Free Republic

The rights to explore Brazil's biggest oilfield have been won at an auction by a consortium led by Brazil's state-run Petrobras, backed by Total, Shell and Chinese firms. The group made the only bid in the auction, offering the minimum share of the surplus production. The Rio de Janeiro beachfront hotel, where the auction took place, was guarded by 1,100 security personnel. Earlier, striking oil workers opposed to the contest clashed with police. Eleven companies had expressed interest in the Libra oilfield, but the Spanish Repsol pulled out on Monday, leaving the five winners as the only ones to present...

Cats and dogs. Oil and water. Name any cliche about polar opposites and they have probably been used to compare the oil industry and electric vehicles. So, it seems almost impossible that an oil company would make the claim that electric vehicles will be the predominant transportation fuel, but Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A ) is making that very claim. Is Shell contemplating going into a new business? Are they playing some kind of Jedi mind trick on us? Let's take a look at some of the things that Shell is saying and see if it is making a compelling...

A decision this week by Shell to shutter its oil shale operation in Colorado to pursue other ventures in Jordan and Canada highlights the difficulties faced by developers in the state as they wrestle with uncertain rules under the Obama administration. Royal Dutch Shell was one of the most successful companies in the state in its efforts to develop a cost-efficient technique to extract oil from shale rock. But the final act of Ken Salazar as Interior secretary earlier this year to rewrite industry rules left companies in limbo with undeterminable royalty rates, and blocked them from obtaining leases for...

Noble Corp. in January announced plans to move one of its deep-water drilling rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico amid a spill-related slowdown in activity. This week, the Swiss-based driller made good on its promise. It loaded the Noble Clyde Boudreaux, an ultra-deepwater semisubmersible, on a ship in Pascagoula, Miss., that will carry the rig 5,000 miles to Brazil, where it has a contract with Shell. That new contract, starting in April, will last for a year and is $290,000 per day less than the previous Gulf lease, Noble said. Noble, Diamond Offshore and other offshore drilling contractors have...

The IDF fired warning shots into Syrian territory on Sunday after a mortar shell fired from Syria hit an IDF outpost in the Golan Heights. The incident follows a similar spillover from Syria on Thursday, when a shell from Syria exploded in Moshav Alonei Habashan. "Further attacks [from Syria] will illicit a vigorous response," the IDF Spokesman's Office stated. The military also sent a letter to the United Nations warning Syrian forces to be careful in avoiding fire into the Golan. Just hours earlier, Defense Minister Ehud Barak threatened that Israel would respond should stray Syrian ordnance continue to strike...

The man at the center of a hoax that forced a Dallas bound plane to return to Philadelphia Thursday, was arrested when he finally made it to Dallas hours later. Christopher Shell was being held on a warrant from an area agency according to DFW Police. Online court records in Collin County show he failed to show up for a court appearance in January on a misdemeanor charge for marijuana possession in McKinney.

The heaviest polar ice in more than a decade could postpone the start of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean until the beginning of August, a delay of up to two weeks, Shell Alaska officials said. Unveiling a newly refurbished ice-class rig that is poised to begin drilling two exploratory wells this summer in the Beaufort Sea, Shell executives said Friday that the unusually robust sea ice would further narrow what already is a tight window for operations. The company's $4-billion program is designed to measure the extent of what could be the United States' most important new inventory...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Republican state lawmakers stood in united but futile opposition Thursday to the practice of approving empty bills that contain no real legislation but will be amended later to include budget legislation. Democrats, who control both houses, each approved several so-called "shell" bills—the Senate 40 of them, and the Assembly 38. The bills contain no actual budget details but will be amended later to include specific language needed to enact the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Passing the bills now makes it quicker and easier to approve a state spending plan before the constitutional deadline in...

Former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister predicted that the U.S. won’t have enough oil to fill gas tanks whatever the price and that high gas prices could lead to another recession, because people won’t be able to buy things. The host of “Washington Journal” asked Hofmeister if he agreed with the head of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, that the U.S. won’t see $5 a gallon gas and that the rhetoric over Iran is responsible for driving up gas prices temporarily. “There’s a lot of views out there, and I’ve been articulating a $5 price.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, is losing about $1 billion a year from drilling delays in the Gulf of Mexico since the 2010 Macondo disaster. Shell’s production in the region will be curbed by about 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent this year, similar to 2011, Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said. The company expects to return to planned operations off the Gulf coast by 2014. “The cash flow implications are a billion dollars or more per year relative to where we want to be,” Henry said in London today. “We are catching up.” The company, which in...

Anchorage, Alaska (AP) -- Alaska Native and environmental groups are challenging a federal air permit granted to Royal Dutch Shell PLC for offshore drilling in Arctic waters. Shell hopes to drill exploratory wells next summer off Alaska's northern coasts. The Environmental Protection Agency issued an air permit Friday for a Shell drill ship called the Kulluk.

Cat actually plays the shell game. Worth watching. Video was on one of the TV channels this morning. Video is at http://www.break.com/index/cat-learns-to-play-the-shell-game-2065317.

LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Oil companies in Europe are betting on the survival of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, in sharp contrast to their support for Libya's opposition six months ago, even while the European Union is expected to soon slap oil sanctions on Damascus. ... Royal Dutch/Shell (RDSa.L) is expected to load its Neverland Star tanker with crude oil cargo in the port of Banias over the weekend. The tanker was in Alexandria in Egypt on Thursday, just a day away from the Syrian port. The company operates a joint venture with Syria's state oil company and a...

Mid-air blast tank shell winner of Defense Prize By YAAKOV KATZ 07/06/2011 21:29 Kalanit can explode midair over hiding terrorists and can breach concrete walls; shell has been successful in hitting Gaza terror cells. What makes the Kalanit unique is the crew’s ability to choose between two different modes for the way it wants the shell to detonate. It can be shot just above anti-tank cells – which usually cannot be effectively targeted by standard tank shells – then stops in midair and explodes into six different charges scattering thousands of deadly fragments. The shell can also be used against...

Shell Petroleum development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has linked the rampant cases of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta to international criminal network, and called on all stakeholders to take urgent steps to check the dangerous trend.According to SPDC, sabotage and crude oil theft was the cause of 22,310 barrels spilled from its facilities in 112 incidents in 2010, representing an average of about one spill every three days. However, 5,270 barrels was due to 32 operational problems, arising from equipment failures recorded during the period. Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Mutiu...

The green regime has slashed the amount of air pollutants allowable from the supermajor at its Beaufort and Chukchi plays by 50% from the original set of permits. Anglo-Dutch outfit must obtain permits from US authorities as it proposed drilling activities off Alaska “would emit more than 250 tonnes of air pollutants a year”, the EPA wrote in a statement today. “The revised permits have reduced emissions of most key air pollutants by more than 50% from the levels allowed in the 2010 permits. “These reductions are largely due to the new NO2 standard that went into effect after the...

It will be the largest floating object in the world - the length of four football pitches and weighing as much as six aircraft carriers. Shell today announced plans to build a giant floating gas refinery, named the Prelude, in a project that will cost $10billion. The ship will allow gas extracted by drilling rigs and platforms far out at sea to be transferred to the ship for processing- removing the need for pipe lines to a refinery on land. It means the company will be able to drill for gas in new fields hundreds of miles from the nearest...

Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight. Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining...

Development of resources in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off Alaska’s Arctic coast would create an average 54,700 jobs/year nationwide with a $145 billion total payroll and generate $193 billion in federal, state, and local revenue over 50 years, according to a study by Northern Economics Inc., Alaska’s largest private economic consulting firm, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Commercial production of Arctic Alaska offshore oil and gas resources would generate government revenue estimated at $97 billion (in 2010 dollars) in the Beaufort Sea and $96 billion in the Chukchi Sea over 50...

Former Shell Oil Co. president John Hofmeister said that the Obama administration's energy policies and regulations are strangling the U.S. economy and preventing the country from decreasing its dependence on foreign oil. Testifying before the House Energy and Power Subcommittee, the Houston businessman blamed the administration for restricting offshore drilling after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. "I believe that the decline" in drilling in the Gulf of Mexico "will be sharper and deeper than what anyone is currently projecting," he told lawmakers. "We have made a horrible error as a country." Hofmeister was one of...