Fossil fuel industry giants such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are maintaining an outsized presence at global climate discussions, working to undermine scientific consensus and slow policy progress, according to findings released Wednesday…
Delegates from major oil companies have influenced international accords for decades.
By Luke McGrath: 24 June 2019, 10:00 BST
Fossil fuel industry giants such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are maintaining an outsized presence at global climate discussions, working to undermine scientific consensus and slow policy progress, according to findings released Wednesday by an environmental monitoring organization.
The Climate Investigations Center (CIC) report claims that fossil fuel trade associations have sent more than 6,400 delegates to climate talks since 1995, including delegates from Shell, BP and ExxonMobil.read more
Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent: Thu 20 Jun 2019 07.00 BST
The UK’s largest energy companies have withheld support for a legally binding target to reduce the EU’s emissions to net zero by 2050, even while publicly backing the plans. Although BP and Shell have both voiced public support for the Paris commitments, neither backed the EU’s plans for a net zero carbon target by 2050 in their response to an official consultation. The companies’ decision to withhold support for the target has reignited criticism that major polluters are “greenwashing”…read more
Leslie Hook, environment and clean energy correspondent
Taken together, these lawsuits amount to a legal onslaught that climate activists hope will have a profound financial impact on oil and gas producers, by imposing huge penalties.
Most lawsuits name the biggest producers — such as Exxon, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron — as defendants, though the number of companies named ranges from five to 37.
Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden speaks at a full year results conference in London on January 31, 2019. – Royal Dutch Shell today said that net profit surged 80 percent to $23.4 billion in 2018, thanks to higher oil prices and cost: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Ellen R. Wald:Senior Contributor:
In 2004, a mania grew in the financial and energy circles around the idea of peak oil. The notion that the world was running out of oil became a commonly held belief, which, in turn, helped push oil prices well above $100 per barrel.
Fifteen years later, peak oil is still talked about by some, but most industry insiders pay it no heed. Instead, over the last few years, the increasingly popular concept has been peak demand. Peak demand is the idea that the demand for oil will reach an apex and then start to decrease, especially as government regulations require more use of alternative energies and as battery-powered machines, like electric vehicles, will presumably become more popular.
Peak demand may or may come to pass—that is not the concern here. What we do know is that if the peak demand idea continues to gain popularity it will lead to a shortage of oil in the coming years and decades. The idea of peak demand threatens the global oil supply because it incentivizes and even excuses oil companies to stop exploring for and producing (E&P) more oil.read more
Greenwashed rhetoric is such a staple of the oil industry that it’s easy to assume every energy executive talking about climate and the transition to a zero-carbon economy is just mouthing words.
Barely a year after BP Plc Chief Executive Officer John Browne promised “action and solutions” on climate change in a 1997 speech, he led the then-biggest oil takeover in history with the acquisition of Amoco Corp. On his retirement a decade later, after years of rebranding about moving “beyond petroleum,” he left a base of oil and gas reserves more than twice the size of the one he inherited.read more
The annual general meetings of BP and Royal Dutch Shell this week confirmed Europe’s two largest oil and gas majors are on diverging tracks in the battle against climate change. Both companies now accept the need to overhaul their businesses in a manner that would have been unthinkable even five years ago, as the clamour from investors and activists has become too loud to ignore. But their approaches differ…
Several big fund managers believe that oil companies should shut themselves down because soon they will become impossible to invest in as the world switches to renewable energy.
A survey of 39 fund managers with $10.2 trillion under management found that 24 per cent wanted the oil industry “to wind down their businesses and return cash to shareholders”. All but two of the funds said that oil stocks would not be attractive investments within ten years if they failed to respond to climate risks.read more
The world’s five largest publicly traded oil companies are increasing their investments in oil and gas, putting a combined $110 billion in new fossil-fuel production.
Meanwhile, those firms are projected to spend just $3.6 billion on low-carbon investments, such as biofuels and renewables, according to a new analysis that Influence Map, a British nonprofit that analyzes corporate influence on climate policy, derived from industry data and numbers buried in company disclosures.
The reckless disparity comes just months after the United Nations warned that the world must rapidly phase out fossil fuel use over the next decade or face catastrophic global warming of at least 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.read more
Last year the number of accidents per hour worked increased at the oil company. Supervisors warn that Shell needs to do more about safety.
In December 2017, during regular maintenance work, a lifeboat suddenly came loose on the Shell platform Brent Alpha in the North Sea. The lifeboat fell into the sea and was recovered a day later. Although no one is injured, it was not the first time. In 2008, it was discovered that two lifeboats on another nearby Shell platform, Brent Bravo, were technically in such poor condition that they had to be replaced. And in 2007 a rescue boat on another Shell platform broke loose and collapsed into the sea.read more
Shell’s investment could surpass $650M if exploration continues, according to the president of Colombia’s National Hydrocarbons Agency.
The government recently modified contractual terms for offshore exploration and launched a new process that allows companies to apply to explore in areas of interest, offering 20 blocks as part of a strategy to boost the oil sector.read more
EXCLUSIVE: TV chef who previously campaigned for green causes is facing a major backlash
The TV chef has launched Jamie Oliver deli by Shell (Image: PA)
Shell, whose profits hit £4.3billion last year, is in the top 10 global carbon dioxide emitters. It is also involved in a corruption trial over dealings in Nigeria.
Jamie Oliver has sparked fresh fury after trying to defend his £5million food-to-go deal with Shell.
The TV chef, 43, yesterday launched his range for the oil giant, despite campaigning for action on climate change.
He said he had “thought a lot” before agreeing to it, adding: “There are pitfalls working for any client, they all have their own baggage.”
But campaigners hit out at his reasoning, which comes after Jamie told of a cash crisis at his company.
Shell, whose profits hit £4.3billion last year, is in the top 10 global carbon dioxide emitters. It is also involved in a corruption trial over dealings in Nigeria.read more
Giants amass cash for share buybacks and dividends
Rachel Millard: October 28 2018
The two biggest London-listed oil majors are expected to report higher profits and cash levels this week, driven by rising oil and gas prices as the industry’s recovery continues.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude averaged $75.80 during the third quarter of the year, 45% higher than the same period in 2017, while UK gas prices are up 54% year-on-year.
The rally following the crash that sent prices below $30 a barrel in 2016 is helping companies to repay debt and start rewarding shareholders, even as it pushes up costs for households and motorists. Analysts’ profit forecasts for BP, which reports on Tuesday, averaged $2.8bn (£2.2bn) compared with $1.9bn during the same quarter last year.read more
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pioneered Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and remains a major investor in the West African country. But over the decades it has come under fire over spills in the Delta region and struggles with oil theft, corruption and oil-fueled violence.
Following are some of the highlights of Shell’s history in Nigeria:
1936 – The Royal Dutch Shell Group establishes a Nigerian venture with the precursor company of BP Plc. The first shipment of oil from Nigeria takes place in 1958.read more
Bogus Group: In 2015 this prospect was given a production life of "at least 10 years"Did Shell expect such an early exit, or was this another BG Group recoverable miscalculation?https://www.upstreamonline.com/hardcopy/1805800/shell-to-pull-plug-at-knarr
uscitizen: Shell, the world’s second-largest listed oil and gas company after Exxon, cut costs heavily following its 2016 acquisition of BG Group for $53 billion and the 2014 oil crash.
Despite a slow and bumpy recovery in oil prices, it reported the largest profit among its peers last year and a jump in revenue from previous years.
Shell said its free cash flow - cash available for dividends and share buybacks - was set to rise to around $35 billion per year by 2025 based on a Brent crude oil price of $60 per barrel.
That compares with $28-33 billion in free cash flow it expects to deliver by the end of next year. Brent is currently trading just under $61 per barrel.
Shell, the world’s biggest dividend payer at $16 billion in 2018, expects to increase its dividend payouts to shareholders once it completes the $25 billion share buyback by the end of 2020 that it promised following the BG acquisition.
Shell last increased its quarterly dividend in the first quarter of 2014 to $0.47 per share.
uscitizen: All of the folks bashing Shell for the BG merger, I think we can now say this has been a very good financial move. Shell has overtaken Exxon and Integrated Gas is a big reason why. I am sure there are examples where some good people got pushed out, and I hate to hear that. However, lets not pull the wool over folks eyes and say this business decision was not sound.
Bonus Group: Further to yesterday's post.
Sound Energy plc
("Sound Energy" or the "Company")
Director/PDMR Shareholding
Sound Energy, the Moroccan focused upstream gas company, announces that it has been notified that Brian Mitchener, Executive Director, has today purchased 150,000 ordinary shares in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 12.04 pence per Ordinary Share. As a result of this purchase, Mr Mitchener is interested in 150,000 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.0142% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital.
Bonus Group: UnSound Energy?
Readers may wonder why the darling of the AIM Market is now preparing itself for a sale of its Eastern Morocco acreage.
Perhaps, the answer may be found in the Annual Report 2018 available to download as a .PDF from the Sound Energy Website:
Page 49
Loss of Office and Change of Control Provisions
In the event of a change of control of the Company, the CEO, CFO and Exploration Director have the option to give notice and receive a lump sum equivalent to 18 months’ salary for the CEO, 12 months’ salary for the CFO and 8 months’ salary for the Exploration Director.All of the Company’s current share plans contain provisions relating to a change of control.
On a change of control, outstanding awards would normally vest and become exercisable, subject to the satisfaction of any performance conditions at that time.
Page 50
Summary Of Actual Remuneration (including Benefits in Kind and Performance Awards) Of Directors
Executive Directors
James Parsons £995,000
Brian Mitchener £323,000 (RSU Awards No. of Shares 862,682, Granted 26.04.18 Settlement date 01.01.21)
JJ Traynor £168,000 (RSU Awards No. of Shares 961,194, Granted 26.04.18 Settlement Date 01.01.21)
It should be remembered that Brian Mitchener is of the failed BG Group stable. It would seem that Bonus Group habits are hard to let g0!
Bogus Group: I concur with Bonus Group recollection of the tin pot, lacklustre, parvenu outfit. There was no place in BG Group for experienced professionals if they didn’t possess the sycophant tendencies required to stoke the egos of those deluded by corporate grandeur.
Large remuneration packages were not uncommon then too, the chief executive received circa £13mm (published) in bonuses throughout his 12 year tenure. During that period there were 26 fatalities, roughly £500k for each. That was more than distasteful.
Bonus Group: Today is the anniversary date of the agreement on terms of the takeover of BG Group (a tin pot, lacklustre, parvenu outfit) by Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2015. In consequence of BG Group's consistent failures to meet targets and the engineered predatory takeover by Royal Dutch Shell plc the careers and professional lives of many experienced Geoscientists and Engineers were brutally butchered, terminated, and cast aside like so much offal, so it is rather distasteful to see the size of Ben van Beurden's remuneration package being flaunted in the press by Royal Dutch Shell plc.
CEP Problems: It seems to be impossible right now to get any chance of landing a job inside Shell these days. Everytime people apply for jobs unless they have high potential or a diversity point they get rejections. I got told recently that the hiring manager was looking for someone with high potential. Don't these people realise that they also need QUALIFIED people to actually do the work. Ridiculous but it almost getting to age discrimination these days. Rant over.
Shell Canada Insider: SHELL CANADA
...they are wanting to sell their Alberta operations..... because there is no money left in it...they have syphoned it all off.....
I think also on 2010-2011 they had multiple explosions at their Caroline facility supposedly an employee during an explosion at the south compressor station had to be airlifted to hospital and was seriously injured.
The aer/ govt shut it down. it was closed for 6 months and half of the plant was decommissioned when it restarted.
That must have cost them millions of dollars.....there should be government records of this stuff....
The description of the fairleads causing the mooring ropes to chafe to such an extent is almost so ridiculous to render ex-seafarer speechless. The fitting of nylon liners inside the fairleads is something new for me but the idea behind it would may be to reduce the friction of the mooring lines when running through the fairlead thus reduce any temperature potential in a zone 2 area. Fixing one potential risk appears to have created another one of greater risk potential. I am not sure how the nylon liners in the fairleads would have such sharp edges to chafe the mooring lines on their own and perhaps there may have been something else to which the journalist has missed out. The reported leakage of LNG in the manifold area from a flange should not have happened but the liquid transfer areas are all bunded in low-temperature materials and provided with a constant supply of running water during cargo handling activities. Power outages during start-up operations and ongoing are nothing new and others can be expected, hopefully not very often as the restart of such a complicated process system takes a long time and much effort. The problem with firewater deluge over the LNG storage tanks reported is of considerable concern but the journalist does not mention if this was during the period when systems were being tested prior to the introduction of LNG or after. If before then this section of the report is just journalistic license and of no consequence whatsoever. The other issues as reported can be considered minor during the preparation phase before the introduction of hydrocarbons in any form but definitely of concern if these incidents were after the introduction of hydrocarbons. I wish the people who are experiencing the startup of such a complicated and complex plant every success. Take the time that is needed to be successful by being safe, good luck.
John Donovan: Irish Backstop Update
According to a Sunday Times article two days ago, "Ireland continues to dodge difficult questions about how it will protect the single market and also maintain an open border under a no-deal."
IRELAND has been warned it faces the difficult choice between implementing a hard border or being forced out of the EU’s single market in an unprecedented move to protect the bloc from a no-deal Brexit.
Dublin will be forced to make the tough choice if Britain quits the EU without a deal, according to a number of senior EU figures.
The European Commission sparked fury from Ireland after declaring Dublin would have to implement a hard border in the event of a no-deal Brexit. After significant protests from, which involved a heated debate between Leo Varadkar and Jean-Claude Juncker, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, suggested “operational solutions” would have to be found in order to prevent a hardening of the border.
But now high-ranking MEPs have hardened their position, insisting the single market must not be compromised even to maintain peace on the island of Ireland.
Elmar Brok, a German MEP with close ties to Angela Merkel, insisted that if Ireland failed to police its own borders the EU would have to take its own protectionist action.
“We would have to set up a customs border with Ireland,” the German said.
He also warned that if Brussels didn’t make the demands then "we will soon have American chlorine chicken in the EU".
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OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL: LATEST NEWS
$1.3bn Malabu Oil Scandal: Italy Protests Swiss Delay in Releasing Evidence against Shell, Eni 22 Jun 2019 04:10 This Day Chika Amanze-Nwachuku with agency report
Italian prosecutors have expressed dissatisfaction about lengthy delays in obtaining evidence they have requested from Switzerland in the criminal charges against Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni with regard to …
FG names Shell, Eni executives in $1bn bribery case – The Punch 08 May 2019 11:43 Google ’Femi Asu with agency report
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA face additional corruption allegations over a Nigerian oil deal, after the Federal Government said in a London lawsuit that it believed a handful of executives, including Chief Executive …
FG files fresh charges against Shell executives, JPMorgan over Malabu Oil scandal 08 May 2019 10:01 Herald Sequel to the lawsuit filed last year against Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni and JP Morgan for being involved in a $1bn oil block bribery case, the Federal Government has submitted new case documents that indict their top executives.
FG said in the court files …
FG names Shell, Eni executives in $1bn bribery case 08 May 2019 08:09 Punch Newspapers ’Femi Asu with agency report
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA face additional corruption allegations over a Nigerian oil deal, after the Federal Government said in a London lawsuit that it believed a handful of executives, including Chief Executive …
Dutch Prosecutors to Arraign Shell over $1.3 billion Acquisition of OPL 245 02 Mar 2019 10:19 Biz Watch Nigeria Dutch Prosecutors to Arraign Shell over $1.3 billion Acquisition of OPL 245
Dutch prosecutors are preparing criminal charges against Royal Dutch Shell over its $1.3 billion acquisition of Nigerian offshore oilfield OPL 245 in 2011.
Shell said in a …
John Donovan’s ebooks
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
Delegates from major oil companies have influenced international accords for decades.
Jillian Ambrose
Leslie Hook
By David Fickling | Bloomberg: June 5 at 7:03 AM
03 JUNE 2019
David Sheppard
Climate change could wipe up to $4 trillion off the value of fossil fuel assets, the governor of the Bank of England has said: ALAMY
In brief
Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, 
Beeld: Getty Images/ bewerking: FD Studio
Shell, whose profits hit £4.3billion last year, is in the top 10 global carbon dioxide emitters. It is also involved in a corruption trial over dealings in Nigeria.
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pioneered Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and remains a major investor in the West African country. But over the decades it has come under fire over spills in the Delta region and struggles with oil theft, corruption and oil-fueled violence.
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EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.