Shell boss looking forward to high profits

international | environment | news report Thursday January 24, 2008 18:34 by sHell watcher

meeting with Nigerian President tomorrow

In Davos today, Shell's Chief Executive has said energy demand growth this year would be higher than last.

"I look at the energy industry, and of course we look at the total economic climate, but we don't see any reason for panic," Jeroen van der Veer told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Is that water from Carrowmore Lake?

The President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua is scheduled to meet Mr. van der Veer tomorrow to discuss the Anglo-Dutch company's operations in his country. Nigeria is seeking to change the terms under which oil and gas companies operate there.

Nigeria is renegotiating exploration deals signed in the 1990s with companies such as Shell. The contracts, up for renewal, were signed when oil traded at about $20 per barrel. Crude-oil futures were trading at just under $90 per barrel earlier this week in New York.

Yar'Adua is also expected to raise the subject of gas flaring and other environmental degradation issues. Shell undertook to end flaring by 2008, but last November the company claimed that this target could not be met. Flaring, though widespread, is illegal in Nigeria.

The Nigerian President has also insisted that international companies like Shell should enter joint ventures with the national oil company.

The system with regard to profits and partnership with the Nigerain State is in stark contrast to the situation in Ireland, where gas and oil reserves are simply handed over to the big energy companies, with no percentage for the country, and no state company to partner schemes.

The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell and Houston-based Marathon Oil Corporation are scheduled to report annual profits figures next week. There will be a protest on Friday February 1st against Shell at the Bellanaboy refinery site and at other locations around the country.

The company's refusal to spend some of its profits to ensure the Corrib gas could be refined safely offshore has led to widespread disquiet, while the lack of any long-term benefit for the people of Ireland from their oil and gas resources has brought criticism for the FF/Green Party/PD government.

The Irish government has claimed that it will find it very difficult to meet requirements to cut carbon emissions.