News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
(Reuters) – Australia Arrow Energy Ltd (AOE.AX) has opened its books to Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and PetroChina (0857.HK) for them to conduct due diligence for their joint takeover offer worth at least A$3.3 billion ($3.03 billion) sources said on Wednesday.
One of the sources said Arrow is expected to make a response on the offer within days. ($1=1.088 Australian Dollar)
(Reporting by Fayen Wong; Editing by Michael Perry)
A stream of analyst comments and silence on the offer from the Australian coal-seam gas group has fuelled expectations that Arrow will reject the bid and the two parties will have to come in with a higher – and hostile – offer. Last week, Shell and PetroChina offered A$4.45 in cash for each Arrow share, plus a share in a new, international Arrow entity.
Click to continue reading “Shell may have to raise bid for Arrow Energy”
March 16, 2010
David Wighton: Business Editor’s commentary
He arrived with a bang and within weeks had axed 5,000 jobs. But eight months after taking over the helm at Royal Dutch Shell, is Peter Voser making progress turning around the supertanker?
Long derided as the most sluggish of the top oil companies, Shell will today try to persuade investors at its annual strategy briefing that it is back on course. There certainly are some encouraging signs. For six years, oil production has been drifting lower at an average of 3.5 per cent a year. But with a series of big projects due to give the figures a boost this year, production is expected to stabilise at about 3.2 million barrels a day in 2010. In 2011 it could start growing for the first time in almost a decade.
Mr Voser can claim only limited credit for this trend, which reflects years of investment. But his own changes are starting to have an impact, in particular a sweeping reordering of the company that has reduced costs and improved focus.
For years, Shell was plagued by delays and budget overruns on big projects. So far, his creation of a separate division, Projects and Technology, responsible for masterminding large-scale operations, seems to be working well. Compared with peers such as Exxon and BP, Shell has been slow to make such changes, but that means the potential for improvements is greater.
Mr Voser has promised at least another $1 billion in cost cuts this year and will provide further details today.
He is still grappling with huge challenges — not least Shell’s sprawling refining and marketing operation, which is struggling in the face of the industry’s most severe downturn in 20 years. The group’s poor record at finding new supplies of oil and gas also remains a profound problem which Voser must address.
Still, his decision to sell some of Shell’s onshore Nigerian assets and bid for Arrow Energy, an Australian producer of coal-seam gas, show that he is willing to give the portfolio a good shaking. It will be years before Mr Voser’s performance can be judged properly — but so far so good.
March 9 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina may need to increase their bid for Arrow Energy Ltd. by as much as 18 percent to A$3.9 billion ($3.5 billion) based on similar transactions in Australia, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said.
Click to continue reading “Shell May Need to Increase Arrow Bid, Bernstein Says”
By Gavin Evans
March 8 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc has offered about A$3.3 billion ($3 billion) for Arrow Energy Ltd. to take control of the company’s gas assets in Australia’s Queensland state, the Australian Financial Review reported, without saying where it got the information.
Shell is offering about A$4.50 a share for its Brisbane- based partner in a coal seam gas project in Queensland, the newspaper said. Arrow wouldn’t comment on the offer, which may have been made Friday, the Review said. Arrow Energy shares closed at A$3.48 on March 5, valuing it at A$2.6 billion.
Shell, which has a 30 percent stake in Arrow’s Queensland project and a 10 percent interest in its international unit, was concerned by Arrow’s plans to sell down its coal-seam gas assets to fund development of the Fisherman’s Landing liquefied natural gas project near Gladstone, the Review said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gavin Evans at gavinevans@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 7, 2010 14:54 EST
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Arrow Energy Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s coal-seam gas partner in Australia, won government approval to build a pipeline to the proposed Fisherman’s Landing liquefied natural gas plant in the state of Queensland.
Click to continue reading “Arrow Wins Approval for A$550 Million Queensland Gas Pipeline”
It is one thing to own the right to mine the gas, but it is a different issue to actually get it to the market and, as far as Arrow’s gas, it would seem Shell is in the ideal position to dictate terms, given it is the logical party to commercialise the project.
Click to continue reading “Shell’s 30 per cent stake in restless Arrow Enegy”
Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) — Arrow Energy Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Australian coal-seam gas partner, will start drilling in Indonesia and may expand in Europe and Southern Africa as it pursues a 10-fold jump in production by 2015.
Click to continue reading “Shell Partner Arrow Targets 10-Fold Gain in Gas Output by 2015″
AUGUST 18, 2009, 9:43 P.M. ET
MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)–Arrow Energy Ltd. (AOE.AU) said Wednesday that the company has completed the sale of a 12% stake in the Tipton West Joint Venture to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), subject to approvals.
Shell paid Brisbane-based Arrow A$49.5 million, half of the purchase price of A$99 million, to obtain a further 12% of the joint venture, with the balance payable after third party and regulatory approval, the company said in a statement.
Shell also will reimburse Arrow for 30% of any future contingent payments, or up to A$21 million, that the company makes to Beach Petroleum Ltd. (BPT.AU) under the terms of the Arrow/Beach Tipton West sale agreement, Arrow said.
After the completion of the transaction, ownership of the joint venture is 70% Arrow and 30% Shell, the company said.
-By Andrew Harrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-3-9292-2095; andrew.harrison@dowjones.com
Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) — Arrow Energy Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Australian partner in coal-seam gas production, rose in Sydney after the Sunday Telegraph reported that Shell made a A$3 billion ($2.5 billion) offer for the company.
Click to continue reading “Arrow Energy Shares Rise After Report of Shell Bid”
: Dear IMBer, or IBMer, or whatever - if you can explain to me the difference between the two quoted press release examples of geophysical applications in reasoned scientific terms, I shall be more than happy to admit to being a amateur geophysicist (not geologist). Perhaps it is you who is confused. Geophysics and Geology are not the same - close bed fellows, yes - but not the same. If so, then it is you who should get out your needles, wool and get on with "one plain, two purl" rather than embarking on such a commentary.
: Shellwaarbenjijnu has no clue what he/she is talking about. Probably some amateur geologist who wants to be important on the blog. Try to stick to your knitting!
: Paying over 7 mln $ to get rid of this monster of a woman shows how deeply Shell has sunk. She was a stealer of ideas. She was the ultimate token woman, a disgrace to her gender and it has put off many high quality women to pursue a career in Shell. Her disgusting behaviour of being the slave of Watts was evident to all. This latest scandal makes it clear she should never have been promoted to were she ended up. Another costly mistake of Shell. And the top echelon? They know no shame anymore and carry on with more spin stories as usual.
: Perhaps Voser will pull the same trick on Brinded as Watts did on v.d.Vijver. Watts announced that reserves would grow by 5% and that Walter would explain how.... The rest is history. I can only hope that history will repeat itself and Brinded finally gets fired for his gross underperformance and sustained bullshit. Perhaps I have said so before: never trust a man with facial hair.... I shall be watching the announcements how they will increase production with great interest.
: THE ARTICLE "Donovan email to Gavin White, Shell International Limited: 10 March 2010" has been updated with a self-explanatory email reply received on 11 March from Richard Wiseman, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
: The Forbes article implies that by stopping sales of gasoline to Iran, Shell is complying with US sanctions. Shell's investments in the upstream sector in Iran are not mentioned, even though these are of far greater significance for both Shell and the Iranians.
: Amnesty International has been an informed and courageous critic of Human Rights abuses around the world for many decades and they are certainly not adverse to criticising governments in Nigeria, Burma, Zimbabwe and all around the world. The point about international companies like Shell is that they have a choice. They are not obliged to operate anywhere if they find that the local conditions are in conflict with their principles. Amnesty’s recent criticisms of Shell have certainly been strong and I am aware that in Shell there is a feeling that they have been unfair and to some extent uninformed. So a dialogue between Amnesty and Shell is very much to be welcomed. Amnesty is a highly respected organisation – indeed a former top executive of Shell, Sir Geoffrey Chandler, was a senior officer of Amnesty in his post Shell years.
: Same old, same old. Amnesty International and their human rights again go for the soft underbelly of the international companies rather than the real problem in Nigeia which is their corrupt Government. Good on Shell for attending and agrreing to being questioned. BUT, surprise, surprise nobody from the Nigerian Government (perhaps they didn't get enough of a bribe to appear or perhaps Amnesty knew they would get nowhere with them). Pollution in the Niger Delta remains a problem, albeit that conditions are slowly improving. Living conditions, infrastructure and most other normal day-to-day things should be the responsibility of the corrupt Government not international oil companies. These evil governments such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Burma need to be bought down by the UN so that their people might have a better chance of a reasonable life.
: Very polite correspondence between Wiseman and the Donovans. I estimate Wiseman's hourly internal tariff at around 500 U$ per hour (his salary plus support plus extensive overheads). Over the years Shell must have spent a fortune discussing the Donovans, putting the most expensive lawyers on the case, and developing policy how to battle them. It becomes Churchillian: 'we will fight them on the web, and in the courtrooms, and in their own offices and on the streets. But we wil NEVER surrender. With unlimited funds this maybe so, but it is wasting shareholders money and it solves nothing. I do not see the Donovans give up anytime soon. So perhaps a new paradigm needs to be developed? Any ordinary man or woman at the coalface would solve this problem within minutes and for less money than what is being burned now. But the Shell kings are no ordinary people, they live in cloud cuckoo land. I will keep following with great interest how all this develops, it is even better than the daily Dilbert!!!
: W.E. Pratt knew it already a hundred years ago when he said "Oil is found in the minds of men" But he was one of the founders of the Standard Oil company, whereas the people who try to make us believe that IBM can come to the rescue of Shell appear to be only good at getting rid of their most experienced minds.
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