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August, 2012:

Tar Sands – World’s Dirtiest Oil?

GUEST ARTICLE BY A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR, A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL CO

I read your article about the concern over the management of Royal Dutch Shell’s tailings ponds that result from the open-pit mining of heavy tar deposits in Alberta.
 
There are many lessons for the Canadian and Provincial governments to be learned about open-pit mining and reclamation operations from their nearby neighbors in the States.

The Canadian Rockies are not noted for their mineral deposits. In the United States however, vast deposits of coal, copper, zinc, gold, silver and molybdenum have been discovered and mined over the last 150 years. Many of these operations have been abandoned leaving behind heaps of toxic tailings that continue to pollute the environment today. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell ramps up Qatari gas-to-diesel money machine

Tue Aug 28, 2012 8:38am EDT

* Pearl GTL ramping up to full production

* Plant is world’s biggest gas-to-liquids facility

* Project development cost Shell $18-19 billion

* High oil price, free gas input make it a money-spinner

By Andrew Callus and Peg Mackey

STAVANGER/LONDON, Aug 28 (Reuters) – – A Qatari project that has been a drain on Royal Dutch Shell’s capital since 2003 is on the verge of turning into a unique asset that will produce billions of dollars a year in cash for the next 25 years. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

NICE Shell Fizzback

NICE Fizzback Voice of the Customer Solution is Helping Shell UK Retail Increase Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Across its Business

RA’ANANA, Israel, August 28, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ —

NICE Systems (NASDAQ: NICE) today announced that the retail division of Shell UK Oil Products (Shell), Royal Dutch Shell plc’s largest global group of energy and petrochemical companies, is using the NICE Fizzback Voice of the Customer (VoC) solution to help the company take a more customer-centric approach across its retail fuel business. The solution gathers feedback in real time from various channels, with a focus on mobile, from across the entire UK Shell-owned retail operation. This allows the company to gain valuable insights from the voice of the customer – driving operations teams to immediately take action to address the customer experience. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Shell Show, a tragicomedy in an unlimited number of parts

FROM OUR AUGUST 2004 SHELL NEWS ARCHIVE

The Daily Telegraph: The landslide bringing down Shell grandees

The SEC and FSA reports, however, go back to the previous regime, when Sir Mark Moody-Stuart was chairman.”: Even Shell fell for the “group bonding” mumbo-jumbo, and he was videoed stumbling blindfold around head office during one such session, talking of his desire to “encourage the creativity of people” around him. He seems to have succeeded.”

(Filed: 28/08/2004)

The Securities & Exchange Commission has announced its intention to pin the reserves scandal on individuals, writes James Moore

The Shell Show, a tragicomedy in an unlimited number of parts, featured a powerful double act this week.

On Tuesday America’s Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Services Authority both gave the company a good kicking for wrongly booking billions of barrels of oil and gas reserves as “proven”.

Now Harold Degenhardt, the director of the Securities & Exchange Commission’s office in Fort Worth, Texas, is hard at work on the sequel. “What people need to focus on is that companies only act through people,” he says. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Arctic sea ice hits record low, scientists say

By , Monday, August 27, 5:28 PM

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center – This visualization shows the extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26, the day the sea ice dipped to its smallest extent ever recorded in more than three decades of satellite measurements. The line on the image shows the average minimum extent from the period covering 1979-2010. Every summer the ice cap melts down to what scientists call its “minimum” before colder weather builds the ice cover back up.

The extent of Arctic sea ice reached a record low Monday, according to the University of Colorado National Snow and Ice Data Center, and is on track to decline further in the next two weeks.The news that the Arctic sea ice cover had shrunk to 1.58 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers) on Sunday came two days after Royal Dutch Shell’s drill ship, the Noble Discoverer, took advantage of reduced sea ice and started sailing from Alaska’s Dutch Harbor to the Chukchi Sea, in anticipation of final federal approval for oil exploration activities there. The area covered by Arctic summer sea ice usually reaches its low point around Sept. 13, when the region begins to cool. But it has been melting at an unprecedented 38,600 square miles (100,000 square kilometers) per day, and it is likely to decline even further before the ice begins to re-form. The last minimum sea-ice record of 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square kilometers) was set in September 2007.Walt Meier, a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said long-term warming coupled with recent weather conditions account for the new low. He noted that the long-term warming trend has produced more open water, which in turn absorbs more heat and makes the ice thinner.

“The thinner ice cover is then more easily melted during the summer, and more easily broken up by winds and waves from storms, which leads to more melting as well,” Meier wrote in an e-mail. “This year we had a pretty strong storm go through the Arctic in early August, and that certainly has been a big factor in the rapid loss during August. But before that storm, we were already tracking along the 2007 trajectory, so a record may have happened even without that storm because of the long-term trend.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Seeks to Extend ’12 Oil-Drilling Time in U.S. Chukchi Sea

By Katarzyna Klimasinska on August 27, 2012

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) is seeking additional drilling time in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska as delays have cost the company about two months of exploration this year.

Shell has spent $4.5 billion to obtain drilling rights, purchase equipment and procure permits from various federal agencies in pursuit of an underwater supply of oil estimated at more than 20 billion barrels.

While the company initially planned to begin in July, ice that remained longer than usual and Coast Guard concerns with a spill-containment barge, the Arctic Challenger, delayed the start and caused Shell to cut the number of wells planned for this year from five to one or two. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Federal scientists still wary of Shell’s Jackpine oilsands expansion

Documents reveal concerns ahead of fall public hearings into northern Alberta mine expansion

The Canadian Press: Posted: Aug 27, 2012 12:18 PM ET

A demonstration tailings pond in Shell’s Muskeg River oilsands mine in northern Alberta. The company’s ability to store the byproducts of oilsands extraction in a manner that doesn’t harm the environment is one of the concerns raised by federal scientists worried about Shell’s plans to expand another of its mines, the Jackpine facility north of Fort McMurray, Alta., . (Handout/Reuters)

Regulatory documents indicate federal scientists still have significant concerns over Shell’s proposed Jackpine oilsands mine expansion north of Fort McMurray, Alta., even as the project heads into public hearings. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell seeks more time to drill exploratory well in Chukchi Sea

Shell says the Arctic Challenger will likely complete renovations in Bellingham, Wash., this week and set sail for Alaska (Handout photo / August 26, 2012)

By Kim Murphy: August 26, 2012, 4:24 p.m.

GIRDWOOD, Alaska — With its bid to launch offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean running up against a deadline to protect against sea ice, Shell Alaska has requested an extension in its window for drilling in the Chukchi Sea.

Peter E. Slaiby, vice president of the Alaska venture, said Sunday that the company has proposed extending the time allowed for drilling in the Chukchi by slightly less than two weeks beyond the Sept. 24 deadline set by the U.S. Department of Interior to allow time for cleanup of any oil spill before the onset of winter sea ice. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Report claims Shell paid warlords and militants not to attack its pipelines in the Niger Delta

By Rob Davies: PUBLISHED: 21:53, 26 August 2012 | UPDATED: 21:54, 26 August 2012

Shell paid warlords and militants not to attack its pipelines in the Niger Delta, contributing to armed violence in the troubled region, according to a new report.

According to evidence obtained from leaked US Embassy cables and interviews with local people, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant paid ‘protection’ money to dangerous militant groups.

Shell fights a daily battle against oil theft and the threat to its staff from kidnappers, forcing it to go to great lengths to resolve the security situation. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Exclusive: Iraq pipeline delays threaten Shell’s Majnoon

Published: Sunday, 26 Aug 2012 | 9:40 AM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Delays in Iraq’s pipeline construction threaten to stall production at Royal Dutch Shell’s <RDSa.L> Majnoon oilfield for at least three months, forcing the field to miss a 2012 target of 175,000 barrels per day, oil ministry documents showed.Wary of losses, Shell has asked Iraq for a waiver to start recovering costs if Majnoon does not meet its first commercial production target by year-end – a contract requirement before costs can be retrieved, according to documents seen by Reuters.

Shell’s troubles illustrate infrastructure hurdles facing oil operators in the OPEC nation. Some oil majors have begun signing deals with Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, which they say offers more attractive conditions than the country’s federal government in southern oilfields.

Majnoon is shut for maintenance. But lagging development could put off completion of the new pipeline until the first quarter of next year, according to a Shell document filed with the oil ministry. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Nigeria hits Shell with $1.5bn bill

Daily Telegraph: Nigeria hits Shell with $1.5bn bill

“Shell and Nigeria’s state oil company would ultimately be forced to increase environmental spending in the country.”

By James Moore (Filed: 26/08/2004)

Shell faced fresh regulatory difficulties yesterday as the Nigerian Senate called on it to pay $1.5 billion (£840m) in compensation to pollution-hit communities living near its oil field in the Niger delta.

The move comes a day after the US Securities & Exchange Commission and UK Financial Services Authority issued damning reports spelling out the reasons for imposing penalties of $120m and £17m after Shell overstated proven oil and gas reserves from 1998 until this year by nearly five billion barrels. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Federal scientists still concerned over Shell’s Jackpine oilsands expansion

 By Bob Weber, The Canadian Press  | August 26, 2012

EDMONTON – Regulatory documents indicate federal scientists still have significant concerns over Shell’s proposed Jackpine oilsands mine expansion even as the project heads into public hearings.

Five years after Shell Canada first proposed the 100,000-barrel-a-day project, it has been finally scheduled to go before a joint federal-provincial environmental hearing Oct. 29.

In their final submissions to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, several federal departments say they still have questions about Shell’s plans. They include how growth in the industry has outpaced the company’s assessment of cumulative effects, how changing flow in the Athabasca River will affect contaminant levels and how well Shell is able to control effluent from artificial lakes that will be used to store tailings. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Nigeria: Shell’s Oily Friendship With Human Rights Abusers

The leak of documents from Shell reveal its deep financial ties to human rights abusers.

Shell spent at least $383 million on security in Nigeria between 2007 and 2009, or a substantial 40% of the company’s billion-dollar global security spending, according to internal financial data leaked to oil watchdog Platform. Shell’s leaked data is analysed in a new Platform briefing, Dirty Work: Shell’s security spending in Nigeria and beyond.

The briefing, as reported in the Guardian and Data Blog, reveals the extent of Shell’s financial support for Nigerian government forces and other armed groups during a period of intense conflict in the Niger Delta. It follows Platform’s 2011 report, Counting the Cost, which showed how Shell’s reliance on government forces in Nigeria and its routine payments to armed militant groups had exacerbated human rights abuses. Amongst this report’s findings, contracts implicated Shell in the funding of militants; funding that helped to perpetuate ongoing conflict in the Delta region. The new briefing confirms the vast scale of Shell’s security expenditure and its devastating consequences. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Why Libya’s ‘sweet’ crude oil is not enough to tempt BP or Shell

Libya is now producing 1.5m barrels of high-quality oil a day. But with exploration by BP and Shell so far disappointing, British involvement in the country remains slow

: The Observer,

A decade ago Libya was at the centre of dramatic stories alleging cloak-and-dagger diplomacy between then-BP boss Lord Browne, Colonel Gaddafi and MI6 agents. And barely 12 months ago British warplanes were in action over Tripoli – this time fighting to topple the North African dictator former prime minister Tony Blair had previously decided to embrace.

But if these two events were seen by critics as the UK manoeuvring for an “oil boom” that would benefit both countries and an energy-hungry Blighty economy, it must be deemed a bit of a failure. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Discoverer drillship sets sail for Shell’s Arctic leases

Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:45 pm by Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Alaska

The Noble Discoverer began a one-week trek to the Chukchi Sea on Saturday afternoon, moving Shell one step closer to drilling for oil in Arctic waters this summer.

The drillship, which left Dutch Harbor for Shell’s Chukchi drilling site on Saturday afternoon, comes one week after the company’s Kulluk drilling rig launched its own two-week journey north.

The vessels’ departure marks the first time that working drilling rigs have chartered a course for the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in roughly two decades, during the last era of oil exploration in U.S. Arctic waters. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Obama Admininstration Backs Shell in Supreme Court Case

by Puck Lo, CorpWatch Blog
August 24th, 2012

The Obama administration is backing Shell Oil after abruptly changing sides in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that could make it even more difficult for survivors of human rights abuses overseas to sue multinational corporations in federal courts. The case will be heard on October 1.

Lawyers at EarthRights International, a Washington-based human rights law nonprofit, say they suspect that a new legal submission  – which was signed only by the U.S. Justice Department – reflects tensions inside the government on how to deal with multinational corporations do business in the U.S. Significantly, neither the State nor the Commerce Department signed on to the brief, despite their key roles in the case. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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