Shell to develop North Sea Fram gas field

Monday 25 June 2018

Oil company Shell has given the final go-ahead to develop the Fram gas field in the North Sea.

The field, 100 miles east of Aberdeen, is expected to produce about 41 million cubic feet of gas a day.

It will be connected using subsea infrastructure to the neighbouring Shearwater platform.

Steve Phimister, Shell’s vice president for upstream in the UK and Ireland, said reducing development costs had allowed investment in new projects.

He said: “With our strong record of operational excellence and project execution, we will look to invest in further projects as we work to grow our business in the North Sea.” read more

By John Donovan 

Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, which has pushed up the price of oil, thus benefiting Shell and other oil companies, threatens to put billions of dollars worth of trade in jeopardy.

Shell has a record of treacherous conduct involving the Iranian regime, including using subterfuge to disguise shipping movements.

How will Shell react this time in an even more complex situation?

Below are extracts from articles published in the last 24 hours.

Sky News: How business could be hit by Iran deal pull-out read more

By Kevin Keane: BBC Scotland’s environment correspondent:

26 April 2018

The Health and Safety Executive has written to all oil and gas operators expressing concern about the number of gas releases in the industry.

The regulator said some had come “perilously close to disaster” and that more needed to be done to tackle them.

The HSE said a “lack of leadership” was often to blame for leaks, and called for firms to review their processes.

Operators have until July to respond with a summary of their planned improvements.

The HSE has written to operators ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster. The platform exploded in July 1988, leaving 167 men dead. read more

Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, has said he intended to increase the company’s investments in new-energy businesses toward $2 billion a year. Credit Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Oil giant Shell to buy ‘big six’ energy rival First Utility: The Telegraph

Shell enters UK household energy market: BBC News

Shell buys UK independent energy supplier First Utility: Financial Times

Shell’s £500m deal to sell homes gas and electricity: Oil major buys Britain’s biggest independent power supplier: This is Money read more

20 December 2017

Two global oil giants, Eni and Shell, are to stand trial in Italy over allegations of corruption in Nigeria.

The case involves the purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria for $1.3bn (£1bn) in 2011.

The companies deny wrongdoing, saying they acquired the rights in accordance with Nigerian law.

The trial in Italy is expected to start in March next year. It follows a lengthy investigation by Italian prosecutors.

Anti-corruption watchdog Global Witness says it could be one of the biggest corporate corruption trials in history. read more

Oil giant Shell will not sell off any more North Sea assets.

A senior figure at the company has told BBC Scotland he has no plans to sell resources despite the chancellor announcing measures to make the process easier.

Shell has just completed the sale of a package of assets to the company Chrysaor for $3.8bn.

It included stakes in the Buzzard, Beryl, Elgin-Franklin and Schiehallion fields.

Director of Shell’s Upstream Commercial business, Steve Phimister, said he would now invest in what remains. FULL ARTICLE read more

By Ian PollockBusiness reporter, BBC News: 26 Sept 2017

Dyson, the engineering company best known for its vacuum cleaners and fans, plans to spend £2bn developing a “radical” electric car. The battery-powered vehicle is due to be launched in 2020. Dyson says 400 staff have been working on the secret project for the past two years at its headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.

However, the car does not yet exist, with no prototype built, and a factory site is yet to be chosen. Sir James declined to give further details of the project. “Competition for new technology in the automotive industry is fierce and we must do everything we can to keep the specifics of our vehicle confidential,” he told staff in an email. read more

FULL ARTICLE

By John Donovan

Former Royal Dutch Shell boss Malcolm Brinded has been replaced as a director of BBHP Billiton. His departure is a direct result of his key role in the OPL 245 corruption scandal and the consequential criminal prosecution underway in the Italian Courts. Brinded was involved in a string of scandals at Shell but thus far, has managed to escape retribution. 

A shake-up at the board of mining company BHP Billiton has been announced this morning. But it is the departures that are more interesting. The firm says that, “given his involvement in ongoing legal proceedings in Italy relating to his prior employment with Shell”, Malcolm Brinded has decided not to stand for re-election as a non-exec. FULL ARTICLE (RELATED: OPL 245: Shell email intercepts) read more

By John Donovan

History is repeating itself. Shell is in the news today over its  dangerous North Sea oil platform activities.

Nearly 20 years ago, Shell senior management ignored warnings by HSE Auditor Bill Campbell about the Touch Fuck All regime on the Brent Bravo platform and its potential impact on worker safety. Production and profits were the overriding consideration. Maintenance records were routinely falsified. Lives were put at risk.

Shell EP MD Malcolm Brinded promised to take action based on the scandalous state of affairs Mr Campbell’s team had discovered when he led the safety audit on the platform. The promises were not kept. As a result, platform workers subsequently lost their lives in what was judged by the Scottish legal authorities to be an avoidable accident on Brent Bravo. A record-breaking fine was imposed on Shell. read more

Shell to operate fast charging at selected Shell stations in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom: Automotive World: 17 July 2017 read more

Scottish SPCA sells investments in oil company Shell: BBC News: 15 July 2017

Scotland’s largest animal welfare charity has announced that it has sold its investments in an oil company that tests products on animals. The Scottish SPCA move came after it faced public criticism for holding a £600,000 stake in Royal Dutch Shell. Shell has admitted experiments on animals including rabbits, rodents, birds and fish. READ MORE

Appeals court says third-party companies are liable for compensation in offshore Shell drilling unit collision: Louisiana Record: 15 July 2017

On June 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling that Integrity Fishers Inc. and Sea Eagle Fisheries Inc. are not responsible for compensating Tesla Offshore LLC and International Marine LLC, the parties found at fault in a collision that damaged a submerged mooring line attached to Shell Offshore’s Nautilus offshore drilling unit. READ MORE read more

NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland: SAT 20 MAY 2017

The oil company Shell has said it shut down a platform in the North Sea after a gas leak.

The leak was detected on Friday on the Brent Charlie platform, 115 miles north-east of Shetland.

Production has been stopped and 31 non-essential personnel are being flown home as a precaution. Shell said the leak had been stopped and an investigation was under way.

The Brent Charlie had 176 people on board at the time.

A Shell spokeswoman said: “Following a gas detection alarm, production was shut down and the platform called to muster. The source of the leak has been safely detected and isolated, and a full investigation into the cause will be completed. read more

By John Donovan

The BBC has published an article claiming that Shell has admitted experiments on animals including rabbits, rodents, birds and fish.

According to the BBC Scotland article “The latest figures published on Shell’s website show the firm was involved with laboratory experiments on more than 100,000 animals in 2015. The Scottish Daily Mail says it was more than 400,000 animals – see above right. 

I wonder whether Shell, the BBC, The Herald and the Scottish Daily Mail are all the victims of another hoax, perhaps perpetrated by the Yes Men? read more

19 October 2016

The son of renowned Nigerian environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed more than 20 years ago, has died in London.

Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, 47, passed away after suffering a stroke, his family say.

He was a journalist who became a presidential adviser.

The 1995 execution of his father by a military government for leading protests against environmental degradation caused by the oil industry sparked global outrage.

Saro-Wiwa Sr led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), which accused oil multinational Shell of destroying the environment in his home region of Ogoniland in south-eastern Nigeria. read more

Unite and the RMT union are representing about 350 workers involved in a dispute over pay and conditions with oil services company Wood Group.

Some workers claim they are facing cuts of up to 30%. Wood Group denies this.

The Aberdeen-based firm provides maintenance and construction to Shell and signed a three-year extension to its contract earlier this year.

Unite said the unions offered to suspend industrial action if Wood Group removed the current proposal for changes to pay and conditions in full, to allow further talks. read more