Hakluyt is known as a retirement home for ex-MI6 officers…

Hakluyt (now Holdingham Group Ltd) a private MI6 outfit, that met with …

Hakluyt, a UK-US corporate intelligence arm and offshoot to MI6

Created by former MI6 British Secret Service agents, Hakluyt is an ultra secretive firm whose client list reads like a who’s who of the business world…

The ensuing scandal catapulted Hakluyt to mainstream notoriety, and led several MPs to accuse MI6 of using the firm as a front for its own operations. read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden made an unplanned intervention midway through his company’s earnings conference call in an attempt to lessen the damage from its warning it may fall short of a share buyback target. The move only invited confusion and the shares slid.

Shell positioned itself as the sector’s cash king over the past two years after major projects came on stream and commodity prices rebounded from the crash.

But with weaker economic growth threatening oil demand and crude supplies surging, Europe’s biggest oil company warned that it may not finish a $25 billion buyback program by the end of next year as planned. read more

Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Dale Hudson and Mark Potter: 1 Nov 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) faced a torrent of criticism from analysts on Friday for warning of possible delays to its $25 billion share buyback program, with some saying the move had undermined the credibility of the oil giant’s management.

Shell, the world’s second-largest listed oil and gas company, saw its shares close more than 4% lower on Thursday, wiping out $10 billion of its market value. It had earlier reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter profits which were, however, overshadowed by Chief Executive Ben van Beurden’s warning about shareholder returns. read more

MICHAEL BOW: 31 Oct 2019

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell spooked investors on Thursday by warning that bleaker economic conditions could slow a major share buyback plan.

The company hinted a $25 billion buyback scheduled to be finished by 2020 may extend into 2021 because of worsening economic conditions, which could force the firm to keep more money back as a precaution. 

The buyback plan was launched in July 2018 and the timeline signalled Shell’s confidence in the oil price and outlook for the company. The shares today fell 2.5%, or 59p, to 2270p. read more

By HARRY WISE FOR THISISMONEY.CO.UK and PA

PUBLISHED: 12:19, 31 October 2019 | UPDATED: 12:27, 31 October 2019

Oil giant Shell has experienced a large fall in third-quarter profits due to weaker oil prices.

Earnings after stripping out fluctuating expenses fell 15 per cent to £3.7billion, well below estimates it might reach almost £5billion.

Shell was able to charge an average of £43.25 per barrel of oil it produced in the quarter, down from £52.69 in the same three months last year. It was even more than a dollar lower than the second quarter price. read more

Sam Meredith: 31 Oct 2019

• Net income attributable to shareholders on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, used as a proxy for net profit, and excluding identified items, came in at $4.767 billion for the third quarter of 2019.
• That compared with a profit of $5.624 billion in the same quarter a year ago and $3.462 billion in the second quarter.
• Shares of the Anglo-Dutch oil company are down more than 1% when compared to the same period in 2018.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter net profit on Thursday, citing lower energy prices and chemicals margins.

Net income attributable to shareholders on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, used as a proxy for net profit, and excluding identified items, came in at $4.767 billion for the third quarter of 2019. That compared with a profit of $5.624 billion in the same quarter a year ago and $3.462 billion in the second quarter. read more

EXTRACT FROM ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC 3RD QUARTER 2019 UNAUDITED RESULTS

31 Oct 2019

Compared with the third quarter 2018, CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding identified items were $4.8 billion, reflecting lower realised oil, LNG and gas prices, as well as weaker realised refining and chemicals margins. This was partly offset by significantly stronger contributions from LNG and oil products trading and optimisation as well as higher realised margins in retail and global commercial.

Compared with the third quarter 2018, cash flow from operating activities excluding working capital movements was $12.1 billion, reflecting lower earnings, higher pension contributions and lower dividends received. read more

Ron Bousso: OCTOBER 31, 2019

The better than expected results in the face of oil prices that fell 17% year on year underscores Shell’s tranformation in recent years, with deep cost cuts and a focus on returns after the 2014 industry downturn.

Net income attributable to shareholders, based on a current cost of supplies (CCS) and excluding identified items, fell to $4.8 billion from a year earlier.

That compared with a profit forecast of $3.91 billion in a company-provided survey of analysts.

“This quarter we continued to deliver strong cash flow and earnings, despite sustained lower oil and gas prices, and chemicals margins,” Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in a statement. read more

The Sunday Times

Investors turn fossil fuels into dinosaurs

Bank of England governor Mark Carney sent shock waves through the City four years ago by warning that investors in fossil fuel companies faced “potentially huge” losses from vast reserves that could become “literally unburnable”.

Fear among investors is evident in the oil giants’ share prices. read more

BY EWAN PALMER ON 10/15/19 AT 12:15 PM EDT

The chief executive of Shell said the company will not bow down to pressure from environmental advocates by abandoning its investment in fossil fuels over climate change fears, as there is still an opportunity to make money in the forthcoming years.

Speaking to Reuters, Ben van Beurden said the company has “no choice” but to invest in long-term gas and oil projects, dismissing what he described as the “demonization” and “unjustified” concerns about the energy company’s future business model. read more

But in an interview with Reuters, Ben van Beurden expressed concern that some shareholders could abandon the world’s second-largest listed energy company due partly to what he called the “demonisation” of oil and gas and “unjustified” worries that its business model was unsustainable.

The 61-year-old Dutch executive in recent years became one of the sector’s most prominent voices advocating action over global warming in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Shell, which supplies around 3% of the world’s energy, set out in 2017 a plan to halve the intensity of its greenhouse emissions by the middle of the century, based in large part on building one of the world’s biggest power businesses. read more

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive took aim beyond the energy sector to call on leaders of other industries including aviation, shipping and steel to jointly draw up plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

Ben van Beurden also warned on Wednesday that energy companies that do not collaborate in the fight against climate under the 2015 Paris agreement risk going out of business.

“Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the energy industry, but the energy industry isn’t the biggest challenge for the world trying to tackle climate change,” van Beurden told the Oil & Money conference. read more

Shell urges U.S. Congress to withhold Nord Stream 2 sanctions

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is asking the U.S. Congress not to enact sanctions against the Russia-led Nord Stream 2 undersea gas pipeline to Germany, said Cederic Cremers, head of Shell’s business in Russia.

A U.S. Senate committee passed a bill in July to place sanctions on companies and individuals involved in building the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

The Donald Trump administration says the project would strengthen Moscow’s economic grip on Europe.

“If the current legislation under consideration in the U.S. Congress is passed, it will affect all of the companies involved with the project, including Shell. We therefore respectfully urge lawmakers not to enact these sanctions,” Shell’s Cremers said in emailed comments. read more

Big Oil Fights For Its Life

Extracts from an article by Tsvetana Paraskova – Sep 30, 2019, 5:00 PM CDT

Just as Big Oil has returned to growing profits after the 2015-2016 price crash, the world’s largest oil companies are facing another formidable challenge amid growing calls from activists, shareholders, and institutional investors to start saving our planet.

The world’s largest oil firms already invest in green energy—including in wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and electric vehicles (EVs) charging networks—but these alternatives are not their core business and will not be such for years, and probably decades, to come. read more

Extracts below relating to Shell and Hakluyt from a SPUTNIK article by Kit Klarenberg: 27 Sept 2019 (SPUTNIK IS A RUSSIAN OWNED PUBLISHER)

In 1995, private intelligence agency Hakluyt & Company was established. Its ranks were filled with former members of British foreign intelligence agency MI6 – including Fitzroy Maclean, upon which Ian Fleming modelled James Bond – and also oil industry executives. William Purves, CEO of Shell Transport, was chair 2000 – 2008, Peter Holmes, former Shell chair served as the agency’s president, and Peter Cazalet, former BP deputy chair, helped set up Hakluyt before he retired in 2000. read more

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By John Donovan

I have published several articles over the years naming many Shell senior security people. They include the MI6 hires referred to by Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in a wiretapped telephone conversation relating to the OPL 245 corruption case. 

Some of their names have come up in leaked emails that have recently appeared on the Internet. I have combined the various emails into a single document.

The email participants include a former senior British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officer, Ian Forbes McCredie who until December 2010, was VP Corporate Affairs Security, Shell International B.V.  Mr McCredie is closely associated with the private spy firm Hakluyt sometimes described as the commercial offshoot of MI6. When I sent an email to Mr McCredie at Shell, I received an automated response giving me his Hakluyt email address. read more