedor/Kusimi) and Abenego Sene (Ijansa/Ijelejele/Ekeremor federated communities) in a communique issued at the end of an emergency meeting in Ogbe-Ijoh, said there would be “no re-entry into Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom oil producing communities fields, namely Odidi I, Odidi II, Egw II and Ajuja/Batan to resume oil exploration and exploitation activities until the exclusion of Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom oil producing communities in the DESOPADEC Ijaw nationality budget project allocation is corrected”. read more

July 30, 2007: 02:59 AM EST

In addition to the delay to the start of production, Eni also notified the Kazakh government that the project’s costs would rise to $13.6 billion from $5.7 billion.

Kazakh Energy and Natural Resources Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov was quoted by Interfax as saying the government would hold a month-long negotiation with Eni in August over revised terms for Kashagan.

The recoverable oil reserves at Kashagan are estimated at a minimum of 7 billion-9 billion barrels and the total oil in place at 38 billion barrels. read more

30 July 2007 

MILAN (Thomson Financial) – Eni SpA declined to comment on remarks by Kazakhstan’s prime minister Karim Masimov about the possible revision of the Italian oil and gas group’s contract to develop the giant Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea.

‘We do not make comments on the (prime) minister’s remarks,’ a spokesperson for the Italian oil and gas group said.

Cited by Interfax, Masimov said that, as Eni has said it will postpone production until 2010, ‘we are reviewing how to change the entire contract’. read more

By Khairunnisa Ibrahim

Bandar Seri Begawan – A Group of Brunei Shell Petroleum employees stationed at the Champion 7 oilfield have signed on for a religious course to refine their knowledge and understanding of solat, or prayer.

The group – consisting of 36 men and 2 women – started the Fiqh As-Shalah course, organised by the Courses Unit, Courses and Women’s Guidance Division under the Islamic Da’wah Centre, on Saturday. They will continue their lessons today and on August 9, 13 and 25. According to an official statement from the centre, the course was organised by the officers’ own initiative, as they wished to improve the quality of their solat according to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). read more

Deanna Spingola
July 29, 2007

(*For details of Shell’s connection with the sinister Bilderberg Group, see Wikipedia information at the foot of this article)

THE ARTICLE: The New World Order: The Bilderberg plan — control oil, control people (Part 23)

There are arguments from both sides of the oil issue: either we are quickly running out of oil or we have adequate oil to meet our requirements for generations. Both sides offer evidence, witnesses, experts and documentation to validate their assertions. Some peak-oil projects, funded by oil companies, are highly suspect. The very credible Lindsey Williams maintains that the North Slope in Alaska has as much crude oil as Saudi Arabia. Governor Frank H. Murkowski said in 2005 that there is enough oil on the North Slope to supply the entire United States for 200 years. [1] Antony Sutton, author of Energy, the Created Crisis, is adamant that we have sufficient oil. Conversely, I have read reports which support the peak oil theory. I personally believe, after research, that “there is enough and to spare.” Doom and gloom, Chicken Little oil scarcity claims have been propagated from the beginning. A scarcity, authentic or manufactured, of any crucial commodity accomplishes the following: read more

EXTRACT: In addition, at Rosprirodnadzor’s demand, work on the construction of the oil pipeline under the Sakhalin-2 project was suspended yesterday for two weeks. The natural resources protection department accused the project operators – Sakhalin Energy – of allowing an error to occur in the layout of the drainage system along one sector.  Apart from that the company was caught laying pipes other than those specified under the project. Formally, this is damaging to Gazprom, which has a controlling stake in the project. However, given that a large part of the stake was acquired several months ago from UK’s Shell company, which retained 27.5 per cent in Sakhalin-2 as a result, the question arises whether Gazprom will demand some measure of compensation from the British side for the blunders that were made. Gazprom’s press office declined yesterday to comment to Nezavisimaya Gazeta on the situation, stating that it was Sakhalin Energy’s problem.  read more

Strains on Growth Turn
Sector Sentiment Sour;
But if Oil Goes to $80…
July 30, 2007; Page C1

After years of booming commodity prices, energy companies have pristine balance sheets, exceptional credit ratings and gargantuan free cash flows as they continue to enjoy near-record oil and natural-gas prices.

A good place to find growth amid the broader-market credit-crunch storm? Not really.

High energy prices have meant big profits for this sector, and that has accounted for roughly one-third of the market’s earnings growth in the past two years. But rising costs, increased international taxes and a dearth of good exploration opportunities are shrinking margins. read more

Monday July 30, 2007

In a sector this large and diverse, we expected a patchy response rate and companies performing badly. Those assumptions were wrong. This sector was among the best for working parents, an apparent reflection of these major employers’ need to hold on to skilled and motivated staff. Most of the firms we invited to contribute did so. We did have two reservations, however: Royal Dutch Shell has a very hefty clawback on his enhanced maternity pay, even though recipients have waited two years to qualify. And BP just scrapes in to the “above average” camp: its working mothers wait three years before qualifying for reasonably – though not greatly – enhanced maternity pay. And paternity pay is meagre. read more

Alpha Delta Oil and Gas Resources has asked the Court of Appeal to quash the federal high court decision refusing it as party in Shell Petroleum Development Company’s ( SPDC) suit against Federal Government over revocation of Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 13 and 16

Nnorom oguchukwu

OMLs 13 and 16 initially awarded to SPDC were allegedly revoked by government that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) conducted fresh bidding ( in which Alpha Delta participated), prompting Shell’s court action. read more