LAGOS, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A fire broke out at a southern Nigerian gas plant run by Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell on Friday, the day after it was reopened following closure because of a blaze last week, officials said.

'The incident happened at the same spot as last Friday's. A helicopter fly-over shows there is a burning boat in the vicinity but it can't be ascertained yet that it is sabotage,' Shell spokesman Aori Obaigbo told AFP.

LAGOS, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has reopened a 300-million-standard cubit feet gas plant in southern Nigeria that was shut down last week because of a fire on its supply pipeline.

'Utorogu Gas Plant which was shut in a bit to starve the fire has reopened and gas supply is ramping up,' the company said in a statement late Thursday.

It said production resumed at the plant after temporary repairs on the 10-inch Utorogu-Ughelli pumping station condensate trunkline that was set on fire on October 12 by suspected vandals.

LAGOS, Oct 13, 2007 (AFP) - Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell has shut down a gas plant in southern Nigeria following a fire on its supply pipeline, a spokesman said Saturday.

'We shut down the Utorogu gas plant in Delta state as a precautionary measure,' Precious Okolobo told AFP, adding that the fire was reported on the 10-inch (25-cm) Utorogu-Ugheli pumping station condensate trunk line on Friday.

MOSCOW, Oct 10, 2007 (AFP) - Russia needs foreign expertise and investment if it is to profit fully from offshore oil and gas reserves estimated to be seven times larger than those in the North Sea, a top Shell executive said Wednesday.

'If Russia is to develop its extraordinary resource base it will need cooperation,' Chris Finlayson, Russia director for the British-Dutch energy giant, told investors at a conference in Moscow.

LAGOS, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - The Shell oil company has resumed loading at the Forcados export terminal which handles an average of 380,000 barrels per day which was shut down some 18 months ago, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

Spokesman Precious Okolobo told AFP said the reopening of the terminal in the Niger Delta would lift production levels.

The terminal had been crippled since Feburary 2006 when militants attacked and damaged pipelines supplying crude to the terminal. Nine foreign workers were kidnapped and an oil field set ablaze.

LONDON, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Anglo-Dutch oil firm Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday defended standards at its Argentina operations after authorities there closed a Shell refinery near Buenos Aires on environmental grounds.

'All of our operations were and still are conducted according to the local legislation and strengthened Shell standards,' a company spokesman in London told AFP.

'Shell Argentina is analysing the documentation received and the allegations made by the environnemental secretariat. Our response to them will be provided soon,' he said.

'The discrimination Shell is being subjected to is inadmissible,' said company president Juan Aranguren in the statement, adding that the firm was unfairly blamed and fined for a diesel fuel shortage in the country.

The government of President Nestor Kirchner on July 2 announced a series of fines against Shell for violations of the rarely invoked 1974 Law of Supply that targets fuel hoarding and price-fixing.

In addition to fines, the law -- revoked in 1991 and reinstated in 1999 -- also calls for up to four years prison for law breakers.

PARIS, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said Thursday it was selling three of its oil refineries in France for 1.575 billion dollars (1.15 billion euros).

Shell said it had received an offer worth 700 million dollars from the Dutch chemical group Basell for its site at Berre l'Etang in southern France.

It also announced the sale to Swiss group Petroplus of two other refineries, one in Petit-Couronne, in northern France, and another in Reichstett Vendenheim in the east for a total of 875 million dollars.

NEW YORK, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - A group of powerful US pension funds voiced concern Tuesday about eight foreign energy firms doing business in Iran, saying political pressure is building in the United States for them to divest their holdings in such companies.

The public pension funds, including the New York City Pension Funds and the giant California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), are urging the eight companies to divulge the measures they have in place to mitigate risks associated with their Iranian business operations.