Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

January 14th, 2015:

Arctic Explorers Retreat From Hostile Waters With Oil Prices Low

Screen Shot 2014-08-06 at 09.25.26From an article by Mikael Holter published 14 Jan 2015 by Bloomberg under the headline:

“Arctic Explorers Retreat From Hostile Waters With Oil Prices Low”

When Statoil ASA (STL) acquired the last of three licenses off Greenland’s west coast in January 2012, oil at more than $110 a barrel made exploring the iceberg-ridden waters an attractive proposition.

Less than two years later, the price of oil had been cut by almost half and Norway’s Statoil, the world’s most active offshore Arctic explorer in 2014, relinquished its interest in all three licenses in December without drilling a single well…

“At $50, it just doesn’t make sense,” James Henderson, a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said in a Jan. 12 phone interview. “Arctic exploration has almost certainly been significantly undermined for the rest of this decade.” 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.

Brace for $40-a-barrel oil

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 14.32.13FROM AN ARTICLE BY GRANT SMITH PUBLISHED BY BLOOMBERG.COM ON 14 JAN 2015 UNDER THE HEADLINE:

Oil at $40, and Below, Gaining Traction on Wall Street

Extracts

Brace for $40-a-barrel oil.

The U.S. benchmark crude price, down more than $60 since June to below $45 yesterday, is on the way to this next threshold, said Societe Generale SA and Bank of America Corp. And Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says that West Texas Intermediate needs to remain near $40 during the first half to deter investment in new supplies that would add to the glut.

“The markets are continuing to price in huge oversupply in the first half of 2015,” Mike Wittner, head of research at Societe Generale SA in New York, said by phone on Jan. 12. “We’re going to go below $40.” 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 puts the brakes on

Screen Shot 2015-01-14 at 13.56.44By John Donovan

In response to the collapse in the price of oil, Shell and Qatar Petroleum have abandoned a $6.4 billion joint venture to build a petrochemical complex in the Ras Laffan Industrial City. 

Extract from a Reuters Report:,

Prices quoted by companies to build the huge complex showed the project was “commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry”, the statement said. 

REUTERS REPORT

RELATED FINANCIAL TIMES ARTICLE 14 JAN 2015:

Shell scraps $6.5bn Qatar project due to oil price rout

Extract

The decision not to proceed — a significant move following the halving of oil prices since last summer — was taken “after a careful and thorough evaluation of commercial quotations” from engineering, procurement and construction bidders, Shell said. 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.

Internal documents reveal industry ‘pattern of behavior’ on toxic chemicals

Screen Shot 2015-01-06 at 21.26.38Decades after its release, a lawyer for Shell Oil Company flagged the 1948 report as being potentially damaging in lawsuits and gave out instructions to “avoid unnecessary disclosure of sensitive documents or information” and “disclose sensitive benzene documents only on court order.”

From an article by David Heath and Jim Morris published by The Center for Public Integrity on 4 December 2014 under the headline:

Internal documents reveal industry ‘pattern of behavior’ on toxic chemicals

Sixty-six years ago, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health wrote a report linking leukemia to benzene, a common solvent and an ingredient in gasoline. “It is generally considered,” he wrote, “that the only absolutely safe concentration for benzene is zero.”

The report is remarkable not only because of its age and candor, but also because it was prepared for and published by the oil industry’s main lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute.

This document and others like it bedevil oil and chemical industry executives and their lawyers, who to this day maintain that benzene causes only rare types of cancer and only at high doses. 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.
Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.