By Kevin Crowley and Kelly Gilblom
Monday 25 June 2018, 00:00 BST

Big Oil’s fortunes are becoming tied more closely to natural gas than ever before.

Majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc have boosted their proportion of gas output in recent years, helping them trim Exxon Mobil Corp.’s lead as the world’s most valuable oil company. Meanwhile Chevron Corp. added two giant Australian liquefied natural gas projects and Exxon is punching back with two major projects of its own, in Papua New Guinea and Mozambique. read more

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil each own a 50% share in NAM, the company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions in damages to effected residences.

“The minister cannot sign a deal with Shell and Exxon, which involves billions of euros…

Shell and Exxon lack trump card in negotiations with Wiebes

BY BERT VAN DIJK AND GIJS DEN BRINKER

Negotiations between Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs & Climate and oil companies Shell and ExxonMobil about gas extraction in Groningen are almost complete. Within two weeks, the minister will present a coalition agreement on the billions issue. Which cards are on the table?

1. Security of supply

Minister Wiebes announced at the end of March that he wants to bring gas production in Groningen to zero as quickly as possible. That would mean that the gas extraction by those lower volumes would soon no longer be profitable for Shell and ExxonMobil. Even though there is hardly any money to be gained from gas extraction, several sources report the FD. read more

Claire Poole , CONTRIBUTOR: June 6, 2018

Royal Dutch Shell took the top spot among oil and gas companies on the Forbes Global 2000’s list of the biggest and most powerful public companies, surpassing last year’s leader Exxon Mobil Corp. The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas giant ranked 11th among all companies on the list, up from 20th the previous year, mostly because of higher sales due to lofty commodity prices. Irving, Texas-based Exxon came in at 13th, the same as last year. The Forbes Global 2000 is determined by a composite score of equally weighted measures of revenue, profits, assets and market value. FULL ARTICLE read more

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil each own a 50% share in NAM, the company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions in damages to effected residences.

‘Big step forward’ in dealing with Groningen earthquake damage claims

Lone Mugstorm • Economy & Politics

The Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) has already dealt with more than half of the claims relating to natural gas extraction in Groningen. This is what Minister Wiebes of Economic Affairs reports in a letter to the House of Representatives on Friday.

These are the approximately 5,600 claims submitted before 31 March 2017. These will still be handled by NAM. Residents of Groningen who have suffered damage from gas extraction after that date can now go to a special government counter. read more

May 25, 2018 12:58 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

A confidential study that Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) has been accused of trying to shield from public view showed worsening “catastrophic” pollution around oil spill sites in Nigeria, WSJ reports.

At least one of the study’s authors has urged the findings to be widely distributed because they pointed to significant health risks to the local Bodo community in Nigeria but said that Shell had denied him permission to publish the study’s results in a scientific journal, according to the WSJ report. read more

A federal judge yesterday said he needed more information before deciding whether to dismiss lawsuits by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland alleging that Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B), BP and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) should pay to protect residents from the impacts of climate change.

The judge also wants the companies to produce additional material backing up claims that they should not be a part of the case because the court lacked jurisdiction over them. read more

By Jeremy Hodges, Lauren Leatherby and Kartikay Mehrotra
May 24, 2018

In the global fight against climate change, one tool is proving increasingly popular: litigation. From California to the Philippines, activists, governments and concerned citizens are suing the biggest polluters and national governments over the effects of climate change at a break-neck pace. “The courts are our last, best hope at this moment of irreversible harm to our planet and life on it,” said Julia Olson, an attorney for Our Children’s Trust, a legal challenge center in the U.S. that is involved in climate change litigation across 13 countries, including the U.S., Pakistan and Uganda. Cases by San Francisco and Oakland face a motion to dismiss the lawsuit today in a California federal court, where Chevron Corp., BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhilips and Royal Dutch Shell Plc will argue that remedies and penalties for climate change are a matter for lawmakers, not a single judge. read more

FILE PHOTO: The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) headquarters are seen in Abuja, Nigeria December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo

For decades, communities in the Niger Delta oil heartland have complained that spills and pollution have destroyed their land and killed off wildlife. Rights group Amnesty International accused international oil majors Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Eni SpA in March of negligence when addressing spills in Nigeria. read more

…other extra costs, such as repair and consolidation of houses, will soon be charged to the national debt to the extent that they are not paid by NAM. How high they are remains to be seen…

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil each own a 50% share in NAM, the company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions in damages to effected residences.

Extra ‘Groningen’ costs at the expense of national debt

From our correspondent • Economy & Politics

The Spring Memorandum has yet to be ratified in the Cabinet, but is in broad terms ready, as sources in The Hague confirm. Education will receive €60 million on balance this year. A setback of €200 million, partly due to higher student numbers, could only be covered for €140 million within its own budget.

At the instigation of VVD and CDA, the Ministry of Justice also receives such an amount, but that is only from 2019, as agreed. As in previous years, the extra expenses can be easily absorbed from the windfalls that occur in social security and healthcare. read more

Incidentally, the cancellation of Shell’s investment in the Groninger gas field to zero does not mean that there can not be any more burdens. The company expects to have to write off part of the gas reserves in Groningen at the end of this year as well.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil each own a 50% share in NAM, the company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions in damages to effected residences.

NAM and Shell write ‘Groningen’ to zero, ExxonMobil not yet

Bert van Dijk • Entrepreneurship

Oil companies Shell and ExxonMobil differ from each other about the value of the large gas field in Groningen. Shell and ExxonMobil are the shareholders of the Dutch Petroleum Company (NAM), which operates the Groninger gas field.

The British-Dutch Shell has written off its investment in the NAM’s Groningen gas field in the past quarter, whereas the American ExxonMobil has not adjusted the value of its investment in ‘Groningen’. This is evident from the first quarter results that both companies recently announced. read more

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. 

Shell is hoisting arch-rival ExxonMobil in the neck

Bert van Dijk • Entrepreneurship: 

A few more weeks and the champagne bottles can be uncorked at Shell headquarters. Then the British-Dutch oil and gas multinational for the first time in decades again greater in terms of market value than arch-rival ExxonMobil. At least, if the current price development at both companies continues at the current rate.

Where Exxon has had to deal with setbacks that have affected production, results and returns in recent years, investors are actually charmed by Shell’s growing cash flow, his lucrative oil and gas projects in the deep sea near the US and Brazil, the big financial discipline and cost savings. Important also: an announced share repurchase of $ 25 billion in the period up to the end of 2020. read more

By Bob Van Voris: 4 May 2018, 23:09 BST Updated on 5 May 2018, 02:09 BST

♦Case affects global economy, national security, companies say

♦New York argues oil companies denied climate change science

This lawsuit is based upon the fundamental principle that a corporation that makes a product causing severe harm when used exactly as intended should shoulder the costs of abating that harm. Defendants here produced, marketed, and sold massive quantities of fossil fuels—primarily oil and natural gas—despite knowing that the combustion and use of fossil fuels emit greenhouse gases (“GHG pollution” or “GHGs”), primarily carbon dioxide (“CO2”). Defendants have also known for decades that GHG pollution accumulates and remains in the atmosphere for up to hundreds of years, where it traps heat, a process commonly referred to as “climate change” or “global warming,” and that this process would cause grave harm.

Five of the world’s biggest oil companies asked a judge to throw out New York City’s lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for costs related to the environmental changes caused by their products. BP Plc, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., and Royal Dutch Shell Plc argued that the court lacks the authority to resolve broad policy questions with “profound implications for the global economy, international relations and America’s national security.” FULL ARTICLE read more

Rania El Gamal: APRIL 30, 2018

DUBAI (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is fully committed to its gas joint venture in Iraq, after the energy major exited its oil assets in the OPEC country, and plans to boost its gas output there to 1.4 billion cubic feet (bcf) a day by 2020, a senior executive said. Iraq’s gas development plans have long focused on Basra Gas Co (BGC), a $17 billion, 25-year project in which Iraq has 51 percent, Shell 44 percent and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) 5 percent. The project was designed to aggregate gas from fields in the south including West Qurna 1, operated by Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N); Zubair, operated by Italy’s Eni (ENI.MI); and Rumaila, developed by BP (BP.L). FULL ARTICLE read more

Thursday 26 April 2018

Shell has written off its entire $244m investment in gas production company NAM in a move seen as a further attempt to distance itself from the troubled company.

NAM is a 50-50 joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil and faces huge damages claims because of the earthquakes in Groningen province which have been caused by the extraction of natural gas.

The one-off charge was booked in first-quarter earnings published on Thursday, according to the Financieele Dagblad. read more

By Janene Pieters on April 26, 2018 – 12:20

In its bookkeeping, Shell is reducing the value of its interest in NAM to zero in response to the Dutch government deciding to completely stop gas extraction in Groningen in the coming years, RTL Nieuws reports.

Dutch petroleum company NAM is responsible for gas extraction in Groningen. NAM is owned half by Shell and half by ExxonMobil. Depreciating its shares in NAM is costing Shell 244 million dollars, according to RTL.  

The Dutch government concluded that safety in Groningen can only be guaranteed if the cause of the gas extraction earthquakes in the province is completely removed. The government therefore plans to reduce gas extraction in the province to 12 billion cubic meters by 2022 at the latest. From October 2022 gas extraction will be reduced to 7.5 billion cubic meters “and possibly considerably less”. And after that it will gradually be reduced to zero. read more

Reuters Staff: APRIL 26, 2018 / 4:02 PM

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it would write down its reserves in the Groningen gas field, one of Europe’s largest, following the Dutch government’s decision to phase out production by 2030.

The Anglo-Dutch company holds a 50 percent stake in the field, which has seen production reduced in recent years following a series of damaging earthquakes. 

Shell said it expects to write off an estimated 0.5 to 0.65 billion barrels of oil equivalent in 2018. read more