Shell Is the Greenest Big Oil Company. Look What That Got It.

Shekhar Patil: 31 Oct 2021

Royal Dutch Shell PLC shows much that is wrong with environmental, social and governance investing. The Anglo-Dutch company was the first to target reduced carbon emissions from customers, has gone further than any of the other oil supermajors to shift its direction away from fossil fuels and is closest of any of them to meeting the Paris carbon target. It even has a better ESG score than electric-car leader Tesla or hydrogen wonder stock Plug Power. read more

The Telegraph

Pressure to go green will trigger more corporate splits

There is a logic to breaking up traditional business into green and legacy units

MATTHEW LYNN 31 October 2021 • 12:00pm

The demand by the activist hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb that the oil giant Shell split itself into its fossil fuel and green energy units this week certainly came with plenty of grandiose promises. Loeb, and his Third Point fund, want to save the planet, and make themselves a bundle of money at the same time. Smart. read more

By John Donovan

Last Sunday I was described in the Channel 4 TV documentary Joe Lycett vs The Oil Giant as Shell’s No1 Enemy and as Shell’s nightmare. (Transcript of the relevant segment)

Within days I seem to have lost both titles to a billionaire upstart, Daniel Loeb, who seems intent on breaking up Shell.

From my unique perspective on Shell senior management over recent decades, he is right to question competence and direction.

How has Shell ended up with a foe (me) operating a website using the top-level domain name royaldutchshellplc.com and as a consequence dealing on Shell’s behalf with job applications and all manner of other email correspondence meant for Shell? This is the humiliating situation Shell has been in since 2005. Evidently, no one at Shell has had the gumption to do anything to put an end to such a farce. read more

FROM A MAJOR ARTICLE ON TWO-THIRDS OF PAGE 8 OF THE SUNDAY TIMES BUSINESS SECTION OCT 31, 2021

How should Shell, Glencore and British American Tobacco deal with their “toxic” legacy businesses?

Robert Watts: Sunday October 31 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

Ben Van Beurden knew last weekend that he was facing one of the more trying weeks of his 38 years at Shell. But he still had no clue of the impending ambush being prepared by an American billionaire activist investor.

Shell’s chief executive knew the quarterly figures for the oil and gas giant he would unveil on Thursday would be bad. Profits between July and September came in at $4.1 billion (£3 billion) — well below the $5.4 billion expected and 25 per cent down on the previous quarter. read more

The Washington Post

Big Oil’s Friday Feeling Will Pass

By Liam Denning | Bloomberg: 30 Oct 2021

Extracts

The inverse of the world’s anxiety about winter energy shortages is higher prices, portending a good fourth quarter to follow. As an added bonus, it provides a schadenfreude-inflected counterargument on days like Thursday. Exxon CEO Darren Woods mentioned it in his opening remarks to the House Oversight Committee to emphasize the difficulty of moving away from fossil fuels.

As an added added bonus, one of those oil majors moving a bit more quickly than most, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, has attracted the attention of an activist, Third Point LLC’s Dan Loeb, calling for it to split its green operations (plus gas) from its old oil business. read more

The Observer: Shell and BP paid zero tax on North Sea gas and oil for three years

Jon Ungoed-Thomas: Sat 30 Oct 2021 20.15 BST

Shell and BP, which together produce more than 1.7bn tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, have not paid any corporation tax on oil and gas production in the North Sea for the last three years, company filings reveal.

The oil giants, which have an annual global footprint of greenhouse gases more than five times bigger than Britain’s, are benefiting from billions of pounds of tax breaks and reliefs for oil and gas production. read more

Forbes

One Foot On The Dock: Why Breaking Up Shell May Be Just The Beginning

Rob Day: Contributor Hedge Funds & Private Equity I invest in and write about private equity and sustainability.

Activist investor Dan Loeb made headlines this week with his move (through his Third Point LLP) to take a stake in Royal Dutch Shell and then argue that it should be broken up into two entities.

His proposal is to spin out what he calls the “legacy business” and an “energy transition business” (the latter to include LNG, renewables, and energy marketing). His argument is that the company is currently satisfying few stakeholders (shareholders, ESG advocates, etc) by trying to do everything under one roof. read more

REUTERS

Third Point set to play long game in pressuring Shell

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss: October 29, 20215:42 PM Oct 29 (Reuters) – When investors saw Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC unveil a stake in Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), some were quick to make the comparison to Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), whose board was challenged this year by another hedge fund, Engine No. 1.

Yet Third Point plans to follow a different tack, according to people familiar with its plans. It has not put forward any board nominees or threatened the chief executive’s job and there are no immediate plans to do so, the sources said.

Instead, the $19 billion fund outlined its suggestions to Shell in a letter to its own investors, making for a low-key introduction of its hopes for the $190 billion oil company.

Third Point’s founder, billionaire investor Daniel Loeb, wants the Anglo-Dutch company to separate its oil and gas business from its renewable-energy and liquefied-natural-gas operations. read more

Bloomberg

Shell Breakup Would Get It Out of ‘Strategic Jail,’ Analyst Says

By Simon Casey: 28 October 2021, 15:47 BST

Royal Dutch Shell Plc should use an activist investor’s push to break up the company as an opportunity rather than a threat, according to analyst Paul Sankey.

“We put it to Shell management: This is your chance to get out of strategic jail!” Sankey wrote in a note Thursday. “Blame the mean N.Y. Hedge Fund for forcing your hand, and use this opportunity for radical change.”

He added that Shell could be split four ways: LNG-to-power, refining and chemicals, a Shell-branded gas station business, and a conventional oil and gas producer… read more

The Washington Post

Break-up calls and congressional hearings: Big Oil faces growing pressure to change

Ahead of the COP26 Summit, oil executives made a historic appearance on Capitol Hill and Shell faced a hedge funds’s call to split up its business.

By Taylor Telford: 29 Oct 2021 5:18 p.m. EDT

On the eve of a pivotal global climate summit, the world’s oil giants have been swamped by calls from activists, investors and lawmakers to move faster to transform their businesses, cut down greenhouse gas emissions and take responsibility for their role in the climate crisis. read more

The Washington Post

Shell Oil president pressed on whether warming is ‘existential threat’

By Maxine Joselow 12:04 p.m.

Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell Oil, would not concede under questioning that climate change poses an “existential threat” to the nation and the world, even as the oil company rolled out a new pledge to cut planet-warming emissions early Thursday.

“I agree climate change is one of the biggest challenges in the world today, which is why at Shell, we’re in action,” Watkins said. read more

CNBC

Shell vs. Dan Loeb: It’s open season for the market on Big Oil’s future

PUBLISHED THU, OCT 28 20213:00 PM EDT UPDATED THU, OCT 28 202111:07 PM EDT Eric Rosenbaum@ERPROSE KEY POINTS

• Dan Loeb’s Third Point Management has begun another high-profile activist campaign this time against Big Oil, calling for the breakup of Royal Dutch Shell into a legacy oil and gas company and separate business for renewable energy, among other units.
• The Shell battle is at the heart of how an energy giant of the future shapes its business model during the energy transition and balances higher return fossil fuel projects with clean energy investment.
• Former BP CEO John Browne said at the CNBC ESG Impact summit on Thursday that oil companies are now speaking the right language about carbon reduction, but the plans have no real meaning yet.

The surprise win earlier this year by activist firm Engine No. 1 of board seats at Exxon Mobil was a watershed event in Big Oil’s ability to control the climate narrative as investors push for change. But the stake revealed this week in Royal Dutch Shell by Dan Loeb’s Third Point Management activist investor firm may say more about how energy giants balance business models in the future to hang on to higher return, cash-generating legacy fossil fuel projects while investing in renewable energy. read more

THE TIMES

‘Unwelcome’ Shell will not attend Cop26, says boss

Emily Gosden Friday October 29 2021, 12.01am, The Times The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell was told that it was “not welcome” at Cop26, its boss has said.

The Anglo-Dutch energy group, which is one of the world’s biggest polluters but has committed to cut its emissions to net zero by 2050, said it would not be represented at the UN climate conference in Glasgow.

“We were told that we were not welcome, so we will not be there,” Ben van Beurden, the company’s chief executive, said yesterday in comments that provoked debate about whether such companies should have a seat at the table in climate talks. read more

The Telegraph

Investors back Shell strategy after Wall Street raider’s swoop

Most shareholders unhappy with owning a fossil fuel company have already sold their holdings, says one institutional investor

Rachel Millard and Oliver Gill, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT29 October 2021 • 6:00am

Corporate raider Dan Loeb’s plot to break up Shell risks harming its efforts to tackle climate change, top investors have warned, in a sign he may face a struggle to win over the City.

The pugnacious Third Point founder, 59, has argued the FTSE 100 company should split its oil and renewable assets into separate businesses to both drive better returns and greater investment, and stop trying to be “all things to all people”. read more

Ben van Beurden… “It’s disappointing that long-term investors run away from a company leading in its field and trying to do the best for society, but we understand the symbolism.”

London Evening Standard

Shell fires back at investor attack branding Dan Loeb’s break-up calls “symbolism

By Simon Freeman: 28 Oct 2021

SHELL boss Ben Van Beurden today mounted a forthright defence against calls to split up his company, saying profits from its oil and gas operations will be vital in funding the transition to a low-carbon future. read more

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden…

I think it is really disappointing that long term investors run away from a company…

The Herald

Shell boss defends plan to develop Cambo find off Shetland

By Mark Williamson  @MarkWHerald Group Business Correspondent: 29 Oct 2021

ROYAL Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden has defended plans for the controversial Cambo oil field development off Shetland as he declared the UK North Sea is a global leader in terms of the energy transition.

Shell has faced huge criticism from campaigners after it emerged that the company planned to develop the massive Cambo field with Siccar Point Energy. read more