tagged w/ Shell
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It is the city the credit crunch forgot. The rest of the UK may be feeling the pinch, but life is good in Aberdeen, the oil capital of Europe.
World energy prices are soaring with Brent Crude now trading at the once unimaginable figure of $120 a barrel.
The oil industry is booming and as a result Aberdeen and its residents are enjoying a prosperity not seen since the 1970s.
Trade is as brisk as ever at the city's best-known restaurant the Silver Darling.
Owner and chef Didier Dejeun says the credit crunch is having no effect here at all.
He said: "All the oil executives and their families are based here, they have to spend their money somewhere and they spend it in Aberdeen.
"There is no limit to how much some people will spend. They arrive at the restaurant in their Ferraris and their Bentleys and order champagne."
The five-star Marcliffe Hotel and Spa is situated in the Pitfodels area of the city, which boasts the highest proportion of millionaires anywhere outside London.
Owner Stewart Spence says the hotel has never been so busy and customers are still willing to spend money on life's luxuries.
He said: "Aberdeen is basically all about energy and the price of oil worldwide means more employment and exploration, which all comes back to the city.
"People's spending habits haven't changed at all. Customers are still asking for the best wines and the lobster."
But some believe Aberdeen cannot buck the trend forever and that the big companies like Shell and BP will be unable to keep posting record breaking multi billion pound profits each quarter.
However, former Lord Provost and city councillor John Reynolds disagrees.
"The price of oil will not go down, it will get up to $150 maybe even $200 a barrel in two years time," he says.
"We will continue to benefit from that here."
The downside is that the people of Aberdeen will still have to pay the price at the pumps. For many though, that is a price worth paying.
It is the city the credit crunch forgot. The rest of the UK may be feeling the pinch,... more
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The Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell misled the public about the green credentials of a vastly polluting oil project in Canada, in an attempt to assure consumers of its good environmental record, a media watchdog will rule today.
In an embarrassing rejection of Shell's "greenwash", the Advertising Standards Authority said the company should not have used the word "sustainable" for its controversial tar sands project and a second scheme to build North America's biggest oil refinery. Both projects would lead to the emission of more greenhouse gases, the ASA said, ruling the advert had breached rules on substantiation, truthfulness and environmental claims.
Carried by the Financial Times on 1 February to accompany Shell's financial results, the company claimed: "We invest today's profits in tomorrow's solutions."
The advert continued: "A growing world needs more energy, but at the same time we need to find new ways of managing carbon emissions to limit climate change. Continued investment in technology is one of the key ways we are able to address this challenge, and continue to secure a profitable and sustainable future."
Shell explained it was harnessing its technical expertise "to unlock the potential of the vast Canadian oil sands deposits".
The WWF (formerly the Worldwide Fund for Nature) complained that extracting low-grade bitumen from sand was highly inefficient and destroyed huge tracts of virgin forest. In its defence, Shell maintained that new technology was reducing pollution from the Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta in which it owns a 60 per cent stake.
Shell quoted a critical WWF report as rating its Muskeg River Mine one of the least damaging coal-tar sands projects because it sought to limit emissions of nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and organic compounds.
Making its ruling, the ASA quoted Canada's independent National Energy Board that oil sand developments had considerable social and economic impacts on water conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, land disturbance and waste management.
David Norman, the WWF's director of campaigns, said: "The ASA's decision to uphold WWF's complaint sends a strong signal to business and industry that greenwash is unacceptable."
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell misled the public about the green credentials of a... more
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Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company.
Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, in the quarter a year ago.
Revenue rose 40 percent, to $138.1 billion, from $98.4 billion in the quarter a year ago.
Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million tied to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings were $11.97 billion, or $2.27 a share.
Excluding one-time charges, analysts had expected Exxon Mobil to earn $2.52 a share on revenue of $144 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
With this quarter’s result, Exxon topped its own record of $11.66 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
Earlier in London, Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, reported a 33 percent increase in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by a higher oil price even as production declined.
Like a smaller rival BP earlier this week, Shell profited from an oil price that almost doubled in the second quarter from the year earlier, but a 13 percent drop from a record on July 11 raised some concern among investors about whether oil companies can keep up the pace of earnings growth. BP said earlier this week that higher oil prices have started to affect consumer demand for gasoline.
Shell’s profit rose to $11.56 billion from $8.67 billion in the period a year ago. BP reported a 28 percent increase in profit earlier this week and the Italian oil company Eni said on Thursday that profit in the second quarter rose 52 percent.
...Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell
Exxon Mobil, the world’s... more
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President Bush today lifted a presidential ban on offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf that was implemented by his father, escalating a confrontation with Democrats in Congress over how to cope with soaring gasoline prices.
People should be up in arms!
Lifting the executive moratorium has no immediate practical effect, because Congress enacted its own prohibition on offshore drilling in 1981. It would have be to rescinded for exploration to proceed.
Bush first called on Congress to lift its drilling ban last month, saying he would simultaneously rescind the executive ban issued by his father in 1990. But he said today that he decided to act now because Democrats have failed to schedule any hearings or take the issue seriously.
President Bush today lifted a presidential ban on offshore oil drilling on the outer... more
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The Observer reports:
"Shell was considering pulling out of Zimbabwe last night amid claims that President Robert Mugabe was reserving the distribution of fuel at petrol pumps for party supporters."
"A source at the oil giant told The Observer it was looking at a plan to halt activities in the country, which are overseen in a joint deal with BP. One option being canvassed is for Shell to sell its stake to a third party. Meanwhile both the UN Security Council and the European Union are drafting tougher sanctions aimed at members of the regime and their families, but probably stopping short of wider economic sanctions that some British politicians and Zimbabweans are calling for."The Observer reports:
"Shell was considering pulling out of Zimbabwe last... more
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Naomi Klein, an award winning journalist, describes how the latest 'no-bid' contracts for the production of oil in Iraq is "the greatest stick-up in history". She points us to the fact that 7 years after the invasion the architects of the war no longer even bother to try and pretend that the invasion wasn't about oil.
Fadhil Chalabi, one of the primary Iraqi advisers to the Bush administration in the lead-up to the invasion described the war as "a strategic move on the part of the United States of America and the UK to have a military presence in the Gulf in order to secure [oil] supplies in the future" and went on to say that this was "a primary objective".
It is illegal to invade countries to rob them of their natural resources under the Geneva convention, and yet these no bid contracts are making sure that 75% of oil profits go to foreign companies when really the coalition should be paying the bill for Iraq's reconstruction.
Is this justice and what should be done?Naomi Klein, an award winning journalist, describes how the latest 'no-bid'... more
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Minnesota state cops stopped our solar car today, claiming it wasn't legal to drive on the road. We produced all the documentation proving that it was, but they still got somebody from DC on the phone to check it out. After the DC guy took an hour and confirmed that we were all right, they decided that they still had to bust us for something. They moved on to our support vehicle, a full-size van hauling a trailer.
They tried to weigh our trailer to prove that it was too heavy or something, but they soon found they were wrong. Still determined to find SOMETHING, they looked at the stickers on it from all the companies that have donated parts and supplies to the solar car project over the last 9 years. Based on those stickers, they told us we were a "commercial vehicle" and said that we needed a commercial license. We told them that we in fact were a private vehicle, we didn't have any commercial sponsor for the tour, and that some of those stickers were older than the Bush administration. They wouldn't have any of it and told us that if we wanted to leave Stillwater, Minnesota we would have to comply with the commercial regulations.
Our experience is documented in the upcoming film "Chasing the Light," which will also appear on Current TV. In the meantime, check out what Minneapolis news has on the story. Minnesota state cops stopped our solar car today, claiming it wasn't legal to... more
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Orfordville was just one stop on a 10,000 mile journey to set a world distance record. Da Luz started in Toronto and plans to end around the end of the month in Inuvik, Canada, the northern-most point in the world reachable by road and also “the land of the midnight sun.”Orfordville was just one stop on a 10,000 mile journey to set a world distance record.... more
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Reports coming into the BBC suggest that the supply of fuel to the UK has become "patchy" as Shell drivers keep up their strike over pay. It's the second day of a four day strike and consumers are being urged to not panic buy, so far the message seems to have hit home,
"Outside of Merseyside, mid-Berkshire and some places on the south coast and south-west of England...it's actually been busy but not anywhere near what we'll call panic buying" were the words of Ray Holloway from Petrol Retailers' Association
Maybe the situation will change over the weekend as the strike continues, a strike which might even take place again next weekend if the dispute isn't resolved. Since Shell have announced record profits again, shouldn't some of the rewards of that revenue be shared amongst the staff?Reports coming into the BBC suggest that the supply of fuel to the UK has become... more
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MAKE SURE TO WATCH PART 2 (on youtube a well)
Chemical attack on the kurdish people in Iraq. The US turned a blind eye and then capitalized on the situation to go into Iraq again.
Where does terrorism come from? Situations or neglected people. People living in immense poverty (different then US poverty) with no infrastructure and no hope... Just like Christian Missionaries going into Africa, Islamic crazies go into the underprivileged, uneducated and provide a little bit of hope. They seek to capitalize on the misfortune of these people by converting them to their ideology (I am only comparing the techniques- Missionaries are obviously not the same as Islamic crazies).
The heart of the terrorism problem is the poverty. Go give these people hope and there goes the entire terrorist threat. How much would it cost? I would imagine way less then the pointless Iraq War which if anything, will create more situations like these.
The last interesting point is the involvement of the West. They know these things were happening but turned a blind eye because it was in their best interest. I am not anti- capitalist by any means but this "get money at any cost" mentality is no different then that of the gangbangers on any city's streets... The goals only involve billions of dollars instead...MAKE SURE TO WATCH PART 2 (on youtube a well)
Chemical attack on the... more
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Thought I'd share my love for history. Just amazing.
"When did Shell executives first learn that the world would one day face the moment of peak oil, known to many as Hubbert’s Peak? Answer: as far back as 1956 when M. King Hubbert delivered his seminal speech to Shell employees predicting the day when oil reserves would begin to decline. For more than a half century, Shell has known that the world of the 21st Century would begin running out of oil with disastrous ramifications. Yet little was done to prepare society.
The story begins in 1950s when the United States was the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil, making it mostly self-sufficient. The U.S. also was the largest creditor nation, while its manufacturing output fed the world’s demand for tools and machinery. This new world power from the West emerged relatively unscathed from the second of two world wars, for which its unprecedented access to oil proved the deciding factor. This quite literally was America’s peak in wealth and potential..."Thought I'd share my love for history. Just amazing.
"When did Shell... more
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The president of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua has taken steps to indoctrinate the abundance of militants in the oil rich Niger Delta region into a defence scheme for the pipelines in the area.
The Defence Minister Alhaji Yayale Ahmed stated to the House of Representatives Committee that the federal government in conjunction with local and state levels have cultivated plans of “constructive engagement " meaning the forming of limited liability companies for the legitimate employ of the militants.
The area of the Niger Delta has suffered from unrest for many years due to the rich wealth in resources of the region and its exploitation paralleled with the poverty of the population in the region and the damage to the environment caused that effect all life in the area. MarianaVanZeller's pod will explain a lot about the situation: http://current.com/items/77541711_rebels_in_the_pipeline.
MEND have not stated if they will be involved with this “constructive engagement “scheme but their leader in negotiations has recently given his faith to peace in negotiations with the
Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee chairman Chief James Jeftha. There has been criticism of “constructive engagement " in the Nigerian and international communities, as questions such as; whose arming them, who do they answer to, how do you know they won’t continue hostile actions inside installations ? More constructive questions consist of; why not focus efforts on the Nigerian Local Content Policy to stop sucking up money and actually be applied to areas in need of it. Abubakar Atiku Nuhu-Koko addresses these issues in the linked article, here is a taste:
“The truth of the matter is that offering security jobs to the militants will not solve the problems at hand in the Niger Delta. A holistic approach, which requires integrating and domesticating the largely foreign-controlled “enclave” oil and gas economy, is what, is desirable. The militant youths need education, quality of life that comes with productive employment, training opportunities and an environment free from oil and gas related pollution etc.”
The president of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua has taken steps to indoctrinate the... more
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It was the second time this year that the executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America Inc., ConocoPhillips Co. and Shell Oil Co. had been summoned to testify before Congress. When they came in early April oil cost about $98 a barrel. On Wednesday, it bounded past $134 a barrel for a time and gasoline cost a national average of $3.80 a gallon.
Since regular people are scrimping to pay for gasoline to go to work, Sen. Patrick Leahy wanted to make it personal for the men of Big Oil.
The executives, whose companies reported $36 billion in profits during the first three months of the year, wanted to talk about tight supplies and growing global demand. They said that while the companies made billions of dollars, they also spent billions to find and produce more oil.
But senators complained the executives were trying to come across as “hapless victims” while raking in record profits. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car’s gas tank.
It was the second time this year that the executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron... more
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Rebels in Nigeria are willing to talk if Jimmy Carter is involved in the process. Interesting development in the Jimmy Carter saga. I really think the man has a very unbiased opinion when it comes to foreign issues and this reinforces that many others feel the same way.Rebels in Nigeria are willing to talk if Jimmy Carter is involved in the process.... more
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A strike by Exxon Mobil workers and a string of militant attacks on Shell oil facilities in the Niger Delta have led Africa's largest oil producer to cut production by more than half. The shortfall is adding pressure to already tight oil markets and pushing the price of crude to near record highs.
For an in depth look at the deteriorating situation in the delta, check out Rebels in the Pipeline.A strike by Exxon Mobil workers and a string of militant attacks on Shell oil... more
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A tiny and impoverished Alaskan village of Inupiat Eskimos located in the Arctic Circle, Kivalina, filed a lawsuit March 4 against industrial corporations that emit large quantities of greenhouse gases.
Kivalina faces imminent destruction from global warming due to the melting of sea ice that formerly protected the village from coastal storms during the fall and winter. The diminished sea ice due to global warming has caused a massive erosion problem that threatens the village's existence and urgently requires the village be relocated.
The Native village of Kivalina filed the case against defendants ExxonMobil Corp., Peabody Energy Corp., Southern Company, American Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Co, Chevron Corp. and Shell Oil Co., among others.
The suit claims damages due to the defendant companies' contributions to global warming and invokes the federal common law of public nuisance. The suit also alleges a conspiracy by some defendants to mislead the public regarding the causes and consequences of global warming. The residents of Kivalina are among the nation's poorest people.
Colleen Swan, tribal administrator of Kivalina, said, ''The campaign of deception and denial about global warming must stop.'' She added, ''Global warming and its effects are a reality we have to deal with. People's lives are in danger because of it.
Official reports from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Government Accountability Office have found that Kivalina is directly harmed by global warming and must relocate at an expense that could cost $400 million or more.'' A tiny and impoverished Alaskan village of Inupiat Eskimos located in the Arctic... more
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This is a house straight out of the imagination of Roald Dahl. It makes you wonder why we all live in square boxes when we could have made our houses all shell shaped. Why didn't we make all of our houses shell shaped? Why did mediocrity win over creativity?
It's a good thing the internet came along to demonstrate that we needn't follow what seem like entrenched conventions. If you want a house built like a shell then go and build one, just look at what you might end up with! Square is SO pre-internet....This is a house straight out of the imagination of Roald Dahl. It makes you wonder why... more
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Oil drilling would devastate the land and species in Alaska, greatly affecting the indigenous people living thereOil drilling would devastate the land and species in Alaska, greatly affecting the... more
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At least two people have been killed in a clash between the Nigerian navy and suspected militants in the oil-rich Niger Delta, security sources say. It occurred near an offshore oilfield operated by the Shell oil company. At least two people have been killed in a clash between the Nigerian navy and... more
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