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

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

By Reuters• last updated: 01/07/2019 – 16:04

(Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> confirmed two fatalities as a result of an incident at its Auger Tension Leg Platform in the deep-water U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Sunday morning.

“One other non-life-threatening injury was sustained, and that individual is being treated at a nearby hospital,” Shell said in an emailed response on Monday.

The accident occurred around 9:00 a.m. CST during a routine and mandatory test of a lifeboat launch and retrieval capabilities at the platform, located 214 miles south of New Orleans. read more

READ MORE

READ MORE

In brief

*The number of accidents per man-hour worked has risen again for the first time in a long time last year.

*A series of incidents, criminal investigations and warnings from regulators are damaging Shell’s safety image.

*Shell CEO Van Beurden himself is also not satisfied and wants to do more to guarantee safety.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.

Beeld: Getty Images/ bewerking: FD Studio

Shells gas leaks, fires and accidents

Bert van Dijk: 13 March 2019

Last year the number of accidents per hour worked increased at the oil company. Supervisors warn that Shell needs to do more about safety.

In December 2017, during regular maintenance work, a lifeboat suddenly came loose on the Shell platform Brent Alpha in the North Sea. The lifeboat fell into the sea and was recovered a day later. Although no one is injured, it was not the first time. In 2008, it was discovered that two lifeboats on another nearby Shell platform, Brent Bravo, were technically in such poor condition that they had to be replaced. And in 2007 a rescue boat on another Shell platform broke loose and collapsed into the sea. read more

Ben van Beurden Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

The boss of oil giant Shell has admitted he is “still unhappy” with the firm’s safety performance, despite pledging a redoubling of efforts in 2018.

Written by David McPhee – 07/01/2019 1:03 pm

Chief executive, Ben van Beurden, raised a call to redouble the firm’s focus on safety last year after a number of serious incidents in 2017.

An overturned tanker spill and explosion in Pakistan caused the tragic death of 200 people, while there were also fatalities in Canada and Nigeria.

Mr van Beurden added he is also focusing on restoring trust in the oil firm.

He said: “I’m still unhappy with our safety performance.

“In 2018, sadly two people died on our watch – one at a refinery in Germany and another at an onshore well in the USA.

“More broadly, the safety performance at our facilities has improved, but our performance on personal safety is worse than the previous year.

“We have to step up our efforts to keep people safe.”

Mr van Beurden also said that he can see that trust has noticed an “eroding” or trust in the UK, the Netherlands and the USA.

Shell came under heavy criticism from climate groups in 2018, with high profile opposition coming from investor group Follow This.

The firm also faced widespread shareholder opposition over chief executive pay last year.

Mr van Beurden said: “I feel an attack on Shell as an attack on my personal integrity. It’s something I feel deeply, probably at least once a day. If I can reduce that to once every other day, I’ll know that we are making progress.

“Of our three strategic ambitions – to become a world-class investment case, to thrive through the transition to lower-carbon energy and to have a strong societal licence to operate – I’m confident that we can achieve the first two.

“But I can’t see a sure path towards strengthening our societal licence to operate just yet.

“We need to change people’s perceptions through better performance and behaviours. And we need to have a better dialogue with civil society in some parts of the world.”

SOURCE

Marissa Luck, Houston Chronicle: Monday, Jan 7, 2019

The Gulf Coast has become home of one the largest producers of a common plastic: Shell fired up its fourth alpha olefins unit at its chemical plant in Geismar, Louisiana, the company said Monday.

The multi-billion dollar expansion adds 425,000 metric tons per a year in capacity to the chemical manufacturing site, bringing its total alpha olefin production up at Geismar to more than 1.3 million metric tons per a year. That makes it the largest alpha olefins producing site in the world, the company said. read more

READ MORE

READ MORE

READ MORE

READ MORE

READ MORE

READ MORE

Shell celebrates 40 years of deep-water innovation: CISION: 15 Oct 2018

Gazprom and Shell discuss next steps in Baltic LNG project: LNG INDUSTRY: 15 Oct 2018

Shell reaches milestone on plastics plant in Northeast, potentially a Gulf competitor: Houston Chronicle: 14 Oct 2018

Latest news roundup for Royal Dutch Shell Plc. News reports from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other news media organisations.

Shell CEO Considers New Natural-Gas Bet

Dow, Shell Accused Of Polluting Drinking Water With TCP

In Nigeria, Shell’s onshore roots still run deep

Oil and gas output at Russia’s Pacific Sakhalin island seen down in 2019

Shell Is in Talks to Sell $1.3 Billion in Gulf Coast Assets

Exclusive – Shell wins LNG deal to supply Chinese firm’s power plant in Panama

Shell and Exxon’s secret 1980s climate change warnings read more

By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor: 12 July 2018