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February 1st, 2008:

The unravelling of stability at Shell

By John Donovan

The oil giant Shell has made a disconcerting start to the new year with uncertainty over how many Shell jobs are being cut, who will take over from Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer when he retires in June 2009, safety issues on North Sea platforms and why Shell has decided not to reveal with its financial results the volume of its proven reserves.  In the latter connection, there are still ongoing repercussions from the last time controversy over Shell reserves machinations turned into a full blown scandal. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Channel 4 TV News broadcast tonight Friday 1st February: Shell North Sea Platform Safety!

The main item on the UK TV Channel 4 News published at 7pm UK time tonight focussed on the inadequacies of Shell North Sea platform safety. It included a reference to a document we published an hour ago on the same subject. We provided the document shown on Channel 4 News.

This is the link to watch the report…

http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=10959

A transcript will be published on this website ASAP.  

 

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s disgraceful treatment of its North Sea workers: production and profits before safety and principles

EXTRACT: “…this company is run by a bunch of ruthless bastards who would sell their grannies to improve shareholder returns, along with their ever increasing personal bonuses and pensions…”

By John Donovan

We are already aware of the deplorable way Shell is treating IT staff. This week we heard from a Shell insider claiming to represent Shell North Sea employees who apparently are also being treated like commodities, rather than human beings, many of whom until recent events, had a genuine affection for Shell as a company. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

DAILY EXPRESS (UK): DARLING MUST KEEP HIS HANDS OFF SHELL’S PROFITS

Friday February 1,2008

MANY people’s first instinct when reading about Shell’s extraordinary profits may be to agree with those Left-wingers who are calling for a windfall tax on oil companies.

But the very last thing hard-pressed motorists need is for more tax to be levied on petrol producers.

The Government is already getting a massive financial windfall from higher world oil prices. More than £3billion a year extra is flowing into Treasury coffers thanks to higher tax receipts from North Sea oil and gas production and higher VAT revenue from the pumps. That’s enough to fund a cut in fuel duty of at least 7p a litre. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Register: Shell IT staff disgusted at mega profits: Union demands talks over job cut plans

By Kelly Fiveash
Published Friday 1st February 2008 10:14 GMT

Union representatives for Royal Dutch Shell’s IT workers demanded talks with the firm’s top management yesterday over the outsourcing of up to 3,000 jobs at the oil giant.

The call came as Shell reported full-year earnings of £13.9bn – the biggest ever profit for a British company. The numbers prompted outrage amongst workers who were told a month ago that the firm was in talks with EDS and other companies about outsourcing as many as 3,000 jobs. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bloomberg: Exxon Profit Rises as Oil Surges Toward $100 a Barrel (Update3)

By Joe Carroll

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest oil company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 14 percent amid the biggest increase in crude prices in the 148-year history of the petroleum industry.

Net income climbed to a record $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, from $10.3 billion, or $1.76, a year earlier, the Irving, Texas-based company said today in a statement. Per-share profit was 16 cents higher than the average of 16 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

World-wide traffic stats for the website royaldutchshellplc.com for January 2008

World-wide traffic stats for the website www.royaldutchshellplc.com

For January 2008

Traffic viewed:

6,748,874 Hits

4,381,421 Page Views

Traffic not viewed 

342,114 Hits

218,129 Page Views

(Not viewed traffic includes traffic generated by robots, worms, or replies with special HTTP status codes)

If you would like a break down of the above figures into individual Countries, please send an email to [email protected] and we would be pleased to send you the information (requests from Shell welcome).

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell’s Reserve Dilemma

WSJ image 

02/01/08

Royal Dutch Shell has waltzed into the record books, reporting a mind-blowing $31.3 billion in net profit in 2007, the highest ever for a British or Dutch company. But, the profit party has been interrupted by an old demon: oil reserve replacement.

The Anglo-Dutch company will delay the release of data about its reserves — the raw stuff it owns in the ground — until March. Shell says it wants to report its reserve levels at the same time as its U.S. rivals. Investors might find the delay worrying nonetheless, because the memory of the company’s reserve-accounting scandal four years ago is still fresh.
 
The problem then was the way Shell accounted for new reserves. It previously had adopted a more-optimistic approach to estimating the quantity of oil and gas. That pushed up its reserve-replacement ratio, the standard measure of the sustainability of an oil company’s production. For a few years, Sir Philip Watts, Shell’s then chief executive, looked like a hydrocarbon rock star. He appeared to have found a way to replace reserves faster and cheaper than in the past.
read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: OPEC Pins Hopes on U.S. Soft Landing

Wall Street Journal chart

By NEIL KING JR.
February 1, 2008

VIENNA — With OPEC widely expected to hold oil production steady at its meeting today, the cartel’s leaders are facing the politically thorny possibility of an output cut in the weeks ahead.

For now, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate cuts will bring the U.S. economy in for a soft landing. The U.S. is the world’s largest oil consumer. A stronger U.S. economy would shore up demand, stabilize oil prices and give leverage to OPEC members who want to keep production levels where they are. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell Warns on Output After Profit Gusher

Wall Street Journal chart

Access to Resources
Shrinks, Costs Rise;
High Prices Lift Net
By GUY CHAZAN
February 1, 2008

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported $31.3 billion in profit last year, one of the strongest results ever for a European company, as soaring oil prices offset lower production and weaker refining margins.

But it said output would likely be lower this year, partly because of continuing problems in Nigeria, where unrest has forced it to suspend 141,000 barrels a day of production. It also posted lower-than-expected fourth-quarter results and unveiled a modest increase to its capital-spending program, in a sign of the difficulties facing major oil companies. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Financial Times: Easy pickings from ‘Big Oil’s ‘windfall’ are running out

By Andrew Hill
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00

“Obscene” profits and calls for “windfall taxes”: it’s oil company reporting season again. Royal Dutch Shell formally launched the 2007 full-year results festival in the UK yesterday by recording the largest profit ever reported by a listed European company – $27.6bn (£13.9bn) after tax, adjusted for changes in the value of fuel inventories.

If the chorus of complaint from unions and environmental groups at the “£1.6m-a-hour” profit was predictable, so was the reaction of analysts: disappointment. Fourth-quarter net income was slightly below the market consensus. If the company reaped a bonus from the higher oil prices last year, it had to use it to offset lower production. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Financial Times: Western majors feel the squeeze: ‘businesses in terminal decline’

By Ed Crooks and Dino Mahtani
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00

Daniel Yergin, the chairman of Cambridge Energy Re-search Associates and author of The Prize, a history of the oil industry, argues that this is one of the toughest times for oil companies since the wave of nationalisations in the 1970s.

“The irony is that the other challenging times were when the oil price was low,” he says. “Now it is because oil has gone to $100 [a barrel].” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Financial Times: Output alarm takes gloss off Shell earnings and unnerves shareholders

By Dino Mahtani in London
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00

Royal Dutch Shell warned yesterday that oil and gas production was likely to fall for a sixth consecutive year in 2008 as it struggles to make up shortfalls at key projects, writes Dino Mahtani in London.

High oil and gas prices helped the multinational oil company to report record full-year profits, with its current cost of supply earnings rising 8 per cent to $27.6bn in 2007. However, shares in Shell fell in early trade as investors focused instead on the company’s declining production trend. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Guardian: The growing fly in Big Oil’s ointment

Nils Pratley , Friday February 1 2008

Which quoted oil company is most critical to the functioning of the global economy? Which one, if it went out of business overnight, would cause the machine to stall most quickly? A few years ago, we would have chosen from the obvious short list – Exxon, Shell, BP – but the other day one UK oil chief executive gave a surprising answer. It’s Schlumberger, he said.

US group Schlumberger is the world’s largest oil -services company. It doesn’t own any oil itself, but its 80,000 employees in 80 countries are busy looking for the stuff, and producing it, as contractors. Remove them overnight and an awful lot of oil would stop flowing very quickly. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Guardian: Union leaders brand Shell’s record £14bn profits obscene

· Claim that gains made at expense of environment
· Company’s plans to go into Iraq spark controversy

Terry Macalister The Guardian, Friday February 1 2008

Shell recorded the biggest annual profits in British corporate history yesterday at $27.6bn (£14bn) causing a storm of protest from trade union leaders and green groups who said the “obscene” profits came at the expense of motorists, pensioners and the environment and suggested it should be met with a windfall tax.

The world’s second largest quoted oil company said it had no intention of cutting back on its operations, saying it needed to increase production to meet rising demand and unveiling controversial plans to start oil operations in Iraq. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Independent: Oil fields of plenty?

Despite making £93m a day, Royal Dutch Shell has not impressed the markets, concerned by resource nationalism and rising extraction costs.

By Danny Fortson
Friday, 1 February 2008

If understatement were an art, Jeroen van der Veer would be given a seat among the masters. In unveiling the largest-ever annual profit for a UK or Dutch company yesterday, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell deemed the group’s $27.6bn (£13.9bn) annual profit thus: “Overall these are satisfactory results.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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