Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and International Shipping: Extracts from above headlined article published in Oil & Companies News 13/07/2020

The global oil and gas industry has crashed. In mid-June, BP – formerly British Petroleum – slashed the value of its assets by US$17.5bn and revealed plans to cut its workforce by 15%. It forecast the price of oil would be a third lower than expected for decades to come and said it may be forced to leave new fossil fuel discoveries in the ground. read more

Shell sends top HR man to Prelude

09 JULY 2020

SHELL Australia’s top human resources man Adam Ralph has been aboard the Prelude floating LNG vessel some time in an attempt to quell ongoing dissatisfaction, and promising cultural change, Energy News has been told. 

Mechanical and safety issues have exacerbated what some have long called a ‘dysfunctional’ work environment and safety concerns saw production stop and half the staff depart in February.

FULL ARTICLE

If the unions are correct and Shell did intervene in negotiations, those actions would be considered unlawful. 

Shell has refuted the accusations. Shell upholds the highest standards of business ethics and complies with our legal obligations. In everything we do we act fairly, honestly and transparently,” a Shell spokesperson told Energy News this morning. 

Unions threaten strike at Australian offshore platforms

Paul Hunt: Senior Journalist: Oil & Gas, Policy.

Sources, speaking exclusively to Energy News, said the unions expected to receive a Protected Action Ballot Order from the Fair Work Commission imminently. read more

English translation of an article published today by the FD.

“I don’t want to survive this pandemic with a company that is no longer capable of anything”

Bert van Dijk

The corona crisis is forcing Shell to restructure the company. At the same time, CEO Ben van Beurden must chart the course for a low-carbon future. What choices does he make and why can’t things go a bit faster? “We cannot organize ourselves anti-economically. We don’t have that mandate.”

Ceo Ben van Beurden leads Shell from home during the corona crisis. ‘The good thing about this period is that you can help with homework.’ Photo: David van Dam for FD

In brief

• Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has to guide the oil and gas multinational through various storms.
• In a long conversation with the FD, he explains why he couldn’t help but decrease the dividend.
• He also outlines the dilemma of developing new revenue models, while the old revenue model cannot be immediately discarded.

Last week, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden reduced the value of Shell’s assets by nearly $ 20 billion last week. The massive write-off is necessary because the corona pandemic has hit the global demand for oil and gas heavily and uncertainty about the future has increased. read more

Published date: 03 July 2020

Australia bore the brunt of Shell’s $22bn impairment charge this week, with the write-down reflecting its expansion into unconventional gas and pioneering floating LNG (FLNG) technology with the 3.6mn t/yr Prelude venture.

Shell said it will write down the value of its Australian gas assets by between $8bn-9bn, with up to 40pc of its asset impairment from Australia.

Along with Prelude, the other Australian asset to see its value cut was Shell’s upstream coal bed-methane (CBM) gas fields that provide feedstock for the 8.5mn t/yr Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG), which it bought through the £47bn ($58.6bn) purchase of UK energy firm BG Group in 2015. read more

One of the most eye-catching impairments Royal Dutch Shell announced yesterday was of its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Australia.

The huge project is one of the largest causes of the $8 billion to $9 billion of writedowns Shell warned it would make in its “integrated gas” division, and highlights the changes that have rocked the energy market in the past decade.

When the Anglo-Dutch group approved Prelude in 2011, it claimed the “revolutionary” development would be “a game-changer for the energy industry”. read more

Shell slashes valuation of oil and gas assets amid coronavirus crisis

By Mark Williamson: 1st JULY 2020

The company said yesterday it expected to cut the valuation of its integrated gas business by $8 – $9 billion, “primarily in Australia”. It said this would include a partial impairment of the giant Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facility.

ROYAL Dutch Shell has said it plans to slash the valuation of its oil and gas assets by up to $22 billion (£17.9bn) to reflect the expected impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on demand and the wider economy. read more

POSTING ON OUR SHELL BLOG 25 JUNE 2020

About Dear Rob, he is hardly departing in a blaze of glory, his mission it seems is very much unaccomplished as he departs the scene.

Who will take over the poisoned chalice and get the show on the road?

In what seems a relatively short time Prelude has gone from being the expected Real Madrid of the engineering project world to a sort of Accrington Stanley, maybe being a bit unfair on the latter.

Guess the worst of times was the export of human excrement in paper bags from the installation when the lights went out and nothing on it worked …….. read more

By John Donovan

Successive Royal Dutch Shell CEO’s cannot say that they were not warned time and again in chilling terms about the Prelude “experiment”, the description used in a Forbes article published today.

The links below are to a series of articles, initially triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell, the retired distinguished Shell Global Safety Consultant and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects. read more

A series of recent events highlight the challenge Shell has ahead of it with Prelude, and plans for sister vessels which are supposed to follow.

Shell doesn’t expect Prelude FLNG restart before Q3

June 22, 2020, by Mirza Duran

LNG giant Shell is not expecting to restart production at its Prelude FLNG facility offshore Western Australia before the start of the third quarter.

Shell hasn’t exported any cargoes from the FLNG for almost five months following an electrical trip on February 2.

“Start-up timing will depend on Covid-19 constraints and compliance with government directions, which will result in a reduction in the number of people on board the facility”, a Shell spokesperson said in a emailed statement on Monday. read more

Shell’s Prelude FLNG project exec, Rob Jager, to depart

The Shell executive tasked with delivering its $US12bn ($17.5bn)-plus Prelude floating LNG project is set to quit the energy giant.

Jager did not last long…

It was only in December 2018 that his arrival was announced

“Shell Australia, a unit of the Hague-based LNG giant Shell, recently welcomed Rob Jager to Perth as the new vice president for the massive Prelude FLNG project.”

Jager moved to Perth from New Zealand, where he was the Country Chair & VP for Shell New Zealand / Shell Taranaki for more than 13 years. read more

Australian LNG exports defy supply glut

Angela Macdonald-Smith Senior Resources writer Updated Jun 5, 2020 – 12.20pm, first published at 10.55am

Australia’s exports of liquefied natural gas are holding at near-record levels, defying a global supply glut that has swamped the market, causing prices to crash and driving the cancellation of cargoes from the US.

LNG production from the country’s plants on the north-west and eastern coasts rose in the March quarter by 11 per cent from the year-earlier quarter to 19.9 million tonnes, and was only marginally below the record levels of the second half of 2019, according to the latest analysis from consultancy EnergyQuest, released on Friday. read more

Shell weighs sale of $2 billion-plus stake in Queensland LNG facilities

JUNE 3, 2020

MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is considering raising more than $2 billion from the sale of a stake in the common facilities at its Queensland Curtis LNG plant in Australia, according to a sale flyer reviewed by Reuters.

“Royal Dutch Shell plc is considering a sale of a 26.25% interest in the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) Common Facilities – a multibillion dollar investment opportunity,” the sale flyer said. read more

Crude Woes: Chevron to Make Nearly 10-15% Staff Redundant

Shell is proposing voluntary unemployment.

Union plans ‘protected action’ strike aboard Shell’s Prelude floating LNG

18 MAY 2020

Leaked information outlines union plans to conduct a ‘protected action’ strike aboard Shell’s Prelude floating LNG vessel offshore Western Australia, as well as other offshore facilities.

Members of the two unions voted unanimously in taking action over an impasse on working arrangements and a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement with contractor Sodexo.

Sodexo provides catering, cooking and cleaning staff to oil and gas facilities including Shell’s Prelude FLNG project, and Inpex’s offshore facilities.  read more