LONDON (Reuters) – Findings of the second major investigation by the government into the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, may press BP into putting over $30 billion on the table to quickly settle its outstanding legal headaches.

The joint Coast Guard and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement probe into the Macondo well blow-out which led to the death of 11 men and the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, put most of the blame on BP.

The report, released on Wednesday, was even more damning of BP’s behavior than the Presidential panel’s findings, which were issued in January and February. Both reports also highlighted mistakes made by BP’s contractors, driller Transocean and cement specialist Halliburton.

The investigations have not left London-based BP eager to face the Department of Justice or civil claimants in court.

“We would like everything settled as soon as we can, otherwise you have lingering reputation issues and investor uncertainty,” one insider said after the latest report.

BP declined to comment on its legal strategy.

Companies often drag out litigation, as payments in the future have less value than payments now.

LONDON (Reuters) – London-based explorer Tullow Oil (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said it had struck oil offshore French Guiana, raising the prospect of the opening of a new major offshore oil producing province in South America.

Tullow shares traded up 7.0 percent at 8:06 a.m.

The company, and others, have made big discoveries offshore Ghana, namely the multi-billion barrel Jubillee field, and an oil strike in Sierra Leone that suggests the finds extend all along the coast.

Tullow’s Zaedyus well in French Guiana, drilled in over 2,000 metres of water, was tapping rock formations laid before Africa and South America separated millions of years ago.

The company and partners Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research), with 45 percent and France’s Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) with 25 percent, believed the oil-rich West African geology would be replicated in South America.

“The discovery at Zaedyus has proved the extension of the Jubilee-play across the Atlantic and made an important new discovery in French Guiana,” said Tullow’s exploration director Angus McCoss.

Tullow, Europe’s largest listed explorer by market capitalisation, plans to drill another well in neighbouring Guyana next, and the French Guiana find makes success there look more likley.

LONDON, SEPT 7 (Reuters) – Former BP boss Tony Hayward has returned to the oil business with an agreement to acquire Turkish explorer Genel Energy to create a Kurdistan-focused group worth $4 billion.

Vallares , an investment vehicle set up by Hayward, financier Nat Rothschild and banker Julian Metherell, is courting uncertainty over payment for Genel’s oil, and corporate governance concerns with the deal.

The enlarged group will be known as Genel Energy Plc and Genel’s existing shareholders will own half the enlarged group, Vallares said on Wednesday. Reuters reported news of the deal on Tuesday.

The transaction, which will see Vallares issue new shares worth $2.1 billion at 1,000 pence apiece, will likely increase concerns about the practice of using reverse takeovers to give fast-track London listings to emerging market groups.

In June, Vallares raised 1.35 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) from investors to target emerging-market oil assets. The plan was to offer oilfield owners a shortcut to a London Stock Exchange listing, enabling them to raise finance to fund the development of their assets.

Hayward, who said at the time he would be CEO of any acquired company, has assembled a team of big names, including Rodney Chase, a former BP deputy CEO and chairman of Petrofac.

Hayward, Rothschild and the other Vallares founders, are entitled to a 6.67 percent stake in the enlarged group, following the completion of any deal.

LONDON (Reuters) – Tony Hayward, who stepped down as BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) boss in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, will imminently seal his return to the oil industry, by buying into Turkey’s Genel Enerji, in a deal valuing the target at around $4 billion (2.5 billion pounds), a source close to the matter said Tuesday.

Vallares, an acquisition vehicle established by Hayward and financier Nat Rothschild, has agreed in principle to a tie-up with Genel Enerji, which owns oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, and is expected to announce a deal in the coming days, the source said.

The exact terms of the deal are unclear but it is expected to net Hayward and his Vallares co-founders tens of millions of pounds.

In June, Vallares raised 1.35 billion pounds from investors to target emerging-market oil assets.

The plan was to offer owners of oilfields a shortcut to a London Stock Exchange (LSE) listing, thus enabling them to raise finance to fund the development of their assets.

Hayward said he would be CEO of any acquired company and has assembled a team of big names around him, including former deputy CEO of BP and Chairman of Petrofac, Rodney Chase.

Hayward, Rothschild and the other Vallares founders, are entitled to a 6.67 percent stake in the enlarged group, following the completion of a deal, and this would be worth around $300 million if Vallares buys all of Genel Enerji.

LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Tony Hayward, who stepped down as BP boss in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, will imminently seal his return to the oil industry, by buying into Turkey’s Genel Enerji, in a deal valuing the target at around $4 billion, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday.

Vallares, an acquisition vehicle established by Hayward and financier Nat Rothschild, has agreed in principle to a tie-up with Genel Enerji, which owns oil fields in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, and is expected to announce a deal in the coming days, the source said.

The exact terms of the deal are unclear but it is expected to net Hayward and his Vallares co-founders tens of millions of pounds.

In June, Vallares raised 1.35 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) from investors to target emerging-market oil assets.

The plan was to offer owners of oilfields a shortcut to a London Stock Exchange (LSE) listing, thus enabling them to raise finance to fund the development of their assets.

Hayward said he would be CEO of any acquired company and has assembled a team of big names around him, including former deputy CEO of BP and Chairman of Petrofac, Rodney Chase.

Hayward, Rothschild and the other Vallares founders, are entitled to a 6.67 percent stake in the enlarged group, following the completion of a deal, and this would be worth around $300 million if Vallares buys all of Genel Enerji.

LONDON/ISTANBUL, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Vallares has moved closer to a multi-billion pound takeover of Turkish oil explorer Genel Enerji, a source close to the situation said, raising the prospect of a big pay day for former BP boss Tony Hayward and financier Nat Rothschild.

The source said Vallares, the London-listed bid vehicle of Hayward and Rothschild, is more favourable towards Iraq-focused Genel Enerji than other assets it has looked at, such as projects in Russia.

A transaction could be announced in the coming weeks, the source said. However the deal has not been finalized and could yet fall apart.

In June, Vallares raised 1.35 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) from investors to target emerging-market oil assets, marking Hayward’s return from the business wilderness after he left BP following last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. .

The founders said they planned to carry out a transaction – possibly a reverse acquisition — within two years of listing but sources close to the group said it ideally would like to agree on a target by the autumn.

In an interview with Reuters in June, Hayward said Vallares was targeting a major company, business or asset with an enterprise value of between 3 billion pounds and 8 billion pounds.

Genel Enerji was valued at between $3.3 billion and $3.6 billion in 2009 during merger talks with Heritage Oil which eventually broke down.

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc said a ruptured North Sea pipeline continued to leak oil on Saturday and that it had been seeping crude into the sea for two days before the company declared it.

Shell said it was continuing to reduce pressure in the pipeline on Saturday, reducing the flow of oil.

Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish regional government, told the BBC around 100 tonnes of oil, around 750 barrels, had leaked into the sea.

This compares with almost 5 million barrels spilt into the Gulf of Mexico by BP’s leaking Macondo well last year.

The Anglo Dutch oil major first revealed the leak late on Friday but a spokesman said on Saturday it had been detected two days earlier.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency said it had no information on the status of the clean up operation, and that none of its staff were at the spill site.

Environmental group Greenpeace complained about the lack of information on the leak.

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc was silent on Saturday on the status of an oil leak of unspecified size in the North Sea and authorities said they also had no information on whether the leak had yet been stemmed, provoking environmentalists ire.

The Anglo Dutch oil major said on Friday that it had discovered the leak from a flow line at its Gannet Alpha Platform and said then it was working to stem the flow.

The company declined to comment on Saturday.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime & Coastguard Agency said it had no information on the status of the clean up operation, and that none of its staff were at the spill site.

A spokeswoman for the Department for energy of Climate Change said it was not involved and referred questions to Shell.

Environmental group Greenpeace complained about the lack of information on the leak.

“Right now we don’t know how serious this is, what we do know is that the North Sea is supposed to be ultra-safe, we’re told spills can’t happen there,” oil campaigner Ben Ayliffe said in an emailed statement.

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) operations in Nigeria have come under the spotlight after the company accepted villagers had a right to sue its Nigerian venture in a British court over oil spills in the Niger Delta.

A United Nations report on Thursday has also estimated that Ogoniland in the oil-rich Niger Delta could need the world’s largest ever oil clean-up.

The following are some of the highlights of Shell’s history in Nigeria.

1936 – The Royal Dutch Shell Group establishes a Nigerian venture with the precursor company of BP Plc .

1958 – The first shipment of oil from Nigeria

April 1973 – Nigerian government takes a stake in the venture. Over the coming years, the government increases its stake and BP exits.

1979 – Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) established, incorporating assets of the older Shell-BP consortium. Over time, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation would come to own 55 percent, Shell owned 30 percent, France’s Total owned 10 percent and Italy’s Eni owned 5 percent. Shell remains the lead partner operationally.

LONDON, Jul 28 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil , Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and other big oil groups reported higher profits on Thursday thanks to high crude prices and showed the only way to combat falling output was by reinvesting the cash in acquisitions and new ventures.

Investors have become increasingly worried in recent years about Western oil companies’ inability to match natural field decline with new finds, in part because they are shut out of investing in the richest fields by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Exxon, whose net income jumped 41 percent to $10.68 billion, said oil and gas production rose 10 percent in the quarter compared to the same period in 2010 — entirely thanks to its purchase of XTO Corp for $30 billion last year.

On the other hand, Shell, which reported a 77 percent rise in net profit to $8.00 billion, saw production fall because it sold fields, while underlying output rose 2 percent.

While Exxon has bought growth via XTO, Shell is seeking to boost output by investing tens of billions of dollars in complex projects, mainly focussed on converting natural gas reserves into liquefied natural gas or motor fuel.

“It’s the end of low cost oil and gas. I think we are going into a world where finding the oil and gas is going to be more complex. It needs more money, needs more investment,” said Shell chief executive Peter Voser.

In the first half of the year, Shell started up three new projects, a Canadian oil sands venture and two gas plants in Qatar, in which it had invested $30 billion.