Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Arrow Energy Ltd., Royal Dutch Shell Plcs coal-seam gas partner in Australia, won government approval to build a pipeline to the proposed Fishermans Landing liquefied natural gas plant in the state of Queensland.
February, 2010:
Arrow Wins Approval for A$550 Million Queensland Gas Pipeline
Shell Is a Buy Before March 16 Update, Credit Suisse Says
By Alexis Xydias
Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc shares are a trading buy before the company uptades investors on its strategy on March 16, analysts at Credit Suisse Group AG wrote in a report today.
We argue that the market remains keen to call the turn in Shell after seven years of production decline and operational struggles, and that the annual strategy update conducted by Chief Executive Officer Voser in his sophomore year in charge will, rightly or wrongly, be viewed as a catalyst in this turnaround process, the note said.
Shell confirms key parts of Corrib gas project postponed
The Irish Times – Thursday, February 18, 2010
LORNA SIGGINS Marine Correspondent
SHELL EP Ireland has confirmed that work on several key aspects of the Corrib gas project will not now take place this year.
The company told The Irish Times yesterday that the decision was taken for operational and community reasons.
It will undertake further work on the offshore pipeline this year, but intends to take an integrated approach to the offshore/onshore dimension next year, when it hopes that permitting processes will be further advanced.
Trouble on the Russian front as BP offshoot faces loss of big gasfield
TNK-BP and BP declined to comment yesterday on the decision from RosPrirodNadzor, which was reminiscent of the manouvering by Russian agencies that resulted in Shell losing control of its Sakhalin project in the Russian Far East in 2006.
Oil giant looking to cut cost of major North Sea contract
The Press and Journal
Shell to re-tender main offshore maintenance, modification and projects deal in near future
By Ian Forsyth
Thursday 18 February 2010
Shell UK is looking to cut the cost of a major contract, currently carried out by around 1,000 workers.
The company said yesterday it would re-tender its main offshore maintenance, modification and projects deal in the near future.
The contract, which started in 2002, covers all Shell-operated assets in the central North Sea plus the Brent field in the northern North Sea. The work is carried out at the moment by Sigma 3, whose members are Wood Group, AMEC and PSN.
Pay tide turns at Shell
Financial Times
By Robin Harding, Louise Lucas, and Paul Betts
Published: February 17 2010 00:12
Let them eat cake. Following last years shareholder revolt at Royal Dutch Shell, the oil major has recalibrated executive pay. Basic salaries will be frozen for 18 months, to January 2011.
Executives can put up to half their annual bonus into the plan, half of which in turn will be matched at varying levels by Shell if it ranks in the top three. If the oil group ranks first among its peers, executives will receive double those shares in short, half their annual bonus again. The underpinning concept, meantime, of ranking against a small peer group over time, everyone gets a look-in at the top remains flawed.
Ryan’s madness and folly in Corrib row
Last November, something interesting happened. It turned out that the headbangers of the Erris peninsula, the extremists who have been blocking the completion of Shells Corrib Gas project, were neither crazy nor extreme. An Bord Pleanála wrote to Shells planners, rejecting the proposed route for half of the gas pipeline, in terms that largely vindicated the protesters.
Shell gets extra 80m to complete Corrib plan
By Gordon Deegan
Wednesday February 17 2010
Shell Ireland has received a fresh 80m cash injection to finish works to allow gas to be taken from the Corrib gas field.
The boost to Shell E&P Ireland from its parent company is confirmed in documents lodged with the Companies’ Office.
The cash injection represents a 23pc increase in the company’s share capital to 424m.
A Shell spokesman yesterday confirmed the equity “is toward the operational expenses in relation to the ongoing development of the Corrib project”.
Shell overhauls executive pay in response to shareholder revolt
Daily Telegraph
Royal Dutch Shell has frozen the pay of its top executive directors and imposed new rules on bonuses, as it tries to appease investor anger over excessive remuneration.
By Rowena Mason, City Reporter (Energy)
Published: 9:11AM GMT 16 Feb 2010
Last year, Shell’s board suffered an embarrassing shareholder revolt over their pay packages, which awarded bonuses to executives who had failed to hit their targets.
Since then, the company has been consulting with major shareholders about more appropriate remuneration policies.
In a letter to investors , Hans Wijers, chairman of the remuneration committee, said the move would “better align remuneration policy with shareholder interests and long-term strategy”.
Shell freezes pay of top executives
Shell responds to last May’s shareholder revolt over pay
Salaries frozen until 2011, with pledge on bonuses and targets
Zoe Wood
Tuesday 16 February 2010 10.36 GMT
Shell has frozen salaries after a row with shareholders. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images
Royal Dutch Shell has today bowed to pressure from major investors by announcing a major overhaul of executive pay. It will freeze the salaries of top directors and set new limits on bonuses.
The oil group has been in talks with major shareholders since the embarrassing revolt at last May’s annual meeting when 60% voted against a pay deal that included discretionary bonuses for top directors who had failed to hit targets.
Shell tries to appease investors with caps on pay
The Times
February 17, 2010
Robin Pagnamenta and Robert Lindsay
Royal Dutch Shell said that it would freeze the salaries of its top directors and reform a generous bonus scheme as the oil giant moved to soothe shareholders anger over excessive boardroom pay before its annual meeting.
In a letter to investors, Hans Wijers, the new chairman of the Anglo-Dutch companys remuneration committee, said that the changes were being made after extensive talks with shareholders, 60 per cent of whom voted down the executive pay plans at a stormy annual meeting last year.
BP drops out of US emissions lobby body
Financial Times
By Sheila McNulty in Houston and Anna Fifield in Washington
Published: February 16 2010 20:48
BP, Europes biggest oil company, has pulled out of the leading business group lobbying for curbs on US greenhouse gas emissions, a sign of fragmentation in the campaign for climate and energy legislation.
Energy Company Mergers Are Expected to Rise
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By JAD MOUAWAD Published: February 16, 2010Energy companies are on the prowl again.
After a two-year slowdown in mergers and acquisitions in the industry, companies are once again looking for ways to use their checkbooks to expand their reserves, buy new technology or snap up promising oil and gas fields.
Unlike the round of mergers that created todays behemoths in the late 1990s, the current round is not expected to form new giant companies like Exxon Mobil or ConocoPhillips. This time, companies are focused on buying fast-growing small companies, or on acquisitions that expand their reserves in an era when it is hard for them to find new places to drill.
Shell data hackers hoped to kick-off ‘revolution’
ITPRO
A document released with the stolen database suggests Shell could face more breaches.
By Richard Thurston, 16 Feb 2010 at 15:13
A lengthy document sent by allegedly disillusioned Shell employees to leading environmental and human rights activists sought to launch a corporate revolution at the oil giant.
The document, which was given to IT PRO, was attached to a leaked database containing contact details of nearly every Shell employee. It was sent by 116 disillusioned full-time employees in the US, the UK and the Netherlands to Greenpeace and other campaign groups active in Nigeria.
The document contained information on how the contact database could be used change the way Shell operates, by influencing employees, the public, top institutional investors and non-governmental organisations.
Shell Moves to Cut Executive Pay
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 16, 2010
By JAMES HERRON
LONDONRoyal Dutch Shell PLC on Tuesday proposed changes to the way it pays its executive directors in an attempt to assuage concerns that led shareholders to reject its remuneration package last year.
The proposals constitute a significant step toward greater pay restraint at one of the world’s largest companies at a time when excessive awards to executives, particularly at banks, are a political hot potato.
The salaries of Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser and Finance Chief Simon Henry will be 20% lower than those paid to their predecessors and will be frozen from July 2009 until January next year, according to proposals outlined in a letter from the chairman of Shell’s remuneration committee, Hans Wijers.
Shell to curb pay, bonuses after investor revolt
REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) said it was overhauling its pay practices for top management, including a pay freeze for its chief executive, Peter Voser, and a limit on bonuses, after a shareholder revolt last year.
The head of Shell’s remuneration committee said salaries for Voser and Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry, which are 20 percent lower than their predecessors’, were being frozen until 2011.
Directors will not, this year, be allowed to award management bonuses if they fail to meet pre-agreed targets.