News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin staunchly opposed listing the polar bear as an endangered species, arguing that the federal designation could hurt drilling such as Shell’s plans to extract oil from the Chukchi Sea, where polar bears have lived for millennia.
Click to continue reading “Palin, polar bears, Shell Oil and The Nature Conservancy”
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The fog consolidated and a waterspout hundreds of feet high rose from the white ocean and darted across its surface, landing for a moment on a moored outboard to spin it like a top, moving toward a distant shore where it briefly became a sand funnel, and then diffusing into the atmosphere as it rained down bits of beach on the harbor. For 24 hours, a light show of violent storms illuminated the coastline, accompanied by booming thunder. My dog was so undone by the display that she kept us all awake with her terrified whining. That same day, two waterspouts appeared on Long Island Sound.
In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today’s anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers.
In those days, I recall my uncle, President Kennedy, standing erect as he rode a toboggan in his top coat, never faltering until he slid into the boxwood at the bottom of the hill. Once, my father, Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, brought a delegation of visiting Eskimos home from the Justice Department for lunch at our house. They spent the afternoon building a great igloo in the deep snow in our backyard. My brothers and sisters played in the structure for several weeks before it began to melt. On weekend afternoons, we commonly joined hundreds of Georgetown residents for ice skating on Washington’s C&O Canal, which these days rarely freezes enough to safely skate.
Since that meeting, Exxon has funneled $23 million into the climate-denial industry, according to Greenpeace, which combs the company’s annual report each year. Since 2006, Exxon has cut off some of the worst offenders, but 28 climate-denial groups will still get funding this year.
Corporate America’s media toadies continue to amplify Exxon’s deceptive message. The company can count on its hand puppets — Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, John Stossel and Glenn Beck — to shamelessly mouth skepticism about man-made climate change and give political cover to the oil industry’s indentured servants on Capitol Hill. Oklahoma’s Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe calls global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public.”
Now John McCain has chosen as his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a diligent student of Big Oil’s crib sheets. She’s something of a flat-earther who shares the current administration’s contempt for science. Palin has expressed skepticism about evolution (which is like not believing in gravity), putting it on par with “creationism,” which posits that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago.
She used to insist that human activities have nothing to do with climate change. “I’m not one … who would attribute it to being man-made,” she said in August. After she joined the GOP ticket, she magically reversed herself, to a point. “Man’s activities certainly can be contributing to the issue of global warming,” she told Charles Gibson two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Alaska is melting before our eyes; entire villages erode as sea ice vanishes, glaciers are disappearing at a frightening clip, and “dancing forests” caused by disappearing permafrost astonish residents and tourists. Palin had to keep her head buried particularly deep in an oil well to ever have denied that humans are causing climate change. But, as Upton Sinclair pointed out, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Palin’s enthusiastic embrace of Big Oil’s agenda (if not always Big Oil itself) has been the platform of her hasty rise in Alaskan politics. In that sense she is as much a product of the oil industry as the current president and his vice president. Palin, whose husband is a production operator for BP on Alaska’s North Slope, has sued the federal government over its listing of the polar bear as an endangered species threatened by global warming, and she has fought to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Alaska’s coast to oil drilling.
When oil profits are at stake, her fantasy world appears to have no boundaries. About American’s deadly oil dependence, she mused recently, “I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem.”
I guess the only difference between Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney is … lipstick.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an environmental lawyer and a professor at Pace University Law School.
While Odum says he understands the need to preserve the environment and wildlife of the area, he believes Shell knows how to do that; it drilled offshore wells in Alaska in the early 1980s and 1990s and has voluntarily put together a “conflict-avoidance agreement” with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. The agreement bars Shell from waters during periods of heavy migration, which is when the hunters go out in small boats, armed with harpoons, to seek 50ft whales. It also calls on Shell to shut down when a whale comes close to its operations. But the environmentalists are not satisfied, which has left the future of Shell’s drilling operation with the courts.
With oil at $114 a barrel, after hitting a record $147 in July, and sea ice melting fast, countries like Russia and the US are looking north for possible energy riches.
Click to continue reading “America to probe Arctic for oil as sea ice melts”
A new map of the Arctic has been drawn up by British cartographers which reveals the squabbling among countries staking a claim to its vast natural resources.
Click to continue reading “‘Arctic Map’ could help divide natural resources”
The future of the Arctic will be less white wilderness, more black gold, a new report on oil reserves in the High North has signalled this week. The first-comprehensive assessment of oil and gas resources north of the Arctic Circle, carried out by American geologists, reveals that underneath the ice, the region may contain as much as a fifth of the world’s undiscovered yet recoverable oil and natural gas reserves.
Click to continue reading “Riches in the Arctic: the new oil race”
Earlier this year, Royal Dutch Shell PLC spent more than $2 billion acquiring drilling leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.
Click to continue reading “Cold Comfort: Arctic Is Oil Hot Spot”
Energy producers such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. have accelerated exploration of the northernmost regions for untapped reserves amid record prices and receding access to deposits in more hospitable climates.
Click to continue reading “Arctic May Hold 90 Billion Barrels of Oil, U.S. Says”
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc can explore for oil in Alaska’s Arctic waters, according to a ruling by a federal judge in Anchorage, who dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block the companies’ exploration plans.
Click to continue reading “Shell, BP Can Explore for Oil Offshore From Alaska, Judge Rules”
EXTRACTS FROM BLOOMBERG ARTICLES PUBLISHED 7 JULY 2008
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA NA): Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer doesn’t expect oil supplies to run short, even in the long-term, Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft reported, citing an interview.
Separately, Europe’s largest oil company and BP Plc can explore for oil in Alaska’s Arctic waters, according to a ruling by a federal judge in Anchorage, who dismissed a lawsuit that sought to block the companies’ exploration plans. Shell fell 23.5 cents, or 0.9 percent, to 24.88 euros.
Record oil prices and depleting reserves in shallower waters are prompting companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to spend a record $98.7 billion on exploration and production this year. Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state- controlled oil company, plans to invest $30 billion for 40 drilling rigs to develop a field off its coast.
: Thanks for your question John The Shell Contributory Pension Fund was funded 130% or thereabouts a couple of years ago. This meant that it could meet its future actuarially calculated commitments + 30%. Some of us at the time (certainly me) argued that Shell should recognise this strength by alleviating the financial plight of many of the poorer pensioners in the fund. For example those thousands with annual pensions of less than £7500 per annum, who had worked for Shell for 20+ years and who were now in their seventies (or older). Shell had previously given a commitment that “…the real value of your pension [will be] maintained” – a promise that was clearly not be honoured insofar as poorer pensioners was concerned. The case that we made was rejected by Shell. Instead of helping pensioners they decided to help themselves by stopping contributions to the fund. There were two effects of this – one I am sure about and one I surmise. The first effect is that the retention of cash rather than its move into the fund helped Shell’s UK bottom line/cash generation. The second is (my guess here) that by improving Shell’s UK bottom line certain executives at the top of Shell in the UK befitted in their bonus payments!
: QUESTION TO FORMER SHELL EXEC PADDY BRIGGS: Paddy a year ago Shell UK said its pension scheme was so well-funded that it could take a contributions holiday. I seem to recall someone saying this was safe unless there was a stock market crash. The link below is to a related FT article... http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2007/10/09/financial-times-shell-reverts-to-a-vanished-norm/ Is there any possible adverse consequence to the Shell UK pension fund from the current "collapse" in equities (and the Shell share price), as reported by the FT this morning?
: One of the reasons that Shell’s Corrib development got into difficulties is that the Irish Government failed to commission a proper Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) into the project. CBA assesses not only the P&L and conventional (mainly local) HSE implications of a project but ALL aspects, including the social and extra-environmental. The same applies to Tar Sands. Oxfam is quite right to raise the issue at this time when the risks and very real dangers of failed regulation of corporations are in the public eye. The Canadian Government should go ahead with a thorough CBA at a global impact level and not be blinded by the chimera of the attractions of Energy Independence.
: Sokari Ekine states that people in Ogoniland believe that Shell are again going to come back into Ogoniland under the guise of NNPC (what nonsense!!). Of course he/they will say this as they are fearful that NNPC will be worse than any international oil company. NNPC will NOT be as tolerant as Shell, NNPC will NOT provide money for communities as Shell have, NNPC will not listen as Shell does. Ogoni's need to wake up to reality.
: Hi! The post is really interesting! I've read your blog and can say it's a good job.
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: REPLY TO “In the business”: I have never stated or thought that Shell and everyone who works for Shell is bad. On the contrary, I have no doubt that the vast majority of its employees are decent hardworking people. With regard to the positive initiatives of Shell, I am the person who added the sections about the Shell Foundation, LiveWire etc to Wikipedia. As you correctly say, we publish all news about Shell, the good, the bad and the ugly – some of the latter is in the pipeline. We have always published all positive news about Shell. I am pleased that you have a high regard for the company. I can tell you that many current and former employees of Shell in African nations e.g. Ethiopia, and in Malaysia, have a strikingly different opinion. Several hundred are suing Shell for unlawful deductions from Shell pension funds. As to carrying out research, we decide on what stories to pursue. This seems reasonable since it is our website. If you want to speak out on behalf of Shell you are very welcome to do so either on Live Chat (as you are doing) or by supplying articles for publication. If you want to put in the effort, we will publish your Shell related articles on an unedited basis provided they are to the same standard as your previous contributions. The same invitation extends to Shell or anyone who has informed intelligible comment to make about Shell. I have never spoken out in any depth regarding Shell benefit packages. I will leave that to the former Shell executive Paddy Briggs who has a much greater knowledge than me in such matters.
: Ok Donovan - do some research and post how Shells benefit package compares to others. I have done this and can tell you that is is in the top 5 percent of the globe. Do some research and see how well our poor employess are paid. Do some research and see how Shell takes care of its people when there is a natural disaster tha impacts them, Employee assistance surpassed by none. You post a very distorted view of Shell and you know it. Ask people who leave Exxon, Lyondell, Dow, Dupont, Chevron, Total, etc why they left - Benefits and values. Do your research.
: #36 Ali Zachari What a joke you are. You would be lucky if Shell was to invest in your country. There are many quality operators and Shell is one of them. If I had a vote, I do not, we would never invest a single penny in your country. Do some research on the web, outside this site where the lenses are so clouded you will never get a real picture of the company Shell is.
: So you do post the good articles on Shell, but where is your editorial comment praising shell for its top of the league access to annual reports? For an evil company with no ethics, as you claim, one would not excpect such transparency eh. I can tell you that as an ee, I would rather work for no one else. When we have a choice to make on startup up facilities, we will never compromise our values. We are expected to do it right, and we always strive to. Get a grip, there are operators out there who knowingly violate permits and mis manage emissions, not Shell. If you only knew the internal standard we are held to as unit operators, you would change your tune.
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