Shell to acquire UK’s largest electric vehicle charging network

By Reuters Staff: JANUARY 25, 2021

(Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it was acquiring the owner of the UK’s largest public electric vehicle charging network, ubitricity, for an undisclosed amount.

The deal for the company that has over 2,700 on-street charge points in the country is expected to be completed late this year.

Electric vehicle sales are set to continue to soar in 2021, industry analysts and car distributors have said, as more models are brought to the market and governments push for use of cleaner energy to achieve climate goals. read more

Big Oil hits brakes on search for new fossil fuels

By Ron Bousso: JANUARY 25, 2021

LONDON (Reuters) – Top oil and gas companies sharply slowed their search for new fossil fuel resources last year, data shows, as lower energy prices due to the coronavirus crisis triggered spending cuts.

Acquisitions of new onshore and offshore exploration licences for the top five Western energy giants dropped to the lowest in at least five years, data from Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy showed.

The number of exploration licensing rounds dropped last year due to the epidemic while companies including Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total also reduced spending, Rystad Energy analyst Palzor Shenga said. read more

LNG production at Shell’s Prelude gas processing plant in Western Australia restarts following 11-month closure

ABC Kimberley / By Ben Collins: 23 Jan 2021 “As for making money from this project, that’s extremely unlikely because the cost overruns and completion delays are in the horrendous category,”…

Key points:

• The facility was shutdown for 11 months after electrical and safety problems
• Some analysts hold concerns about the facility’s economic and environmental performance
• Shell has never revealed the cost of constructing Prelude

Liquified natural gas (LNG) production has restarted this month on the world’s largest floating object, Shell’s half-kilometre long Prelude gas processing facility.

The restart is much-needed good news after an 11-month shutdown following a technical issue only described as an “electrical trip” by Shell, and three incidents that the offshore energy regulator NOPSEMA described as “dangerous occurrences”. read more

Some extracts from current customer comments posted on Trustpilot: Highly not recommended. Complete and utter disgrace. Got my broadband delivered – not satisfied with quality but cannot cancel it now without “early termination fees”…: “This company is nothing but a money-grabbing bully”…: “Disgrace”…”This is very bad company….beware to join…as they make your life hell…”: “A VERY BAD COMPANY Shell energy are bullies, they do not return your call and have you waiting 45 minutes on the telephone line only to be cut off…”: So far absolute nightmare to deal with…”: My opinion? Avoid Shell Energy. They make promises they can’t keep…” read more

MYSTERY OVER SUDDEN DIVERSION OF LNG TANKERS BOUND FOR SHELL’S TROUBLED PRELUDE FLNG 

Extracts from Reuters article – Two LNG tankers bound for Australia’s Prelude facility divert..

It is not clear why the ships changed their destinations from Prelude…: Shell declined to comment on the matter.

EXTRACTS FROM RELATED SPECULATION BY RETIRED SENIOR SHELL EXPERTS

Your the wiz kid on tanker movements

….seems to me the only logical reason for such diversion of for example the Gaslog Glasgow was there was not a sufficiency of LNG to load on or around the 15 January (the first load was offtaken on 8 January) when to meet the 3.6m tonnes design output it would have been required to load around this time and I think you calculated that to meet the 3.6 mt/a  given an average LNG carrier capacity an offload would be expected every circa 7 –  10 days,… read more

UPDATE 1-Two LNG tankers bound for Australia’s Prelude facility divert-shiptracking data

By Reuters Staff: JANUARY 19, 2021

(Adds comment from Shell)

SINGAPORE, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Two liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers that had initially signalled they would load at Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility in Australia have diverted elsewhere, shiptracking data showed on Tuesday.

This comes just a week after Shell said that Prelude would resume loading cargoes after production had been suspended for nearly a year following an electrical trip. read more

Italy prosecutors ask for JPMorgan documents to be admitted in Eni, Shell Nigeria case

By Reuters: JANUARY 21, 2021

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian prosecutors asked a Milan Court on Wednesday for documents sourced from U.S. bank JPMorgan to be filed as part of a corruption trial over the acquisition of an oilfield in Nigeria by Eni and Shell. The long-running graft case revolves around the purchase of the Nigerian OPL 245 offshore oil field in 2011 for about $1.3 billion. Prosecutors allege that about $1.1 billion of that was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen. read more

Supreme Court questions Big Oil effort to duck liability

Pamela King, E&E News reporter published: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 The Supreme Court expressed concern today that attorneys for the oil and gas industry were hiding elephants in mouse holes in a wonky jurisdictional battle with high stakes for climate change litigation.

During oral arguments in BP PLC v. Baltimore, justices posited that industry lawyers might be leveraging a dispute over a narrow technical question to quash lawsuits by state and local governments contending that energy companies should be on the hook for flooding, wildfires and other disasters fueled by rising global temperatures.

“It seems as though we are smuggling into appellate review other issues that are not necessarily the issues that are front and center of the federal law concerned,” Justice Clarence Thomas said to a government attorney arguing alongside lawyers for BP, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and other companies in the lawsuit. read more

Conclusion: I Regard Shell As Uninvestable

Shell: What It Will Take To Be Investible Again

Retirement Pot: Long Only, Deep Value, Growth, Foreign Companies: JAN 19, 2021

Summary

• Shell’s dividend cut and unpredictability last year cost it a lot of shareholder confidence.
• I outline three metrics I think show whether it’s investable again.
• On all three metrics, I continue to see it as uninvestable with confidence.

U.K.-based oil major Shell (RDS.A, OTCPK:RYDAF) didn’t have a great time of it last year when it came to shareholder relations. With its mammoth dividend cut and poor signaling thereof before it was made, a lot of shareholders ditched the holding. I sold my entire stake and reinvested the proceeds in more Exxon Mobil (XOM).

Below, I outline what I think are the key challenges to Shell being investable at this point. read more

“Bonus Group” posting on Shell Blog: 20 JAN 2020

The long overdue structural reorganisation at Shell is rapidly approaching. No better place to start than within the Brazil Asset which has been propped-up for over ten years now by the same BG Group sycophants who have a proven track record of overbooking reserves on the basis of flawed functionall approved technical workflows. These individuals are still clinging desperately to their positions five years after the takeover of BG Group by Shell. Can it be that Shell cannot afford to move them on lest their poor work and lies be revealed? Get rid of them, truth and transparency are now required if not demanded in the Brasil Asset! read more

Two LNG Tankers Bound for Australia’s Prelude Facility Divert

Jessica Jaganathan January 19, 2021

Two liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers that had initially signaled they would load at Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility in Australia have diverted elsewhere, ship-tracking data showed on Tuesday.

This comes just a week after Shell said that Prelude would resume loading cargoes after production had been suspended for nearly a year following an electrical trip.

The facility loaded its first cargo since coming back online on Jan. 8 onto the LNG tanker Symphonic Breeze which delivered its shipment into Japan on Monday. read more

Shell to install Dutch solar park (30 MW) by November

HERMAN MOESTUE: Oslo: 19 Jan 2021 15:52 CET (Montel) Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell plans to begin construction of its 30 MW Sas van Gent-Zuid solar park in southern Netherlands in March, with completion due in November, it said on Tuesday.

The solar installation in the province of Zeerland would be erected on a former industrial site, which is “one of the sunniest places” in the country, the firm added. read more

Some extracts from current customer comments posted on Trustpilot: “Absolutely appalling customer service, totally inflexible, terrible communication. Beyond a doubt the worst energy supplier I have ever used.”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted over the past few days on Trustpilot. Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. This article posted on 19 JAN 2021. read more

FirstBank, Shell oppose Nigerian group’s bid to seize assets in oil spill dispute

By Tife Owolabi, Libby George: JANUARY 15, 2021

YENAGOA/LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s FirstBank and a unit of energy giant Shell said on Friday members of a community in southern Nigeria had no right to seize assets from a bank branch this week in a dispute over compensation for an oil spill more than five decades ago.

Members of the Ejama-Ebubu community and law enforcement officers entered a FirstBank branch in Port Harcourt on Tuesday to seize assets following a court award relating to the spill that took place in the 1967-70 civil war. read more

Justice Amy Coney Barrett to hear climate lawsuit against Shell – despite accusations of conflict of interest

Despite her father’s long career at Shell, Justice Barrett is due to hear arguments in a case brought against the oil giant by the city of Baltimore next week, writes senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle: 16 JAN 2021

Activists at the Shell Centre, the UK offices of Royal Dutch Shell, as demonstrators surround the building during an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group in London on April 15, 2019: AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is set to hear legal arguments in a climate lawsuit against Shell next week amid conflict-of-interest accusations due to her father’s 30-year legal career at the oil giant. read more

How Royal Dutch Shell is riding this huge trend

Jay Yao: Fri, 15 January 2021, 5:39 pm

It’s becoming more and more clear that low carbon is the future for the energy industry.

The green sector is a huge and growing one as the world will need low carbon energy to fight against global warming. The world will also need green energy to continue developing economically.

Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) management has taken notice of this huge trend and has adjusted its future plans. With the market having awarded many green energy companies with high valuations, I think there could be upside potential if the company executes correctly. read more