News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
“We’re in remission right now,” said Marvin E. Odum, the vice president for exploration and production for Royal Dutch Shell in the Americas. But once the economy picks up, he said, “the energy challenge will come back with a vengeance.”
Click to continue reading “Big Oil Projects Put in Jeopardy by Fall in Prices”
The credit crisis could delay the launch of Russia’s giant Shtokman gas field, the head of the project’s operator said Monday.
Click to continue reading “Credit Crisis May Delay Shtokman Project”
The development of the Salym field in western Siberia, a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell, has been a huge success, taking Sibir’s production to 76,700 barrels of oil per day last month, a very respectable amount for an independent. It has proved and tested reserves, under Russian definition, of 491m barrels of oil. An often-rumoured deal with Shell has so far come to nothing. But the reserves remain a valuable asset and the best hope for shareholders is that some way can be found to realise that value.
Click to continue reading “Sibir’s bail-out of investor stuns market”
In the summer Gazprom said it saw Royal Dutch Shell as one of its potential partners in LNG projects in the gas-rich Arctic Yamal peninsula.
Click to continue reading “Gazprom: Exxon, Conoco could join Yamal LNG”
The BP Plc-led Tangguh venture in Indonesia, the OAO Gazprom-led Sakhalin-2 project in eastern Russia and a Total SA- led development in Yemen may start in 2009 instead of this year, said Frank Harris, global head of LNG at Wood Mackenzie.
Click to continue reading “LNG Price May Gain 80% as Plant Delays, Export Cuts Curb Supply”
: 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.
: Oh dear, regarding this collaboration between Shell & IBM - it does not appear to have started off very well if I read the press announcement. I refer to the following: "Shell can reduce the educated guesswork and extract natural resources with more certainty and efficiency, thereby optimizing the recovery of oil and gas". Shell used to employ geoscience & petroleum engineering expertise. Is reserve estimation and production forecasting now in the hands of "educated guess workers"? That ought to really worry shareholders. The fundamental lack of understanding of the business gets even better with comments on geophysics: "For example, geophysicists must examine time-lapse seismic data from subsurface rock formations; reservoir engineers receive well and laboratory data, and geophysicists receive information - sound waves - covering wide spaces between the wells". Errr - what's the difference between the two geophysical activities quoted? Is this some IBM person speaking who has just bought a book "E&P for beginners", or is it the level of understanding within Shell now much of the real technical experience and expertise has been cleared out?
: Agree completely with Guest1. IBM once bought (and subsequently sold at a huge loss) a company called Tigress, and had plans for integrated Corporate Data Bases based on POSC. Unfortunately Schlumberger and Landmark know that part of the business rather better than IBM ever will. If Shell can't find oil with the help of Schlumberger and Landmark, what hope do they have with IBM?
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