Phasing out fossil fuel is a crucial step to address the climate emergency. But to do so will mean facing not only political and economic obstacles, but legal ones. Fossil fuel companies can use domestic and international laws to demand compensation for bans on fossil fuels or prohibitions on the extraction of oil or coal. The legal system can make our collective transition to a green economy easier, or more difficult; among other things, it can increase the bill we pay for a healthy environment. Like big tobacco, big oil can and will litigate. This legal question becomes especially serious because companies like Shell and Exxon-Mobil can bring cases to a jurisdiction that they contributed to creating in the first place – a forum specially fit for their purposes. read more

Oil And Coal Firms Guilty Of ‘Great Deception’ Through Greenwashing, Say Climate Lawyers

A team of U.K. lawyers today released what they say is new evidence showing that the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies are systematically “greenwashing” their image to make the public believe they are taking concrete steps to combat climate change. In reality, the lawyers say, the firms are committed to increasing the sale of fossil fuels, which will inevitably generate more greenhouse gas emissions. read more

Shell, Exxon Look to Profit From Capturing Customers’ Carbon Emissions

Big oil companies are exploring charging for carbon storage, hoping to benefit from the drive to reduce emissions

By Sarah McFarlane: April 19, 2021 5:30 am ET

Oil companies have for decades made money by extracting carbon from the ground. Now they are trying to make money putting it back.

Energy giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are pushing carbon capture and storage—where carbon is gathered and buried underground—as part of a drive to reduce both their own and their customers’ emissions. Executives say the service could become a new source of income when the industry is grappling with how to adapt to a lower-carbon economy. read more

London museum under fire over climate exhibit sponsored by Shell

“It beggars belief that this iconic British institution has freely chosen to link up with Shell … at such a crucial time,” Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, said in a statement.

By Umberto Bacchi, Thomson Reuters Foundation: APRIL 16, 2021

April 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – London’s Science Museum came under fire on Friday for having oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell as a sponsor of an upcoming exhibition on climate change, a move described by environmental groups as “out-of-step”. read more

Shell says electric vehicles will be crucial in its efforts to lower carbon emissions

• Electric vehicles will play a critical role in Royal Dutch Shell’s decarbonizing efforts – opening up opportunities in this mobility sector, according to a senior executive at the oil giant.
• Huibert Vigeveno, downstream director at Shell, says the company intends to expand its global EV charging stations network worldwide, pledging to have 2.5 million charging points by 2030.

Electric vehicles will play a critical role in Royal Dutch Shell’s efforts to cut emissions, according to a senior executive at the oil giant.

“If you look at the decarbonization opportunities of this mobility sector, EV plays a crucial role,” said Huibert Vigeveno, downstream director at Shell, adding that the company intends to expand its global electric vehicle charging stations network worldwide. read more

Shell plays down risk of stranded oil and gas reserves

The disclosure is a rare admission by a major oil and gas company that some of its reserves may be worthless in a world shifting to renewable energy from fossil fuels in an effort to stem global warming.

The Anglo-Dutch company said in a document to investors summarising its climate strategy that around 75% of its proved oil and gas reserves will be produced by 2030, with an additional 3% produced after 2040.

Since late 2019, Shell has wiped out over $20 billion from the value of its oil and gas reserves after lowering the outlook for commodity prices because of the energy transition and the impact on demand of the COVID-19 pandemic. read more

Shell Urges Shareholders to Reject Activist Climate Plan

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s board has urged shareholders to reject a climate resolution filed by Dutch activist investor Follow This in favor of its own energy transition plan, which the company will put to a vote next month.

The Anglo-Dutch major said that the Follow This resolution, which asks Shell to set and publish targets consistent with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, is “redundant” given its own “more comprehensive strategy,” according to a company notice. read more

Shell flags shrinking oil, gas reserves life in energy transition document for shareholders

• author Robert Perkins 
• Editor Jonathan Fox 

HIGHLIGHTS

Two-thirds of proved reserves to be produced by 2040

Comes amid rising concerns over future asset write-offs

Shell expects oil production to slide by 1-2% in coming years

London — Shell expects to have produced about two-thirds of its existing oil and gas reserves over the next two decades, the company said April 15, highlighting its falling exposure to future oil prices as the major shifts focus to renewable energy and electricity supplies. read more

Shell to Let Shareholders Vote on Shift to Cleaner Energy

By Sarah McFarlane: April 15, 2021 9:05 am ET

LONDON— Royal Dutch Shell PLC detailed a first-of-a-kind shareholder vote over its pivot away from oil, asking investors to endorse its energy transition strategy in a nonbinding vote next month.

While environmental groups have long put forward climate-related resolutions at annual shareholder meetings, Shell’s move is the first by an oil major to set up a regular review of its progress in moving away from oil. read more

Future of Brent Oil Platform’s Giant Legs Remains Uncertain

Laura Hurst: 09 April 2021

(Bloomberg) — The U.K. government is still undecided on whether it will allow Royal Dutch Shell Plc to leave in the sea the giant concrete legs that once supported the iconic Brent oil platforms.

Shell has asked for permission to leave the columns — each almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower and together weighing around 1 million tons — jutting from the water because it says removing them would pose a greater environmental risk. A government decision on the matter, which was last due in September, has dragged. read more

Shell threatens to leave US trade groups over climate disagreements

The Netherlands-based oil major took aim at the American Petroleum Institute, the Texas Oil & Gas Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pushing them to support and advocate for climate policies in line with the Paris climate agreement. The 2015 agreement aims to limit the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Shell’s move reassessing its trade group memberships comes as the European oil giant moves from its longtime fossil fuels business to meet its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. read more

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell says it will take a £145m first-quarter hit from Texas freeze that left nearly 200 dead

• Severe freezing weather hit Texas in February this year triggering many deaths
• Millions of people were also left without power and Shell’s operations were hit 

By JANE DENTON FOR THISISMONEY

PUBLISHED: 09:22, 7 April 2021 | UPDATED: 09:24, 7 April 2021

Royal Dutch Shell has warned that the severe winter storm in Texas earlier this year looks set to hit its bottom line for the fist quarter.

In February, a snowstorm swept across Texas and swathes of North America, knocking out sections of the former’s electricity grid, leaving millions without power and nearly 200 people dead. read more

Zik Gbemre: ON HOW TO REVAMP NIGERIA’S UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM OIL & GAS SECTOR

3 APRIL 2021

With recent reports that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved a whopping $1.5 billion to rehabilitate the epileptic Port Harcourt refinery, I consider it a national tragedy and a shame of a nation that Nigeria, despite its over fifty decades of oil and gas exploration and production activities, has been exporting its hugely produced crude oil and natural gas at commercial quantity and then import ‘refined petroleum products’ at higher costs to satisfy domestic demands. The said move, according to the government, is to ensure that the obsolete Port-Harcourt refinery, which last benefitted from a Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM) work in 2000, comes back to life, while also supposedly contributing to the development of Nigeria’s oil sector. read more

April 1, 2021

The company in charge of gas extraction in Groningen is disputing thousands of claims for damages by homeowners because it says the government’s criteria are too strict.

The NAM, a joint venture set up by Shell and Esso in 1947 to exploit the Netherlands’ natural resources, said the risk to safety had been exaggerated ‘by a factor of one to ten thousand’ in some cases.

It said the vibration limits used to assess if damage to homes was the result of earthquakes were too low and also queried the costs of processing the claims. read more

Oil companies defeat New York City appeal over global warming

By Jonathan Stempel, Sebastien Malo: 3 MIN READ: APRIL 1, 2021/ 2:53 PM

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected New York City’s effort to hold five major oil companies liable to help pay the costs of addressing harm caused by global warming.

Ruling in favor of BP Plc, Chevron Corp, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions should be addressed under federal law and international treaties. read more

Shell takes control of first Dutch offshore wind farm

30 March 2021

Shell has acquired Vattenfall’s 50% share in the 108MW Egmond aan Zee offshore wind farm, one of the first to be built.

Following the transaction Shell is the 100% owner of NoordzeeWind that manages the asset.

Vattenfall head of asset management Kasper Simonsen said: “The lessons we have learned from the first Dutch offshore wind farm can be applied in the construction of Hollandse Kust Zuid and other future offshore wind farms. read more