UPDATE 1-Groningen gas output fall to prevent earthquake risk ahead of target

FEBRUARY 21, 2020 

* By mid 2022 no need for production in average year

* Groningen was once Europe’s largest onshore gas field 

AMSTERDAM, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Gas production at Groningen in the northern Netherlands can be lowered to 10 billion cubic metres (BCM) this year, the government said on Friday, beating an initial 2020 target to cut output at the field because of earthquake risk.

The Dutch government has said it would lower production at Groningen, once Europe’s largest onshore gas field, as quickly as possible after a series of tremors caused widespread damage to homes and buildings. read more

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted during the last few days on Trustpilot.  Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. This article posted on 21 February 2020.

I would give this company zero stars if i could.

I would give this company zero stars if i could. This company has hiked up my payments. They were great when they were First Utility. Even their cheapest offering is useless. My marketing preferences are by email but they keep trying to phone & message me. I complained to them by email & they agreed that they should contact me by email only, yet they carried on contacting me by phone even though i told them that i’m profoundly deaf. They passed all my details on to SMS even though i asked them not to. SMS have been hounding me stating that ”Shell Energy are upgrading to the next generation of meters & have arranged SMS to complete your installation”. How on earth can Shell Energy arrange for a meter to be fitted without consulting me? I have blocked all their calls. Shell are using bully boy tactics. I’m now moving to Octopus. Shell could not come anywhere near the prices that Octopus have offered me. Shell & SMS should hang their heads in shame for using bully boy tactics. My data is being shared even though i asked it not to be. They are also STILL trying to contact me by phone calls & text messages even though my marketing preferences are email. read more

Friday February 21, 2020

Royal Dutch Shell will not “get into an arms race” with BP over carbon targets, a senior executive has said, in a sign that Europe’s biggest oil group will not rush to match its rival’s “net zero” pledge.

The Anglo-Dutch group was the first oil major to set long-term ambitions related to emissions from customers using its products, pledging in 2017 to halve the intensity of its carbon footprint by 2050.

BP had been seen as a laggard on climate targets but last week Bernard Looney, its new chief executive, leapfrogged rivals with an ambition to eliminate the carbon footprint of all the oil and gas it produces by 2050. read more

NAM gas production at Groningen, Europes largest gas field, will end in 2022

MILAN, Feb 19 (Reuters) – An Italian judge has ordered a Nigerian businessman to stand trial for alleged international corruption relating to a Nigeria oil graft case involving Eni and Shell, a judicial source and his lawyer said on Wednesday. Milan prosecutors allege that Alhai Aliyu Abubakar played a central role in one of the oil industry’s biggest scandals in years, handing out more than $500 million in cash to powerful Nigerian government officials.

The money is alleged to come out of the $1.3 billion licence fee paid by Eni and Shell for access to the OPL-245 offshore oilfield located in the southern Niger Delta. read more

Global Investigations Review

Dutch bar unfazed by justice minister’s “unusual” contact with Shell prosecutors

By James Thomas: 18 February 2020

Dutch lawyers seem relaxed about recent revelations that the local justice minister and public prosecutors have been in frequent contact about a bribery investigation into Shell.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Lawyers question judge’s peculiar ruling in Shell privilege case

By James Thomas: 30 October 2019

Legal experts in the Netherlands have said that a recent privilege ruling against Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell will likely not stand up in an appeals court.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Shell’s in-house lawyers not covered by privilege, court rules

By James Thomas: 25 October 2019

A Rotterdam court has ruled that Shell’s in-house lawyers are insufficiently independent from the company and cannot claim legal privilege, in a decision connected to a Dutch investigation into alleged bribery by Shell in Nigeria. read more

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted during the last few days on Trustpilot.  Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. This article was posted on 18 February 2020.

If you’re looking for an energy company…

If you’re looking for an energy company with good service and competitive prices don’t go to Shell hi prices and terrible customer services

I needed to speak to Customer Support…

I needed to speak to Customer Support about my account, I have been trying to call them for three days without success.

On my latest call, I’ve been on hold for just over 50 minutes, this is totally unacceptable as it is on the other three calls I’ve made to them today, on each occasion the phone goes dead after being on hold for a long time. read more

* No timeframe for resuming output at Shell’s Prelude FLNG

* Outage keeps Prelude LNG off amid market glut (Adds background on Prelude)

MELBOURNE, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has temporarily suspended cargo liftings from its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility off northwest Australia while it works to restore production following an electrical trip on Feb. 2.

“Work continues to restore full operations on Prelude, our floating LNG facility in Australia,” the energy giant said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. read more

FEBRUARY 17, 2020 / 9:28 PM

YENAGOA, Nigeria, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s state oil company and its joint venture partners have spent $360 million on cleaning up the Niger Delta oil heartland in the past two years, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said on Monday, but locals said little work had been done.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest crude oil exporter. Oil sales account for around 90% of its foreign currency earnings but oil spills in the southern Niger Delta region have caused pollution and angered locals. read more

Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump’s top energy official said he’s confident that Russia won’t be able to complete the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea — and signaled that the U.S. will press forward with its opposition to the project.

Asked about Russian efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions on the pipeline by completing it on its own, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said “they can’t” — and dismissed claims that project owner Gazprom PJSC will face only a short delay. read more

By Nick Cunningham – Feb 15, 2020, 2:00 PM CST

Protests continue to swell over the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, a long-distance pipeline carrying natural gas from Alberta to the Pacific Coast.

The pipeline’s route would travel more than 400 miles to the coast at Kitimat, British Columbia, where it intends to deliver gas to a massive LNG export project, under construction by a joint venture led by Royal Dutch Shell.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) began arresting indigenous peoples on their territory earlier this month. “Forcing indigenous peoples off their own territory is in complete and disgusting violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said in early February. read more

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) says the failed Ogoni cleanup exercise under the management of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) has received a total of US$350,000,000 (Three Hundred and Fifty Million U.S. Dollars) since 2017 without anything to show for it.

Lamenting the corruption and looting going on in HYPREP yesterday (February 14, 2020) during a briefing in his office in Bori, headquarter of Khana local government area,  President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke said it was unfortunate that an overwhelming $350million, an estimated NGN128,000,000,000 (One hundred and twenty eight billion Naira) meant for the cleanup has been largely misappropriated due to the massive corruption in HYPREP. read more

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted during the last few days on Trustpilot.  Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. This article posted 13 Feb 2020.

Truely awful, avoid at all cost

Truely awful. Takes very long to answer phones every time, no matter what day of week. I bought a house and received estimated bills. When I tried to update the reading, it keeps saying on the system it’s invalid. But they wouldn’t listen that I haven’t moved in yet. And of course I keep getting estimated bills which are way higher than they should be. read more

BP’s new boss set out the boldest climate goal of any major oil company, pledging Wednesday to eliminate almost all of the carbon emissions from BP operations and the fuel it sells to customers.

Bernard Looney, who has been the company’s chief executive for just a week, set an ambitious agenda for what’s becoming an existential challenge for the oil industry. While peers such as Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Equinor have responded to investor pressure by adopting targets for emissions curbs, none has promised to zero out all emissions from the fossil fuels they pump from the ground. read more

BP’s pledge to zero out all its carbon emissions by 2050 deepens the divide between major European and American oil producers on climate change, increasing the pressure for Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. to do more.

The U.S. giants have committed only to reducing greenhouse gases from their own operations. On Wednesday, BP followed Royal Dutch Shell and Equinor in pledging to offset the carbon emissions from the fuels they sell. Known as Scope 3, the emissions from cars, homes and factories are responsible for 90% of fossil fuel pollution. read more

BP Boss Looney Sets Out to ‘Reinvent’ Oil Giant With Zero Carbon Goal

Reuters: Feb. 12, 2020

LONDON — BP set one of the oil sector’s most ambitious targets for curbing carbon emissions on Wednesday as new chief executive Bernard Looney began the biggest revamp in its 111-year history.

While investor groups welcomed the 2050 targets set out by Looney, which put BP ahead of rivals Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Equinor and all of the U.S. oil majors, environmental campaigners criticized a lack of detail.

“We have got to change and change profoundly because the world is changing fast and so are society’s expectations of us,” Looney said in his first major speech as CEO, after earlier highlighting a need to “reinvent BP”. read more