Sara Dramer: Associate Producer: Yahoo Finance: Jan 17, 2020

Climate change emerging as the urgent issue of the day. Last year was the second-hottest year on record and the 2010s being the warmest decade on record.

And for the first time, climate-related issues dominated the top-five likely risks over the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) new annual “Global Risks Report,” which ranks the most urgent risks currently facing the globe.

One oil industry watcher says big oil companies need to adopt better climate change policies or face repercussions from shareholders. read more

Natural gas output at Europe’s largest onshore gas field, the Netherlands’ Groningen, continued to fall sharply in December following the Dutch government’s tightening of the production quota, with volumes down 43% year on year.

The rapidly declining output at the field has eaten away at Dutch gas stocks, which have now fallen below Gas Year 2018 levels and are well below the European average.

A production cap has been put in place to prevent earthquakes linked to gas extraction at Groningen and the Dutch government plans to phase out gas extraction at the field completely by mid-2022. read more

By Ishaan Tharoor with Ruby Mellen

This week, U.S. scientists confirmed what anyone who has been paying attention would probably already know. The 2010s were the hottest decade ever recorded on the planet. 2019 was the second-hottest year ever measured, and the evidence was brutally on show: We saw swaths of Greenland’s ice cap melt into the sea, heat waves blaze through northern Europe, extreme storms and floods batter vulnerable islands and coasts, and epic wildfires scorch vast drought-ridden stretches of the globe. read more

Extracted from an article by Ryan Smith published by InsuranceBusinessMag.com: 17 Jan 2020

Activist groups have been pressuring financial institutions to cut ties with fossil fuel, and firms like AXA, Allianz, Swiss Re and SCOR have been among the first to respond. All four pledged not only to divest from fossil fuels, but to phase out the insurance and underwriting of coal and other fossil-fuel-related businesses, SIGWATCH said.

Energy companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil were among the most criticized brands, according to SIGWATCH. read more

Mark Robinson

When Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) launched its £35.6bn bid for BG Group, it was easy to appreciate the strategic rationale. At a stroke, the Anglo-Dutch energy giant not only bolstered its reserves, but also shored-up its position in a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market which had grown rapidly since the turn of the millennium.

Shell wasn’t alone in increasing its exposure to the sector, but investors may now be questioning whether long-term prospects in gas markets warrant the massive capital allocation. A supply glut, most noticeably in the US Permian basin, weighed on gas prices last year, and there are few signs of respite as new fields in Australia and Russia come online. read more

Shell must grapple with its own existential crisis: How should a company that generates most of its profits by serving the world’s enormous appetite for oil navigate a long-term future in which shifting political and economic tides threaten to make fossil fuels obsolete?

BY JUSTIN WORLAND

A peculiar theme park in the Hague celebrates the history of the Netherlands through a series of miniature models. The Madurodam features little canals, old-fashioned windmills, tiny tulips and, amid it all, an homage to Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant that is the biggest company in the country and, by revenue, the second largest publicly traded oil-and-gas company in the world. There’s a Shell drilling platform, a Shell gas station and a Shell natural-gas field, complete with a drilling rig. The display is at once odd–energy infrastructure in a children’s theme park–and entirely fitting: Shell has been, for decades, one of the most powerful players both in Dutch politics and on the global economic stage. read more

Even Forestry and Land Scotland officials warned this deal was greenwashing, and that is exactly what Shell is doing in adverts in petrol stations across the country.

Rob Edwards on January 16, 2020

Senior Scottish Government forestry officials feared that a £5 million tree-planting deal with the oil giant, Shell, could be viewed as “greenwashing”, according to internal emails seen by The Ferret.

One executive at Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) was worried that the government agency could “get worked over by Shell’s formidable PR machinery”. Another said that the deal was about Shell “reducing the harm that they do, not about them doing good.” read more

“Investors are gradually moving away from energy stocks. A look behind the dividend payments of the leading companies helps explain why. For the core business of these companies, there is more money going out than coming in.” 

By Jordan Blum: Thursday, January 16, 2020

The largest oil and gas companies for years have lived beyond their means and paid more money to investors than they can reasonably afford, according to a new report.

The study from the Cleveland-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that the five largest Big Oil majors — Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total — spent $536 billion on shareholder dividends and stock buybacks since 2010 while bringing in just $329 billion in free cash flow. read more

16 Jan 2020

Extinction Rebellion protesters have blocked the entrances to Shell’s Aberdeen headquarters.

Activists arrived at the Altens base at about 06:30 and plan to remain at the site all day “to hold Shell to account”.

The group says the protest is part of its two-week long campaign targeting the fossil fuel industry.

Shell said it was addressing its emissions and helping customers to reduce theirs.

The protesters plan to walk through Aberdeen city centre, starting at the railway station at 13:00 then going via Union St and the harbour.

The group also has its purple boat at the site. read more

Undated information published by Scottish Legal News 16 Jan 2020

An oil and gas company has been granted a court order to prohibit environmental campaigners from carrying out protests on four offshore installations in the North Sea.

Shell UK was granted an interdict to prevent Greenpeace activists from boarding or attempting to board the Brent Alpha, Brent Bravo, Brent Charlie and Brent Delta rigs 85 miles north-east of Shetland, after a judge in the Court of Session ruled that the defenders had “no right or title to occupy the installations”. read more

Extinction Rebellion: The more successful fossil fuel companies like Shell are, the worse our future is going to be.

Climate change activists have blocked the entrance to the headquarters of oil giant Shell in Aberdeen.

Extinction Rebellion Scotland members began their protest at the premises on Altens Farm Road at 6.30am on Thursday and said they plan to stay there all day.

The group say they have secured the entrances with lock-on equipment and the main entrance with XR Scotland’s big purple boat, named Amal Gous.

Harm

They said they plan to shut the building down to disrupt business and hold Shell to account for its role in the climate crisis. read more

The featured extracts below are from profusely apologetic replies from Shell Energy in response to stinging customer reviews about Shell Energy posted on Trustpilot. Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and the complete Shell Energy responses). Shell’s apologies try to address the reoccurring theme in the flood of negative reviews – the difficulty in communicating with the company.

Extracts from apologies put into writing by Shell Energy on Trustpilot 

16 Jan 2020

I’m extremely sorry that you’ve had difficulty getting through to us. Please be assured that we’re investing a lot into reducing wait times and making sure we have the support and measurements in place to ensure that wait times are reduced going forward also.

16 Jan 2020

I’m extremely sorry that you’ve had trouble getting in touch…

16 Jan 2020

I am very apologetic for the negative experience you have faced thus far with our services. I can assure you this is surely not the level of service we wish to provide to any of our customers. I would also like to apologies for the long delay in answering your call or essentially being available to take your query.  read more

Members of the Extinction Rebellion activist group have “blockaded” Shell’s regional headquarters in Aberdeen.

Protestors said they have secured the entrances with locking equipment, and have blockaded the main gate with Extinction Rebellion’s boat, named Amal Gous.

The organisation said it intends to carry out the climate protest at the Tullos base “all day, with the aim of shutting the building down to disrupt business as usual”.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said they have been made aware and are monitoring the situation.

Extinction Rebellion said its “Red Rebel Brigade” will also be in attendance, with a protest to take place in the city centre, starting at the train station at 1pm before moving on to Union Street and then Aberdeen Harbour. read more

Extracts from an article by Stephen Delahunty published 15 January 2020

Newly released files under the UK’s declassification rules reveal that John Major’s Conservative Government rejected Mandela’s personal appeal to impose oil sanctions on Nigeria as it wanted to protect Shell and the UK’s wider commercial interests.

In 1995, Nigeria’s military regime executed nine environmental activists who had led a non-violent protest against pollution by Anglo-Dutch company Shell and other energy firms in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The so-called ‘Ogoni 9’ were executed on 10 November 1995, following a military tribunal that was internationally condemned – particularly by South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela.

Newly released files under the UK’s declassification rules reveal that John Major’s Conservative Government rejected Mandela’s personal appeal to impose oil sanctions on Nigeria as it wanted to protect Shell and the UK’s wider commercial interests. read more

The featured extracts are from customer reviews about Shell Energy posted today, 15 Jan 2020 on Trustpilot. Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative. Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring theme in negative reviews; the difficulty in communicating with the company. For ease of reading, typos are corrected. 

Similar to a lot of other people on…

Appalling thieving firm If they don’t respond looks like we will have to take the matter further. Oh, my partner is 73 nice way to treat pensioners…

STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!!

I signed my contract for Fast Fibre Broadband before Christmas and was told that I should be connected by the 6th of January. Rooter etc. arrived in time before the connection date and I followed the instruction to install it. The 6th came and went and I had nothing.

An engineer rang me today to let me know that he could only connect my phone line as the broadband had been cancelled???? So I called cust services again and after 25 minutes spoke to an operator who, put me on hold for another 15 minutes and then another 15 minutes to then not listen to me, not reading my emails correctly (so she did not have all the information) to then blatantly lying to me. read more

English translation of an article published 14 Jan 2020 by ncr.nl the Dutch news media giant

Former CEO Shell in Nigeria may have benefited from the purchase of a mega-oil field

• Merijn Rengers
• Carola Houtekamer
• 14Jan 2020

The Italian prosecutor suspects that the former chief executive of Shell in Nigeria has benefited from the controversial purchase of the mega-oil field OPL 245 off the Nigerian coast. This is Sunmonu Mutiu, who led the Nigerian division of the Anglo-Dutch oil company. He was also a director of a software company that received 5 million dollars for unclear reasons a few years after the OPL deal. They would come from Nigerian former minister Dan Etete, owner of the oil field and the main suspect in the bribery case where more than 1 billion euros in bribes would have been paid. The possible self-enrichment by a senior Shell manager is in a request for legal assistance that Italian prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale recently sent to the US. He leads the Italian investigation into possible bribery by Shell and the Italian oil company Eni. Shell does not want to respond because it is still studying the ‘new documents’. (NRC) read more