Posts under ‘Reuters’

Feb 8 (Reuters) – Motiva Enterprises’ 285,000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery returned a gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit, an alkylation unit and a hydrocracking unit to production on Wednesday following a Tuesday power outage, said sources familiar with refinery operations.

The units were ramping up to full production rates on Wednesday night, the sources said. A brief power outage on Tuesday morning knocked the units out of production, according to a notice the refinery filed with Texas pollution regulators.

Motiva is a 50-50 joint venture between Saudi Refining and Shell Oil Co, the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

SOURCE ARTICLE

* Shell says global refining surplus of 6 million barrels

* Predicts more refinery closures in Europe

* Shell made Q4 loss from oil refining and marketing

By Alex Lawler

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday the global oil refining industry is facing about 6 million barrels per day (bpd) of surplus capacity, and predicted more plants would close in Europe.

Refining crude oil into fuels such as gasoline and diesel, traditionally the second-largest business for global oil firms such as Shell and rivals like BP Plc, has come under pressure from weak profit margins.

Shell, Europe’s largest oil company by market value, made a loss of $278 million from oil refining and marketing in the fourth quarter. The collapse of Swiss-based refiner Petroplus has raised the prospect of more plant closures in Europe.

“Globally, the world has about 7 million barrels a day too much capacity. Recent events whether Petroplus or otherwise have seen about a million barrels affected globally, so that’s only 6 million barrels,” Shell’s chief financial officer, Simon Henry, said at a news conference.

“Two million barrels of new capacity came on stream last year and probably another one and a half this year. So actually, the world is still building more capacity than is going out.”

Seven million barrels a day is more than the entire demand of Japan, the world’s third-largest consumer, and amounts to almost 8 percent of the 90 million bpd the International Energy expects the world will need in 2012.

The challenges of the refining industry in Europe, a mature oil market where demand is no longer growing, were illustrated by the difficulties of Petroplus, which has closed three of its refineries after lenders froze credit lines.

Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said in Europe there were too many small refineries that are not very profitable, a legacy of an era when every country wanted its own plants.

“Shell has reduced its European portfolio significantly over the last few years. We have done it from our side but some others have not done the same steps like close refineries and that shake out is still to happen,” he said.

“I think we will just see a few big refineries surviving in the long term and hopefully that the current slowdown will actually help to make this shakeout finally now, so that we can have the right refining industry in Europe.”

Despite the loss from refining, Shell reported net income of $6.46 billion in the fourth quarter earlier on Thursday. Most of the company’s profit comes from producing oil and gas.

SOURCE ARTICLE

* Fourth quarter results disappoint

* Anaemic dividend rise

* Higher investments seen but returns weaken

* Shares drop

By Tom Bergin

LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said it was targeting aggressive growth in the coming years, with the start-up of big new projects and higher investments set to drive a 50 percent rise in cashflow and a 25 percent rise in oil and gas production.

However, weaker-than-expected results for the fourth quarter, partly due to dismal industry-wide refining margins, and an anaemic dividend hike, raised the question of whether Shell was simply running faster to stand still, with investments offering ever-dwindling returns.

Shell’s London-listed A shares traded down 2.2 percent at 0826 GMT, lagging a 0.8 percent drop in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.

Hague-based Shell said it was eyeing a return to strong production growth in the coming years, after nearly a decade. Apart from a 5 percent rise in 2010, the group’s production has fallen every year since 2002.

“Oil & gas production should average some 4 million boe/d (barrels of oil equivalent per day) in 2017-18,” the company said in a statement.

Production averaged 3.215 million boe/d in 2011, a 3 percent drop on 2010.

This growth will be generated by higher capital investment expenditure, which will rise to $32-$33 billion this year from $31.5 billion last year, Shell said.

Analysts had previously predicted that capex would fall, as Shell completed the big new projects such as the pearl gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar, which will push output higher.

The high capital being invested is one reason that Shell’s return on capital employed failed to sparkle, at 15.9 percent, compared to levels above 20 percent a few years back when oil prices were considerably lower.

Similarly, in spite of a record average Brent crude price of $111/barrel in 2011, the full year current cost of supply (CCS) net income of $28.6 billion still lagged the earnings high Shell reported in 2008, of $31.4 billion.

FOURTH QUARTER DISAPPOINTS

Shell said its fourth quarter CCS net income was $6.46 billion, helped by one-off gains from the sale of assets.

Excluding one-offs, the result rose 18 percent to $4.85 billion, shy of an average forecast of $5.17 billion from a Reuters poll of nine analysts.

The miss is despite the fact analysts had recently cut back their forecasts in the light of weak trading statements from Shell’s rivals.

CCS earnings strip out unrealised gains or losses related to changes in the value of inventories, and as such are comparable with net income under U.S. accounting rules.

The company also announced a weaker rise in its dividend than some analysts expected, adding just 1 cent to its first quarter dividend for 2012, to $0.43 per share.

SOURCE ARTICLE

By John Donovan

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser is reluctantly considering how best to wean Shell off the supply of blood tainted Iranian oil. Shell is one of the biggest consumers of Iranian oil – see article below.

The relationship between Shell and Iran has continued unabated for many years, while the fanatical Iranian regime has been busy using the funds generated to supply roadside bombs to kill and maim Nato soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and fund its Nuclear Bomb program. The oil revenue is crucial to Iran. Hence the sanctions and sanctions busting by Shell.

Trying to avoid the odium of its association with the mad mullahs, Shell resorted to subterfuge to disguise its shipments of Iranian crude.

There is speculation that Peter Voser has asked Khalid al Falih, head of Saudi Arabia state oil company Saudi Aramco, to supply oil to replace lost Iranian barrels. Mr Voser is quoted as saying: “We have a great partnership with Saudi Aramco worldwide.”

What he does not mention is that the Saudi regime is another brutal dictatorship, which just a few years ago blackmailed the UK into abandoning a criminal investigation into corruption surrounding the Saudi Royal family. Shell was a key player in the AL-Yamamah oil for arms scandal.

Royal Dutch sees EU Iran sanctions pushing up oil prices

Royal Dutch Shell will implement the terms of a European Union embargo on Iranian crude but will need some time to study details of the sanctions which are likely to push oil prices higher.

Mr Peter Voser CEO of Royal Dutch said that “We are a European company and therefore we are affected by the sanctions and we will obviously oblige and implement the sanctions. I need to study all the details in order to see how it goes forward in the next few months.”

Mr Voser said that “From a pure commercial prospective, the losers are consumers because at the end of the day it gives us more volatility and upwards pressure on the oil price.”

Industry sources said that Shell is one of the biggest consumers of Iranian crude oil taking around 100,000 barrels per day into Europe and about the same quantity into Asia under a deal with Japanese company Showa Shell that expires in March.

Mr Voser said that he had ‘spent quite a bit of time with Mr Khalid al Falih head of state oil company Saudi Aramco at the meeting of political and business leaders in Switzerland but declined to say if he had asked Saudi Arabia to supply more oil to replace lost Iranian barrels. We have a great partnership with Saudi Aramco worldwide.

(Sourced from Reuters)

SOURCE ARTICLE

(Reuters) – The United Steelworkers union warned on Saturday that a strike by U.S. refinery workers as early as 12 a.m. Wednesday was becoming more likely due to “the lack of a more substantive response from the industry.”

Union and oil company negotiators have been meeting since January 17 to hammer out a new three-year agreement for workers at nearly two-thirds of U.S. refining capacity.

Union negotiators have not sent out a similar warning to refinery workers in the past three rounds of contract talks with the industry.

Shell Oil Co, which is the lead oil company negotiator, said on Saturday it would work toward an agreement.

“We continue to negotiate with the goal of reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement with USW,” said Shell spokeswoman Kayla Macke.

Previously, Shell had said it was optimistic a deal could be reached.

In the statement issued Saturday night, the USW’s bargaining committee said that without further progress in the talks a strike could take place at “one or more locations when the collective bargaining agreements expire.”

Talks between the two sides were scheduled to continue through the weekend.

USW spokeswoman Lynne Hancock said the union would make no further statements on Saturday.

In the lead-up to this year’s talks, the Steelworkers union warned that the lack of improved safety protections for workers at the nation’s refineries could bring about the first nationwide strike since 1980.

Eighteen workers have died at U.S. refineries since the last agreement in 2009, according to the union.

As much as 11 percent of U.S. refining capacity could temporarily shut due to a strike lasting three months, sources have said.

In addition to possible shutdowns, oil companies have been training temporary replacement workers to continue to operate their refineries in the event of work stoppage.

One source said refiners’ preparations for a possible strike are unlike any seen in 20 years.

Industry analysts have said they thought the chances of a strike were slim.

During the 1980 strike, refiners kept their plants in operation by using trained supervisors and engineers to replace hourly workers who operate and maintain equipment.

Shell Oil Co is the U.S. unit of energy giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L).

(Editing by Chistopher Wilson)

SOURCE ARTICLE

In a front page lead story in the Financial Times, our site was properly credited with breaking news of the restructuring plans of Peter Voser.

FROM OUR ARCHIVE: EXTRACT FROM A RELATED EMAIL MESSAGE SENT BY JOHN DONOVAN TO OVER 400 SENIOR SHELL EXECUTIVES

Congratulations!

I am writing to offer our best wishes on your appointment/new title, as announced on our website royaldutchshellplc.com within the lists of Shell senior executive appointments we published on 22 June and 3 August.

The unauthorised publication of leaked Shell confidential information on our site has become a news event in its own right, regularly reported by The Wall Street Journal and other news organisations.

In a front page lead story in the Financial Times, our site was credited with breaking news of the restructuring plans of Peter Voser.

Our role was acknowledged in many other news stories including, for example, the London Evening Standard which reported:

“Meanwhile, staff flocked to Royaldutchshell.com to attack the group’s management.”

Reuters also acknowledged “The Royaldutchshellplc.com website was the first to reveal news of the planned restructuring.”

Our insider sources know that we will protect anonymity.  If you ever feel the need to supply information, please contact me and I will advise on setting up secure communications.

SHELL BLOG

Comments posted by Shell employees on our “Shell Blog” have been quoted in many news articles.

If you want to keep in touch with uncensored grassroots opinion of Shell stakeholders, I would strongly recommend regular visits to the facility, as the comments are often insightful and reflect all shades of opinion. Why not post your own views? You can do so anonymously. What do you think about Shell executives being forced to reapply for their jobs? What do you make of the callous comment by Peter Voser that asking staff to reapply had been “an interesting exercise“?

You are also welcome to supply Shell related articles for unedited publication under your own name. We have published numerous articles on this basis from eminent Shell retirees, Shell executive Paddy Briggs, Shell International HSE Group Auditor, Bill Campbell, and Royal Dutch Shell Global Chief Petroleum Engineer, Iain Percival.

The Shell Blog has replaced “Tell Shell”, the official Shell Internet forum for open and lively debate, “temporarily suspended” (permanently) after we exposed the secret censorship of postings considered too open and too lively.

Shell General Counsel Richard Wiseman (now RDS Plc Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer) confirmed to us in an email dated 11 November 2005 Shell’s censorship of Tell Shell postings.

In the same email, Mr Wiseman stated:

The extraordinary tolerance shown to your internet activities ought to demonstrate better than anything else the fact that we are uninterested in, and unmoved by, your current activities

Richard Wiseman subsequently, at his own initiative, sent us an updated photograph of himself to display on our website (left).

In a further development revealing the truth, as opposed to the spin, we found out from documents obtained under the Data Protection Act that Shell set up a team in an attempt to counter our activities. The relevant internal email exposes the hostility towards us and the fact that it is is held in check by fear of reprisal on our part. If you find this difficult to believe, read the email.

So much for being uninterested and unmoved!

Update: Richard Wiseman retired from Shell in March 2011.

Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:51pm GMT

* Total, Shell big buyers of Iranian oil

* Firms could declare force majeure in July-lawyer

* Switzerland might stall on EU sanctions

By Emma Farge

© Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved

SOURCE ARTICLE

Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:47am EST

* JV to focus on “transformational” plays in Atlantic

* Comes as big oil groups boost exploration spend

By Tom Bergin

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is teaming up with independent explorer Tullow Oil to explore for oil in the Atlantic, in a sign the biggest oil companies accept dramatic measures are needed to turn around their weak record on finding oil.

Tullow said on Wednesday the planned partnership would focus on making “transformational” discoveries in “underexplored frontier basins”.

In the past decade and a half, independent explorers have led the way in opening up new multibillion barrel oil provinces in Africa and South America.

The collapse of oil prices to $10 barrel in the 1990s killed the appetite of industry leaders like Shell and Exxon Mobil for exploration in frontier areas. Instead they focused on less risky, but less lucrative investments, such as developing large, known finds.

The oil giants are now increasing their exploration budgets but analysts doubt they can quickly turn around their reliance on acquisitions of oil fields or smaller producers to replace the oil and gas they pump each year.

Shell’s plan to tie up with Tullow could provide a shortcut to its effort to boost discoveries, by tapping into Tullow’s expertise and a culture that encourages exploration risk-taking.

The venture builds on Shell’s entry into Tullow’s exploration licence in French Guiana in 2009, where the partners announced a significant discovery last year.

Tullow has grown from an industry minnow in the 1990s into Europe’s largest independent oil explorer, with a market value of over $20 billion, on the back of major discoveries in Uganda and Ghana.

SOURCE ARTICLE

WASHINGTON, Jan 17, 2012 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has paid $25 million to the U.S. government to resolve claims that the company underpaid royalties on federal offshore oil and gas leases, the U.S. Interior Department said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, Jan 17, 2012 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has paid $25 million to the U.S. government to resolve claims that the company underpaid royalties on federal offshore oil and gas leases, the U.S. Interior Department said on Tuesday.

The settlement applies to royalty-in-value and royalty-in-kind production from Shell deepwater leases in the Gulf of Mexico between 2000 and 2008.

Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue said audits of Shell’s leases had uncovered “various valuation issues”.

“This settlement further demonstrates that ONRR’s audit program is working diligently to collect every dollar due from energy companies operating on federal leases,” said Greg Gould, acting deputy assistant secretary for natural resources revenue.

(Reporting By Ayesha Rascoe)

Follow us on Twitter: @ReutersLegal

SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED ARTICLES

From our archives: Viewpoint: Sex, drugs and natural gas royalties: 27 September 2011

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From our archives: SHELL SETTLES ROYALTIES CASE FOR $33.5 MILLION: 26 September 2011

Shell in their sights …. Royal Dutch Shell online critics John and Alfred Donovan outside the Shell Centre in London October 2009. Photograph: Graham Turner for Guardian newspaper article

By John Donovan

An article published in the Financial Times on 12 January 2012 reported that the Blackstone Group has been using a brand protection firm MarkMonitor to quietly register “hostile web domain names in an attempt to head off online criticism…”

The domain names registered predictably include blackstonesucks.com.

MarkMonitor declined to comment or deny that Blackstone is a client, but claimed that “defensive registration” is very common with major brands.

According to MarkMonitor: “Every business needs to protect their brand online. Powerful brands are valuable assets that are particularly vulnerable in the digital world.”

The concern is over what a related article has described as “brand-bashers“.

The website hereisthecity said in another related article: “Firms that are at the center of any form of controversy or, face possible public ire, often protect themselves in this way.”

A Reuters article on the same subject contains a quote from Blackstone spokesman, Peter Rose who claims: “This is a routine defensive move to protect ourselves. Any company that is in the public eye will take similar measures.“

Unfortunately for Royal Dutch Shell, when it tried in 2005 to register the top level domain name for the merged company – Royal Dutch Shell Plc as a defensive measure – it found that its most prominent long-term online critics had beaten them to the .com registration.

In June 2006, Shell appointed a digital agency with experience in turning around corporate reputations. The headline is self-explanatory: “Shell seeks agency for online makeover“. The brief issued by Shell web communications division in The Hague, included online branding.

Despite Shell’s best efforts, Royaldutchshellplc.com has become the effective “gripe” site in the world and has genuinely cost Shell billions of dollars. Sounds like a wild claim, but it is a provable fact.

Shell unsuccessfully attempted to seize the domain name.

Our subsequent activities have been so damaging to Shell that it set up a global operation spying on our website and its own employees. This was an unsuccessful effort to stop Shell insider information from being leaked to us.

There have been numerous media articles relating to our website. A search for “royaldutchshellplc.com” on ft.com reveals a list of articles, the majority based on information about Shell leaked to us and passed to the FT.

Some articles on this subject

Blackstone turns hostile on website names

Top Firm Takes Action Against ‘Suckers’

Some related articles about our online activities…

Prospect Magazine: “Rise of the Gripe Site“

The Guardian: “92-year-old’s website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked“

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

PDF VERSION OF GUARDIAN ARTICLE

The Sunday Times: “Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell”