November 27th, 2007:

EXTRACT: “Every time we put our credit card in the gas pump, we’re paying so that the Saudis get rich – filthy, obscenely rich, and that money then ends up going to funding madrassas,” schools “that train the terrorists,” said Huckabee. “America has allowed itself to become enslaved to Saudi oil. It’s absurd. It’s embarrassing.”

myway.com: Huckabee: America Enslaved to Saudi Oil

Nov 25, 2:59 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) – Consumers are financing both sides in the war on terror because of the actions of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday. read more

EXTRACT: Oil giants BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, for example, have been forced to sell stakes in lucrative energy projects to Kremlin-controlled companies.

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD
November 27, 2007; Page C5

Black Earth Farming Ltd., a Swedish-run company that invests in Russian farmland, is planning an initial public stock offering aimed at raising 1.6 billion Swedish kronor ($255.7 million) to take advantage of soaring grain prices by buying more land.

Black Earth, which plans to offer the stock in Stockholm by the end of the year, is one of several Western European companies hoping to capitalize on the glut of cheap farmland in the nutrient-rich belt that stretches from Ukraine into central Russia. read more

Reuters: November 26, 2007 at 5:10 PM EST

CALGARY — — Royal Dutch Shell PLC  [RDS.B-N]said Monday it has suspended bitumen production at its oil sands mine near Fort McMurray, Alta., as it works to repair a fire-damaged upgrader that converts the tar-like bitumen into synthetic crude oil.

Shell will advance the timetable of maintenance work at the Muskeg River mine while repairs at the 155,000 barrel per day Scotford upgrader are completed following a Nov. 19 fire.

Storage facilities at the mine are full, and with the upgrader damaged, there is no place to send the bitumen for processing. read more

Nov. 26, 2007, 4:08PM

© 2007 The Associated Press

FRISCO, Texas — Comstock Resources Inc., an oil and gas producer, said Monday it agreed to buy some oil and gas properties from Swepi LP, an affiliate of Shell Exploration & Production, for $170 million.

As part of the deal, Comstock will acquire producing properties and 70 producing wells in south Texas.

The deal is expected to close in December and will be funded by borrowing under its $600 million credit facility.

Comstock said the deal expands its presence in south Texas. read more

Photograph by: Donald Weber

Portfolio Magazine: Putin’s Power Grab

by James Verini  December 2007 Issue

The Russian president’s global ambitions—and his drift toward totalitarianism—hinge on the staggering energy reserves of the onetime Siberian gulag of Sakhalin Island. Royal Dutch Shell knows the drill.

Even in August, a visitor to Sakhalin Island, off the eastern shores of Russia, can detect a chill in the air. The pine and birch forests are still a brilliant green, the sky azure and cloudless, but intimations of the island’s savage Siberian winter are already here. Katerina Lekomtseva, a veteran of 28 such winters, shivers as she stands on a hill above Aniva Bay, on Sakhalin’s southern coast. When Lekomtseva was a child, during the death throes of the Soviet Union, there were constant electricity shortages, and she and her father would sit in the candlelight playing a game called In Town. He would name a city, and she would name another beginning with the last letter of the city he mentioned. After her father, who hadn’t yet given up on the U.S.S.R., would say “Moscow,” Lekomtseva, who had accepted her country’s eventual demise, would counter with “Washington.” Then she would imagine how wonderful Washington must be: no electricity shortages, no candles. “I hated that game,” she tells me. read more

Monday, November 26, 2007

Russian President Vladimir Putin has parlayed Russia’s huge energy resources into a powerful political tool. Portfolio magazine’s James Verini has written about what lies ahead for Russia and its largest energy project, Sakhalin II. He talks with Kai Ryssdal.

TEXT OF INTERVIEW

KAI RYSSDAL: Vladimir Putin’s a little peeved at the United States. Today the Russian president accused Washington of leaning on election observers, pressuring them to stay away from parliamentary elections that’re set for this Sunday. Putin’s party is widely expected to win in a landslide this weekend. Which would help him hang onto power when he leaves the presidency this spring. Not hurting either, are the rising prices of oil and natural gas. Putin has parlayed Russia’s huge energy resources into a powerful political tool. Portfolio Magazine writer James Verini wrote about Russia’s, and the world’s, largest energy project, Sakhalin II, this month. read more

Nov 26, 2007 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) — RGPMF | charts | news | PowerRating — UK-based oil and gas exploration and production company Regal Petroleum has named David John Greer as chairman and CEO, Antonio Mozetic as non-executive director and Hendrikus Verkuil as an executive director.

In addition, Francesco Scolaro has stepped down as non-executive chairman and Neil Ritson has resigned from his position as CEO and director.

Mr Greer has extensive oil industry experience, having worked for Shell International Exploration and Production for 28 years. He has held a wide variety of engineering, production, commercial and senior executive positions in Shell’s operations in the UK, Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Oman, Argentina and the Philippines. read more

UPDATED: 4:42 pm EST November 26, 2007

PALM BAY, Fla. — Thousands of homes in Central Florida contain defective water pipes that could burst at any time. A huge lawsuit has provided millions of dollars for homeowners to replace the pipes but most consumers are not covered or don’t even know they can apply for the funds.

Patty Van Zweden is a victim of polybutylene water pipes. It’s a hard plastic pipe, usually colored gray, used by home builders for nearly 20 years as a cheap alternative to copper. But by the late 1980s, plumbers found the poly pipes failed at alarming rates. At Van Zweden’s Palm Bay house, a pipe burst in the master bath when nobody was home. read more