Posts under ‘Australia’

By John Donovan

Just over a month ago, in the context of informed speculation by retired Shell experts from snippets of information that have leaked out, I asked the question:

“Is all well with the Shell Prelude FLNG Project? 

A number of things have happened since publication, including todays announcement of Tom Summers exit from his VP role at Shell Energy Australia, linked to continuing delays in the Prelude project.

Add in the appointment of Rob Jager as VP Prelude, Shell Australia, and the secondment to Prelude of outside technicians from LNG production company Atlantic, it seems that the project may indeed be in a state of flux. read more

Speculation by retired Shell experts: Is all well with the Shell Prelude FLNG Project? 

There have been past dire warnings about potential safety issues relating to the Shell Prelude FLNG Project, including from a knowledgable insider source, who supplied information and photographic evidence to support various allegations.

The LNG tanker Gallina visited Prelude in Mid April, and again in June, with transfer of LNG for purpose of cooling tanks etc, nothing unusual there other than it seems to be taking an awful long time.

Also here is a Project falling over itself in the early days to tell the world how wonderful things were going, but now there appears no update news at all on how the commissioning is going? read more

Jun. 30, 2018 12:54 AM ET

Summary

• Renewal of assets with great focus on the future.
• Natural gas as energy source will continue to grow.
• Share buybacks and generous dividends.

Background

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has been actively focusing on what kind of business it wants to be involved in. Part of this activity is to change the composition of its assets. It has been selling plants and oil licenses, and invested where it wants to position the company.

Disposals have also been done to reduce the total debt level. Much of the debt came from the $35 billion acquisition of BG Group back in March of 2016.

Disposals

Early this year, Shell communicated that its plans were to leave oil and gas operations in as many as 10 countries and instead focus more heavily on gas-rich Australia and shale opportunities in the United States. read more

Vera Eckert

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German solar battery maker sonnen has secured 60 million euros ($71 million) in funds from Shell Ventures and existing shareholders to expand at home and abroad. Shell Ventures, a unit of the Anglo-Dutch oil major that has been boosting its investments in solar and other renewables, was a lead investor in the latest funding round, sonnen Chief executive Christoph Ostermann told Reuters. “With this money, we can get started on important investment plans, especially in the United States and Australia,” he said, adding that existing shareholders also contributed extra cash. FULL ARTICLE read more

Henning Gloystein: APRIL 24, 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Shell and Inpex are on the final stretch of a years-long race to export gas from offshore northern Australia, where both have spent billions of dollars building the world’s biggest maritime vessels to grab a slice of Asia’s booming LNG market. Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch Shell and Inpex, Japan’s biggest oil and gas producer, are vying for first gas from two overlapping fields after delays and cost overruns that have plagued both projects. The pair have spent billions on offshore facilities, including Shell’s 490 meter (1,600 ft) long Prelude floating liquefied natural gas unit and Inpex’s Ichthys Explorer semi-submersible platform, both the world’s largest of their class. FULL ARTICLE read more

UPDATE 5

Shell has informed other authorities about the suspected wrongdoing, including the U.S. Department of Justice and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office…

* Shell accuses ex-executive of ‘crime’ during oilfield sale

* Says new evidence unrelated to Italy court case

* Evidence of possible kickbacks to Seychelles company – source (Adds reaction from Robinson’s lawyer)

Ron Bousso, Libby George: MARCH 28, 2018

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has filed a criminal complaint against a former senior employee over suspected bribes in the $390 million sale of an oilfield in Nigeria, where the company is already under investigation over a separate deal.

Dutch prosecutors confirmed they had received the complaint against Peter Robinson, a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa. They said it would be included in an ongoing investigation into Shell and Italy’s Eni over the acquisition of a different Nigerian oilfield, known as OPL 245. read more

John Benny: 6 March 2018

(Reuters) – Chevron Corp said on Tuesday it expected supply shortage in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market by around 2025, echoing comments made last month by top LNG trader Royal Dutch Shell.

Demand for natural gas, which burns cleaner than coal and oil, has surged as countries such as China look to curb environmental pollution.

Chevron, owner of the giant Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Australia, said it expects global demand to be nearly 600 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) by 2035, while supply could be just about half of that. read more

Reuters: LNG market needs $200 billion investment to meet demand: Shell: 26 FEB 2018

CNBC: Shell warns of liquefied natural gas shortage as LNG demand blows past expectations: 26 FEB 2018

by Angela Macdonald-Smith: Feb 2 2018 at 12:03 PM: Updated Feb 2 2018 at 3:19 PM

Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has declared that the energy giant’s confidence in the LNG market has been justified with no sign of the oversupply that others had warned of. “The LNG glut is conspicuously absent isn’t it, much to the surprise of those that thought this was inevitable,” Mr van Beurden told reporters at Shell’s fourth-quarter results briefing in London. FULL ARTICLE read more

This year will be the year of the oil and gas revival, as prices lift performance and major projects come online. The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science has forecast LNG exports to reach $35 billion in value 2018. This will be driven by Chevron’s second Wheatstone LNG train coming online in the second quarter of the year, Inpex’s Ichthys project ramping up production, and Shell’s floating LNG ship Prelude coming into full operation. FULL ARTICLE

GARY SHIPWAY, NT News: December 28, 2017 3:47am

THE Italian oil and gas firm that operates the Blacktip gas project, which supplies gas for Territory domestic power generation, has taken another significant step forward in its growth plans off Northern Australia. ENI has bought out Shell’s stake in the large undeveloped Evans Shoal gas field 300km northwest of Darwin in the Timor Sea’s Bonaparte Basin. FULL ARTICLE

FULL ARTICLE

By Marc Bisbal Arias Published December 21, 2017 Dow Jones Newswires

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Evans Shoal field is located around 300 kilometers northwest of Darwin, where the Darwin liquefied natural gas plant is operating. The field is estimated to have at least 8 trillion cubic feet of raw gas in place, Eni said. The acquisition doubles Eni’s stake in the field to 65%.

The Italian company also said that it has become the operator of the retention lease NT/RL7 located in the north Bonaparte Basin, offshore Northern Australia. read more

Steve Hill, executive vice president of Shell Energy, discusses Shell’s growth in the liquefied natural gas industry aboard Dynagas’ Lena River LNG carrier as its docked at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG

By Jordan Blum: December 7, 2017

SABINE PASS, La. – In 2011, Cheniere Energy was a little-known company with big ambitions when it signed an $8 billion contract that would transform the United States into an exporter of liquefied natural gas after decades of relying on foreign suppliers. Five years later, just days before the Houston company shipped its first LNG cargo, another big deal gave a jolt to nascent U.S. industry. Royal Dutch Shell bought Cheniere’s customer, BG Gas for $50 billion, a move that made Shell the world’s largest international LNG producer and marketerand allied it with this nation’s biggest LNG exporter. Shell remains Cheniere’s best customer, buying almost half the production of Cheniere’s massive Sabine Pass LNG terminal. FULL ARTICLE read more

Chevron reported A$2.1 billion in income for 2016 and paid no tax, while Shell Energy Holdings Australia – a unit of Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) – reported A$4.2 billion in income and A$97 million in taxable income, but paid no tax. FULL ARTICLE

By Robb M. Stewart Published December 02, 2017: Dow Jones Newswires

MELBOURNE, Australia — Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) has moved finally to unleash a massive natural-gas resource buried in coal deposits in eastern Australia in a development that will see fuel flow to its majority owned liquefied natural gas venture on the country’s tropical coast.

The energy giant and various partners have agreed to a 27-year sales deal covering 5 trillion cubic feet of gas that will anchor the staged development of the Arrow fields in Queensland. FULL ARTICLE read more