Article by a former employee of Shell Oil Co.

John,

I was reading some of your references to ‘strong men’ at the helm of Shell and the negative impacts they have had on the company.

In the States, the 1980’s were the decade of ‘Bookout’. This was when I worked for Shell.

At Shell USA John Bookout (right)was at the helm of the company from 1978 to 1986. He took the company down the road into heavy oil and the Belridge acquisition and moved away from a heavy emphasis on exploring for new reserves. read more

By Andrew Johnson: Friday July 30, 2010

ROYAL Dutch Shell yesterday expressed confidence in its safety standards in the wake of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill as it unveiled a near doubling in profits to $4.5billion (£2.9billion) for the second quarter to June.

Shell took a $56million hit from the deep water drilling ban imposed by the US government after the spill, which is expected to cost three million barrels of oil this year in production. Voser did not rule out trying to reclaim the money from BP. read more

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Western People

EDITORIAL: Latest Corrib delay exposes monumental folly of Bellanaboy plan

It is almost ten years since plans were unveiled for a gas processing facility at Bellanaboy in North Mayo.  When permission was initially sought from Mayo Co Council for the gas terminal, the promoters of the Corrib project  confidently predicted that gas would flow by late 2003.  Last week’s revelations confirm that Corrib is now a decade behind its initial schedule and millions of euro over budget. read more

Potentially adding its name to the line of claimants, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) idled seven rigs and took a $56 million charge related to the drilling ban on Thursday. Saying the ban would reduce its production by almost 3 million barrels this year, the company did not rule out reclaiming the cash from BP. Shell, one of the biggest oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico, said it had idled rigs rather than move them elsewhere because the ban's six-month duration meant it was not profitable to redeploy them to other areas.

Shell is among companies that have said they’re still considering whether to continue their investments, he said. New sanctions adopted this month by the European Union probably will accelerate Shell’s decision, he said.

Telegraph.co.uk

Royal Dutch Shell has defended the safety record of deepwater drilling, as cost-cutting helped it to make $4.4bn of profits in the last quarter.

By Rowena Mason
Published: 6:30AM BST 30 Jul 2010

The oil giant slashed its spending by $3.5bn over the last 18 months by shedding 7,000 staff and making operational savings. It saw a 15pc increase in profits – on a cost of supply basis stripping out inventory changes – and 49pc rise in pre-tax profits to $8.7bn.

Peter Voser, the chief executive, insisted that safety budgets and asset integrity had been ring-fenced from the cuts. US politicians have blamed cost-cutting for contributing to the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil leak – an allegation that BP denies. read more

NEW ORLEANS — BP gas station owners across the country are divided over whether the oil giant stained by its handling of the Gulf spill should rebrand U.S. outlets as Amoco or another name as part of its effort to repair the company's badly damaged reputation.

The PR Report

“What’s the story?” is the title for the Australian Journalists 2010 annual conference. It’s a good theme; the core of excellent journalism is to ask the question “what’s the story?”

Which leads nicely to this question: what’s the story with the Australian Journalists union accepting sponsorship from Exxon Mobil?

See the details on the Walkley/MEAA website here:
http://www.walkleyconference.com.au/supporters

Why is Exxon Mobil the GOLD Sponsor of the Australian Journalism conference? Given the recent public relations disasters by oil giant BP, and allegations of oil companies funding specific academics and conferences, (link to Clive Hamilton’s blog on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s commentary website, The Drum), is this the image the Australian Journalist’s peak body is after? read more

For obvious reasons, “SHELLTOX”, is not a brand name Shell would adopt these days. The “flykiller” was launched in the USA in the late 20’s. Aptly named, it contained a mixture of toxic chemicals deadly to flies and humans. An indiscriminate killer.

Shell Chemical also had to take its “No-Pest-Strip” off the market… the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was finding hundreds of other cases of poisoning by DDVP–the cancer-causing stuff in Shell’s strip that kills pests . . . and some people. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

JULY 29, 2010

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s (RDSB) new Perdido field in the Gulf of Mexico was shut down in April by the U.S. drilling moratorium less than a month after starting up and won’t resume production until October, said the company’s Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry Thursday.

The six-month ban on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the BP PLC (BP) blowout and oil spill prevented essential development drilling on the field, said Henry. When work resumes in October, the field will ramp up to its peak production of 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day more slowly than previously expected, he said. read more

Second-quarter profits at oil giant Royal Dutch Shell have almost doubled after the firm completed a year-long corporate restructuring programme.

The firm reported profits of $4.5bn (£2.9bn) on a current cost of supplies basis, up from $2.3bn a year ago.

But it marked a drop from the $4.9bn it made in the first three months of the year as it continued to see “mixed signals” in the world economy.

Earlier this week, rival BP reported a record $17bn loss.

That included a provision of $32bn to cover the costs of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In contrast to BP, who suspended dividends for the rest of the year, Shell said it would pay a second quarter dividend of $0.42 per share. read more

A number of people in Europe and the USA have reported a problem loading up this website.

They say that the right hand columns do not appear.

That problem has hopefully now been resolved.

By Fred Pals – Jul 29, 2010 7:14 AM GMT+0100

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, posted a 15 percent increase in second- quarter profit on higher oil prices and production.

Net income rose to $4.39 billion from $3.82 billion a year earlier, The Hague-based Shell said today in a statement. Excluding one-time items and inventory changes, earnings beat analyst estimates.

Peter Voser, in his second year as chief executive officer, has merged units, pledged as much as $8 billion of asset sales in 2010 to 2011. The U.S. ban on deepwater drilling following BP Plc’s oil spill will hold back development of Shell reserves in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. read more

Forum for Stable Currencies Advocating Economic Democracy through Freedom from National Debt

Convenor: Lord Sudeley FSA; Host: Lord Ahmed; Chairman: Austin Mitchell MP

Sponsors: James Gibb Stuart, Ossian Publishers; Barbara A. Panvel, New Era Coalition

Organiser: Sabine K McNeill, Director, 3D Metrics; Facilitator: Brad Meyer, Collaboration Ltd

NEWS RELEASE
28th July 2010

Homeless UK man with nuclear induced illness seeks legal redress

Despite receiving a judgement in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in his favour (2008), former successful Reading businessman, Raymond Fox did not receive compensation for the loss of his health and home, on top of having been made an “indefinite bankrupt” since 2001 for an alleged debt of £7,000.  He has now been made homeless and like many others who have been declared bankrupt/lost their properties, he intends to seek that UK law be upheld to deal with his multifaceted problems. read more

THE NEW YORK TIMES

A version of this article appeared in print on July 28, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.

By JUSTIN GILLIS and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20 oil rig explosion are largely gone, though sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil continue here and there. read more

By Kari Lundgren – Jul 28, 2010

BP Plc’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will keep the planet’s biggest pot of untapped oil and gas under the Arctic ice for now as regulators toughen drilling rules and demand better ways to handle spills.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc has had plans to explore off Alaska halted by both U.S. authorities and a federal court ruling last week. Norway’s Statoil ASA faces government restrictions on drilling in Arctic waters, while BP, responsible for the Gulf spill that prompted scrutiny of offshore drilling, has put off developing its Liberty prospect in the Beaumont Sea until 2011. read more