September, 2007:

Dr. John Huong – Former Shell Production Geologist of almost 30 years standing

(Photograph Courtesy of The Borneo Post)

(The following comments in the name of Dr John Huong were published prior to the defamation proceedings brought against him collectively by EIGHT companies in the Royal Dutch Shell Group. It is interesting to note the recommendation for the unification into a single company over  year before the merger into Royal Dutch Shell Plc)

EXTRACTS

I have integrated my personal insights as seen from the perspective of a former Shell employee – a Shell geologist for almost 30 years – who was unfairly axed by Shell management. I was punished because I insisted on working within the ethical boundaries of Shell’s “Statement of General Business Principles” (SGBP) which is supposed to protect shareholder, national and other stakeholder interests. read more

Iran has discovered in-place reserves of 11.4 trillion cubic feet of sweet gas in a southern field, a senior official was quoted as saying.

Mahmoud Mohaddes, head of exploration of the National Iranian Oil Company, said the Sefid Zakhour field in Fars province would have a daily production capacity of more than 1.15 billion cubic feet once it had been developed, state television said.

He predicted 17 wells would be needed for the field, the report said. Recoverable reserves are lower than in-place estimates. read more

Sunday September 30, 2007

The president of Iran has stated publicly that it is his goal to attack the great Satan (referring to the U.S.), develop nuclear weapons and eliminate Israel from the face of the Earth.

We take him at his word, and more importantly, world leaders do, too. That’s why Americans should refuse to invest their taxpayer dollars in companies doing business with Iran’s defense and energy sectors.

To reduce the nuclear threat and stop the flow of American money to terrorism, local, state and federal governments should adopt “terror free investment policies” and divest public retirement funds from international companies that do business with Iran’s energy and defense industries. read more

Sunday, September 30, 2007

The “black rush” for crude oil, which reminds us of the “gold rush” in the 19th century west, is now taking place in Sakhalin, Russia.

About 30 percent of Russian oil and natural gas have been reported to be buried under Sakhalin: 2.7 billion barrels of oil in 11 oil fields, 1.261 trillion square meters of natural gas in 18 gas fields and 2.5 billion tons of coal in 52 mines as confirmed until recently, according to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA)’s office in Vladivostok, Russia. Such quantity of oil and natural gas can satiate demand of South Korea for three years and sixty years, respectively. read more

September 30, 2007
Louise Armitstead

BP has launched a search for a new chairman in a move that will draw a line under the turmoil that has engulfed the British oil giant for two years.

BP, which has a market value of £107 billion, has appointed a headhunter to find a replacement for Peter Sutherland, who has chaired the company for the past decade.

Anna Mann, doyenne of British headhunting, will conduct the international search.

The company has been rocked by a series of disasters. It faces lawsuits over an explosion at a Texas oil refinery in 2005 which killed 15 people. It has been attacked for lax safety standards in Alaska and for missing production targets. On top of this, its former chief executive, Lord Browne, was forced out earlier this year after admitting he lied in a court case. He has been succeeded by Tony Hayward. read more

30 September 2007

NEW YORK — Oman crude oil’s official price for November on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Ltd. rose 7.5 per cent from October on concerns of lower supply.

Oman was set at $73.49 a barrel, up from October’s $66.34, based on a Bloomberg calculation of the average closing prices for the past month’s trading. The November contract closed at $76.49 at 12:30 p.m. Dubai time, the exchange said in an e-mail.

Middle East crudes climbed this month as refiners snatched up cargoes on concerns that maintenance at fields in Abu Dhabi would limit supplies for October and November. Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s buying of a record 310 Dubai partials contracts through the oil pricing system of Platts boosted prices. read more

Lincolnway Energy, a midsize distillery in Iowa, was once virtually alone in the region. Today, though, competing distilleries are operating and pouring even more ethanol onto the market.
 
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: September 30, 2007

NEVADA, Iowa, Sept. 24 — The ethanol boom of recent years — which spurred a frenzy of distillery construction, record corn prices, rising food prices and hopes of a new future for rural America — may be fading.

A Glut of Ethanol

Only last year, farmers here spoke of a biofuel gold rush, and they rejoiced as prices for ethanol and the corn used to produce it set records. read more

Edited by Iain Dey
Last Updated: 11:37pm BST 29/09/2007

Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP (567.5p), was caught off guard last week when comments from a staff meeting leaked into the public domain. He warned that third-quarter results from the oil major would be “dreadful” and a strategic overhaul is imminent.

While the news knocked BP’s shares, there was nothing in Hayward’s comments that came as much of a surprise. Analysts had been anticipating awful results from BP in Q3 – with production targets and profit targets all missed – and had already factored this into the share price. read more

Article published 7 September 2007: Shell to appeal refinery closure
 
Shell CAPSA will appeal an order issued late Wednesday night that will lead to the closure of its refinery in the Dock Sud area for alleged pollution, company president Juan José Aranguren announced yesterday. 

By Peter Johnson
Herald staff

The closure, the latest in a series of clashes with the government over the pricing of the company’s fuels and alleged failures to meet the requirements of the so-called Supply Law, will take at least a week and “is the first time that the refinery has been shut down since 1977, or at least since I have been with the company,” Aranguren stated. read more

By Thomas Elias

It’s one thing for consumer advocates to argue endlessly that oil companies are guilty of long-running collusion in setting prices. There’s plenty of evidence they are correct in that contention – the similarly of prices offered by different companies at the same intersections is one indicator. But no one has yet produced a smoking gun to prove such a conspiracy.

Yet, there’s another form of gas pricing deception for which there is plenty of proof, even including defiant admissions from some oil company executives in congressional testimony. read more

The Wall Street Journal: How Economy Could Survive Oil At $100 a Barrel

Compared to 1980, U.S.
Is More Able to Handle
Once-Unthinkable Rise
By PETER FRITSCH and KELLY EVANS
September 29, 2007; Page A1

The world economy has managed, with some indigestion, to swallow the rise of oil prices past $80 a barrel. How well could it survive $100 a barrel?

The answer is quite well — so long as several conditions still hold true. The price rise would probably have to be gradual. Inflation couldn’t get so bad as to force big interest-rate hikes. Oil-rich nations would need to pump their profits back into U.S. and European economies.
 
All of this has happened so far. The happy confluence may continue, though fears remain strong that high energy prices will tip the U.S. into recession. read more

A silky shark closes in on a pilot fish. Pilot fish often swim in front of sharks to feed on scraps

By Gordon Rayner
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 29/09/2007

The subject matter may be familiar, but this stunning image of a shark beautifully captures nature’s infinite ability to surprise and delight us.
 
In pictures: Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The photograph has been highly commended by judges in the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The overall winners will be announced next month before an exhibition of more than 100 of the best entries goes on display at the Natural History Museum in London. read more

*Shell and famed whistleblower Dr John Huong…

September 29, 2007

LONDON Whether spooked, sinister, watchful or plain comical, wildlife features in all its guises in the prestigious Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. More than 32,000 pictures have been entered; 49 have been highly commended and 107 will go on display at the London’s Natural History Museum next month. One of the highly commended pictures is of wildebeest stampeding in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. It was taken by a Swedish teenager, Liisa Widstrand. read more

Joint program researches aspects of responding to oil spill in ice-infested waters

Alan Bailey
Vol. 12, No. 39  Week of September 30, 2007

Worldwide interest in the petroleum potential of the Arctic seas has triggered a corresponding focus on the practicalities of responding to an oil spill, were disaster to strike an offshore oil operation. As part of the ramped-up interest in how to deal with an Arctic spill, a joint industry program coordinated by Norwegian research company SINTEF is engaged in a series of research projects covering most aspects of offshore Arctic spill response. The program’s objective is continuing development of tools and technologies for oil spill response in the Arctic and ice-infested waters. read more

Vol. 12, No. 39  Week of September 30, 2007

Repsol YPF has joined Shell and Eni in a block of 64 leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope. It’s the Spanish oil and gas major’s first acquisition in the state.

Shell and Eni exchanged working interests in the contiguous outer continental shelf leases last November. At that time Eni had a 60 percent interest in the acreage and Shell had 40 percent. Repsol picked up its 20 percent interest from Eni.

The exploration block is operated by Shell in the federal waters north of the Oooguruk, Nikaitchuq, Northstar and Kuparuk units, extending east to midway above the Prudhoe Bay unit. read more