Oct 4, 2019

MEXICO CITY — U.S.-based Chevron Corp said on Friday it signed an agreement with a unit of Royal Dutch Shell to buy a 40% stake in three deepwater blocks in the Mexican Gulf that the Anglo-Dutch firm won in auctions under the nation’s energy reform.

The deal was approved earlier this week by Mexico’s oil regulator, the National Hydrocarbon Commission.

“This agreement further strengthens the company’s upstream Mexico portfolio and advances its growth strategy in deepwater exploration,” Chevron’s spokesman, Ray Fohr, said in a statement. read more

Summary

*While Chevron, Exxon, Occidental and other oil majors are eagerly ramping up shale acquisitions and production, Shell has been more reserved in this regard.

*Shale resources may help companies improve on upstream production volumes and reserves, but profitability is questionable, leading to potentially net negative trade-off for investors.

*The ethane plant in Pennsylvania is an example of Shell wisely making use of lower natural gas prices, rather than being on the upstream side, losing money.

Much has been made lately of the deep dive into shale that the likes of oil majors such as Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon (NYSE:XOM) decided to take in the past few years. A fight over Anadarko (NYSE:APC) between Chevron and Occidental (NYSE:OXY) was perhaps the most emblematic symbol of this industry-changing trend. Analysts and investors quickly jumped to the conclusion that it is imperative for all oil majors to jump in and compete with each other on acquiring and developing shale assets. Exxon and Chevron are currently planning to increase shale production to 1 mb/d each. Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has been more timid in this regard, and given the profitability profile of the overall shale industry, I am fully satisfied with its position in this regard. Shell’s downstream investments, such as the Pennsylvania ethane plant, meant to take advantage of low shale prices, seems to make far more sense than rushing to produce the low-priced natural gas. Nor does it seem all that wise to rush to produce shale oil, which requires extremely high capital expenses to produce. Some investors may believe that it is more important to maintain reserves and production by diving into the shale patch. I personally think that it is not worth diluting Shell’s overall profitability profile by producing shale oil and gas for the sake of maintaining the company’s overall production numbers. read more

Reporting by Ron Bousso, additional reporting by Jennifer Hiller in Houston; Editing by Susan Fenton and Louise Heavens: Sept 6, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Major oil companies have approved $50 billion of projects since last year that will not be economically viable if governments implement the Paris Agreement on climate change, think-tank Carbon Tracker said in a report published on Friday.

The analysis found that investment plans by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), BP (BP.L) and ExxonMobil (XOM.N) among other companies will not be compatible with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. read more

The $20 billion fund says oil companies including ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are not doing enough to meet goals set out in the Paris Agreement. But the fund has ruled out a blanket ban on fossil fuel companies.

5 Sept 2019

A Danish pension fund has said it would sell its stake in major oil companies as their business models are incompatible with the goals set out in the Paris climate agreement.

MP Pension, a $20 billion (€18 billion) pension for Danish M.A’s, M.Sc.’s and Ph.D’s who are employed in public sector universities and upper secondary schools, said it would dump its stakes in 10 of the world’s largest oil companies, including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, PetroChina, Rosneft and Royal Dutch Shell. read more

Bloomberg News: Mikael Holter and Christian Wienberg: September 3, 2019 

A $20 billion fund in Denmark, MP Pension, is selling its stakes in the 10 biggest oil companies after deciding they haven’t done enough to live up to climate goals set out in the Paris accord.

The divestment, which represents a total of 644 million kroner (US$95 million), means MP will no longer hold shares in ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, PetroChina, Rosneft, Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Total, Petrobras or Equinor, according to an emailed statement on Tuesday. read more

Danish pension fund excludes top oil firms on climate concerns

SEPT 3, 2019

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish pension fund MP Pension said on Tuesday it would sell its stakes in 10 of the world’s biggest oil firms as it seeks to divest major sources of carbon emissions from its portfolio.

MP Pension said it would sell its stakes in ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, PetroChina, Rosneft, Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Total, Petrobras and Equinor.

“The divestment happens because MP assesses that the companies’ long-term business models are incompatible with the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement,” it said in a statement. read more

Shell had it worst. Its B shares in London have plunged more than 12% last month, a decline not seen since the 2008 financial crisis, which has knocked almost £26bn ($32bn) off its market value. That’s put chief executive officer Ben van Beurden’s dream of being No 1 in the industry by every measure even further out of reach. read more

Ciara Newton had her dream job at a Shell refinery. But she was fired after enduring months of harassment, including sexist comments from supervisors and a lewd sticker.

Zahra Hirji: BuzzFeed News Reporter: Reporting From Oakland, California
Last updated on August 6, 2019, at 1:14 p.m. ET
Posted on August 6, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. ET

OAKLAND, California — She walked toward the witness stand at eight months pregnant, her slow steps echoing in the cavernous federal courtroom.

Two years earlier, she had been fired from her dream job at a Shell refinery after enduring months of harassment — sexist comments from two male supervisors, reprimands for documenting her coworkers’ mistakes, a lewd sticker on her desk. She got the termination notice just days before the end of her job’s nine-month probation period. The fallout was devastating. She lost the loan needed to buy her recently widowed mother’s house, spiraled into depression and anxiety, and ended up working at an airline two hours from her home for half the pay. read more

Shell’s profits slump to 30-month low on weak oil, gas prices

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s second quarter profits slumped to a 30-month low due to lower oil and natural gas prices and refining margins, falling far short of forecasts.

The Anglo-Dutch company reported on Thursday a rise in cash generation – a sign of improving operations – but the drop in profit dents a steady recovery since the end of 2016.

Shell, the world’s second-largest publicly-traded energy company, joins rivals Total and Norway’s Equinor in reporting weak results for the quarter. read more

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that there was no impact to operations at the Prelude floating LNG facility as a result of the earthquake. The company had earlier declined to comment.

JULY 15, 2019 

MELBOURNE, July 15 (Reuters) – Oil and gas operations onshore and offshore Western Australia were unaffected by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake that struck off the northern coast of the state on Sunday, the country’s offshore petroleum safety regulator and companies said.

“NOPSEMA has not received any reports of impacts to offshore oil and gas facilities following the earthquake,” a spokesman for the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) said. read more

By Irina Slav – Jul 11, 2019, 3:00 PM CDT

Shell has furthered its stated commitment to cleaner electricity by investing in a U.S startup that has developed a blockchain-based platform for energy sharing.

The startup, LOW3 Energy, said in a press release earlier this week that Shell Ventures and Japanese Sumitomo had made “major investments” in its platform, which “represents a landmark moment for LO3 Energy as we begin to scale our blockchain-based energy networks around the world,” according to chief executive Lawrence Orsini. 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.

FULL FT ARTICLE

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

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

By David Fickling | Bloomberg: June 5 at 7:03 AM

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

By Dulue Mbachu and Sherry Su: 30 April 2019, 10:38 BST Updated on 30 April 2019

Shell, Total declare force majeure on some crude oil grades

Idled Chevron well suffers fire after third-party incident

A spate of disruptions and security concerns, including kidnappings, are threatening to hinder surging Nigerian oil exports.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA declared force majeure on some of their Nigerian exports over the past week, a measure that allows companies to skip supply obligations. Chevron Corp.’s Nigerian unit said an idled well was interfered with.

While the precise cause of the Total force majeure remains unclear, the Shell and Chevron incidents involved third parties. The disruption comes just a few years after militants caused Nigeria’s oil production to plunge by attacking pipelines and other pieces of energy infrastructure. read more

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

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