Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc said construction and engineering costs may fall in Canada, allowing Europes largest oil producer to revisit plans to expand oil- sand projects. We expect that procurement costs will come down quite a lot, Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said today in an interview at an energy conference in London. If the overheating goes out of the market, the break-even price that you can build an oil-sands project will come down again.
December 19th, 2008:
Shell May Revisit Oil-Sand Projects as Procurement Costs Drop
Bernard Madoff ‘fraud’: The list of the casualties including Shell
The Dutch pension fund of Royal Dutch Shell said it has a $45m exposure to the alleged $50bn fraud by prominent Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff.
Oil’s Crash Stirs Unrest in Russia as Slump Hits Home
Public panic is one of the Kremlin's greatest fears.
Oil $36.22 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest price since June 2004
Futures contracts for January delivery yielded under heavy selling pressure Thursday to finish down $3.84, or 9.6%, at $36.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest price since June 2004.
Samsung Bets on Shell Floating LNG as Orders Fall
Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. are betting that Royal Dutch Shell Plcs plan for untried floating gas-export terminals will spur billions of dollars in orders as the shipping market collapses.
Shell asks for rehearing of Ninth Circuit court decision; delays 2009 Beaufort drilling
Shell said it will file a petition with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Dec. 18 to ask for a rehearing of the courts decision to block Alaskan Beaufort Sea drilling.
Shell cancels 2009 Alaska off-shore drilling program
Alaska -- Shell Oil has canceled its exploratory drilling program for next year in Alaska's Beaufort Sea while it focuses on court challenges to its offshore plan.
SHELL FACING A $45M EXPOSURE TO MADOFF FRAUD
DAILY EXPRESS
Thursday December 18,2008
OIL giant Royal Dutch Shell has emerged as one of the latest victims of the $50?billion (£33?billion) fraud by Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff.
The company said its Dutch pension fund had a $45?million exposure to the fraud but that the impact would not be material even if it had to write off the full amount.
It joins a growing list of organisations globally that will lose money as a result of the fraud, with the total figure now above $24?billion.
Shells announcement came after the chairman of the U.S. watchdog, the Securities & Exchange Commission, admitted it had not followed up a string of tip-offs about Madoffs activities.
Opec humbled as price of crude tumbles to $39
Russia, a major crude producer but not a member of Opec, has considered government budget cuts in the wake of the falling crude price, while future production levels could be endangered because oil companies have cut spending on exploration and development. Shell, for instance, has postponed spending on some high-cost tar sands projects in Canada.
Royal Dutch Shell victim of Madoff Ponzi fraud
Fresh details of the human cost of the apparent Ponzi scheme, in which capital from new investors was used to pay interest to existing investors, also began to emerge yesterday. The pension fund operated by the Netherlands branch of Royal Dutch Shell said that it had a $45 million exposure to the alleged fraud. The fund, which manages the retirement savings of thousands of Shell workers, is in deficit.