They are two moments in history, intricately linked, although poles apart. Today Peter Voser,  the chief executive of Shell, outlines the company’s financial and production strategy for the coming year.

Once again Nigeria was mentioned as a key country where the company had added strategic reserves.

“These are exciting times for Shell”, said Voser. “We are poised to deliver a new wave of financial and production growth.” Continue reading ‘Soyinka Defends Nigeria’s Militants as Attacks Continue’

For many people this would be a no-brainer – but the billions being poured into dirty oil in Canada’s tar sands could be spent on clean energy instead to help decarbonise western economies. Or it could be spent on clean water to help the poor live.

In their new report, the Co-op and WWF say the combined cost of all tar sands – $379 billion between now and 2025 – could be used for clean power projects such as the Desertec scheme linking solar plants in North Africa to a “supergrid” which could produce 15% of Europe’s electricity by 2050. Continue reading ‘Dirty Oil Money Could Fund Clean Energy Or Water’

Just days after outlining its business strategy BP is offering a massive $7 billion in cash to buy Devon Energy’s deepwater assets.

In a broad-ranging deal, BP will pay Devon Energy $7 billion for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the US deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Interestingly the deal also involves extraction of the oil sands. BP will sell a 50 per cent stake to Devon Energy in BP’s Kirby oil sands interests in Alberta, Canada, for $500 million. Continue reading ‘Has BP Backed A $7 Billion Wrong Horse?’

Pardon the title, but the Wall Street Journal has an extremely interesting interview with the top dog at Shell, Peter Voser.

He admits that Shell is fast becoming a gas company rather than an oil company. “Shell started quite a while back, actually, to put a lot of emphasis on gas” says Voser. “And by 2012, we will have more gas production world-wide than we have oil.” Continue reading ‘Peter Voser Has A Gas Problem’

The oil and gas industry likes you to think that, compared to oil, gas is a cleaner, greener alternative – a great bridging fuel between the hydrocarbon age and the renewable age.

Compared to oil, this may be so – if and it is a big if, the gas is normal conventional gas. However, as traditional gas reserves are becoming harder to find and access, often they are far from the areas of demand. Continue reading ‘Shell tries to buy Oz company; but just how clean is it?’