After battling native communities and environmental groups on Alaskas North Slope over its offshore drilling plans, Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday that it was scaling back its exploration program in the Beaufort Sea.
May 6th, 2009:
Shell To Shift Alaska Exploration Plans
Shell and Chesapeake Energy Blindsided By Pay Protests
Shell is suffering from an attempt to push through bonuses despite not reaching its own growth targets. Investors have reacted sharply, with members of a large group publicly criticizing the company.
Shells chief executive on the oil industry, the Arctic, Russia, CO2 controls and the companys future
Mr van der Veer was interviewed in the FT last week, giving his thoughts on his five-year tenure at the top of Shell and the crisis in the oil industry caused by $50 crude. There is much more of that in the transcript (lightly edited) below. He expands on those issues, and talks about Shells plans in the Arctic and Australia, the problems of Russias oil industry, and the thinking behind the companys cuts in investment in wind power.
Governance body Pirc urges ‘no’ vote on Shell pay
LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Corporate governance body Pirc on Wednesday urged investors in Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) to vote against the oil major's pay plans at its forthcoming annual general meeting.
Shell Faces Trial Over Nigerian Crimes Against Humanity Claims
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- A group of Nigerians suing Royal Dutch Shell Plc over government attacks and killings in their country will try to do the unprecedented -- persuade a U.S. jury to find a company liable for aiding in crimes against humanity.
Shell Plans to Cut 400 Jobs in France, Les Echos Says
Bloomberg.com
By David Whitehouse
May 6 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to sell 70 percent of its French service stations and will cut 400 French jobs, Les Echos reported, citing CFDT union official Jacques Beurion.
Last Updated: May 6, 2009 00:09 EDT
A word in your Shell-like about those bonuses
What were they thinking of? Have they been on another planet for the past few years? Have they not picked up the slightest hint of public and shareholder unease at rewards for failure and a culture of executive remuneration that seems to amount to heads you win, tails you, er, also win?
Shell faces revolt by its key shareholders
This is the second year in a row that the remuneration committee has used its discretion to reward the executives for below-average returns to shareholders, which raises serious questions about whose interests they are looking after.
How not to lose the race over pay and bonuses
The decision by Royal Dutch Shells remuneration committee to overrule its own pay policy for top executives for the second year running looks terrible. Like Xstrata, whose shareholders on Tuesday lodged a significant protest against the mining companys remuneration package, Shell has put itself in the line of fire. Where did they go wrong? Simple: the committee exercised its discretion twice in two years to grant shares that executives did not, under a strict interpretation of Shells own rules, deserve, and it did so without going back to shareholders.
Shell CEO seeing economic stabilization
DALLAS (Reuters) - The chief executive officer of oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said on Tuesday he is seeing small signs that the U.S. and European economies are leveling.
Criticism sparks Shell pay review
Royal Dutch Shell is reviewing the structure of its long-term executive incentive scheme in the wake of the furore over management compensation at the oil company.
Cravath to Defend Shell in Alien Tort Claim Trial
Shell and Cravath do have reason for hope. Last year a federal jury in San Francisco cleared Chevron in an Alien Tort Claims case that was also related to violence committed against protesters in Nigeria.
Oil-Services Providers Ponder How To Survive Energy Bust
Oil and gas companies, whose profits are pinched by low energy prices, are bent on reducing their service costs. "We have been very quietly renegotiating contracts," said Matthias Bischel, a senior vice president with Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA).
Shell to sell most French fuel stations – report
Thomson Reuters
05.05.09, 04:43 PM EDT
PARIS, May 5 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to sell 70 percent of its French fuel stations and cut by a third its 1,200 person work force in France, French newspaper Les Echos reported in its Wednesday edition.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major will divest 240 out of the 340 stations it owns in France, Les Echos said in an advance copy of its front page received by Reuters late on Tuesday.
Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSA – news –people ), which sold its three refineries in France last year, was not immediately available for comment.