Free Republic

From: Reuters From correspondents in Mexico SHELL Oil said it began producing crude oil and natural gas from its Cougar and Enchilada units in the Gulf of Mexico. "Today we began producing from our Cougar and Enchilada assets in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Yellowhammer Gas Processing Plant, in Mobile Bay, Alabama, is now operating," the company said in a statement. Shell did not elaborate on production levels. The Enchilada unit, about 300 kilometres southwest of New Orleans, has a peak daily production from its two platforms of 32,800 barrels of crude and 52 million cubic metres of gas,...

After leaving the state in 1998, the company has returned and hopes to join BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil as a major player in Alaska. Shell this year made its intentions clear by spending more than $44 million for 84 offshore leases in the Beaufort Sea. Company officials say that is just the beginning. "Alaska is a great and vast land. It is for people who think big ... and that's what we're doing," said Chandler Wilhelm, the company's Alaska Exploration manager, at an open house Tuesday at Shell's new offices in midtown Anchorage. ... Annell Bay, Shell's regional vice president...

An American Traitor: Guilty As Charged By Henry Mark Holzer and Erika HolzerFrontPageMagazine.com | June 10, 2005For three decades Jane Fonda obfuscated, distorted and lied about virtually everything connected with her wartime trip to North Vietnam: her motive, her acts, her intent, and her contribution to the Communists’ war effort.  With the aid of clever handlers, she so successfully suppressed and spun her conduct in Hanoi that many Americans didn’t know what she had done there, and, more important, the legal significance. Three years ago, our book, “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda in North Vietnam (McFarland & Co.), laid bare...

President tells Argentines to boycott Shell.... Lefist leader wants his nation to blame Shell Oil for higher gasoline prices. I guess he does not want to pay what China and India are willing to pay. Oh boo hoo! see article at: http://www.reuters.co.uk/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=687753

LOS ANGELES -- Shell Oil Co. has agreed to delay the planned closure of a Southern California oil refinery that produces 2 percent of the state's gasoline to allow more time to find a buyer and negotiate a sale, state officials said Friday. "I'm extremely pleased with Shell's decision," state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a statement. "It's a welcome show of cooperation with our effort to keep open this refinery, which is crucial to helping protect California drivers from even higher gas prices than they already pay." Lockyer's announcement came after a state-hired consultant questioned Shell's decision to...

By ALAN SAYRE, AP Business Writer NEW ORLEANS - Just before the heavy-driving Memorial Day weekend, more than 500 Shell and Texaco stations in the South have stopped selling gasoline because of high sulfur levels that can ruin vehicle fuel gauges and make an empty tank appear full. The damage done by the bad gasoline could cause some drivers to run out of gas unexpectedly. Also, car owners may have to replace their fuel gauges — a repair job that can easily cost $400 to $600. The tainted gasoline originated at the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Norco, La., according to...

NEW ORLEANS - Just before the heavy-driving Memorial Day weekend, Shell Oil has stopped the sale of gasoline at more than 500 of its stations in the South because of high levels of sulfur that can damage vehicle fuel gauges and make an empty tank appear full. The damage done by the bad gasoline could cause some drivers to run out of gas unexpectedly. Also, car owners may have to replace their fuel gauges — a repair job that can easily cost $400 to $600. The tainted gasoline originated at the Motiva Enterprises refinery in Norco, La., according to Shell....

NEW YORK - Roughly 600 Shell and Texaco gasoline stations in parts of Florida and Louisiana temporarily halted their sales after customers complained the gasoline damaged their fuel gauge sensors, Shell Oil said today. "We've asked our Shell and affiliated Texaco branded stations that were affected to stop selling gasoline due to elevated levels of sulfur in the fuel," said a Shell spokeswoman. Gasoline with excess sulfur can damage fuel gauges, leaving drivers vulnerable to running out of gas without warning, she said. This could prove inconvenient for motorists planning to get away for the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend --...

PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos) is the world's fifth-largest oil company. It is protected from competition in Mexico, where it enjoys a legal monopoly on the exploration, processing and sale of petroleum. And its privileged status in national mythology affords it a certain immunity from criticism. PEMEX is also in deep trouble. It's heavily-indebted and unable to provide the capital necessary to locate and exploit Mexico's oil deposits. Energy Minister Felipe Calderon recently announced that, without more investment, Mexico's known reserves could be depleted within 13 years. This wasn't the future envisioned by President Lazaro Cardenas, who expelled the foreign oil...

HOUSTON Oil multinational Royal Dutch-Shell said yesterday that it was cutting 2800 jobs in its information technology (IT) division over three years, but insisted that the cutbacks were not related to the scandal over its reserves. Jobs in Britain, the Netherlands and the US, where Shell employs about 9300 people in IT, would be affected, with some work being outsourced to India and Malaysia. Shell hopes to save about 850m. Shell spokeswoman Lisa Givert said the move was part of an overall revamping of the IT operations, now concentrated in the UK, the Netherlands and the US, which had been...

Demands that the Shell Bakersfield Refinery remain open intensified Friday, as Sen. Barbara Boxer joined a chorus of calls to the Federal Trade Commission and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to prevent the closure. "The plant must remain open until a buyer is found and a sale is completed. Otherwise, consumers will pay the prices," Boxer wrote in a letter to FTC Chairman Timothy Muris. Boxer's letter caps a week that has seen a wide array of critics of the proposed closure emerge. Also this week, the FTC announced it is evaluating the situation, and the state Attorney General's office...

Evidence Shows Shell to Demolish Profitable Refinery, Drive Up Gas Prices; Consumer Group Seeks Intervention of Bush, Kerry, CA Attorney General 4/6/2004 9:30:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and State Desks, Consumer Reporter Contact: Jamie Court, 310-392-0522, ext. 327 or Tim Hamilton, 360-495-4941, both for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights today released internal Shell documents showing the oil refiner is set to close and demolish its Bakersfield refinery despite the fact the site had the biggest refinery margins, or profits per gallon, of...

Suspect Recants Killing Shell Executive and Wife, Says Two Others Committed Crime RIO101 Apr 2, 2004 By Michael Astor/ Associated Press Writer/ RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - A day after a public confession, a handyman denied Friday he killed an American couple and blamed two other Brazilians for the crime. Jociel Conceicao dos Santos, 20, was placed into Brazil's witness protection program after recanting his confession delivered at a police news conference, said Rio state security secretary Anthony Garotinho. Dos Santos claimed that two others "were the real authors of this crime and he only collaborated with them," Garotinho...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 1 (Reuters) - Brazilian police arrested a man on Thursday who confessed to murdering a U.S. oil executive and his wife in Rio de Janeiro four months ago in a crime that had until now mystified authorities. Jossiel Conceicao dos Santos, a caretaker at the luxury condominium in Rio where the Utah couple lived, told reporters he killed Todd Staheli and his wife Michelle with a crow bar because they had mocked him and used racist slurs. "Every time I was working in the neighbor's house they laughed and made fun of me. I became...

Brazil Handyman Confesses to Killing American Couple By Michael Astor Apr 1, 2004 Associated Press Writer RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - A 20-year-old handyman confessed Thursday to the bludgeoning deaths of an American Shell Oil executive and his wife in their high-security home last year, saying he was upset about an alleged racial insult. Jociel Conceicao dos Santos was arrested early Thursday and later admitted to the killings during a police news conference, the latest chapter in a case that has sparked international attention and intense local coverage. Todd and Michelle Staheli were beaten to death as they slept...

KIRKLAND, Wash. - Pulled in to fill up with premium or "plus" gasoline in the past few days only to find the pumps dry? You're not alone. Shell stations across Puget Sound are finding it tough to keep fuel in stock. The shortages are affecting shell gas stations. First they run out of the higher-end gasolines and then finally the regular unleaded runs dry as well. Assistant manager Paleia Hopper at a busy Shell station in Kirkland had to turn customers away Friday, losing close to $4,000 in fuel sales. "So when we don't have gas, what do we do?"...

<p>Shell Cuts Reserves, Finds Less Oil Than It Pumped (Update10) Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe's second-largest oil company, cut its estimate of proved oil and gas reserves by 20 percent and failed for a third year to find as much oil as it pumped. The shares fell as much as 7.8 percent.</p>

RIO JOURNALAn American Family Abroad: Horror Strikes in the Night By TONY SMITH IO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 2 — The detectives at Rio de Janeiro's homicide division are a world-weary bunch, inured to the horrors of violent crime by their daily hunting down of killers in one of the world's most dangerous cities. But the grisly assault last weekend that left Zera Todd Staheli, a 39-year-old American oil executive, dead and his wife, Michelle, 34, in a coma has shocked even the most case-hardened officers. [Michelle Staheli died of her wounds early Thursday, Reuters reported.]According to the police chief, Álvaro...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - An American executive with Shell oil company was found slain in his Rio home, and the city's top police official said Monday investigators are trying to determine how attackers entered the heavily guarded house. Todd Staheli, 39, vice president for joint ventures in the Southern Cone gas and power unit of oil giant Shell, was found dead Sunday morning by one of his four children. His wife, Michele Staheli, suffered face and head wounds and remained in critical condition Monday at the Copa D'Or Hospital following emergency brain surgery. Mrs. Staheli is "in a deep...

Shell's Activity in Iran RestrictedFree Iran at ActivistChat.comTEHRAN -- “The activities of Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company will be restricted in Iran.” said an informed official in an interview with ILNA (Iran Labor News Agency) adding: “One of the main factors behind the restriction is the probable involvement of the Shell Oil Company in revealing Iran’s classified information including the country’s peaceful nuclear energy activities.” In response to questions posed by ILNA’s correspondent, Shell Director General, Robert Wiener said: “As part of the plan on regionalizing Shell’s exploration and production departments, the company will transfer some of its staff in...