January, 2008:

Thu Jan 31, 2008 2:53am EST

(Adds detail, background)

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) posted record European company earnings of $27.6 billion in 2007, but fourth-quarter profit missed forecasts as a fall in production dampened the benefit of high oil prices.

The world’s second-biggest non-government controlled oil company by market value said on Thursday its current cost of supply (CCS) net income, which strips out changes in the value of fuel inventories, rose 11 percent to $6.7 billion in the final quarter of 2007. read more

By Kristian Rix

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc may spend $2.5 billion on a natural gas plant in southern Iraq to meet energy demand in the Middle East, where economies are growing 5.9 percent a year, according to a person involved in the plan.

Shell met with Iraqi officials in The Hague last week to propose building a pipeline that would link the Basrah region to a new facility on the country’s coast, the person said. Shell would also build a facility that could freeze 16 million cubic meters of gas a day and ship it to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the person said. read more

Thursday, 31 January 2008, 08:09 GMT  

The Anglo-Dutch oil firm Royal Dutch Shell has reported record annual profits for a UK company.
 
Its profit measured by current cost of supply was $27.56bn (£13.9bn) for 2007, beating its own 2006 record of £12.9bn.

Much of the rise in profits has been attributed to rising oil prices, which currently stand at about $91 a barrel compared with $57 this time last year.

But there is concern among analysts that Shell has delayed publishing figures showing its oil reserves. read more

By BENOIT FAUCON
January 31, 2008 3:35 a.m.

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC Thursday reported a 60% rise in fourth-quarter net profit as higher oil prices and divestments outweighed tighter refining margins and a lower output.

Shell’s results underscore how oil companies are defying the global economic gloom. U.S. crude peaked at about $100 a barrel early January. (See related article.)

The Anglo-Dutch firm, the world’s fourth-largest publicly-listed oil company by market capitalization, said net income for the three months ended Dec. 31 was $8.47 billion, or $1.36 a share, compared with $5.28 billion, or 83 cents a share, a year earlier. Results included a net gain of $963 million, compared with a year-earlier gain of $515 million. The latest figures also reflect tax-rate changes in Canada and Italy, and divestments in the company’s exploration and production unit. read more

With New Reserves Harder to Snag,
Western Firms Could Opt for Smaller Role
By GUY CHAZAN and RUSSELL GOLD
January 31, 2008

Big oil companies, benefiting from oil’s recent rise toward $100 a barrel, are expected to report more flush earnings in coming weeks.

But fat results aren’t likely to impress investors, many of whom are focused on more worrying long-term trends. By several other key measures, Big Oil is shrinking.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the second-largest Western oil company by market capitalization, reports fourth-quarter results today, followed in coming days by No. 1 Exxon Mobil Corp., then No. 4 Chevron Corp., No. 3 BP PLC and No. 5 Total SA. Exxon Mobil could set another record for annual corporate profit. Investment bank Credit Suisse estimates last year’s earnings from producing oil and natural gas, the companies’ most profitable segment, rose 43% from a year earlier to a combined $106.7 billion. read more

By Dino Mahtani
Published: January 31 2008 08:18 | Last updated: January 31 2008 08:18

Royal Dutch Shell reported full year current cost of supply earnings of $27.6bn (£14bn), a record for a European company, despite lower oil and gas production and weaker refining margins.

Higher oil prices and one-off items helped lift profits by 9 per cent from the previous year and offset lower production figures at Europe’s biggest oil company.

For the year oil and gas production fell to 3.315m barrels a day of oil equivalent, down 4.5 per cent compared to 2006. read more

By Matthew Green in Lagos and Ed Crooks in London
Published: January 31 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 31 2008 02:00

The future of one of Royal Dutch Shell’s most important businesses is at risk because the Nigerian government has not funded it properly, an internal company memo has warned.

The government’s failure to finance its majority share in the Shell Petroleum Development Company, which is responsible for Shell’s onshore business throughout Nigeria, posed a “big risk” to its existence, according to the memo from Basil Omiyi, Shell’s country chair. read more

By Matthew Green in Lagos and Dino Mahtani in London
Published: January 31 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 31 2008 02:00

Royal Dutch Shell’s admission in an internal memo that its biggest oil operation in Nigeria may not survive is the starkest sign yet of the precariousness of the company’s position in the restive Niger Delta.

The question now is whether the “One Shell” restructuring plan to turn around its businesses in the country it ushered into the oil era half a century ago will deliver salvation. read more

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Moscow
Last Updated: 12:15am GMT 31/01/2008

The Kremlin has offered a rare admission that Russia’s hard-nose diplomacy and the manipulation of the energy sector for political goals is deterring investors, leaving the country friendless as the credit crunch spreads to Eastern Europe.

Alexei Kudrin, the finance minister, acknowledged yesterday that spats with Europe and America on a raft of issues have gone too far. “Our dependency on global economic ties, on our exports, is so strong that we need to shift our foreign policy goals as soon as possible to safeguard stable investment,” he told the Russia Forum, a summit of economic and political leaders organized by investment bank Troika Dialog. read more

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 7:51am GMT 31/01/2008

The world’s independent oil majors are about to announce a series of eye-popping profits numbers.

ith crude averaging $90 a barrel for the final three months of 2007 the likes of Shell and ExxonMobil have been given a nice little end-of-term boost to their full-year figures. So expect to hear the word “record” used a few times in the next few days as they unveil their Q4s.

But is this going to be as good as it gets? It’s difficult to feel sorry for a company like Exxon, which will tomorrow announce profits equivalent to around $75,000 a minute. read more

A worker at a liquid gas site in Sakhalin

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 7:54am GMT 31/01/2008

Profits at oil giant Royal Dutch Shell soared in the final three months of the year as crude rallied strongly.

With crude averaging $90 a barrel for the final three months of 2007, Shell said today that fourth quarter profits rose to $8.47bn from $5.28bn a year earlier. Profits for the whole of 2007 soared to $31.3bn from $25.4bn.  

Shell is the first of the oil majors to report results and while most analysts are forecasting profits to be strong across the industry, 2008 may prove tougher. read more

Filed from Aberdeen
1/30/2008 6:12:18 PM GMT
 
RUSSIA: Nineteen local and international environmental organizations have called on Sir Fred Goodwin, CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to recall a controversial US$1 billion loan by ABN AMRO for the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s purchase of a controlling share of the enormous Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia.

Sakhalin II has caused many severe environmental problems and violates the Equator Principles, to which RBS has signed, claim the Pacific Environment organisation. The groups have also requested to meet with Goodwin. RBS leads a consortium of banks that purchased ABN AMRO in 2007. read more

Solar reflectors: ‘We think we can achieve 15 times the biofuel yield per hectare of land by using algae rather than conventional crops’

Solar reflectors could one day make petrol from thin air, and algae may provide all the diesel we need. Simon Usborne reports on the race to perfect energy sources for the future

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

The need to find a new generation of fuels has never been greater. Earlier this month, the cost of oil hit $100 a barrel for the first time, leading to sky-high prices at petrol pumps all over the world. And consumption shows no signs of slowing as the new economic powerhouses of China and India continue to develop a seemingly insatiable thirst for the black gold. In smog-choked Beijing alone, more than 1,000 new private cars hit the roads every day – that’s about one every 90 seconds. read more

January 30, 2008
British Columbia 

A GROUP of Tahltan elders have added their voices in opposition to Shell’s plan to drill for coalbed methane natural gas in the Klappan area.

The elders, centered in Telegraph Creek but who now also live around the northwest, feel the Klappan area is too important for development because it is the headwaters of three major rivers, says Lillian Moyer, who speaks for the group.

“For these elders, their traditional fishing spot is the Stikine River at Telegraph Creek and the Stikine has its headwaters in the Klappan. They’re worried about the downstream effect,” she said. read more

Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:02am EST

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Oil sand projects operated by Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) are running normally despite a bitter cold snap in northern Alberta that forced Syncrude Canada Ltd to suspend production at its 350,000 barrel per day project.

Suncor and Shell both said that their oil sands mining projects near Fort McMurray, Alberta, were producing at normal rates. Suncor’s output is about 260,000 bpd, while Shell has a capacity of 155,000 bpd. read more

Published by Andy Rowell January 29th, 2008
 
Maybe the oil industry is running out of reserves faster than it is letting on, but Shell is to delay publication of key data about its oil reserves that it would normally have released alongside profits figures being published this week.

The decision is said to have disappointed some analysts, who have been told that the subject will not even be “up for discussion” and which has sparked concern the reserves numbers could be poor.

The amount of reserves booked by Shell is always a sensitive issue for the company as it was the revelation in 2004 that Europe’s largest oil firm had overstated the amount of oil in its wells that led to the resignation of chairman Sir Philip Watts and investigations by regulators in London and New York. read more