News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc
EXCLUSIVE: Malabu Scandal: Nigeria grounds Dan Etete’s $57million jet in Canada
Nigeria has tracked down and grounded the luxury private jet purchased by its former oil minister, Dan Etete, with some of the alleged proceeds of the notorious $1.3 billion Malabu OPL245 oil deal.
Asset recovery lawyers acting for the Nigerian government swooped last week after the Bombardier 6000 jet, tail number M-MYNA, touched down at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in Canada on Friday evening (29 May).
Shell, Total and Equinor give green light to major international CO₂ storage project
Bert van DijkShell, together with the French oil and gas group Total and the Norwegian Equinor, has made a final investment decision for a large CO₂ storage project in Norway. The companies want to build infrastructure to transport captured CO₂ from industrial factories in Europe to Norway and store them there in a reservoir under the bottom of the North Sea.
Equinor will lead the project, which will store 1.5 million tons of CO₂ annually. The parties announced this on Friday. It is one of the largest CO₂ storage projects in the world.
According to Shell Canada, free beverages and sandwiches are being offered to every healthcare professional that visits any of the 450 participating Shell service stations across Canada.
Locally, the Shell service stations in Fort St. John, on 100 Street and 96A Street, and in Dawson Creek, on 8th Street, will be taking part in the offer.
Shell says healthcare professionals include EMT staff, nurses and doctors, and can be identified by a uniform or badge, and each personnel will be limited to one offer per visit.
There’s a ton of awesome food and beverage promotions happening across the country for our local superheroes (AKA frontline medical staff).
One more recent deal comes to us from Shell, as the company announced it’s currently offering free sandwiches and drinks to healthcare professionals at participating gas stations across Canada.
All the frontline medical staff need to do is show their healthcare ID at participating stores, and the deal is done.
This offer is valid for a pre-packaged sandwich or other eligible sandwiches such as deli2go, and a hot beverage which includes all sizes of coffee, tea, and/or hot cappuccino. The promo is limited to one per visit per healthcare provider.
In BC, Shell will also be providing a free Nestle 591ml bottle of water to every healthcare professional.
March 4th 2020
A disputed environmental claim publicized by the fossil fuel firms backing a $40-billion liquefied natural gas project in B.C. can be traced back to a lifelong industry insider, who cautioned in interviews that his underlying calculations are “theoretical.”
Rob Seeley has been held up as an independent consultant who has demonstrated the green bona fides of natural gas coming from the proposed B.C. project, LNG Canada. The Coastal GasLink pipeline being built through unceded Wet’suwet’en Nation territory is meant to transport fracked gas to this terminal, where it would be liquefied, loaded onto ships and exported to Asia.
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 $6.2 billion Coastal Gaslink pipeline, which is being built by TC Energy, runs through territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. Some First Nations chiefs support the pipeline, but others do not. Those opposed have demanded a halt to construction.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.
Shell must grapple with its own existential crisis: How should a company that generates most of its profits by serving the world’s enormous appetite for oil navigate a long-term future in which shifting political and economic tides threaten to make fossil fuels obsolete?A peculiar theme park in the Hague celebrates the history of the Netherlands through a series of miniature models. The Madurodam features little canals, old-fashioned windmills, tiny tulips and, amid it all, an homage to Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant that is the biggest company in the country and, by revenue, the second largest publicly traded oil-and-gas company in the world. There’s a Shell drilling platform, a Shell gas station and a Shell natural-gas field, complete with a drilling rig. The display is at once odd–energy infrastructure in a children’s theme park–and entirely fitting: Shell has been, for decades, one of the most powerful players both in Dutch politics and on the global economic stage.
LNG Canada, which is also under construction, is said to be the largest private sector investment in Canadian history, with a price tag of around $40 billion and is being developed by a Royal Dutch Shell-led consortium. Canada’s multi-billion LNG Canada project is facing fresh trouble, as work on a key artery linking the export facility near Kitimat, B.C. to natural gas resources in Dawson Creek area is being halted by First Nations groups.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, representing all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, said over the weekend that they issued an eviction notice to the Coastal GasLink pipeline company, which is building the $6.6 billion project.
LNG Canada, which is also under construction, is said to be the largest private sector investment in Canadian history, with a price tag of around $40 billion and is being developed by a Royal Dutch Shell-led consortium. The project will export Canadian natural gas to Asian markets.
Aside from LNG Canada – which is 40%-owned by Shell – and the Groundbirch gas production complex in British Columbia that will partly supply it, the company has some light oil production, the Scotford refinery, two chemicals plants and a carbon capture facility in Alberta, plus the Sarnia refinery and a lubricants plant in Ontario.
Shell also still owns a 10% stake in the Athabasca oil sands after selling most of its holdings in 2017; Crothers says the company has no plans to sell the rest because it is a core asset which provides feedstock for the Scotford complex.
Emily Gosden, Energy Editor
The Times
About $50 billion of projects approved by oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell and BP within the past year will fail to deliver economic returns if the world meets the Paris climate goals, according to new analysis.
Shell’s huge Canadian liquefied natural gas project, approved last October, and BP’s latest Azerbaijan oil development, approved in April, are among projects that risk becoming “stranded assets”, according to Carbon Tracker, a not-for-profit think tank, which aims to “align capital markets with climate reality”.
POSTING ON OUR SHELL BLOG MONDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2019
…in Caroline Alberta they had a massive sour gas leak on March 23 2003. It was in the local paper….Caroline Alberta or Sundre Alberta. (Sundre roundup)
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.
Jan. 9, 2019 11:58 AM ET| By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor
The Dutch High Court says it will consider demands on Jan. 17 seeking an immediate end to gas production from the Groningen field, after the government said it would cut output gradually.
The High Court says it received 26 objections to the plan, expressing concerns about seismic risks caused by drilling and demanding an urgent halt in production.
Analysts say the court is unlikely to grant an immediate halt because the Netherlands still depends on Groningen gas for a significant part of its energy supply.
Ben van Beurden has marked five years as chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell by giving a “wide-ranging interview” on climate change, his leadership style and “Shell’s biggest financial transformation” — an interview given to, erm, Royal Dutch Shell’s website. But rest assured, the oil group’s in-house journalists weren’t letting their boss off lightly. The transcript published yesterday features such hard-hitting questions as: “Who do you turn to for advice and support?” (answer: his wife, Stacey); “What are you most proud of when you look back at 2018?”; and “Why is trust so important for Shell?” A real zinger, that one.
Shell buys out Total’s 26% stake in Hazira LNG and PortShell Gas, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, acquired 26% equity interest in the Hazira LNG and Port from Total, to complete the acquisition. We did not disclose the financial consideration for the deal.
“The move allows Shell to build an integrated gas value chain: supply from its global LNG portfolio, regasification at the Hazira facility, and downstream customer sales. It further enables Shell to contribute towards India’s long-term need for more and cleaner energy solutions,” Shell said in the statement.
Ben van Beurden Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg
The boss of oil giant Shell has admitted he is “still unhappy” with the firm’s safety performance, despite pledging a redoubling of efforts in 2018.
The Gulf Coast has become home of one the largest producers of a common plastic: Shell fired up its fourth alpha olefins unit at its chemical plant in Geismar, Louisiana, the company said Monday.
The multi-billion dollar expansion adds 425,000 metric tons per a year in capacity to the chemical manufacturing site, bringing its total alpha olefin production up at Geismar to more than 1.3 million metric tons per a year. That makes it the largest alpha olefins producing site in the world, the company said.
Royal Dutch Shell will set carbon emissions targets next year and link these to executive pay, reversing its chief executive’s opposition and following intense pressure from shareholders who want fossil fuel companies to take greater responsibility for their contribution to global warming. FULL FT ARTICLE
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.
: Geert Vermeulen (Ethics & Compliance Officer) posted an article on Linkedin about the Shell OPL 45 debacle and all that surrounds it. This was a response to the article by Adam Bennett: Geert, very easy to pass judgments without knowing full facts and in hindsight. Having previously led the business integrity department at Shell I can tell you things in Nigeria are never that clear cut. One thing I remain certain of is the moral compass of shells leadership. Can’t be the same moral compass most of us are certain of.
: Shell restructuring. See: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/may/27/shell-restructuring-redundancies No better place to start than in Shell's Brazil Asset starting with the BG 'Job for Life' sycophants who have been associated with this asset for more than ten years. Start at the top with the Front End Development and Integrated Reservoir Modelling Manager and work down to the Technical Team Leads comprising sniggering Simons. Invite them all to a meeting entitled 'Wrap-up', make them an 'Offer Without Prejudice' and then constructively dismiss them by discussing their poor performance! A disgraceful asset, corrupt to the core!
: About Dear Rob, he is hardly departing in a blaze of glory, his mission it seems is very much unaccomplished as he departs the scene. Who will take over the poisoned chalice and get the show on the road? In what seems a relatively short time Prelude has gone from being the expected Real Madrid of the engineering project world to a sort of Accrington Stanley, maybe being a bit unfair on the latter. Guess the worst of times was the export of human excrement in paper bags from the installation when the lights went out and nothing on it worked ........
: "And 8% to 12% currently we don’t even make in our upstream business" BvB... That performance includes the huge over runs on Corrib, Penn Chem, Prelude, multiple other LNG projects, Alaska Fiasco, and many other (not to mention OPL 245). It is such an embarrassing comparison to ExxonMobil in projects like Liza, which is highly likely to exceed returns Shell is chasing as a utility. Brasil (or Mexico) have the capacity to deliver similar returns to Liza, if there was leadership and strategy for a long term development. What makes BvB so sure that Shell's management and culture can exceed the returns of the existing players in the "new energies" this time? Maybe the job cuts should start at the top... and not the middle where there is some remaining talent left...
: A recent comment posted here reminded me of an email I received some years ago. It is printed in italics below with one sentence deleted.
If you want some more dirt on Shell Oil, you need to go to the Inspector General’s Office, Defense Security Services, US Dept. of Defense. In 2006 DSS initiated a counter-intelligence operation and Shell USA was implicated as the primary ‘culprit’. The FBI had declined to take the case because they could not get an investigation through the US Attorney Generals office (Alberto Gonzalez) without fear of reprisal. The Houston office of DCIS (the law enforcement arm of the DoD IG’s office) had also tried to initiate an investigation but it was outside their purview.
Do not contact me for further information. I will not respond. The above (alleged) conduct by Shell constitutes a capital crime under US law and there are no statutes of limitations regarding this conduct, for the company or the Shell officials involved. Because of the highly classified nature of the material Shell attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain access to the matter could well trigger a 'diplomatic' incident, and Shell plays 'rough'.
Shell has friends within the US government to whom it turns for intelligence information. I have Shell internal emails confirming this.
: For Mr.Bogus Group: I am a Shell pensioner and I can say we all know that the company is not what it used to be. Its future is not bright and the problem is bad management. When I left the company years ago I chatted with some VP's and they all said the company was not what it used to be and wasn't fun to work for any longer. They also said they would be doing what I was doing if they were 20 years younger. I leave Shell to its inevitable fate.
: USA USA USA, in response to your points. Why was the assurance process broken? – because incompetent managers and executives didn’t understand that implementing an effective work process was more than a Power Point presentation. Why did bullies just tick the box? – because nobody had the courage to challenge them, lest it impeded their prospects to further their own aims. Why did they ignore anyone asking difficult questions? – because imperious managers and executives regarded those who challenged as nonconformists, who threatened their craving for dominance.
: Penn Chem is pure folly. Wasn't the business case tax incentives, using waste products from fracking, being close to customers, good neighbor cleaning up toxic waste, never mind the cost or the risks. But now the only reason to finish is for the tax advantages, and then sell it while the PE price remains low, in the hope that someone thinks they are getting a deal. Demonstration that the first mover risks can outweigh the opportunity... kind of like prelude, or being a power utility, or us wind 15 years ago ... the assurance process is completely broken - bullies just tick the box, while ignoring anyone who asks difficult questions. Maybe we can get another TRUMP visit, and more chants of "USA USA USA"?
: More news of BG diaspora. At the Annual General Meeting of Hurricane Energy plc held on 3rd of June, Ms Beverley Smith was elected as a Director of the Company with 99.85% of the votes in favour, 0.15% votes against. Having previous experience as a VP and overseeing a hasty retreat from Algeria at the now defunct BG Group, will doubtless be valuable when exploring rock bottom and/or fractured basement on the Atlantic Margin!
: Would this be the same managers and geologists that made the competent business development and exploration decision to develop the Knarr Field? A venture that failed to meet its potential, both in terms of daily production and field life. In fact, I recall the UK based BG Group General Manager for Europe was a geologist.
: Useless degree????. 'Also it is not possible to be a competent geologist in the oil and gas business without having a very good background education in both sedimentation and stratigraphy. Both topics go hand in hand. Furthermore, managers at both the middle level and senior level need to be well versed in this subject area in order to make competent business development and exploration decisions.' These would be the same 'job for life', middle to senior level managers and competent geologists who at BG Group, for example, assured work at a cost of £200MM which later cost the company £2Bn because it was wrong (according to the Chief Operating Officer at the time), and also spent more than five years working in an asset following corrupt workflows? From your post on this Blog, I see that your time at a 'reputable university' was well spent in learning how to be exuberant with punctuation. That is all I have to say on the topic. Cheers!
: I was reading your blog today and saw a reference to 'sedimentology' being a 'useless degree'. I do not believe any reputable university offers such a degree. Sedimentology is a sub-discipline within the field of geology. Reputable universities do offer degrees in geology. It is possible to specialize in sedimentology I suppose, but you need to be enrolled in a geology program to do so. I know, I am a geologist, among other things.
Also it is not possible to be a competent geologist in the oil and gas business without having a very good background education in both sedimentation and stratigraphy. Both topics go hand in hand.
That is all I have to say on the topic. Cheers.
Comments RSS Feed