Posts from ‘December, 2008’

He bought Basell, a Dutch joint-venture between German chemicals-maker BASF AG and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, for €4.4 billion, or $6.06 billion, in 2005, the largest leveraged-buyout deal in the chemical industry at that time.

By Jonathan Browning and Daniela Silberstein

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA LN): Europe’s largest oil company’s Nigerian unit shut down its Utorogun gas plant due to technical problems, cutting gas supplies to major power plants, ThisDay reported, citing the head of the Nigerian Gas Company. The stock rose 40 pence, or 2.3 percent, to 1,811 pence.

BLOOMBERG ARTICLE

SYDNEY, Dec 31 (Reuters) - A temporary shut down of Royal Dutch Shell Plc's (RDSa.L) Australia Clyde refinery will extend into 2009 due to ongoing maintenance work, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, said a railway boiler wagon spilled a “bitumen-like” oil by-product after leaving the Heide refinery in the northern German town of Hemmingstedt.

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Oil futures may rebound from their worst year to average $60 a barrel next year as OPEC makes record production cuts to counter the deepest economic slump since World War II.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, based in The Hague, and StatoilHydro ASA, Norway’s biggest oil producer, are among companies that deferred or canceled at least 14 projects this year in Alberta’s oil sands. Oil collapsed more than $100 since July to a low of $32.40 a barrel, less than half the price needed to make oil- sands projects economically viable, according to estimates by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc, one of four oil refiners in Australia, resumed full production at a plant in Western Australia, the largest in the country, after scheduled maintenance work that lasted two months.

Around the same time, Angola rejected plans by Royal Dutch Shell PLC to sell its half of a project to ONGC, instead ordering Shell to sell to Chinese interests.

KUALA LUMPUR: Shell Malaysia plans to open 40 more petrol stations next year despite the challenging economic environment.

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Norway's Golar LNG Ltd. may win a contract to buy liquefied natural gas from a gas venture in Australia, crowding out Royal Dutch Shell SA, The Australian said, citing Golar LNG's Chief Executive Officer Gary Smith.

SHELL EP Ireland has said there is "no pause button" on the Corrib gas project, and no overall delay to the current schedule. The company was responding yesterday to an industry media report that the project may have been put on hold.

Investors are now fleeing Gazprom stock...

Separately, a High Court action taken by four residents seeking declarations that Shell has no interest in lands acquired under compulsory acquisition orders in 2002 is continuing.

The in situ method being used in Shell Oil’s experimental tract involves drilling a well through the oil shale layer (about 2,000 feet) and lowering heated rods that will eventually heat the shale to 650 degrees Farenheit to release the oil.

In October the Baghdad government kicked off a round of bidding to allow international oil companies to exploit eight of the country’s largest oil and gasfields. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Gazprom are among the 35 companies that have put concerns about security to one side and thrown their hats in the ring.

The Russian national anthem blared over the loudspeakers as dozens of oilmen and officials braved the freezing cold to watch the tanker come in, celebrating the launch of year-round oil production from Sakhalin-2, the largest oil and gas project in the world.