One big question emerging from the pandemic is whether it will speed up the global shift away from oil. Life under lockdown gave a taste of a world that burns less petroleum, with consumption down by about a quarter and city dwellers from Los Angeles to New Delhi relishing the cleaner air. As restrictions eased, things weren’t exactly returning to normal. Many workers had given up on commuting and there was talk that air travel might never recover. On the other hand, rock-bottom oil prices and the desire to avoid crowded public transport had some people driving to work for the first time or taking road trips instead of flying. read more

LOS ANGELES — Big Oil lost a pair of court battles Tuesday that could lead to trials in lawsuits by California cities and counties seeking damages for the impact of climate change.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by energy companies and ruled state courts are the proper forum for lawsuits alleging producers promoted petroleum as environmentally responsible when they knew it was contributing to drought, wildfires, and sea level rise associated with global warming.

The lawsuits claim Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other companies created a public nuisance and should pay for damage from climate change and help build sea walls and other infrastructure to protect against future impact — construction that could cost tens of billions of dollars. read more

Economies worldwide have ground to a halt as virus containment measures have taken their toll, slashing gas demand for power generation, heating, cooking, vehicles and chemical manufacture. The world’s biggest LNG markets – Japan, China, South Korea and India – are all seeing a drop in demand.

Asia’s spot LNG prices LNG-AS dropped to $1.85 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) last week, the lowest ever, as cargoes have flooded the market. [LNG/]

“At prices in the $2/mmBtu range … some producers are getting close to not recovering cash costs of their operations. We are likely to see some producers start to ‘shut in’ (production),” said Alex Dewar, senior manager at the centre for energy impact at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). read more

Bloomberg News: Javier Blas: April 26, 2020

(Bloomberg) — Negative oil prices, ships dawdling at sea with unwanted cargoes, and traders getting creative about where to stash oil. The next chapter in the oil crisis is now inevitable: great swathes of the petroleum industry are about to start shutting down.

The economic impact of the coronavirus has ripped through the oil industry in dramatic phases. First it destroyed demand as lockdowns shut factories and kept drivers at home. Then storage started filling up and traders resorted to ocean-going tankers to store crude in the hope of better prices ahead. 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

FTSE leaves coal and oil firms and G4S on ethical investment list

Extracts:

The latest publicly available factsheets show that 65 oil and gas companies were already present on FTSE4Good’s emerging and developed markets indices. They included British and French oil “supermajors” Royal Dutch Shell and Total – the sixth and 17th biggest contributers to carbon dioxide pollution in history.

“Looking at the number of oil companies listed in this index, this looks more like FTSE4Crude than FTSE4Good,” said Rosie Rogers, the head of Greenpeace UK’s climate campaign. “It takes some brass neck to argue that there’s anything ‘ethical’ about investing in the fossil fuel companies driving the climate emergency.” 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

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

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

Mark Robinson

Last week, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) revealed that it is facing charges in the Netherlands relating to corruption allegations surrounding a Nigerian oil bloc called OPL 245. Shell and Italian major ENI SpA (ENI.IM) acquired the licence in 2011 for around $1.3bn (£992m), but it’s alleged that a significant proportion of the monies was destined for use as kickbacks for politicians and officials, with former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete – a convicted money launderer – acting as the principal intermediary. Although the funds were paid to the Nigerian government, it’s claimed that they found their way into the coffers of Malabu Oil and Gas — a company linked to Mr Etete. read more

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By Liam Denning: 26 July 2018, 18:16 BST

You oil investors are one tough crowd. I mean, what do you want, really?

On Thursday morning in Europe, Royal Dutch Shell Plc finally came around and gave the masses what they had been shouting for: a $25 billion buyback program. The masses promptly dumped the stock. On Thursday morning in America, ConocoPhillips announced a slew of forecast-beating results, having recently boosted its own buyback program by $1 billion. But it also said it was raising its full-year investment budget by $500 million. Pearls were duly clutched and “sell” buttons pushed (the stock had moved into slightly positive territory as of writing this). read more

U.S. court dismisses climate change lawsuits against oil companies

Reuters Staff: JUNE 26, 2018

(Reuters) – A federal court in California dismissed climate change lawsuits by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against five oil companies, saying the complaints required foreign and domestic policy decisions that were outside its purview. San Francisco and Oakland sued Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and BP Plc last year seeking an abatement fund to help the cities address flooding they said was a result of climate change. Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said in the ruling that the dangers raised by the complainants were real and worldwide, and both parties accepted the science behind global warming. FULL ARTICLE read more

By Kevin Crowley and Kelly Gilblom
Monday 25 June 2018, 00:00 BST

Big Oil’s fortunes are becoming tied more closely to natural gas than ever before.

Majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc have boosted their proportion of gas output in recent years, helping them trim Exxon Mobil Corp.’s lead as the world’s most valuable oil company. Meanwhile Chevron Corp. added two giant Australian liquefied natural gas projects and Exxon is punching back with two major projects of its own, in Papua New Guinea and Mozambique. read more

A federal judge yesterday said he needed more information before deciding whether to dismiss lawsuits by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland alleging that Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B), BP and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) should pay to protect residents from the impacts of climate change.

The judge also wants the companies to produce additional material backing up claims that they should not be a part of the case because the court lacked jurisdiction over them. read more

By Jeremy Hodges, Lauren Leatherby and Kartikay Mehrotra
May 24, 2018

In the global fight against climate change, one tool is proving increasingly popular: litigation. From California to the Philippines, activists, governments and concerned citizens are suing the biggest polluters and national governments over the effects of climate change at a break-neck pace. “The courts are our last, best hope at this moment of irreversible harm to our planet and life on it,” said Julia Olson, an attorney for Our Children’s Trust, a legal challenge center in the U.S. that is involved in climate change litigation across 13 countries, including the U.S., Pakistan and Uganda. Cases by San Francisco and Oakland face a motion to dismiss the lawsuit today in a California federal court, where Chevron Corp., BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhilips and Royal Dutch Shell Plc will argue that remedies and penalties for climate change are a matter for lawmakers, not a single judge. read more