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The consequences for federal restrictions on oil and gas exploration go beyond just higher gas prices, interfering with the basic free-market principle of allowing enterprise to meet demand by providing a supply, according to former Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister. Hofmeister, who is the founder and CEO of the recently-formed advocacy group Citizens for Affordable Energy, appeared on CNBC’s July 15 “Squawk Box.” He criticized government for 30 years of inaction. “I think if you look at it in real time – looking at it in this month, next month, the following month, the answer is no – it’s not...

With no sign of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on a lawsuit over Shell’s U.S. Beaufort Sea exploration plans, the company has decided to call it quits on its planned Beaufort Sea drilling program during the 2008 open water season. The company had hoped to do some top-hole drilling at its Sivulliq prospect on the west side of Camden Bay, as well as conducting some geotechnical boring in the seafloor. “Shell believes this is the responsible decision given the continuing uncertainty and need for our workers and contractors to pursue other opportunities,” Shell...

Shell says it's giving up on plans to drill in the Beaufort Sea this year due to an unresolved court challenge. This marks the second straight year the Dutch oil giant has been forced to shelve its offshore-drilling plans over the court case. The decision comes only a day after Shell won a hard-fought air pollution permit for its drilling operations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The North Slope Borough, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and environmental groups last year blocked Shell's drilling plans in a court challenge aimed not at the company directly but at the U.S. Minerals...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil major Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of a planned gas project in Iran, after coming under pressure not to participate from U.S. lawmakers who were concerned about Iran's nuclear programme. A spokeswoman said on Saturday that the world's second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field but may yet join later stages of the field's development. Shell, Spain's Repsol and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project to...

John Hofmeister, the Houston-based president of Shell Oil's U.S. operations, expressed doubt about the validity of peak oil theory in an appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box show. "The peak oil theory has really swamped the world. God bless Matt Simmons," Hofmeister told CNBC anchor Carl Quintanilla, according to a transcript provided to WND by CNBC. "His assumptions are correct based on his hypotheses, but his hypotheses are too narrow." Matt Simmons, a Houston-based investment banker who specializes in the energy industry, is widely known for his 2005 book, "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World...

Shell’s Canadian oil sands business is suffering a profitability squeeze because of the soaring cost of energy needed to extract bitumen from sand. The oil company’s annual report, published yesterday, reveals that operating expenses at the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta have soared by almost 50 per cent in the two years since 2005, while output at the bitumen mining project has either remained static or declined. Shell’s oil sands profits dipped sharply last year when a fire temporarily reduced the output of its upgrader, a refinery that converts bitumen into a synthetic crude oil. Earnings from oil sands...

Royal Dutch Shell has been forced onto the defensive after its announcement of record profits sparked calls for a windfall tax and complaints from motorists about soaring pump prices. While investors fretted about whether the $27.6bn (£13.9bn) profits based on the current cost of supply masked deep problems facing the world's second largest non-government oil company, Shell received a barrage of complaints that its earnings were "obscene". Understatement: Shell's chief executive,Jeroen van der Veer, said the figures were "satisfactory The annual profits, which were up 9pc, are a record for a European listed company and were driven by last year's...

...we welcome Shell’s multimillion-dollar donation to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG). Staggered over five years and renewable for five more, the $3.75 million gift will be administered by the KSG but will hopefully fund and bring together research on energy policy in disciplines across the university. We hope this donation will prompt Harvard to become the leader in energy research that it can and should be...... Few topics unite more disciplines than energy policy, and few are as critically important. Finding and managing sustainable and green energy sources is one of humanity’s most crucial challenges, and one that will...

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco on Friday said they would go ahead with a $7 billion expansion of the Port Arthur, Tex. refinery that would create the largest U.S. refinery and one of the biggest worldwide. The plan is to expand the refinery's capabilities by 325,000 barrels a day, resulting in a refinery with a throughput capacity of 600,000 barrels a day, according to a statement from Motiva Enterprises, the jointly held unit of Shell and the state-owned Saudi Aramco.

Two decades ago, when Dutch oil giant Shell was poking holes in the ice-clogged Arctic Ocean, Rick Fox was a young buck managing the company's drilling rigs. Some of the holes hit oil, and Fox and the other oil men felt pretty good about what they found. But none of the discoveries was developed -- the price of oil was too low and the finds too remote -- and Shell abandoned Alaska's Arctic. Now Fox, 55, and Shell are mounting an aggressive return to the polar ocean, staking hundreds of millions of dollars to lease vast offshore acreage, staff an...

Shell Oil was pulling nonessential workers from the western U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday as the company prepared to shut in 5 million cubic feet of natural gas production off the south Texas coast, the company said. U.S. crude futures jumped $1.11 per barrel or 1.5% to $73.73 per barrel in the minutes after Shell announced the evacuations. ...

Kiwis faced dynamite, guns on rig By DAN EATON - The Press | Friday, 6 July 2007 KIDNAPPED: Bruce Klenner, from New Plymouth, and Brent Goddard, from Wellington, who were among five oil workers taken in a dawn raid on their oil rig in the Niger delta. Two New Zealand oil men kidnapped in Nigeria faced gun-toting men who placed dynamite on the drilling rig. Kidnap victims' partners remain hopeful ... Big pay, challenge the lure to danger zones ... Oil worker optimistic for hostages The kidnappers eluded security provided by the Kiwis' American employer. Lone Star Drilling, contracted to...

Shell Oil Co. has determined "Playboy" and "Penthouse" no longer are pornography, but instead are "adult sophisticates," according to a company statement. The issue arose when the Florida Family Association contacted Shell about the sale of such explicit magazines at convenience stores owned by Circle K in southeastern parts of the United States. David Caton, executive director of the pro-family organization, said his group asked Shell to require Shell-branded Circle K Stores to stop selling the pornography, as it has done in the past with other retailers. (Story continues below) The request, Caton told WND, has been made to more...

LITTLE ROCK -- If gasoline prices continue to drop, shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell PLC can take heart. Lower prices create more demand, which will drive the price back up and bolster the profits of the big oil companies. The president of the No. 3 oil company' U.S. division, John Hofmeister, made that point during a stop in Little Rock as part of a 50-city tour. Hofmeister said he has selected personal appearances over an advertising campaign as a way to explain Shell's take on the oil business to consumers. He acknowledged that higher gas prices, $3 or even $2...

Royal Dutch Shell, the world's top marketer of biofuels, considers using food crops to make biofuels "morally inappropriate" as long as there are people in the world who are starving, an executive said on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT click here Eric G Holthusen, Fuels Technology Manager Asia/Pacific, said the company's research unit, Shell Global Solutions, has developed alternative fuels from renewable resources that use wood chips and plant waste rather than food crops that are typically used to make the fuels. Holthusen said his company's participation in marketing biofuels extracted from food was driven by economics or legislation. "If we have the...

The Talk Shows Sunday, June 18th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): White House press secretary Tony Snow; New Democrat Network President Simon Rosenberg; former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister, ConocoPhillips Corp. Chairman James Mulva, Chevron Corp. Chairman David O'Reilly. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Snow; Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. THIS WEEK (ABC): L. Pre-empted for World Cup coverage.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Snow; Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Iraqi...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for Saturday June 17th and Sunday June 18th, 2006 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) 'This Week' will NOT air on Sunday, June 18, due to ABC's coverage of World Cup soccer. 'This Week' returns on Sunday, June 25ABC This Week comment web page CBS Face The Nation (Bob Schieffer) Meme: Big couple of weeks for Bush in Iraq, so what's wrong with this picture?Tony...

by Mark Finkelstein May 23, 2006 Sometimes you just want to throw up your hands. Interviewing another big oil exec this morning, Katie Couric's proposed solution to high gas prices was to repeal the laws of supply and demand . . . just a little bit. Whereas Matt Lauer took a while in his interview of another oil exec to get around to his price-cutting point, Katie wasted no time. Interviewing Shell Oil President John Hofmeister, Katie's opening salvo was "I am just wondering, you and many other oil companies are posting record high profits, of course. And while the...

The government said it had taken the step after the failing to agree a deal with the two firms which would give it a majority stake in new ventures. President Hugo Chavez has been working to strengthen state control over oil production in the country. So far, 16 oil firms have agreed to change their operations into joint ventures with state oil firm PDVSA. US based Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Spain's Repsol are among the companies that signed the agreement on Friday. In an interview on state television, Minister Rafael Ramirez said the government took over the fields operated...

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian troops battled militia fighters in swamps around a Royal Dutch Shell PLC oil platform that militants attacked at dawn Sunday, the third assault on Shell oil facilities in less than a week in the troubled region. ADVERTISEMENT Shell confirmed the attack on the Benisede oil platform in the southern oil-rich Niger Delta and said some of its staff had been injured and taken to hospital. The company also said it had begun evacuating personnel from vulnerable facilities in the region due to worsening security. In a statement, Shell said "heavily armed persons" in speed boats...