Posts under ‘Ben van Beurden’

Will Shell have to abandon the Prelude experiment?

From John Donovan: 8 Jan 2022

Dear Mr Andrew Smith

I have copied the email to Shell Legal Director Mr Donny Ching and Shell CEO Mr Ben van Beurden because the subject is a matter of great importance. Namely the lives and well-being of Shell employees and contractors working on the Prelude experiment. read more

EVENING STANDARD

City comment: Gas crisis could leave Shell CEO Ben van Beurden hot under the collar

 By Oscar Williams-Grut City Editor: 7 Jan 2022

For Shell CEO Ben van Beurden and his colleagues, the opposite might be true: when grasping opportunity, be aware of the danger.

The oil major today told investors that profits from its gas trading business were set to be “significantly higher” thanks to surging prices. In the same update, Shell announced plans to return another $5.5 billion to investors through a buyback. read more

POLICE INSPECTOR DEMANDS INFORMATION FROM SHELL?

By John Donovan: 31 Dec 2021

I have received emails purportedly sent to me and others by a police inspector from Sama Police Station in Vadodara City, India.

The emails contain serious allegations against Shell.

The emails may be fake or genuine.

The irate police inspector in question, N.H. Brambhatt seems keen to get into contact with Shell. He seems to have reached the conclusion that Shell is frustrating the progress of his enquiries.

Earlier today I sent the following email to Mr Donny Ching, the Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (but not for much longer). read more

SHELL ASSETS DIVESTMENT IN THE NIGER DELTA: THE WHOLE TRUTH FROM AN INSIDER’S VIEW

By Zik Gbemre

• I am vindicated by the unbiased account expressed by a former Shell General Manager on why the oil major left Delta state.
• Until we situate the blame in all honesty and amend our ways, we will remain stagnated as a state and in the south of the Niger Delta at large.

When stakeholders often rationalise where to situate the blame over the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) unforgettable divestment of its key assets in Delta state which drastically shattered the state’s economy, I tell people not to look too far to find the key actors who forced that situation.

People may blame Shell, but Shell wasn’t the problem. Even if Shell genuinely intended to leave Delta, it never meant to leave the way it did. The greedy, thieving PDP hegemony of government over the state gave much recognition to violent youths above the law-abiding from the greed of James Ibori to the insensitivity of his successor cousin forced the Shell exit. read more

OFFICIAL LETTER TO ROYAL DUTCH SHELL CEO BEN VAN BEURDEN AND SHELL OIL COMPANY PRESIDENT GRETCHEN WATKINS DEMANDING AN IMMEDIATE END TO ACTS OF DISCRIMINATION BY SHELL INCLUDING AGAINST A SENIOR SHELL SECURITY MANAGER, MR WALIED SHATER, A FORMER US SECRET SERVICE AGENT.  

This article is related to the article we published yesterday making serious allegations against Shell global security boss James W.D. Hall. 

Vicious Infighting at the top of Shell Corporate Security

All current members of Shell Corporate Security Department are British white males except one German white male. read more

Express

Brexit Britain win confirmed as Shell overwhelmingly backs UK move – Dutch snubbed

SHAREHOLDERS in oil giant Shell have given their backing to proposals to move the Anglo-Dutch company’s headquarters to London from the Netherlands.

According to preliminary polling 99.77 percent of shareholders so far had backed the move with just under 58 percent of votes cast. Final results are expected later in the day although it is thought the result is unlikely to change.

The company follows another Anglo-Dutch firm, Unilever, which also decided to move its headquarters to London from the Netherlands. Shareholders were asked to vote on a range of new proposals aimed at simplifying the company’s structure which will also see it drop ‘Royal Dutch’ from its official name. read more

Shell shareholders vote on move to London

Shareholders in oil giant Shell will vote Friday on plans to switch its headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain after a century and drop Royal Dutch from the name.

Europe’s biggest energy firm says the move would simplify its tax and share arrangements, and accelerate its transition to net-zero emissions.

But its chairman also admitted the plan was driven by the Dutch government’s scrapping of plans to withdraw a tax on dividends.

The Dutch government said it was “unpleasantly surprised” by the plan, while Britain has hailed it as a vote of confidence in the British economy post-Brexit. read more

Extract from the Seeking Alpha article by Fluidsdoc dated 7 Dec 2021:

Royal Dutch Shell: The Wind Farm At The End Of The Universe

The Prelude debacle

Shell gets a lot of credit for being an able and experienced project manager, and when it’s their core business, they are. By comparison, Prelude, an FLNG project, has to be considered a financial and technical disaster by any measure, and a lot of that involves mistakes by Shell. An article from last year notes-

While the Prelude did export LNG at about half its capacity for the second half of 2019, it is now idle. read more

The Sunday Times

Shell pulling the plug on the Cambo North Sea oilfield is a problem for us, too

You can’t be sure of much when it comes to Shell these days — and Shell, it seems, can’t be sure of anything when it comes to politics. Last month, chief executive Ben van Beurden was fêted for moving the oil major’s headquarters from Holland to London as part of a simplification of its corporate structure.

On Thursday, Shell pulled out of a major oil project in a storm of recrimination, saying the economics were “not strong enough at this time” and complaining of “potential for delays”. read more

The Sunday Times

Virtue-signalling over oil development is hypocrisy

Michael Glackin: Sunday December 05 2021: The Sunday Times

Three months ago, Simon Roddy, upstream director at oil major Shell, warned that the very future of the UK oil and gas industry was at stake in the row over the Cambo oil project.

Roddy insisted Shell’s investment in greener energy sources and emissions reduction on rigs relied on investors having certainty about the rules on oil and gas development.

This year, Roddy’s boss, Shell chief executive Ben Van Beurden, offered a similar defence of the scheme, arguing that the investment was needed to meet continuing demand for oil and gas. read more

Is this the €6.5 million Dutch mansion Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has placed on the market?

Full property information plus fab photos here

I have heard that he is on the move…

For that money, he can buy a two-bedroom flat in London.

Bloomberg

Shell won’t abandon green transition in face higher oil prices, says CEO

December 1, 2021

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) – The oil and gas market may be tightening amid historically low investment levels, but that won’t change Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s strategy to shift from fossil fuels, the firm’s chief executive said on Tuesday (Nov 30).

Shell is one of many European majors that have pledged to shrink its traditional hydrocarbon business, while increasing investments in clean energy. While some critics have raised concerns that high oil prices might tempt these firms to stick to fossil fuels, chief executive Ben van Beurden said Shell is adhering to its energy transition strategy. read more

Seeking Alpha

Shell Jumps Out Of Fire And Lands In The Frying Pan

• Shell’s move to exit the Dutch tax and legal jurisdiction is officially presented as an issue of dividend taxation that Shell and others hoped for years to see it repealed.
• Though it is not much discussed by Shell or the media, the harsh environmental ruling by a Dutch court that forces Shell to cut emissions may have played a role.
• Even though Shell is not currently faced with similar legal pressures in the UK, it may nevertheless feel other pressures to cut emissions by a similar margin.
• Shell’s upstream segment is the most likely part of the business that will be sacrificed to environmental pressures.
• Shell will most likely try to adapt its LNG and petrochemicals sector to lower emissions, that will make it less profitable. Higher natural gas prices will add to profitability concerns.

Investment thesis: Shell (RDS.A), (RDS.B) is leaving the Dutch legal jurisdiction, officially due to some dividend tax issues and it will make the UK its sole home base. Unofficially, it may be in large part a way to escape a court-imposed emissions reduction demand on its business activities. While the move to escape a legally binding cut of 45% compared with 2020 levels by 2030 is potentially avoided through this move, the internal, as well as external pressures for it to cut emissions, hydrocarbons production, and so on, will not cease. read more

Allegations and Litigation Relating to Spymasters in Shell’s Corporate Security Department

By John Donovan

See below a self-explanatory email I sent yesterday to named senior executives at Shell.

It mentions the current momentous events at Royal Dutch Shell, although that is not the subject of the email. In that connection, I have not spotted any reference in current news coverage to the Dutch police raid at Shell’s current HQ in The Hague.

That astonishing development may have fuelled a growing feeling that the Dutch government has turned anti-Shell by allowing Nigerian and climate change litigation against Shell to proceed in the Dutch courts and tightening up Dutch tax regulations affecting Shell. read more

Bloomberg

Dutch Divorce: How Shell Split With Netherlands After 114 Years

Laura Hurst, Diederik Baazil and Fred Pals: Wed, November 17, 2021, 8:10 AM

(Bloomberg) — A twenty-minute stroll through The Hague — the pretty but low-key city that houses The Netherlands’ government — takes you from the prime minister’s office to the workplace of someone who’s arguably even more powerful: the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

But when Ben van Beurden, who’s worked at Shell since he graduated from nearby Delft University in 1983, called Mark Rutte on Sunday afternoon, the conversation was anything but close. He rang to tell the PM that Europe’s biggest oil company was moving its headquarters to London, a step that would simplify its corporate structure and cut taxes for investors. read more

FORTUNE

Shell’s decision to leave the Netherlands is about keeping investors on its side in difficult times

The Dutch government is scrambling to find a way to make Royal Dutch Shell remain royal and Dutch after the oil and gas giant announced Monday that it had decided to up sticks from its home in the Hague and move its headquarters to London.

The Dutch government’s eagerness to retain the giant firm is not surprising—and exactly how Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet are trying to do so says a lot about which of Shell’s stated reasons for moving is the most important one. read more