Overseas Oil Updates: Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (RDS.A) & Network Rail, TOTAL S.A. (ADR) (TOT)’s Warning, Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (PBR)’s Risk

Editor’s Note: Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A), TOTAL S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TOT), Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR)

Former Shell executive named as Network Rail chief (Financial Times)
Network Rail has appointed a former senior Royal Dutch Shell manager as its next chief executive following the decision by Sir David Higgins to step down after just over three years in the job. The owner of the UK rail network, which is technically private but receives public subsidy of £4bn annually, said Mark Carne would take the helm from April next year. Mr Carne, 54, spent 21 years at Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) in two spells, most recently as executive vice-president for the Middle East and Africa, after rejoining the oil major from BG Group in 2010.

Reuters: Energy industry fears more deep-sea leaks linked to drill fluid (Seeking Alpha)
A corrosive drilling fluid that triggered the North Sea’s worst gas leak in 20 years could threaten similar deep-sea wells around the world, and operator TOTAL S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:TOT) already has warned Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) that its nearby Shearwater field may be at risk, Reuters reports. The corrosive fluids implicated in the leak at Total’s Elgin field are commonly used in such deep-sea wells, and the industry fears a recurrence as operators, under pressure to offset declining output from conventional reservoirs, turn to deeper, hotter and higher pressure fields.

Petrobras Share Value Imperiled by Top Brazil Find, UBS Says (Bloomberg)
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR3), Brazil’s state-run crude producer, risks losing shareholder value from developing the country’s largest oil discovery as high costs and taxes erode returns, according to UBS AG. (UBSN). Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR), as the biggest producer in ultra-deep waters is known, may lose as much as 1.50 real ($0.64) a share from its role in the Libra field that is estimated to hold as much as 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude, UBS analysts led by Lilyanna Yang said in a note to clients. A signing bonus of 15 billion reais for Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) and its partners will strain the Rio de Janeiro-based company’s cash flow, UBS said.

Royal Dutch Shell plc : Buyback of Own Shares (SYS-CON Media)
Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) announces that on 5 September, 2013 it purchased for cancellation 990,000 “B” Shares at a price of 2152.41 pence per share. Following the cancellation of these shares, the remaining number of “A” Shares of Royal Dutch Shell plc will be 3,821,611,712 and the remaining number of “B” Shares of Royal Dutch Shell plc will be 2,510,716,188