Shell Oil

An anti-apartheid group joined with the United Mine Workers and the AFL-CIO Thursday in launching a nationwide boycott against Shell Oil Co., calling on Americans to tear up their Shell credit cards and picket the corporation's businesses.

Amid the tangle of towering steel, heavy cranes and overcast skies of Seattle's busy commercial shipyards, Shell Oil's massive Kulluk drilling rig is preparing to push off for the Arctic Ocean. When it does, America's balance between energy needs and environmental fears will enter a new era. Barring unexpected court or regulatory action, by July the Kulluk will begin drilling exploratory oil wells in the frigid waters off Alaska's northern coast. After one of the biggest environmental fights in the U.S. in decades, there is a palpable sense of all-systems-go on the dock.

Shell Oil, a unit of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell, raised its hostile bid for Barrett Resources Corp. to about $2 billion from $1.8 billion in a move to win control of the company's valuable natural gas reserves. Shell said it raised its offer, first made in early March, to $60 a share from $55 while extending the tender date to May 9.

Shell Oil's proposal to drill three exploratory wells in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's North Slope received a conditional go-ahead last week from the Obama administration even though the Interior Department has not yet approved the company's plan for responding to a catastrophic oil spill. That plan fails to adequately address many of the harsh realities of drilling in Arctic seas. It's too early for any approval, conditional or otherwise. Exploratory offshore drilling in the Arctic doesn't present the same potential for danger as, say, BP's offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell Oil Co. agrees with protesters, who have called for a nationwide boycott of its service stations, that the South African government's apartheid policies are "morally indefensible," a company spokesman said Saturday. But the boycott against Shell in this country is "unfair, misguided and cannot succeed" in changing those policies, he said.

An employee of an electrical contractor working on a substation at the Shell Oil refinery in Carson was electrocuted when he came in contact with a live circuit Saturday afternoon. Lloyd Grant, 31, collapsed about 12:40 p.m. while working on a substation panel that carries 15,000 volts, said Deputy Dean Scoville. Before losing consciousness. Grant, a Colorado resident, told colleagues at the Wilmington Avenue facility that he had received a shock.

Shell Oil Co. has quietly handed its Bakersfield refinery, once slated for closure, to new owner Flying J Inc., a Utah truck stop operator. Flying J paid a reported $130 million for the refinery and plans to spend at least that much on an expansion that would sharply increase the plant's gasoline and diesel output. In its current configuration, the facility makes 2% of California's gasoline and 6% of its diesel.

The purchase prices were not revealed. But Phillips said that when the sales are added to the $1.7-billion worth of assets previously sold, it pushes the total over the $1.95-billion mark. Shell purchased Phillips' interests in two fields near Huntington Beach, a field north of Point Arguello, three fields in the San Joaquin Valley and a portion of Phillips' interest in an offshore undeveloped tract in the Santa Maria Basin.

The Agoura Hills Planning Commission has agreed to let Shell Oil Co. build a carwash and mini-mart at its station on Kanan Road in exchange for voluntarily removing its 70-foot pole sign. Many local businesses refuse to abide by the controversial 9-year-old city ordinance banning pole signs and have sued the city. But Shell representatives say they want to settle the issue amicably.

Neighborhood activists claimed a victory Tuesday after a Simi Valley City Council deadlock shot down Shell Oil Co.'s plan to build a gas station, carwash and mini-mart at Yosemite Avenue and the Simi Valley Freeway. The corner has been a flash point for residents' fears that traffic, noise and crime problems would invade their affluent hillside neighborhood.

Is Big Oil really backing Proposition 23? Maybe not. Among California's major oil refiners, Shell Oil opposes the November ballot initiative to suspend the state's global warming law . Chevron Corp. is officially neutral. ExxonMobil and BP have decided not to get involved. ConocoPhillips has yet to contribute. On Tuesday, Charles Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Assn., issued an urgent appeal for funds to back the measure. "I am pleading with each of you — for our nation's best interest and for your company's own self-interest," he wrote in a confidential e-mail to the industry group's 416 members.

A federal judge in Alaska blocked plans Wednesday for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic, ruling that the Interior Department did not adequately consider the proposal's environmental effects. The government did not analyze the possible effects of natural gas exploration in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, the judge said, nor did it compile potentially crucial information about how drilling could affect wildlife. Both actions violated the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation's signature environmental laws, U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline ruled.

Shell Oil Co. will pay $19.5 million in civil penalties and fees to settle a state complaint involving hundreds of environmental violations at its California gas stations, the attorney general's office said. A state investigation found problems with leak detection and monitoring of underground storage tanks, as well as hazardous waste handling at Shell gas stations. One of the gas stations was next door to the office of the Contra Costa County hazardous materials program. An Alameda County Superior Court order also requires the company to improve its spill and alarm monitoring.

Shell Oil Co. is putting the squeeze on a financially troubled Bakersfield refinery it sold in 2005 to Big West Oil, which could lead to the closing of the operation and potentially higher gasoline prices for California motorists, according to consumer activists and a union representing plant workers. Concern about the facility's fate has been growing since Big West's parent -- Flying J Inc. of Ogden, Utah -- filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Dec. 22.

Mehdi Shahbazi, 65, a gasoline station operator who waged a hunger strike and public relations battle against high gasoline prices and the fees that oil firms charge franchisees, died Wednesday at Stanford Hospital of liver failure. Shahbazi leased a Shell station in Central California in 1982. In 2005, he posted signs at the Marina station highlighting "big oil's unearned profit" -- a protest that Shell said violated the terms of his lease.

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit that pitted Shell Oil Co. against California station operators who said the company overcharged them for gasoline to drive customers to nearby stations that were owned by Shell. U.S. District Judge James V. Selna's decision to throw out key expert testimony and end the case was unusual because it came as attorneys for both sides were poised to deliver closing arguments to a jury.

Shell Oil Co. said Friday that it is trying to sell its 690-employee Wilmington refinery and will shut down all of the facility except for a marine terminal if it cannot find a buyer. Shell spokesman Gene Munger confirmed that several "potential buyers" are in the wings for the 68-year-old refinery, but he declined to say who they were. "Hopefully, we can expect a letter of commitment in the next several weeks," Munger said.

In a massive lawsuit among major corporations, a jury ruled Monday that Shell Oil Co., and not its 250 insurance companies, must pay upward of $1 billion for the toxic waste cleanup at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal north of Denver. The verdict, reached on an 11-1 vote after five days of deliberation, is certain to be applied in toxic pollution cases throughout the country. "The result has far-reaching ramifications for the entire country," said William Trautman, attorney for Shell.

Shell Oil Co. has quietly handed its Bakersfield refinery, once slated for closure, to new owner Flying J Inc., a Utah truck stop operator. Flying J paid a reported $130 million for the refinery and plans to spend at least that much on an expansion that would sharply increase the plant's gasoline and diesel output. In its current configuration, the facility makes 2% of California's gasoline and 6% of its diesel.

Shell Oil Co. said Monday that it would sell its Bakersfield refinery to one of the largest truck-stop chains in the U.S., giving a surprise reprieve to California motorists. The deal with Ogden, Utah-based Flying J Inc. came weeks before the facility's planned March 31 closure. It could spare supply-strapped California the loss of 2% of its gasoline supply and 6% of its diesel. Terms of the sale to closely held Flying J's refining subsidiary, Big West Oil, weren't disclosed.