Investments

Bank Of America Investment One of the largest oil companies in the world, Royal Dutch/Shell, has promised to avoid exploring or drilling on sites that carry the United Nation's World Heritage designation. It is the first energy company to make such a promise.

Sunray has begun drilling the Abilene Project's second well, which should be completed within a week. The company has identified over a dozen other drill sites, and anticipates pinpointing an additional 100 drill sites on the oil field. "Overall estimates place the reserves on this site at slightly under 5 million barrels, with projected net revenues of over $150 million, " says Alexander.

Investment Opportunity Shell's decision comes a week after the International Council on Mining and Metals, a group of the world's 15 largest mining companies, said it would stop exploring or mining on World Heritage sites.

. (EUNN) Royal Dutch Shell PLC shut down an offshore oil field and cutoff the flow of crude to a loading terminal after Nigerian militants took nine foreign oil workers hostage in an attack on Shell'soil facilities in the Niger Delta. A spokesperson for Shell said the EA field was closed as a precautionary meassure following the militants attack. The EA oil field makes up 10 percent of Shell's daily oil production in Nigeria, or 115, 000 barrels a day.

Banc Of America Investment Taken together, the commitments are a "big step forward," said Dr. Mechtild Rossler, director of European heritage for Unesco, the United Nations agency that controls the program. "We would have liked to see a more global picture with the gas and oil industry, but Shell is a good starting point."

Since it is unlikely that congressional approval for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will be forthcoming, and Alaska's Prudhoe Bay pipeline infrastructure is crumbling and causing oil spills, it is up to oil producers in the lower 48 to keep the oil pumping. based Sunray Oil Company, as an independent oil and gas company with over 50 years of experience in acquiring, drilling, completing, and reworking oil and gas leases, is doing just that.

Banking Investment More than 170 countries take part in the World Heritage program, which was founded in 1972 to identify, protect and preserve cultural or natural areas that provide "outstanding value to humanity." The United States was the first country to sign on to the program.

So precious are Fes%š history, architecture, and culture, that it has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Investment Solution Strategic A site is nominated by a local government, and the application is reviewed by Unesco, which can take as long as five years. If the site is approved, the 170 countries pledge to help protect it.

Porto is one of the oldest cities in Europe, whose historic centre, with its unspoilt old quarter, has been awarded UNESCO world heritage site status.

Investment Banking Services The oil and mining pledges are part of larger movement by corporations to designate some areas as "no go" zones, environmentalists said. Shell and the mining companies have "decided there is more shareholder value to their reputation than the resources" they could tap in World Heritage sites, said Rob Lake, director of corporate governance at Henderson's Global Investors in London, which manages $152 billion in assets.

Bank Investment Shell's promise is unlikely to have any effect on the company's current business because most World Heritage sites are not oil-rich. But the decision could have some practical effect. The Wadden Sea, an area with abundant natural gas off the coast of the Netherlands, is on the World Heritage's tentative site list, along with the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. President Bush's energy plan includes opening the Alaskan range to drilling.

Alternative Investment Shell did have plans to explore for oil and gas in the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh, a World Heritage site since 1997 that houses the world's largest mangrove forest. It abandoned the idea in 2001 after pressure from environmentalists.

Online Investment Services Sir Philip Watts, the Shell chairman, announced the plans in a speech at the headquarters of the World Conservation Union in Geneva on Thursday.

Accompany Essential Investment Some environmentalists said that they welcomed Shell's promise but that it did not go far enough. "It's such a small step, it is hard to rejoice," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental group in San Francisco. "I suppose you could call it a conceptual breakthrough for an oil company to say it won't drill in the Grand Canyon or on the Galpagos Islands, but any school kid can tell you they shouldn't."

Investment Company Mining, drilling and logging on World Heritage sites are not unheard of, and often cause bitter battles between international conservationists and local governments, which say the activities are dictated by economics. In 1998, the mining company Energy Resources of Australia started digging for uranium in Kakadu Park, a wetland in the Northern Territories that had been a World Heritage site since 1981. Loggers and environmentalists also have clashed over the use of a World Heritage-designated rain forest in Honduras.

Investment Management Solution In other instances, World Heritage sites have suffered when local governments do not have the resources to protect them.

Investment Management Services Analysts say it is easier for Shell to rule out drilling in World Heritage sites than it is for its peers. "Shell has a much more diverse resource base" than the competition, with reserves it can tap around the world, said Doug Leggate, a Citigroup oil analyst.

Guide Investment Stock By Heather Timmons
New York Times - 8/31/2003

Topic: Petroleum Industry

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]