March, 2007:

Terry Macalister
Thursday March 29, 2007

Jeroen van der Veer has won a victory over his more lauded rival Lord Browne by being allowed to stay on as chief executive of Shell a year after the company’s retirement date. The Dutchman will retire on June 30, 2009, aged 61, whereas the BP boss will have to go this summer at 60, after losing his internal battle to stay.

“There has been great progress in our company in recent years. Jeroen’s decision today provides clarity, and I am most pleased that he will stay on longer, providing valuable continuity and leadership in Shell over the next years,” said Jorma Ollila, Shell’s chairman. read more

March 29, 2007
Steve Hawkes

Shell, the £125 billion oil giant, may break with a century-old tradition and recruit a new chief executive from outside either the Netherlands or Britain, industry experts said.

The prediction came yesterday after it fired the starting gun for a succession battle by announcing that Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive, would retire on June 30, 2009.

The Dutchman could have stepped down next summer after turning 60 this October. However, Shell’s board has persuaded him to sign a 12-month extension and continue the recovery plan that he put in place on taking over after the 2004 reserves scandal. read more

By CARMEN J. GENTILE
UPI Energy Correspondent

LAGOS, Nigeria, (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria defended its operations Wednesday amid a bevy of government allegations that the company illegally transported and dumped radioactive material in the Niger Delta.

In a statement sent to United Press International Wednesday, Shell officials denied the allegations of any misbehavior on the part of Shell Petroleum Development Co. of Nigeria Ltd., known locally as SPDC, put forth by the Nigerian government earlier this week. read more

Thursday March 29, 2007

PETALING JAYA: The increasing demand for energy and the challenge to produce better oil makes it essential to use Smart Fields oil recovery technology, said Shell Smart Fields programme manager Jaap van Ballegooijen.

Van Ballegooijen projected the world’s consumption at 120 million barrels per day by 2025, but added that remote and complex developments could mean heavier or poorer quality oil could be produced.

Speaking via webcast yesterday, he said there was also a need to develop oil in a more environmentally responsible way, but the positive side was Shell already knew “where most of the oil is” and was producing it. read more

RAVENNA, Italy, (Reuters) – Italy should ease its permit regime for energy projects and boost domestic oil and gas exploration to diversify energy supplies, a senior executive at Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Wednesday.

Italy depends heavily on energy imports to meet growing internal demand and needs to import gas to cover about 85 percent of its needs. But international energy company Shell said it has undeveloped oil and gas reserves.

“Italy needs to move forward, it needs a more flexible legal framework,” Tom Botts, Shell’s executive vice-president for European exploration and production said at an energy conference in Ravenna, northern Italy. read more

By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 12:17am BST 29/03/2007

Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, has announced that Jeroen van der Veer will remain as chief executive beyond the normal retirement date, a move welcomed by investors but which still sparked speculation about the company’s succession plans.

Mr van der Veer, 60 in October, had been due to retire on 30 June 2008, but will now leave 12 months later in order “to further progress our delivery and growth agenda,” he said yesterday. read more

By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
Published: 29 March 2007

The chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, has succeeded where his opposite number at BP, Lord Browne, failed by getting a one-year extension to his contract.

Shell announced yesterday that Mr Van der Veer would now stay on at the helm until July, 2009, when he will be three months short of his 62nd birthday.

Under Shell’s old rules, he would have had to retire in July next year after reaching 60 this coming October. But last year Shell said that it intended to amend its retirement rules to allow executive directors to continue beyond 60, partly because of changes in Dutch employment law. read more

Risk-Taking Shell CEO Stays in Race
With Unusual Strategies,
Big Investments in Staff,
Van der Veer Battles Rivals
By CHIP CUMMINS and GUY CHAZAN
March 29, 2007; Page B1

LONDON — When Jeroen van der Veer, a low-key chemicals executive and marathon ice skater, took the top job at Royal Dutch Shell PLC in 2004, industry watchers wondered how long it would be before the Dutchman took a tumble at the scandal-tarred energy titan.

Three years later, he’s not only still in the race, but he’s also starting to outpace BP PLC, his biggest European rival. Since taking over Shell amid a scandal over how it accounted for its energy reserves, Mr. van der Veer has ridden the oil-price boom to higher profit. At the same time, though, high costs and diminished access to fresh reserves have been squeezing Big Oil, so he has pushed a bunch of large-but-risky development projects.
 
In the long oil-patch rivalry between European giants Shell and BP, Mr. van der Veer’s company is back on top. Shell’s shares outperformed BP’s last year, as BP floundered from a series of operational blunders and scandals in the U.S., including a handful of safety probes stemming from a refinery blast and pipeline problems in Alaska. For the first time in years, Shell’s market capitalization is bigger than BP’s, at $215 billion to $209 billion. Among non-state-controlled oil companies, only Exxon Mobil Corp. is larger. read more

By Ed Crooks in London
Published: March 28 2007 14:10 | Last updated: March 28 2007 22:04

Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, will stay in office a year longer than had been planned and step down in June 2009, the company said.

Mr Van der Veer, who took over in 2004 as the company was reeling from a reserves misreporting scandal, had intended to leave in June next year, when he will be 60. But the company said he agreed with the board that a year later would be “an appropriate period for the succession”. read more

Published: March 29 2007

Lord Browne must be envious. When he announced that he would leave the helm of BP earlier than expected, the oil major’s market capitalisation jumped by almost £2bn. On Wednesday, when his counterpart at Royal Dutch Shell, Jeroen Van der Veer, said he would, in contrast, stay on a bit longer, shares in BP’s arch rival rose.

To be fair, the latter had more to do with an oil price spike. Mr Van der Veer turns 60 in October, so he would normally retire in June 2008. He will leave 12 months later instead, so the extension is pretty small. Still, it is a measure of how far Shell has come from the dark days of 2004 that investors can take any tinkering with governance in their stride. After all, Mr Van der Veer was tasked with rebuilding trust in Shell after a reserves scandal that lifted the lid on a decrepit corporate culture. read more

March 28, 2007
Steve Hawkes

Jeroen van der Veer took over a poisoned chalice in 2004 when he stepped into the breach at Royal Dutch Shell.

Since then he has done all that could have been expected of him.

He has restored the group’s reputation and positioned it for growth.

His problem is the legacy of the reserves scandal that led to his elevation in the first place.

Shell simply needs to find more oil and gas around the world, or risk falling behind its fierce rivals BP and Exxon.

Malcolm Brinded is the clear favourite to take over in 2009, but mainly because there is no apparent alternative. read more

March 28, 2007
© 2007 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Federal antitrust regulators have cleared the sale of a Los Angeles-area oil refinery and 250 retail sites in Southern California by a division of Royal Dutch Shell PLC to independent oil company Tesoro Corp.

According to a notice issued by the Federal Trade Commission, the government has completed its investigation of the sale and ended a waiting period on the transaction.

Tesoro and Shell Oil Products USA announced the sale, valued at $1.63 billion, Jan. 29. In addition to the refinery and stores, Tesoro will acquire an oil storage terminal. read more

By Robert A. Mosbacher Sr., Chairman
Mosbacher Energy Company
and Kiril Stefan Alexandrov, Executive Director
U.S.-Russian Investment Symposium

This Symposium is helping American leaders in government, business and education learn more about the Russian business environment and encouraging partnerships between American and Russian businesses. Your efforts not only are strengthening our countries’ relationship but also are injecting new vitality into the global economy.

(President George W. Bush in his letter to the seventh U.S.-Russian Investment Symposium, November 10, 2003) read more

(STEPPING ASIDE: 59-year-old van der Veer will retire in June 2009)

Robert Lea,
28 March 2007

Britain’s biggest company could get a female chief executive after the boss of Shell today announced plans to quit. 

The £125bn oil supermajor today sounded the starting gun for a succession battle to see who will take over from chief executive Jeroen van der Veer.

Just weeks after arch-rival BP settled its own damaging succession – Tony Hayward, 49, is replacing Lord Browne – Shell said today that 59-year-old van der Veer will retire in June 2009. read more

F

rom page P1
Financial Post [email protected]
Exxon Mobil Corp., one of the well’s partners, said it is redeploying the rig, the Eirik Raude, to the Gulf of Mexico to drill one of its own prospects.
The consortium, which also includes Imperial Oil Ltd. and Shell Canada Ltd., had planned to drill two more wells this year in the Orphan Basin, an uncharted area estimated to contain between six and eight billion barrels of oil.
But drilling of Great Barasway, which started last August, took twice as long as expected.
The well, drilled in nearly 2,400 metres of water and aiming for a total depth of about 7,200 metres, was supposed to be finished before Christmas.
Instead, it’s only now wrapping up, partly due to a flurry of mechanical problems at the rig, including a leak that required it to be moved to Marystown for repairs.
The delay boosted the cost of the well to US$200-million, industry sources said yesterday, from an earlier US$140-million estimate, which itself would have been a Canadian record.
The Eirik Raude, one of the world’s largest rigs specializing in deep-water drilling, costs about US$1.5-million a day.
“Our experience reinforces the high-risk, high-cost nature of exploration in that area,” said ExxonMobil spokesman Alan Jeffers. “It really does require high levels of technical and financial capability to explore for and produce in those harsh environments.”A spokesman for Chevron, the lead partner with a 50% stake, said the well is a “tight hole” and wouldn’t reveal whether it found oil. The company also wouldn’t reveal the well’s costs, saying the information is proprietary.
Drilling in the basin may resume in 2008 or 2009, but there are no firm plans at this point.
“We are optimistic and hopeful that we will get to do more exploration work in the Orphan Basin, but now we need to sort out some things in terms of [finding] a rig and when,” said Chevron spokesman Dave Pommer.
Last fall, a Shell Canada executive said a single well could not tell the whole story of the basin, but also that Great Barasway would either be encouraging or discouraging.
The prospect is 390 kilometres northeast of St. John’s and 250 kilometres north of the Hibernia oil project. It is so remote it can only be reached by long-range helicopters.
The delay means there won’t be any more exploration drilling in Newfoundland’s offshore this year.
ConocoPhillips, which was expected to explore in the Laurentian Basin, postponed its plans until next year because it was unable to line up a rig, of which there is a shortage worldwide. Husky Energy Inc. isn’t drilling an exploratory well in the Jeanne d’Arc basin this year, as had been speculated.
In addition, the sector recently lost the development of Hibernia South, which would have extended the life of the Hibernia field, and Hebron Ben Nevis, a new heavy-oil development. The projects are on hold following disagreements between some of the same oil companies and the provincial government.
“The mood is pretty negative,” said Paul Barnes, spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers in St. John’s. “It’s a year since Hebron failed to go ahead, and it’s a few months since Hibernia South didn’t get approved. And coupled with that we have a [proposed] energy plan, and a lot of people are concerned about what that may contain.”
The plan is expected to be released this spring and involve higher royalties and greater provincial control over the industry.
Mr. Barnes said exploration plans are being pushed back because of the availability of rigs, not the investment climate in Newfoundland.
read more

28 March 2007

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell in Nigeria on Tuesday confirmed the federal government had charged it with the alleged loss of some “radioactive tools” belonging to one of its contractors.

And it denied reports that it had been involved in any dumping of toxic waste in Nigeria.

The company said in a statement it was “aware that the federal government has filed some charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja against SPDC and some other corporate organizations.”

Shell is officially known as the Shell Petroleum Development Corp. (SPDC). read more