As many of the world’s major oil companies — including Exxon, Mobil and Shell — joined a multimillion-dollar industry effort to stave off new regulations to address climate change, they were quietly safeguarding billion-dollar infrastructure projects from rising sea levels, warming temperatures and increasing storm severity.

By AMY LIEBERMAN AND SUSANNE RUST: DEC. 31, 2015

A few weeks before seminal climate change talks in Kyoto back in 1997, Mobil Oil took out a bluntly worded advertisement in the New York Times and Washington Post.

“Let’s face it: The science of climate change is too uncertain to mandate a plan of action that could plunge economies into turmoil,” the ad said. “Scientists cannot predict with certainty if temperatures will increase, by how much and where changes will occur.”

One year earlier, though, engineers at Mobil Oil were concerned enough about climate change to design and build a collection of exploration and production facilities along the Nova Scotia coast that made structural allowances for rising temperatures and sea levels. read more

27 Dec 2015: Focus: Page 5: THE YEAR INFLATION DIED AND CHINA’S BUBBLE BURST

While oil prices teetered on the brink of a new fall, Royal Dutch Shell announced in April that it wanted to buy BG Group.

As the year wore on, some investors became restive.

At the time the deal was outlined, the financial logic of the takeover was underpinned by an assumption that oil prices would be about $67 a barrel.

They are now well below $40.

At that level, say some shareholders, the merger no longer makes economic sense. read more

Royal Dutch Shell/BG Group – $82 billion

In April, Royal Dutch Shell RYDAF -0.98% decided to take advantage of the drop in the values of fellow oil companies and buy BG Group.

It’s unclear how wise that decision was. read more

Gives High Court the two-fingered salute. Uses Christmas to sign off on Corrib gas despite pending judicial review of EPA licence.

31 Dec 2015

In an extraordinary, near clandestine decision in the middle of the Christmas holiday period, Alex White signed off on the final consent needed by Shell to operate the Corrib gas refinery at Ballinaboy.

This is despite the fact that proceedings are now before the High Court challenging the project’s pollution licence. On 14 December 2015, Judge Richard Humphries granted, in its entirety, an application for Judicial Review of Shell’s Corrib gas EPA licence to four Mayo residents. read more

A wall of steel protects the workers at the entrance to the Corrib gas terminal site, which opened on Wednesday in Bellanaboy Bridge, Ireland. Credit Paul McErlane/Bloomberg News

By STANLEY REED: DEC. 30, 2015

LONDON — Two decades after being discovered, natural gas began flowing on Wednesday from wells off Ireland’s northwest coast. Royal Dutch Shell, the oil company, said it had begun producing gas from undersea wells, part of an effort for Ireland to produce more of its own resources.

Opening the taps in the Corrib field, more than 50 miles offshore, is a breakthrough for the oil and gas industry in Ireland, which had mostly disappointing results in recent years while encountering resistance from environmental groups. read more

December 30, 2015 | By Collin Eaton

HOUSTON — Royal Dutch Shell has started extracting natural gas off the coast of Ireland after more than a decade of project delays and an estimated $3.1 billion in unexpected cost overruns.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major on Wednesday said it aims to pump enough gas from the Corrib gas field to quench as much as 60 percent of Ireland’s demand for gas. It’s the latest move by Shell to cement its place among the world’s biggest gas suppliers, coming eight months after the company agreed to a $53 billion deal to buy British liquefied natural gas firm BG Group. read more

Peter Murtagh: 30 Dec 2015

Natural gas is flowing into the national supply grid from the Corrib gas field off Co Mayo for the first time since it was discovered in 1996.

One of six wellheads, drilled in 350m of water 84km off the west coast, was opened on Wednesday by the field developer, Shell E&P Ireland.

This started gas flowing through a 20 inch diameter off-shore pipeline to an 8.3km-long on-shore pipeline, which includes a 4.9km tunnel beneath Sruwaddacon Bay, the longest in Ireland.

It continues from there into the company’s reception terminal at Ballanaboy, near Belmullet in Co Mayo. read more

By SARAH KENT: Dec. 30, 2015 2:59 p.m. ET

LONDON—After nearly two decades of development, one of Ireland’s largest-ever energy projects is now producing natural gas, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Wednesday.

…the Anglo-Dutch firm’s plans to build an onshore pipeline to transport the Corrib field’s gas to a terminal it would construct at Bellanaboy in County Mayo met with fierce local opposition. The concerns surrounding the safety of the pipeline and its effects on the environment, led to delays and increased costs… read more

New Release – Issued by Shell to Sea – December 30th 2015 – For immediate release

—  Minister White slips consent to Shell during Christmas period —

Shell to Sea have called the granting by Alex White of consent to operate the Corrib Gas pipeline – desperate and disgraceful. Permission was granted despite Shell’s EPA consent to operate the Corrib Gas refinery currently being admitted for hearing before the High Court. [1]

Shell to Sea is of the view that Shell possibly had contractual obligations which required that Corrib gas flow before end 2015 so they once again snapped their fingers at government to do the needful – in this instance the government of ‘law and order’ has shown itself no different to Fianna Fáil. read more

Trefis Team Contributor: DEC 30, 2015 

Oil & Gas companies across the globe are choosing to curtail capital expenditures even though it might mean the loss of growth in future production. Royal Dutch Shell Plc. is also adopting this strategy and recently announced that it is revising its capital spending estimates for 2016. This announcement is the latest in a spate of cost cutting decisions the company has taken in the wake of the extended period of low crude oil prices. We believe that this is the right way forward for Royal Dutch Shell in the near term, and these measures will be beneficial in maintaining the company’s cash profit margins till oil prices begin to recover in the long run. read more

If one were Shell and BG directors clutching at straws, seeking to force through a £47billion merger forged in the midst of a dramatic correction in oil prices, you might breathe a sigh of relief at a 2 per cent rebound in Brent crude to $37 a barrel in latest trading.

The very idea, however, that the proponents of one of the UK’s biggest ever mergers is relying on the hope and the prayer of a recovery in crude prices to about $60 to make any economic sense of the combination is illustration of the flimsiness of this deal.  read more

By Rupert Hargreaves – Tuesday, 29 December, 2015

If you’re looking to invest in the oil sector next year, Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) and BP (LSE: BP) should be on your hit list.

The two oil giants have many advantages over their smaller peers, such as strong balance sheets, integrated operations and some of the lowest production costs in the business. Indeed, it doesn’t make sense to buy into the smaller producers such as Tullow Oil, Premier or Enquest when shares in Shell and BP are both on offer.  read more

Protests came to a head in the summer of 2005 when five local men were jailed for breaching a court injunction not to interfere with the construction of the gas pipeline. The ‘Rossport Five’ were released after serving 94 days in prison.

Tuesday 29 December 2015 19.20

The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has given final approval to Shell to operate the Corrib gas pipeline and terminal in Co Mayo.

In a statement this evening, Alex White confirmed that he had given consent to the pipeline subject to 20 conditions relating to environmental management, operation, control and monitoring.

It is expected the first gas could be brought ashore as soon as tomorrow.

Shell applied for ministerial consent to operate the pipeline and the onshore terminal last August. read more

Tue, Dec 29, 2015

Minister for Energy Alex White has given final approval for the Corrib gas project, almost 20 years after the discovery of the gas field off the Mayo coastline.

Mr White has issued Shell E&P Ireland with consent to operate the Corrib natural gas pipeline, linking the subsea gas facilities 83km offshore to the onshore refinery at Ballinaboy.

The consent is subject to 20 conditions relating to “environmental management, operation, control and monitoring”, Mr White said in a statement. read more

Bruce Forsyth (above) as a rather camp cowboy: Video Link

By John Donovan

There was a time, from the early 1980’s into the 1990’s when our company Don Marketing, had a great relationship with Shell.

We devised a host of successful forecourt petrol sales promotions involving a distribution of several hundred million game cards. 

The games caught the imagination of the public and the news media. 

A 30-minute video compilation from over 30 years ago features some of our games for Shell, such as Shell Make Money, which boosted petrol sales by 30% not only in the UK but also in other countries.  read more

…the deal doesn’t make financial sense unless Brent crude is sustained at around $60 a barrel.

By Mark Robinson: 29 December 2015

Midway through December, Chinese anti-trust regulators granted unconditional clearance to the proposed £47bn merger between BG Group

(BG.) Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB). The decision effectively removed the final regulatory hurdle, although the deal is still subject to shareholder approval at meetings that are expected to be convened on 27 and 28 January 2016, respectively.

With anti-trust strictures no longer an issue, you would imagine that final approval would amount to a formality, but some industry analysts have questioned whether the terms of the offer still represent fair value in light of reduced assumptions on energy prices through 2016. Spot prices for Brent crude are down by a third since the proposal was announced back in April, so it’s perhaps understandable that there are gathering reservations about the deal. read more