August, 2016:
Oil giant Shell ‘very serious’ about pursuing offshore wind
Joint-venture partners in Browse open to new options
BRIDGET CARTER, GRETCHEN FRIEMANN:
- The Australian
- 12:00AM August 30, 2016
The one thing that the Woodside Petroleum-led Browse project has never had much of is unity among the project partners. But that may quietly be changing.
DataRoom understands that the various joint-venture partners in Browse are open to new development options for the project, and that the pipeline option floated by Woodside last week is increasingly being seen by all the partners as the most sensible plan as it stands today.
Woodside chief Peter Coleman told journalists on Friday that the option of connecting Browse to the big but ageing North West Shelf liquefied natural gas plant via a massive 1000km subsea pipeline was back on the table.
Shell CEO sees oil demand up by 1-1.5 mln barrels/day per year
The CEOs of Shell and ConocoPhillips made the following comments to the ONS oil conference in Stavanger, Norway, on Monday:
* Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says sees increase in oil demand of 1-1.5 million barrels per day per year
* Shell CEO says sees future oil demand more dictated by consumer decisions rather than producers’ decisions
* ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance says carbon price needs to be $100 or more to reach climate target
Shell’s North Sea assets draw eye of private equity-backed groups
A significant downsizing…
August 29, 2016
Investment companies backed by some of the world’s biggest private equity groups have expressed interest in North Sea assets being sold by Royal Dutch Shell. Shell insists it will not abandon the North Sea, where it has 33 platforms and interests in 65 fields. Further multibillion-dollar investment is planned in two big developments — Clair and Schiehallion — west of the Shetland Islands. However, Shell is looking to sell a range of older assets, as well as stakes in newer fields, in what would amount to a significant downsizing, according to people involved in the process.
Is energy industry ready to join open source world?
By David Hunn: August 26, 2016
Landmark, a technology unit of the energy services company Halliburton, is betting that it is, unveiling a cloud-computing platform last week that will allow companies to collaborate on developing software to process the massive volumes of data they collect on everything from geology to seismology to chemistry to drilling to flows of oil and gas. The idea is that easy and open access to the code on which the platform is based will lead to faster and better analysis of the data and ultimately to innovations that allow the industry to extract more oil and gas at lower costs.
Why I’ve sold all of my Shell and BP shares, by manager of £543 million
Bailey concluded his comments with the remark that the Shell dividend is uncovered. That means the company is not generating enough cash to pay the dividend itself.
David Thorpe 25 Aug 2016
Stephen Bailey, who runs the Liontrust Macro Equity Income fund has revealed the reasons why he has sold all of his shares in Shell and BP.
He began selling his Shell shares about a year ago, and completed the sale, ‘during the month of August’ 2016.
Bailey commented, ‘A year ago we had 9 per cent of the fund in oil, now it’s zero. You have to look at the macro view on this, and be very concerned about the oil market. The big suppliers in the market can no longer be controlled by OPEC, the Saudis recently announced an initiative called project 2030 which is aimed at boosting other areas of the economy, and they are doing that because they expect to receive less revenue from fossil fuels in the future.’
Shell Can’t Duck Crude Manipulation Suit, Judge Told
By Kevin Penton
Law360, New York (August 24, 2016, 8:24 PM ET) —
Two Royal Dutch Shell PLC affiliates accused of manipulating crude market prices cannot use the Second Circuit’s recent nix of aluminum futures price-fixing claims to escape the allegations the pair face, landowner and derivatives trader plaintiffs told a New York federal court Wednesday.
The appeals court on Aug. 9 had ruled that manufacturers and buyers of aluminum products could not sue Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Glencore PLC, because the plaintiffs were not directly targeted in the alleged scheme to fix prices…
Can OPEC save BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell plc?
By Ian Pierce – Thursday, 25 August, 2016
Oil majors must long for the halcyon days when a sustained period of low crude prices could be expected to send OPEC riding to the rescue with sweeping production cuts and a promise to boost global prices. Now, two years into a global supply glut that shows few signs of lifting, do oil majors need an OPEC to finally take action?
BP (LSE: BP) wouldn’t say no to the help. Interim results released last month saw underlying replacement cost profits, its preferred metric of profitability, slump 67% year-on-year. Add in a $2bn statutory loss for the period and net debt leaping to $30.9bn and worries have rightly begun to proliferate that dividends will be slashed sooner rather than later.
Oil major debt climbs to record high as crude prices continue to wallow
Billy Bambrough is City A.M.’s deputy news editor. Wednesday 24 August 2016
Some of the biggest global oil majors are being weighed down by record levels of debt.
Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron hold a combined net debt of $184bn (£138bn) — more than double their debt levels in 2014, according to analysis by the Wall Street Journal.
The drop in the oil price has been blamed for the soaring debt levels. The price of a barrel of oil remains less than half of what it was in the summer of 2014.
The enduring low oil price and soaring debt levels have caused some investors to question whether the majors will be able to fork out for new investments and dividends in coming quarters.
Largest Oil Companies’ Debts Hit Record High
By SELINA WILLIAMS and BRADLEY OLSON: Aug. 24, 2016
Executives at BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron have assured investors that they will generate enough cash in 2017 to pay for new investments and dividends, but some shareholders are skeptical. In the first half of 2015, the companies fell short of that goal by $40 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of their numbers.
“Eventually something will give,” said Michael Hulme, manager of the $550 million Carmignac Commodities Fund, which holds stakes in Shell and Exxon. “These companies won’t be able to maintain the current dividends at $50 to $60 oil—it’s unsustainable.”
Idemitsu founding family crosses a line with the Saudis
HIROFUMI MATSUO, Nikkei senior staff writer
TOKYO — Idemitsu Kosan‘s founding family is treading on treacherous ground as it attempts to block a planned merger with Showa Shell Sekiyu.
The family’s opposition to the deal, struck last November, has baffled the rest of the Japanese oil industry and apparently riled Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. The future of Japan’s second-largest oil distributor hangs in the balance.
Speculation about Saudi anger has swirled in the Japanese oil sector since the family’s stance came to light in late June. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., better known as Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s state oil company, is Showa Shell’s No. 2 shareholder, after Royal Dutch Shell. The Saudi company intends to retain a stake in the new entity created through the Idemitsu-Showa Shell merger. Under the proposal, Idemitsu would buy Showa Shell shares held by Royal Dutch Shell.
Nigeria: Rethinking NNPC’s Oil Search in the North
The Niger Delta, which largely dominates the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, did not join the league of other oil-producing regions in the United Kingdom’s North Sea, United States’ Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East’s Persian Gulf through the efforts of the federal government or the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
It was the private sector-led initiative that catapulted the Niger Delta to its current influential position in the global energy dynamics.
The NNPC, which started as the Nigerian National Oil Corporation (NNOC), established by Decree No. 18 of 1971 before the NNPC Decree of 1977 was promulgated, did not initiate the search for crude oil in Nigeria.
Reuters: Partial restart of Motiva Convent hydrocracker seen by year-end
Aug 22 2016, 14:58 ET | By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor
Motiva Enterprises’ 235K bbl/day Convent, La., refinery plans a partial restart of the heavy oil hydrocracking unit by year-end, but full production is not expected to return before fall 2017 as repairs are made from the Aug. 11 fire, Reuters reports, citing Gulf Coast market sources.
In addition to extensive repairs required to return the 45K bbl/day hydrocracker, Motiva will revamp the unit during the shutdown for the planned linking of the Convent refinery with the company’s refinery in Norco, La., sometime next year, according to the report.
Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron Corporation: Is it Time to Leave Nigeria?
Bidness Etc discusses how militant groups are affecting operations of foreign energy companies in Nigeria
By Staff Writer on Aug 22, 2016
Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A), Chevron, and other energy companies are losing hope in the Nigerian government as the safety conditions of the country are not showing signs of improvement. Although on Saturday, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) agreed on a ceasefire, the emergence of other militant groups along with low probability of a deal between the officials and the groups anytime soon has raised doubt about the country’s oil and gas sector recovery.
How sustainable is Royal Dutch Shell plc’s 6% yield?
By Prabhat Sakya – Monday, 22 August, 2016
Royal Dutch Shell (LSE:RDSB) is a £75bn company listed on the FTSE 100. It explores for, produces and refines both oil and gas products and has a long and proud dividend history. In February 2016 it acquired gas firm BG, meaning it now produces more gas than oil. So far, so straightforward.
But it has been hit hard by falling commodity prices, as both the value of oil and gas have tumbled over the past year.
Shell was hugely profitable
Currently Shell pays out a 6.1% dividend yield. That’s a high income, and it gives the company strong appeal to dividend investors. The question is, how sustainable is that yield?
‘Business as usual’ for Shell in New Zealand
Written by Mark Lammey – 22/08/2016 7:47 am
Shell’s New Zealand boss has reportedly said business was proceeding “as usual” amid reports the company was planning to divest its entire $1billion-plus portfolio in the country.
Australian media reports said late last week that JP Morgan had been hired to offload Shell’s assets, which were placed under review by the oil giant in December.
But Rob Jager told New Zealand media outlets the company was still looking at a range of options and that it was “business as usual”.
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