News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
I note from the Shell internal documents supplied to my son that Shell has engaged in some wishful thinking regarding my age (I am now almost 93). Unfortunately for Shell, I am still very much alive and kicking.
Click to continue reading “Email from Alfred Donovan to Gavin White, Shell International Limited”
Filed at 6:25 a.m. ET
LONDON (Reuters) – Shares in Royal Dutch Shell Plc <RDSa.L> fell over 2 percent on Wednesday on market talk that the company was guiding analysts to reduce their forecasts for the oil major’s fourth-quarter earnings.
“Consensus for Shell’s Q4 appears to be falling sharply. Lower gas realisations and losses downstream suggest earnings of around $2.6 billion (1.6 billion pounds) in the fourth quarter versus expectations previously closer to $3.3 billion,” one dealer said.
At the end of each quarter analysts talk to companies’ investor relations departments before fine-tuning their quarterly earnings forecasts.
While companies are not allowed to divulge market sensitive information, analysts say that the tone of the conversation often gives them an indication as to whether consensus forecasts are too high or too low.
“They (Shell) did suggest that refining margins have been very weak and also that the seasonal uplift of gas consumption we usually expect in the fourth quarter may not be so big this time,” one analysts who spoke to Shell said.
Shell declined immediate comment.
On Monday, U.S. oil major Chevron Corp <CVX.N> warned that its fourth-quarter results would be “sharply lower” than the previous quarter due to a further deterioration in refining margins, despite oil prices firming.
Average global refining margins in the fourth quarter fell to their lowest level since the first quarter of 1995, according to data from BP.
Analysts at Merrill Lynch forecast current cost of supply net income, excluding one-offs, of $2.89 billion, according to a research note forwarded to Reuters by a market source.
Morgan Stanley downgraded the Anglo-Dutch oil giant to “underweight” from “equalweight” on Tuesday, citing better opportunities elsewhere in the sector.
The investment bank said Shell would be the only one in its European peer group which would not grow oil and gas production in 2010, with output seen down 0.8 percent against an average group rise of 1.5 percent.
The perceived stronger growth prospects of rival BP Plc <BP.L>, allowed the London-based company to overtake Shell to become Europe’s largest oil and gas company by market capitalisation this week.
Shell’s London-listed “A” shares traded down 1.3 percent at 11:00 a.m. British time, compared with a 0.4 percent drop in the DJ Stoxx European oil and gas sector index <.SXEP>.
BP data on refining margins is available at: http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9016864&contentId=7030494
(Additional reporting by Simon Falush, Jon Hopkins, Dominic Lau and Blaise Robinson)
(Editing by Erica Billingham and Hans Peters)
The men were working at the Shell-operated Afam gas and power plant east of Port Harcourt. They work for Netco Dietsmann, a venture between Nigeria’s state-owned National Engineering and Technical Company and the Dutch company Dietsmann.
Click to continue reading “Three British workers kidnapped in Nigeria”
Lagos – Gunmen on Tuesday seized three Britons and a Colombian, shooting dead their police escort in the first major kidnapping for six months in southern Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The four – contract workers for the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell – were abducted as they travelled to work from the southern oil city of Port Harcourt to the Shell-operated Afam power plant, police said.
Click to continue reading “Four Shell workers grabbed by gunmen in Nigeria”
The EPC then formed an organisation called the Risk Assessment Forum and approached companies to join. Among the companies that became members were Shell, Elf Aquitaine, ICI and several pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, Johnson and Johnson, SmithKline Beecham, Solvay and Zeneca.
Printed below is a Shell internal document from May 2006 which we assume was prepared by Shell in-house lawyers for the misinformation of Shell senior management. It deliberately paints a false picture, probably to protect Richard Wiseman, the former Shell Legal Director…
Click to continue reading “Royal Dutch Shell deceiving itself”
In a letter to Peter Voser, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote: “We are writing to call your attention to a very serious issue involving deficiencies in your company’s public filings, specifically, your company’s ongoing failure to disclose the full nature and extent of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s activities in, and risks of doing business with, Iran.
By Dulue Mbachu and Tony Tamuno
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — Nigerian gunmen kidnapped three Britons and a Colombian working for Royal Dutch Shell Plc during an ambush at Obehi, near the West African nation’s oil hub of Port Harcourt, police said.
“Their police escort was shot dead and the driver was shot and injured,” Rita Inoma-Abbey, a police spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview today from Port Harcourt. “We’ve sent our men after them.”
A 2 million naira ($13,250) reward is being offered for information that will assist police with the rescue of the expatriates and arrest of the criminals, she said. The driver is in a critical condition following the attack, which happened at 7:15 a.m. local time while the four were on their way to work, Inoma-Abbey said. No ransom has yet been demanded.
David Williams, a spokesman at The Hague-based Shell, said he couldn’t immediately comment on the abductions. Violence by armed groups, including those seeking more local control of oil wealth, has cut more than 20 percent of Nigeria’s oil exports since 2006 and deterred fresh investments in the country, which vies with Angola as Africa’s leading oil exporter.
Thousands of fighters and their leaders accepted an amnesty offer by President Umaru Yar’Adua last year after the government promised to rehabilitate the fighters and address the grievances of local communities. Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA operate joint ventures for the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. in the region.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Lagos at dmbachu@bloomberg.net; Tony Tamuno in Port Harcourt via Johannesburg on vwessels@bloomberg.net
JANUARY 12, 2010, 7:34 A.M. ET
LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) no longer looks to its troubled Nigerian operations to drive growth in its oil and gas output, said Chief Executive Peter Voser in comments posted on the company’s Web site Tuesday.
“Nigeria is still a heartland for Shell, but we no longer depend on it for our growth aspirations,” said Voser. “This gives us more flexibility in deciding when and how to develop oil and gas resources in Nigeria.”
Violence, kidnapping and sabotage attacks on infrastructure in Nigeria’s oil producing areas have hampered Shell’s operations for years. “During 2009 sabotage and attacks on installations of the Shell Petroleum Development Corporation of Nigeria have again reduced production levels,” and delayed a scheme to reduce gas flaring, Voser said.
Shell is seeking buyers for 10 of its Nigerian onshore oil producing assets worth between $4 billion and $5 billion, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal last month.
Company Web site: www.shell.com
-By James Herron, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9317; james.herron@dowjones.com
Unity on new penalties will be tough. Major economies such as China rely on Iran’s crude oil, and many non-U.S. energy companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc are invested in Iran, which has the world’s second-biggest natural-gas and oil reserves.
Click to continue reading “Tough Sanctions May Not Persuade Iran to Quit Nuclear Program”
: It appears that Voser finally got fed up with Mr Overpromise/Underdelivery. Despite all the nice words about him, he is clearly kicked out. Plenty of sycophants around him are now fearing for their jobs and positioning themselves whom to kow-tow now. This bearded fellow wasted his great brain on very small details and he was unable to delegate. I think his only real good project was the SLIM project. This was many moons ago and launched him to the top jobs. And there he failed as frequently and eloquently pointed out on the Donovan site. Big brain, a micromanager on par with the pointy haired boss in Dilbert, a vicious and vindictive attitude to those that were of no use to him or that might talk back. In summary: Good riddance and now the legal system of Scotland can go after him. But I doubt they will.
: What goes around comes around.... The announcement of Brinded has long been anticipated. We now wait for the next much smaller announcement.... Tom Purves to retire..... This will make our day when that moment happens. Shell never deals with the issue of bad leadership until it is too late and the havoc has been wreaked.... However, as we say in the US, Every dog has its day..... and today that was Malcolm.
: So early retirement then after all that ....... REPLY BY JOHN D. You are still playing a point scoring game. You seem to forget that the avoidable deaths of Shell offshore workers on Brent Bravo is at the heart of this matter. The deaths occurred after a safety audit led by Bill Campbell exposed a shambolic, illegal and shameful safety regime on Brent Bravo. They occurred after Shell senior Expro management had promised Bill that Shell would bring an end to the "Touch F*** All" culture and the falsification of safety records. The explosion and record breaking fine provide proof that the promises were not kept. There is NO commercial aspect to this matter as far as Mr Campbell is concerned. He is driven solely by a fear of an even worse event due to the same policy by Shell of putting production and profits before the safety of offshore workers. Please give Bill some credit for his integrity and for his long campaign, which has rightly received cross-party support from many MP's.
: Agent provocateur indeed!! Never been called that before, and I am most certainly not in league with Shell in any way! I again reiterate my point : was Campbell fired or given early retirement from Shell and thereby lies his grudge or did he reach full retirement age in the company? An honest answer might convince many that his continuous aggressiveness against Shell is genuine or just an ongoing grudge. This is not a "slanging match" merely a point of clarification. REPLY BY JOHN DONOVAN: Mr Campbell has made it clear that he does not wish to get into discussion with someone making insulting comments while hiding behind an alias. With regards to his comment that you may be an agent provocateur, perhaps he gained that impression from checking your history of postings. Just so there is no misunderstanding, we welcome contributors who provide a counter-balance to negative postings about Shell. I have provided some links to further information about the Brent Bravo scandal. Despite all of the promises by Shell senior management about safety, which including appointing a safety Czar, its track record remains atrocious. Years after the Brent Bravo debacle, it was revealed that the lifeboats for a Shell North Sea platform were not seaworthy. You could not make it up. “Lifeboats trouble at Brent field” published on 14 March 2008, UpstreamOnline revealed “SHELL’s safety record on its Brent Bravo platform in the UK Northern North Sea is once again under scrutiny after the discovery of technical problems with two lifeboats on the installation that resulted in both of them being removed from service.” Jake Molloy, general secretary of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee was quoted in the article by Christopher Hopson as claiming “If they had loaded up this particular lifeboat, the chances are it could have been launched into the sea in an uncontrolled fashion which would have caused death or injury as it was held in place by corrosion and not by the designed system”. The article said that problems had been found with a second lifeboat on the Brent Bravo platform. It also reported that a lifeboat had launched itself into the sea from Shell’s Tern platform because the brakes and clutches were “dysfunctional” and had damaged the launch mechanism off the platform. Shell confirmed problems had been discovered with two lifeboats on Brent Bravo during “routine maintenance”. Shell was quoted as stating that it viewed the matter seriously and had “mobilised an investigation team on the platform”. BILL CAMPBELL EMAIL SENT TO MEMBERS OF THE UK HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL SAFETY CONCERNS
: LondonLad: In many cases "Reaching Retirement age" in Shell simply means being unable to find a position outside Shell -nowadays the most competent people generally move on long before reaching retirement age and pursue a second career elsewhere.
: To : an observer of Shell, you state "It is commonly known that a great many employees of Shell Expro are freemasons". Where did you get this "fact" from - smoking whacky backy?? I doubt very much that a great many are indeed freemasons. Even if they are (wich I seriously doubt), so what? Let's face it they are a society that provide one of the largest contributions to charities in the UK. I think you very clearly have an axe to grind against Shell. In that context why does Campbell have such a chip on his shoulder over Shell? Was he sacked for some reason? Did he actually reach his retirement age in Shell? Would be nice to know so that we can believe more that his rants are genuine problems he has with Shell rather than caused by some hidden grudge.
: GTW, I know you are right, TP and others will get their due. What is painful is that those whose lives have been changed and whose spirits have been destroyed because of his actions, will not be compensated. Tom is not the only one taking credit for this new cruel process of forced ranking, by claiming credit for what market demand has meant for profits. There are promotions taking place right now because credit is claimed by those executing Tom's plan for performance 'refirings'. I worked in manufacturing sites where management and performance was a joke, and profits were above forecast. It's always been market demand and the hard work of the folks on the ground that make manufacturing successful, Tom is not a pioneer in taking undue credit for local successes, but he has certainly been the cruelest!
: I have no proof nor will I ever find that proof, but this reprehensible conduct of the legal authorities smells to high heaven of masonic lodges. It is commonly known that a great many employees of Shell Expro are freemasons. The police forces all over the world are well presented in the various lodges. I would not be surprised if Brinded himself is a member. Bill Campbell is a very courageous man taking on these evil forces. We in Shell all knew him to be a completely honest and competent Maintenance manager and HSE auditor. But he loses against all the parasites and sycophants whose sole job is to protect the directors. And then live well on the spoils of their abhorrent activities. Top marks for the Donovans who keep this festering sore in the spotlight. To some it maybe a lot of repeating old stories, but those that want to hide and bury their bad actions know that time is on their side. And Shell has deep pockets and knows how to procrastinate.
: John, there is no issue with my post. This is the same GTW that has been providing updates for some time on the ill fated project CEP and the ill fated Tom Purves, both of which should be going fading into the background this year as old worn out news.
: I retract my previous statement. COMMENT BY JOHN DONOVAN: WE HAVE REASON TO SUSPECT THAT THIS POSTING IS NOT IN FACT FROM THE PARTY WHO USES THE ALIAS "GOLDENTRIANGLE WATCHMAN ON THIS BLOG, BUT IS FROM AN IMPOSTER.
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