Shell outlines tighter upstream, refining footprint in post-COVID transition plans

• Author Robert Perkins 
• Editor Debiprasad Nayak 
• Commodity Coal,  Natural Gas,  Oil

London — Shell plans to focus its future upstream operations on nine core areas and transform its refining portfolio into six integrated sites which are part of moves to grow its low-carbon businesses and support its cash flows, the major said Oct. 29.

Reporting stronger than expected third-quarter earnings, Shell said it wants to pursue more “value over volume” by simplifying its upstream assets to nine significant core positions; Brazil, Brunei, Gulf of Mexico, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Permian and UK North Sea. It said combined the areas will generate more than 80% of its upstream cash flow from operations. read more

Royal Dutch Shell: Energy Transition Woes

• Poor messaging from management, as well as an ill-prepared balance sheet caused in part by buybacks, has caused the European major a lot of pain.
• Arguably, senior executives deserve to be shown the door. But even if that happens, expect the pivot away from fossil fuels to continue.
• Is the move into Power and other “Green Energy” assets the right move? Maybe, maybe not.
• This idea was discussed in more depth with members of my private investing community, Energy Income Authority. Get started today »

I often get asked why I don’t cover the supermajors all that often on Seeking Alpha. The answer comes down to a rather simple reality: time invested versus potential gain. Anyone that has followed my long / short book knows that whatever I take a stake in, I know inside out. Quite frankly, the sprawling operations of most majors coupled with competing against institutionals that have enough research analysts on the payroll to pack a local gymnasium makes it a losing proposition – or at least in my view. read more

Shell prepares for major production cuts to refocus on green strategy

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.L) is looking to cut up to 40% off its costs related to producing oil and gas as it focuses on the renewable energy and power markets.

That’s according to a source who spoke exclusively to Reuters.

The project is known internally as Project Reshape and is expected to be completed by the end of this year, said Monday’s report. There will be three main divisions of the business that are impacted by the cuts and they will reportedly be in addition to a $4bn (£3.1bn) target set in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. read more

Exclusive: Shell launches major cost-cutting drive to prepare for energy transition

By Ron Bousso: SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is looking to slash up to 40% off the cost of producing oil and gas in a major drive to save cash so it can overhaul its business and focus more on renewable energy and power markets, sources told Reuters.

Shell’s new cost-cutting review, known internally as Project Reshape and expected to be completed this year, will affect its three main divisions and any savings will come on top of a $4 billion target set in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. read more

‘Stranded Assets’ Risk Rising With Climate Action and $40 Oil

By Laura Hurst | Bloomberg:

September 18, 2020 at 7:55 a.m. GMT+1

What had seemed like an abstract debate about leaving oil, gas and coal in the ground to fight climate change has suddenly become real. Environmental activists have long fought for lower fossil-fuel production. Now, with the pandemic crippling economies and reducing energy use and prices, drillers and miners are coming to grips with projects that are no longer viable. Some companies are even abandoning investments, leaving deposits worth billions of dollars in the ground to languish as so-called “stranded assets.” While environmentalists applaud, fund managers, banks and regulators worry that project financing could sour and collateral become worthless. read more

 by Allister Thomas: 30/07/2020, 7:55 am Updated: 30/07/2020, 8:26 am

Shell has posted losses of $18.1billion (£14bn) for the second quarter of 2020 as oil, LNG and gas prices remain depressed.

The energy major took an impairment charge of $16.8billion (£12.9bn) – $22.3bn pre-tax (£17.2bn) -as it wrote down the valuation of assets due to the downturn and Covid-19.

Shell’s second quarter results compare to a profit of $3.1bn (£2.39bn) in the same period last year,  while revenues have dropped to $32.5bn, compared to $60bn in Q1 2020 and $90.5bn Q2 2019. read more

Shell airlifts workers after coronavirus outbreak on Gulf rig

Workers aboard a Shell Oil offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico have tested positive for the coronavirus and flown back to land for treatment, a KHOU report says.

by L M Sixel and Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle: 28/05/2020

Shell Oil, the U.S. subsidiary of energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, has evacuated nine workers from a company platform in the Gulf of Mexico for testing and treatment of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. 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

As oil prices collapse, Shell is postponing the final investment decisions (FIDs) for two planned projects, one in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and another in the UK North Sea, a source with the supermajor told Reuters on Wednesday.

Shell is now thinking of postponing the FID for the development of the Whale discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, Reuters’ source said. The initial FID timeframe was to make the decision later in 2020, but it is now postponed to 2021.

Shell announced the large deepwater discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in January 2018, although it had made it six months earlier. Back then, the company said that the Whale discovery was “one of its largest U.S. Gulf of Mexico exploration finds in the past decade.” Shell is the operator of the planned project with a 60-percent interest, while U.S. supermajor Chevron holds the other 40 percent. read more

As BP Plc’s new chief delivers his vision to transform the company on Wednesday, investors and activists want to know just how much appetite he has to take on the existential crisis facing the oil industry.

12 February 2020

Bernard Looney’s big challenge will be to navigate BP through an energy transition with the world falling out of love with oil, and louder demands from investors to pivot toward clean energy. When climate protesters forced the company to shut its London headquarters last week, the 49-year-old Irishman promised them he would address their concerns.

BP is already taking some modest steps to address climate change, including investment in renewables and selling some of its most carbon-intensive assets. But it remains an oil major through and through, still very much the company that tapped the first fields in Iran early in the last century and drilled wildcat wells on the Alaskan frontier more than 60 years ago. read more

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH:

Harry Brennan: 26 JANUARY 2020 • 5:00AM From page 9 of the Money Section

Why pension savers cannot afford to be ethical

There’s a climate crisis, but investors are increasingly relying on oil and sin stocks to survive, finds Harry Brennan

The world is currently on fire, according to the teenage climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, the green activist demanded world leaders and money managers halt investment in fossil fuels and immediately, and completely, divest from “carbon assets” to avert a climate apocalypse and save the planet.

But can savers truly afford to put their money into exclusively ethical investments? read more

Stephen Stapczynski, Anna Shiryaevskaya and Naureen S. Malik. Bloomberg: January 24, 2020

(Bloomberg) — Liquefied natural gas prices are poised to test record lows this year thanks to an onslaught of supply and warmer temperatures, throwing up risks and opportunities for the producers, buyers and traders behind the world’s fastest-growing fossil fuel.

The startup of new export projects from Australia to the U.S. has flooded the market, while brimming stockpiles in Europe and an expected slowdown in Chinese demand have dumped cold water on consumption prospects. LNG for spot delivery to North Asia is on track to hit an all-time low this summer, while gas prices in Europe and the U.S. are trading at the weakest seasonal levels since 1999. read more

“Investors are gradually moving away from energy stocks. A look behind the dividend payments of the leading companies helps explain why. For the core business of these companies, there is more money going out than coming in.” 

By Jordan Blum: Thursday, January 16, 2020

The largest oil and gas companies for years have lived beyond their means and paid more money to investors than they can reasonably afford, according to a new report.

The study from the Cleveland-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that the five largest Big Oil majors — Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total — spent $536 billion on shareholder dividends and stock buybacks since 2010 while bringing in just $329 billion in free cash flow. read more

Jessica Resnick-Ault, Laura Sanicola: January 9, 2020

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) is looking to sell its oil refinery in Anacortes, Washington, according to three people familiar with the matter.

If completed, this and other asset sales currently underway would reduce Shell’s North American refining operations to large plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast, said the people, speaking on condition of anonymity as the talks are private.

Oil and gas major Shell has publicly committed to selling more than $5 billion (3.8 billion pounds) of assets per year in 2019 and 2020. The Netherlands-based company is trying to use its global scale to build a power business as the world moves toward cleaner energy. read more

• BY ANTHONY MCAULEY | STAFF WRITER
• DEC 24, 2019 – 10:39 AM

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed on Tuesday that it plans to move about 50 New Orleans-based jobs to Houston next year, but said it is committed to keeping its core deepwater operations in the city long-term.

The company, which is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, said that the jobs being relocated to Shell’s North American headquarters in Texas are primarily from the subsurface and seismic processing teams.

A spokesman for Shell in New Orleans, Paul Hagel, said that the job-shuffle is a routine adjustment for the company and should not be seen as affecting the company’s long-term commitment to the city as headquarters of its deepwater operations for the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Malaysia and elsewhere. read more

NEWS PROVIDED BY Shell: Nov 14, 2019, 16:11 ET

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — New, deep-water production has come online from the Brazilian pre-salt Santos Basin.  Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. (Shell Brasil) and its consortium partners today announced the start of oil and natural gas production at the P-68 floating production, storage, and offloading unit (FPSO), located in BM-S-11A Concession in Berbigão, Sururu and West Atapu.

The FPSO can process up to 150,000 barrels of oil and 6 million cubic meters of natural gas daily. Operated by Petrobras, P-68 features ten producing wells and seven injection wells. read more