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April 1st, 2011:

Fitch downgrades Shell’s credit rating amid debt concerns

NO, IT’S NOT AN APRIL FOOLS DAY PRANK

1 April 2011:

LONDON (AFP) – Ratings agency Fitch on Friday downgraded Royal Dutch Shell’s long-term credit-worthiness to AA from AA+ due to concerns over the Anglo-Dutch energy giant’s rising debt levels.

“The downgrade reflects the fact that management fundamentally departed from its conservative financial profile with the increase in net debt of around $17 billion in 2009 and $5.6 billion in 2010,” Jeffrey Woodruff, senior director in Fitch’s Energy team, said in a statement. 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.

Controversy over Shell Value Creation Teams

COMMENT ADDED ON 1 APRIL 2011

FROM IAIN PERCIVAL (RIGHT), RETIRED GLOBAL CHIEF PETROLEUM ENGINEER OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL (Iain retired from Shell in 2006 after 33 years of service.)

John – in your posting dated 31 March 2011 “You can be sure of Shell – the biggest confidence trick in history”, you wrote

when Shell so-called “value creation teams”, were already engaged in activities leading to the falsification of Shell’s oil and gas reserves and one of the biggest investor frauds in history.

I wish to correct any impression the team members were in any way conducting themselves in any other way than as competent, dedicated technical professionals conducing a root and branch examination of the huge volume of hydrocarbons in Shell’s resource portfolio categorized as “Scope for Recovery”. The aim of the exercise was to identify activities & projects which could (I emphasise the word could) lead to booking volumes of hydrocarbons as “Expectation” volumes, not proved, and only if there was a reasonable level of certainty the projects would go ahead. The outcome of the Value Creation initiative was a complete change in the way the company goes about generating hydrocarbon development concepts, designing and executing well programmes, defining and executing major engineering projects and optimizing the way facilities are operated and maintained. The current suite of E&P Global Processes, operating standards, learning & development programmes, best practice sharing / knowledge management owe their existence to the pioneering work conducted by the Shell technical professionals who worked in the Value Creation Teams. 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.

Shell Sells Chile Fuel Business to Quinenco for $614 Million

By Brian Swint – Apr 1, 2011 8:05 AM GMT+0100

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) sold most of its fuel business in Chile to Quinenco for $614 million as it focuses on increasing global production.

The sale will cover Shell’s retail, commercial fuels, bitumen and chemicals businesses, the Hague-based company said in a statement today. The disposal is part of plans to operate in fewer and larger markets for the half of the business that brings fuel to consumers, it said.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser last month pledged $1 billion of extra cost cuts in refining and marketing as the company tries to accelerate output growth through 2014. Voser is targeting $5 billion in asset sales this year. 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.

Shell expects to drill deepwater Gulf of Mexico well in April

Washington (Platts)–31Mar2011/408 pm EDT/2008 GMT

Shell said Thursday it plans to start drilling an exploratory well in its Cardamom Deep discovery in the US Gulf of Mexico next month.

The work represents the first new deepwater exploration to clear all regulatory hurdles since last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster and subsequent drilling moratorium.

Spokesman Bill Tanner said the Noble Jim Thompson semi-submersible rig is under contract and ready to move to the site sometime in April. 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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