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Royal Dutch Shell News 7 Jan 2019: Three different news items

Ben van Beurden Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

The boss of oil giant Shell has admitted he is “still unhappy” with the firm’s safety performance, despite pledging a redoubling of efforts in 2018.

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Chief executive, Ben van Beurden, raised a call to redouble the firm’s focus on safety last year after a number of serious incidents in 2017.

An overturned tanker spill and explosion in Pakistan caused the tragic death of 200 people, while there were also fatalities in Canada and Nigeria.

Mr van Beurden added he is also focusing on restoring trust in the oil firm.

He said: “I’m still unhappy with our safety performance.

“In 2018, sadly two people died on our watch – one at a refinery in Germany and another at an onshore well in the USA.

“More broadly, the safety performance at our facilities has improved, but our performance on personal safety is worse than the previous year.

“We have to step up our efforts to keep people safe.”

Mr van Beurden also said that he can see that trust has noticed an “eroding” or trust in the UK, the Netherlands and the USA.

Shell came under heavy criticism from climate groups in 2018, with high profile opposition coming from investor group Follow This.

The firm also faced widespread shareholder opposition over chief executive pay last year.

Mr van Beurden said: “I feel an attack on Shell as an attack on my personal integrity. It’s something I feel deeply, probably at least once a day. If I can reduce that to once every other day, I’ll know that we are making progress.

“Of our three strategic ambitions – to become a world-class investment case, to thrive through the transition to lower-carbon energy and to have a strong societal licence to operate – I’m confident that we can achieve the first two.

“But I can’t see a sure path towards strengthening our societal licence to operate just yet.

“We need to change people’s perceptions through better performance and behaviours. And we need to have a better dialogue with civil society in some parts of the world.”

SOURCE

The Gulf Coast has become home of one the largest producers of a common plastic: Shell fired up its fourth alpha olefins unit at its chemical plant in Geismar, Louisiana, the company said Monday.

The multi-billion dollar expansion adds 425,000 metric tons per a year in capacity to the chemical manufacturing site, bringing its total alpha olefin production up at Geismar to more than 1.3 million metric tons per a year. That makes it the largest alpha olefins producing site in the world, the company said.

Alpha olefins are key ingredients in consumer goods such as laundry detergents, motor oils and hand soaps. FULL ARTICLE

Fluidsdoc: Jan. 7, 2019 4:31 AM ET

Summary

  • Shell has taken a positive FID on a massive 14 mpta LNG project in Western Canada.
  • Several companies have abandoned this effort due to opposition and low gas prices.
  • We review the scenario ahead of Shell going forward.

Introduction

Shell (RDS.ARDS.B) has the strongest position in LNG of any Super Major oil company. On the whole, we think this is a perfect direction in which to take a legacy oil company like Shell. The energy mix that runs the world is changing, and strong companies must adapt to stay strong. We’ve have written about this in a number of articles. These are set to free status so you can go into more depth on Shell. For the most part, we think Shell is doing that.

Shell A Deepwater And LNG Powerhouse, Part 1

Shell A Deepwater And LNG Powerhouse, Part 2

The Kitimat FID has us scratching our heads a bit, however. Not the least of these reasons is its location in Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada. A region known not only for its natural beauty, but also for its general hostility to anything hydrocarbon. Already a few major projects have been canceled due to fierce opposition in the Provincial and National governments. Low gas Canadian gas prices due to burgeoning supply, also played a role in these cancellations.

Petronas in 2017 canceled their $36 bn project. They later bought a 25% stakein the Shell project we are discussing now.

CNOOC canceled their $20 bn project for the same reasons, weak gas prices and opposition.

Earlier this year Exxon Mobil, (XOM) canceled their multibillion-dollar Canada project after a multi-year environmental review that didn’t seem to be going anywhere. XOM has plenty of places to spend their LNGmoney, and doesn’t particularly care for the limelight that comes with environmental protests.

So when, in the face of all this negativity, Shell greenlights an LNG project in the same general vicinity… questions are bound to arise as to just what they’re smokin’ in the boardroom in the Hague.

Let’s be clear. We like Shell and continue to think it’s a great investment. We like LNG and companies that stand to profit from drilling, producing, and exporting this resource. We just have our doubts about Kitimat.

SOURCE

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

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