March, 2008:

Monday March 31 2008
By Fayen Wong

PERTH, March 31 (Reuters) – Oil fell more than $1 to less than $105 a barrel on Monday, extending Friday’s decline, after the restart of a crude pipeline system in Iraq eased fears of an extended exports disruption from the country’s oil-rich south.

U.S. light crude for May delivery fell $1.04 cents to $104.58 a barrel by 0053 GMT.

The decline brings total losses since Friday to nearly $3, erasing the gains made on Thursday after the attack on the pipeline feeding the Basra export terminal interrupted flows from southern Iraq for the first time since 2004.
London Brent crude fell 55 cents to $103.22. read more

John Colson
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado
March 30, 2008

ASPEN — Some scientists say the Earth is headed for “a very large extinction spasm” if current trends continue, moderator Michael Totten told a panel of experts at the Aspen Environment Forum on Saturday.

That prediction, he said, is based on estimates of how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will be pumped into the atmosphere in the coming decades, and the level at which the scientists believe the animal and plant life on Earth will begin to die off in massive numbers. read more

This Day (Lagos)
30 March 2008
Festus Akanbi With agency report

Federal Government has threatened to increase fines on energy companies that continue to release natural gas into the air when producing oil, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Odein Ajumogobia (SAN), has said.

“We certainly will increase the penalty for gas flaring,” Ajumogobia, was quoted by Bloomberg News as telling reporters during a conference in Yaounde, Cameroon on Friday. “However, we are more interested in utilisation and monetisation of gas than penalties.” read more

EXTRACT: It points to bids such as Carrington, in Trafford, Greater Manchester, as the way forward. There the oil company Shell has submitted a bid to build 5,000 homes on the 400-acre disused site of a petrochemical plant.

THE ARTICLE

By Patrick Sawer
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 30/03/2008

Developers are threatening to concrete over acres of British countryside under the guise of building environmentally friendly eco-towns, it is being claimed.

Suspicions are growing that many of the 56 bids submitted by building companies to construct the Government’s 10 eco-towns are little more than old-fashioned commuter dormitory settlements with a “green spin”. read more

John Colson
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado
March 29, 2008

ASPEN — Experts might disagree about exactly when the world will run out of the oil that is easily found and extracted, but most agree that it will happen at some point and that humanity should be preparing for that day.

That was one of the messages to come out of the second full day of The Aspen Institute and National Geographic Magazine Aspen Environment Forum, at a panel discussion featuring energy-efficiency guru Amory Lovins, green technology specialist Randy Udall, and Marvin Odum, executive vice-president of Shell Oil. The forum concludes Saturday. read more

Time:  28 Mar 2008 10:26 GMT

TNK-BP is facing fresh problems in the wake of last week’s raids by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on company offices in Moscow.

BP this week recalled 148 of its secondees to TNK-BP, citing visa problems. “The process of clarifying new visa regulations is taking a little longer than we expected. We took this step as a precaution until new work visas have been obtained under the new regulations,” a BP spokesman says, referring to recently introduced changes to Russian legislation on work permits for non-Russian residents. read more

By STEPHEN POWER
March 29, 2008; Page A2

Big Oil will be making an appearance on Capitol Hill this coming week as congressional Democrats open hearings on two topics important to the industry.

Top executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips are expected to testify Tuesday before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, in an event designed by Democrats to tap voters’ frustration with high gasoline prices.

With Exxon Mobil and Chevron recently reporting record profits, House Democrats are pushing legislation that would repeal $18 billion of tax incentives for oil and gas producers and use the savings to finance tax credits and other incentives for wind-power projects, solar panels and more energy-efficient cars. Their measure isn’t likely to become law anytime soon, however. A similar proposal died in the Senate in December, and the White House has threatened a veto of the current legislation. read more

March 28, 2008: 07:15 PM EST

LIBREVILLE (AFP)–An oil workers strike which has paralyzed production at a Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) subsidiary in Gabon is set to become an industry- wide dispute, union officials warned Friday.

Industrial action at Shell’s Gamba terminal has halted 60,000 barrels a day of crude production since the strike began on March 20, with another 30,000 barrels exported by France’s Total Gabon (EC.FR) and Perenco also on hold.

Now unions negotiating for staff at America’s Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO), who account for a further 20,000 barrels per day, have issued a strike warning, calling for parent company employment contracts for intermediary staff, a union official said. read more

March 29, 2008
Robin Pagnamenta

Most people would shudder at the prospect of being sent to Siberia. Not David Greer. He spent four years on the bleak Russian plains as director of a vast oil and gas project for Shell and, although life was tough, it was not all about hardship.

“Sometimes you’d get up in the morning and a metre of snow would have fallen – you couldn’t even open the door,” he says. But there was snow-mobiling and in summer, shooting, riding motorcycles, even jetskiing. “I like to work hard and play hard . . . and drive anything fast,” grins Mr Greer, a rumbustious Glaswegian. read more

Posted on Fri, Mar. 28, 2008
By SCOTT STREATER
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The fuel additive ethanol has been blamed lately for ills such as escalating food prices, global warming and the widening dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

But don’t tell that to General Motors Corp., which is pushing forward with its plan for half its new-car fleet to run on a high ethanol-blended fuel. Company representatives, in town Thursday to promote the grand opening of a new ethanol fuel station at the Classic Chevrolet/Hummer dealership in Grapevine, said ethanol’s benefits far outweigh any negative impacts. read more

Friday, March 28, 2008 (China) 

Shell Global Solutions International announced the signing of a licensing contract with PetroChina International Company Ltd and PetroChina Sichuan Petrochemical Company Limited (PSP), which are subsidiaries of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), for the application of Shell’s Ethylene Oxide/Ethylene Glycol (EO/EG) process in a new petrochemical plant near Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Under the contract, Shell’s leading EO/EG process and CRI Catalyst Company’s EO catalyst will be used in the plant that PSP is building to produce 380,000 tonnes of mono ethylene glycol (MEG) and 50,000 tonnes of EO. The plant is expected to commence production by the end of 2010. read more

Gazprom headquarters, Moscow

March 28, 2008, 10:33

Gazprom is looking to cash in on booming global LNG demand with its liquefied natural gas production strategy covering up to 2030. LNG is set to be the future of gas transportation system.   Russia`s natural gas giant has announced it has ambitions to become one of the leading LNG suppliers. The company has two big future gas projects – Shtockman and Sakhalin-2.

The company’s spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov stressed that after Sakhalin-2 starts production, Gazprom will control over five per cent of global LNG supplies.

“LNG market is developing very quickly. It will allow Gazprom to enter other markets that are not available through pipeline transportation systems. We expect to receive the first supplies from Shtockman field by 2014,” Kupriyanov said.

Gazprom says there will be competition on the Russian market in terms of LNG production, but it will all depend on the right cooperation between the gas companies. read more

Sakhalin’s governor confirms LNG delays

Sakhalin Island Governor Aleksandr Khoroshavin has confirmed that the start-up of liquefied natural gas deliveries from the Gazprom-led Sakhalin 2 project could be delayed by at least six months, writes Vladimir Afanasiev.

Khoroshavin said he expects Sakhalin 2 operator Sakhalin Energy to start first shipments of LNG from the project off Russia’s far east in the “spring of 2009”.

The operator was adamant throughout almost the whole of 2007 that first LNG carrier would leave the plant in September 2008. read more

Russian environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor has tackled Sakhalin Energy over its refusal to pay $17 million in compensation for environmental damage caused during work on the Sakhalin 2 oil and gas project in the country’s far east, writes Vladimir Afanasiev.
Rosprirodnadzor submitted the claim to the company in December to make restitution for the destruction of forests during the building of oil and gas pipelines on Sakhalin Island.

However, the operator has refused “to pay it voluntarily”, a Rosprirodnadzor official was reported as saying. read more

Malcolm Brinded: Executive Director Shell EP

By Gareth Chetwynd

A Shell-led consortium has opted for a tension-leg platform solution to develop two heavy oil fields in Brazil’s Santos basin, and regulatory approval for the develoment plan is understood to be close.

Shell declared commerciality on the Atlanta and Oliva fields in December 2006 and was given up to 180 days to present its development plan to Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP).

“This plan has already been presented and studied and we are now waiting for Shell to respond to some observations that we made. The project is moving along toward approval,” said a source in the ANP’s technical department. read more