News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
A Regal spokesman said the Daily Telegraph report that the company had received a letter proposing a 300 pence per share bid was not true. “We have seen no such letter,” the spokesman said, citing comments he had just received from Chief Executive David Greer.
Click to continue reading “Regal says no bid approach from Shell”
The moves come as Shell, Europe’s largest energy group, was said by one person familiar with the company to have made an approach about a possible bid valuing Regal at $1.2bn (£680m).
Click to continue reading “Regal approach could be worth £680m”
Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, has proposed a $1.2bn (£600m) takeover of Regal Petroleum, the oil and gas explorer trying to recover from a controversial past under former chief executive Frank Timis.
Click to continue reading “Shell plots $1.2bn Regal takeover bid”
The surprise appointment of Mr Greer and two other directors at Regal resulted in the abandoning of a plan for Shell to take a majority stake in the Ukrainian assets for $410m (£210m).
Click to continue reading “Ukraine plan fuels Regal revival”
David Greer knows about bad publicity. As deputy chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin arm, running the Sakhalin-2 project off the far-east coast of Russia, he suffered the indignity of having an internal memo, which was designed to motivate his managers – “lead me, follow me, or get out of my way” – leaked to the Financial Times last year.
On Nov. 23, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s biggest oil company, ended a plan to buy Regal’s Ukrainian assets one day after Greer, a former Shell executive, was named as CEO.
Below is a compilation of information put together for certain third parties. It all relates to our involvement in the Sakhalin-2 project which led to Shell’s loss of its ownership stake and the resignation of David Greer. We have published for the first time the correspondence file relating to Oleg Mitvol, the so called “Kremlin Attack Dog”.
Click to continue reading “Our interventions in the Sakhalin-2 Project”
…now there’s a new CEO in David Greer (the Shell veteran who became notorious for the leaked ‘motivational’ memo in which he wrote: ‘Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way’)
Click to continue reading “Oil upstart Regal has had its ups and downs of late…”
By Ed Crooks
As if laying pipelines across Sakhalin Island, described by Chekhov as “hellâ€, were not enough, the engineers battling the elements there have to put up with their bosses motivational memos.
Much of the memo appears to have been drawn from a speech by General George S. Patton to US troops ahead of the D-Day invasion, when he said: “When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player; the fastest runner; the big league ball players; the toughest boxers. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win – all the time.”
The Patton link was noted in a posting to an FT.com forum by Mark Bisset.
Sakhalin 2 has had a troubled history, hit by rising costs and concerns about its environmental impact.
In a deal completed in April, Royal Dutch Shell and its Japanese partners were forced to allow Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas company, to buy a majority stake.
Mr Greer’s e-mail reveals the pressure the company is under to hit its schedule of delivering its first shipments of liquefied natural gas by the second half of next year and the unusual management techniques he is using.
“Pipeliners All! Many thanks to all of you for your contributions to this week’s Bi-Annual Challenge … and what a Challenge it is going to be for all of us!” the e-mail begins, cheerily enough.
“From the outset, I want to assure you that, despite the mutterings on the day and the challenges ahead, I have total faith in you and our collective ability to complete the task ahead of us.”
After the good news, though, the mood darkens. “However, some of the comments and body language witnessed at the Bi-annual Challenge meeting do suggest that PDP is running the risk of becoming a team that doesn’t want to fight and lacks confidence in its own ability. Surely, this is not the case? Pipeliners and Engineers love to fight and win, traditionally. All real engineers love the sting and clash of challenge.”
After more appeals to the pride of “real frontier professionals” comes the inspirational bit. “When everyone of you were kids, I am sure that you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league football players. Personally, I, like most others, love winning. I despise cowards and play to win all of the time. This is what I expect of each and everyone of you…”
“Strive to be proud and confident in yourselves, be proud of your tremendous pipeline achievements to date and lift up your level of personal and team energy to show everyone that you are a winning team capable to achieving this year’s goals. If you can crack this angle, I am very confident you can crack the job, with ease.”
“So Lead me, Follow me or Get out of my way; Success is how we bounce when we are on the bottom.”
The memo was leaked to the website www.royaldutchshellplc.com, which has long been a thorn in Shell’s side.
Shell confirmed the e-mail was genuine but was reluctant to discuss it further.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
: With all of this money spent on the CEP expansion, it has been built on an old electrical infrastructure. I guess no one is counting how many times you read about a "short" electrical outage at the plant. Tom Purves and the Motiva leadership know exactly why this is happening and how to fix it. They don't want to pay for it. They have been given the project and have turned it down at least twice. Meanwhile, we just keep having outages. Going ot be interesting when both refineries come down in the future.
: LondonLad: the lack of stories concerning Shell should be welcomed, if it implies that Shell are cleaning up their act, perhaps due in part to the efforts of the Donovans.
: US Observer, surely almost all (NOT all)contributors to this website have an axe to grind against Shell, particularly those who have a perception that they have been screwed by Shell in times gone by. As for Itchy Woman, she clearly has a femanistic / burn-the-bra approach to work in Shell. AND I would like to add that once again an old old article (from someone who has an axe to grind against Shell) has to be republished due to lack of news against Shell (I refer to Briggs 2009 article). COMMENT BY JOHN D. Would it not be fairer to say that everyone posting on this blog, including you, has an axe to grind. It is easy enough to look back over your contributions and reach a conclusion.
: It is easy to figure out who Witchy Woman is (LC). She has an "ax to grind" and is using this forum
: @uscitizen Voser is a competent and amicable chap. You claim Shell has delivered on its deliverables. Let me tell you everyone delivers on their deliverable.... But joking apart, look at the promises over the years and how well Shell has delivered on these promises. Their trackrecord is not very good over the last 15 years or so. They are a good money making machine. And sofar they have delivered on their constant or increasing dividend payments. Sometimes by increasing their debt but they have done it. A nice high oilprice has helped, don't you agree?? So my only observation was that his 'promise' to extend North Sea fields is quite opposite their activities in this area. And they have promised this before and done the opposite. It was a nice promise to build a new and expensive office in Aberdeen, more jobs for the UK and more activity and extending of production. Just check back what they have done. And predicting future productionlevels by Shell in general and Brinded in particular is nothing but a sick joke.
: To - an observer of Shell Shell has been delivering on its deliverables - why would you paint Voser as some one who is not??
: This was not a personal attack now was it Witchy one?? #133 Witchy woman on May 8th, 2011 at 1:42 pm Marvin Odum who probably has the worst safety record in Shell goes for a diversity vote and someone who has no safety experience to replace the VP of safety he just fired. Clear message where his priorities lie.
: Witchy Woman - you blase me for personal attacks???? That is so rich! I am defending people that are attacked if you had not noticed - and yes I do slam the folks who are throwing garbage out! Live with it!! Enjoy your retirement! Shell has a good retirement package in the US dont they??
: I feel the value of your posts is also minimal, just a complainer. PS - here is where you bash Denise - remember - or do we need to question your integrity the way folks question Shell leaders?? Witchy woman on Dec 7th, 2011 at 12:35 pm In GOM we thought that hurricane season was done. Why is Hurricane Denise causing so much damage then? Like all Hurricanes though they move on the professionals are left to pick up the pieces.
: According to the Independent article posted today the boss of Shell is telling us all not to get too emotional about fracking. Has he not seen the confirmation that fracking causes earthquakes? You have cited the Reuters article. There are others including coverage of a fracking earthquake in Blackpool England. I have to conclude that Voser is a fracking idiot.
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