Motorists queue at Shell station to get petrol. Photo/CHRIS OJOW

By ZEDDY SAMBU
Posted Thursday, April 1 2010 at 00:00

Kenya Shell employees on Thursday started a two-day go slow, protesting against lack of formal communication on reports that the firm was leaving the Kenyan market.

The employees, who donned black and red outfits, prompted the firm’s executives to hold an emergency meeting to try and calm the nerves of the restless staff.

Players in the oil market reckon that OiLibya is the front runner to snap up the assets at an estimated price of $2 billion (about Sh152 billion) for Shell’s African operations. read more

Los Angeles Times: Shell refineries reach Clean Air Act settlements

By Associated Press

March 31, 2010 | 12:02 p.m

ST. ROSE, La. (AP) — Two Shell chemical companies have agreed to install $6 million in pollution reduction equipment at two petroleum refineries in Louisiana and Alabama and upgrade a terminal in Puerto Rico as part of a Clean Air Act settlement with the federal government. read more

REUTERS

HOUSTON, March 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) on Wednesday started up its new Perdido oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the world’s deepest offshore drilling and production facility.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) Perdido, 100,000 barrels of oil per day, 200 million cubic feet per day of gas, the first producing platform in the Lower Tertiary, a frontier area in the deepest waters of the Gulf and furthest from shore; Mars, 160,000 barrels of oil per day, 121 million cubic feet of gas. read more

AlaskaDispatch

Royal Dutch Shell, which has spent several billion dollars trying to advance its offshore oil program off Alaska’s northern coast, heralded a decision by President Obama to allow exploration and drilling to continue.

The decision takes Bristol Bay leases off the table and may not lead to additional Arctic leases. But the decision does allow development of existing leases, including Shell’s in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. read more

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSA.LN) has agreed to pay $3.5 million in penalties and spend an estimated $6 million to install pollution-reduction equipments at three U.S. refineries to reduce harmful air emissions.

The equipment is intended to cut output of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by more than 1,450 tons a year at the facilities in Louisiana, Alabama and Puerto Rico.

Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno said the settlement is an example of businesses’ effort to comply with government environmental regulations. “We will continue to work with industry to achieve compliance under the Clean Air Act to remove harmful pollution from the air we breathe,” she added. read more

By Brian Swint and Brett Foley

March 31 (Bloomberg) — Oil companies may struggle to unload their excess refining capacity in Europe this year as profits from turning crude into fuel stay depressed.

Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. are seeking to sell refineries in Europe after the recession reduced demand. Eni SpA Chief Executive Officer Paolo Scaroni said this month it’s “impossible” to find buyers after refining profit margins slumped to a 15-year low in December. read more

Peoples heads have been spinning so much from changes in the past 15 years they don’t even know what their job scope is anymore!

Series of Shell Blog postings by “Uncle Tom” on Mar 30th, 2010

Shell Management . . . . . .

In years past Shell looked at the long “cycles” in the business. Staying diversified meant when one part of the business wasn’t doing well, the other side of the business was. Being diversified kept the Company afloat.

Today’s Management Philosophy is a short term 1 to 2 year focus period, if results are not achieved in that short span of time, make changes quickly and expect better results. Change, change, change, change. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

MARCH 30, 2010

By AMOL SHARMA

MUMBAI—Indian conglomerate Essar Group will decide by June whether to move forward with the purchase of three European oil refineries from Royal Dutch Shell PLC as part of its global expansion plans, the company’s chief executive said.

The companies extended their exclusive talks in November without specifying a time frame. Essar Group CEO Prashant Ruia said the company is studying whether the deal makes sense now, given the low refining margins globally in the oil business. read more

Shell’s reputation was besmirched by the conduct of its New Zealand executives, whose court testimony Justice Wild rejected as unreliable.

OPINION: Shell’s standing as a good New Zealand corporate citizen is on the line.

It will be at least  three weeks before Todd Energy’s fascinating $274 million lawsuit against oil multinational Shell finishes at the High Court in Wellington.

Justice Robert Dobson, assisted by economist lay member Professor Martin Richardson, is then likely to reserve his decision on the exemplary damages claim, relating to efforts by Shell and Austrian partner OMV to limit production at the Pohokura gasfield. read more

28 March 2010 – Issue : 879

The Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc look set to be grilled again by environmental group Greenpeace.

The latest action by Greenpeace would focus on their exploitation of Canadian oil sands, according to local media reports.

Greenpeace reportedly plans to launch more short-term actions to disrupt production in the Canadian oil sands over frustration with government handling of the industry.

Last year, Greenpeace actions temporarily disrupted crude production at Suncor Energy Inc’s Alberta oil sands operation and production at two of Royal Dutch Shell’s facilities in the western Canadian province. read more

Shell is obsessed with our online activities, not only in relation to our website, but also my role as a Wikipedian originating and editing articles relating to Shell.

I have noticed a suspicious correlation between Shell’s internal fretting about how to edit my Wikipedia contributions without being caught and editing undertaken during the same time period by Shell partisan contributors hiding behind pseudonyms

Article by John Donovan

As prominent critics of Royal Dutch Shell, it is invaluable for us to know what the company is saying, thinking and plotting about us.

The inside information comes mainly from Shell itself, which is obliged under the UK Data Protection Act to supply us on request with Shell documents and communications in which our names are mentioned.

As a result, despite redaction of some information by Shell lawyers, we have a wealth of evidence, confirming that contrary to the impression it would like to project, Shell is obsessed with our online activities, not only in relation to our website, but also my role as a Wikipedian originating and editing articles relating to Shell. read more

A clear example of what could be done right now is to address the plight of woodland caribou in the oilsands area, which are headed for extinction within 40 years unless a good portion of their habitat is protected and restored

Edmonton Journal: March 29, 2010 2:13 AM

How encouraging to have a former industry CEO, Clive Mather of Shell, speak so clearly the reality of the oilsands development and the need to actually improve performance rather than just the need to improve the messaging.

There is certainly much to improve and being honest about that, and then taking action to show the world Alberta can and will change is the only way to climb out of the tarry pit Alberta is in.

A clear example of what could be done right now is to address the plight of woodland caribou in the oilsands area, which are headed for extinction within 40 years unless a good portion of their habitat is protected and restored. read more

By Anthony Dipaola

March 29 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc is still in talks on a final agreement to develop natural gas in Iraq, the Middle East vice president for new business said.

“Iraq will become a regional player in the gas sector and an exporter to the region and the world,” Mounir Bouaziz said at a conference in Abu Dhabi today. “Iraq is losing $50 a second by flaring gas.” The country, which flares more than 1 billion cubic feet a day, has the potential to export 20 billion cubic meters a year of gas, Bouaziz said. read more

By Gavin Evans

March 29 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc has agreed to sell its New Zealand downstream assets to Infratil Ltd. and the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation for NZ$696.5 million ($492 million.)

The purchase, which remains conditional on funding and regulatory approval, will be funded with NZ$420 million of equity and a NZ$600 million banking facility, Wellington-based Infratil said in a statement to the New Zealand stock exchange.

Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, is selling its New Zealand fuel retailing and refining interests as part of a global strategy to focus on oil and gas production in expanding markets. It agreed in November to negotiate exclusively with the Infratil-led venture on the sale of the group’s 229 filling stations, port terminals and a 17 percent stake in New Zealand Refining Co. read more

Posting by Wilt Staph on Mar 28th, 2010 at 7:10 pm

Britain’s refinery capacity is around 92 million tonnes which is in the same ballpark as domestic consumption. Arguably, then, Stanlow which can process around 12m tonnes (13% of the UK total) is not surplus to requirements. But rumours abound that if Essar does buy the plant they will seek to close the refining capacity and just use it as a storage and entrepot depot. Around 900 Shell employees will be made redundant and few will have a chance of a job with Essar if they do close the refinery. read more