9 Nov 2019

A raft of measures have been put in place to reduce the amount of ethane Shell is being forced to flare while the Mossmorran plant in Fife is shut.

Shell has been left with a surplus of ethane since its customer Exxonmobil temporarily closed the plant in August.

Now Shell said it had switched from powering its furnaces with propane to using ethane and reduced the amount of North Sea gas it receives.

Residents said they had not noticed much change in flaring.

However, Shell said it had managed to reduce flaring of ethane “significantly” as a result of the new measures, which also include adding ethane into household’s supply of methane. read more

Below is a translation of a news brief issued today 7 Nov 2019 – by NAM, the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field. And also for the consequential potential bill for untold billions to deal with damaged residences like the example in the photograph. Someone forget to mention in the news brief the shocking reason why the Dutch government ordered the closure. The word “earthquake” does not appear anywhere.

TRANSLATION

Close gas field Groningen started in Ten Post

It seems only a signature, but it marks the start of the closure of the Groningen field. At the end of October, NAM transferred the Ten Post gas extraction site to Meuva.  This company will start cleaning up the location around 11 November. read more

By Nick Cunningham – Nov 02, 2019, 4:00 PM CDT

The carbon bubble “continues to inflate,” according to a new report from Carbon Tracker. And yet no major oil company has aligned its operations with the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement.

This is not just a matter of bad corporate behavior. The oil industry is charging ahead with oil and gas projects that completely defy climate targets, which means that they are taking on serious financial risk. “Companies who continue to sanction higher-cost projects which do not fit with a lower demand scenario risk destroying significant shareholder value through the creation of stranded assets,” Carbon Tracker warned. The more companies delay, the greater risk they take on. read more

Jillian Ambrose: Fri 1 Nov 2019 13.02 GMT

The world’s largest oil and gas companies need to slash their production by more than a third by 2040 to meet global climate targets, according to a new report.

The seven listed oil majors – including ExxonMobil, BP and Shell – would need to cut the total amount of oil and gas they produce every day by 35% to avoid driving temperatures 1.5C higher than pre-industrialised levels.

Global governments would also need to stop issuing new oil and gas licences for fossil fuel exploration, according to the report. read more

By HARRY WISE FOR THISISMONEY.CO.UK and PA

PUBLISHED: 12:19, 31 October 2019 | UPDATED: 12:27, 31 October 2019

Oil giant Shell has experienced a large fall in third-quarter profits due to weaker oil prices.

Earnings after stripping out fluctuating expenses fell 15 per cent to £3.7billion, well below estimates it might reach almost £5billion.

Shell was able to charge an average of £43.25 per barrel of oil it produced in the quarter, down from £52.69 in the same three months last year. It was even more than a dollar lower than the second quarter price. read more

Sam Meredith: 31 Oct 2019

• Net income attributable to shareholders on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, used as a proxy for net profit, and excluding identified items, came in at $4.767 billion for the third quarter of 2019.
• That compared with a profit of $5.624 billion in the same quarter a year ago and $3.462 billion in the second quarter.
• Shares of the Anglo-Dutch oil company are down more than 1% when compared to the same period in 2018.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell reported weaker-than-expected third-quarter net profit on Thursday, citing lower energy prices and chemicals margins.

Net income attributable to shareholders on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, used as a proxy for net profit, and excluding identified items, came in at $4.767 billion for the third quarter of 2019. That compared with a profit of $5.624 billion in the same quarter a year ago and $3.462 billion in the second quarter. read more

Oil major investors bracing for bad news as headwinds gather

by Bloomberg: 28/10/2019, 7:05 am Updated: 28/10/2019, 8:12 am

The so-called supermajors — Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp., Total SA and BP Plc — are expected to disclose a 42% plunge in third-quarter earnings, on average, when they post results this week. That drop-off is too steep to blame on the 18% decline in crude oil prices, which means executives will have some explaining to do.

Exxon, Shell, and BP already have already taken steps to manage shareholder expectations by releasing limited data points on things like refinery repairs, asset sales and hurricane impacts on offshore oil production. Nonetheless, investors will be watching for additional color on what to expect for the remainder of 2019. read more

20 October 2019: The Sunday Times

What seemed like the perfect route to a low-carbon world now looks like a risky bet, writes John Collingridge

What do the former Redcar steelworks on Teesside, a university in the Midlands and forests in the Scottish Highlands have in common? Answer: Big Oil is praying they hold the key to its future.

Strikes by schoolchildren, the rise of “flight-shaming” and an exodus of investors have left the energy industry reeling. Oil giants’ multibillion-pound bet — that gas will power the global economy into a low-carbon future — now looks risky.

As the mood changes, Big Oil is making increasingly ambitious — and desperate — attempts to clean itself up and reduce or trap carbon emissions. For giants including Shell, Total and BP, that means carbon capture and storage (CCS) at Redcar, promoting hydrogen as an alternative fuel, such as a pilot at Keele University — and even planting forests in Scotland. read more

Why Big Oil faces court cases that echo the litigation against Big Tobacco in the ’90s

Case that began in New York this week delves into what industry knew about climate change and when

Kelly Crowe · CBC News · Posted: Oct 24, 2019 

How much did the oil industry know about the impact of fossil fuel emissions on the climate? When did they know it? And what did they do with that knowledge?

Those are the central questions in a series of court cases attempting to hold companies accountable for their role in climate change.

It’s been called Big Oil’s “Big Tobacco” moment, echoing the famous litigation that exposed how tobacco companies deliberately generated scientific uncertainty even though they knew that cigarettes cause cancer. read more

GRONINGEN, the Netherlands — Driving through fields of low-lying Dutch farmland you pass an occasional odd cluster of silvery pipes and tanks. They are the only visible sign that deep below this northeast corner of the Netherlands is one of the world’s largest natural gas fields.

Unless you stop by one of the nearby farmhouses weakened by earthquakes linked to gas extraction. At her handsome home in the village of Appingedam, Nicole van Eijkern pointed to sagging external walls and cracked ceilings. Heavy beams buttress her house, inside and out, and it is scheduled to be torn down. read more

Oil lobby’s reach into EU politics – The five biggest oil and gas companies – BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total – and their industry groups have spent at least €251m (£217m) lobbying the EU over climate policies since 2010. Researchers say the figure represents the tip of the iceberg, as in some years companies made no declarations of spending in the voluntary EU transparency register. Pascoe Sabido, researcher at Corporate Europe Observatory, said the oil and gas lobby had “delayed, weakened and sabotaged EU action on the climate emergency thanks to their hefty lobby spending. A cool quarter of a billion over the last decade buys a lot of access and influence in Brussels.” read more

By Danielle Haynes

Oct. 22 (UPI) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stay the city of Baltimore’s lawsuit against a group of oil companies it accuses of contributing to climate change.

The high court’s decision clears the way for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to determine whether the case should proceed in state court. The oil companies — including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell — requested the stay, seeking to have various state-level lawsuits moved into federal court to eliminate the “costs and burdens of duplicative litigation.” read more

The group of companies includes BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Message sent to all members of the Guardian newspaper

This week we are running a powerful new series called The polluters, in which The Guardian’s team of environmental journalists around the world have investigated the impact of the fossil fuel industry — as well as the structures behind it — which are driving the climate emergency.

The reporting reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. In a video explainer, the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, details how these firms have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry’s devastating impact on the planet since at least the 1950s, and this excellent timeline shows the shocking levels of denial. read more

Shell has been forced to burn off “significant” volumes of ethane it cannot sell to a firm temporarily shut down over flaring issues in Fife.

Residents living near the Mossmorran site thought flaring would be reduced after Exxonmobil was closed in August.

However, ground flares have continued to burn because Shell’s only ethane customer is Exxonmobil, which shares the site.

Shell said it was “actively exploring alternative ethane outlets”.

Shell’s Fife Natural Gas Liquids plant separates natural gas liquids into ethane, propane, butane and natural gasoline for storage and onward distribution. 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