Energy giant Shell has brushed off persistent talk about technical problems dogging the start-up of the huge Prelude floating LNG project off Australia’s far north-west coast but has signalled the first LNG cargo from the closely watched venture may still be several weeks away. FULL ARTICLE
Shell Offshore Inc. has agreed to pay a $2.2 million civil fine to the federal government to settle charges that the company violated the Clean Water Act by spilling 1,900 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in May 2016 when a subsea pipeline cracked at the company’s Green Canyon oil field. FULL ARTICLE
ROYAL Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden has underlined the fact the company wants to grow in the UK North Sea even as he expressed concern about the prospect of a no-deal Brexit. Speaking after Shell posted a 36 per cent increase in annual profits to a four year high of $21.4 billion (£16.3bn), from $15.8bn, Mr van Beurden said the oil giant believed a no deal Brexit would be “a very bad outcome” but had prepared for the possibility. FULL ARTICLE
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FUEL giant Shell came under fire yesterday after unveiling a 36 percent profit leap – while “exploiting hardworking motorists”.
Executives at the British-Dutch company were jubilant after reporting a £4.3billion surplus for the final quarter of last year. But critics pointed out that the “strong financial performance” came at the expense of millions of drivers. Campaigners are demanding a new watchdog for pump prices after they rose more than 11 percent year-on-year. FULL ARTICLEread more
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.”
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
..reacting to the allegation of intimidation, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, Media Relations Manager of Shell, denied use of force to compel the company’s host communities to sign the JIV report.
27 August 2018
The Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta and oil major, Shell on Monday denied allegations of coercing the leadership of Aghoro 1 community in Bayelsa to sign a disputed report on oil spillage.FULL ARTICLE
Russia’s Gazprom PJSC owns the project, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and four other investors including Germany’s Uniper SE and Wintershall AG providing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($11 billion) in cost.
By Elena Mazneva and Anna Shiryaevskaya | Bloomberg
August 27 at 12:00 AM
A planned new natural-gas pipeline into Europe from Russia is shaking up geopolitics. Nord Stream 2, as it’s called, worries leaders in Eastern Europe, has stirred the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump and has put German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the hot seat. FULL ARTICLEread more
By Jordan Blum: April 13, 2018Updated: April 13, 2018 8:19am
What did you know and when did you know it? Those are the questions increasingly directed at Big Oil as concerns about global warming, rising sea levels and climate change grow. For a few years now, Exxon Mobil has faced a bombardment of allegations — which the Texas oil company denies — that it knew about climate change related to fossil fuels in the 1970s and buried the evidence. State investigations in New York and Massachusetts continue to focus on whether Exxon Mobil misled the public and the company’s investors. Now Exxon’s European counterpart, Royal Dutch Shell, is facing similar allegations that it was aware of the impact of fossil fuels on climate decades ago, but continued to produce and sell petroleum products. FULL ARTICLEread more
The leaders of the world’s largest and most powerful energy companies are talking about the fight to mitigate human-caused climate change.
Some are even putting their money where their mouths are.
While some conservative political leaders still deny that the Earth is heating up due to humans burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases, the people who produce those fuels and chemicals have recognized the imperative to limit global warming to a rise of 2 degrees Celsius.read more
Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND, Stringer: Shell is a shareholder in the Elgin rig, shown here operating 150 miles from Aberdeen in the North Sea in 2012. Shell is selling stakes in 10 North Sea fields.
Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle: Updated 7:01 am, Wednesday, January 31, 2018
BP said it made two successful discoveries in the North Sea – one of which is with fellow Big Oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron. BP said it struck oil in its Capercaillie prospect in the central North Sea east of Scotland, as well as the northwestern corner of the North Sea in the Achmelvich well, the latter of which is the partnership with Shell and Chevron. The discoveries lend optimism to a slowly rebounding offshore energy sector, especially in the North Sea that’s so critical for Europe’s oil supplies. FULL ARTICLEread more
Shell Oil Co. plans to plow around $200 million into a Tennessee solar company, the latest deal that finds a major oil company investing in renewable energy as the industry prepares for a day when crude demand plateaus. A unit of Houston’s Shell Oil will purchase almost half of Silicon Ranch Corp., a Nashville company that operates solar projects around the United States, for up to $217 million, the company’s biggest investment in utility-scale solar energy yet, the company said on Monday. Shell Oil is the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil major. FULL ARTICLEread more
Steve Hill, executive vice president of Shell Energy, discusses Shell’s growth in the liquefied natural gas industry aboard Dynagas’ Lena River LNG carrier as its docked at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG
By Jordan Blum: December 7, 2017
SABINE PASS, La. – In 2011, Cheniere Energy was a little-known company with big ambitions when it signed an $8 billion contract that would transform the United States into an exporter of liquefied natural gas after decades of relying on foreign suppliers. Five years later, just days before the Houston company shipped its first LNG cargo, another big deal gave a jolt to nascent U.S. industry. Royal Dutch Shell bought Cheniere’s customer, BG Gas for $50 billion, a move that made Shell the world’s largest international LNG producer and marketerand allied it with this nation’s biggest LNG exporter. Shell remains Cheniere’s best customer, buying almost half the production of Cheniere’s massive Sabine Pass LNG terminal.FULL ARTICLEread more
Royal Dutch Shell said Sunday the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is causing the shutdown of its massive refining and petrochemical complex in Deer Park. Shell is closing one of Texas’ largest refineries, which can refine more than 315,000 barrels of crude oil a day into gasoline and other petroleum products. “The top priority of Shell Deer Park is to operate in a safe and environmentally sound manner. Due to continued inclement weather conditions from Hurricane Harvey, Shell Deer Park is conducting a controlled/planned shut down of the refinery and chemical plant,” Shell said in an email response.FULL ARTICLEread more
The departure is the latest milestone for a gigantic venture the European company sanctioned two years ago in the face of a raging oil bust that forced many of its rivals to scuttle offshore plans. As oil prices tumbled, Royal Dutch Shell spent $600 million and employed 1,500 workers in Texas and Louisiana alone to fabricate parts for the so-called Appomattox platform, the company’s largest in the Gulf, expected to start pumping oil 80 miles off Louisiana by the end of the decade. Even so, Shell says it could still wring a profit from its 125,000-ton platform with oil prices below $50 a barrel, after deep cost cutting. FULL ARTICLEread more
It’s a world of worry for oil companies: Houston Chronicle: 8 July 2017
Some oil companies have made moves to brace for a future in which oil plays a diminishing role. Many are increasing investments in the production of natural gas, the fuel of choice for generating electricity, and some are investing in renewables. BP, for example, operates a wind farm in West Texas. In June, Royal Dutch Shell announced it plans to acquire MP2 Energy… Read More
Nigeria Delta Communities Demand Stake in Ex-Shell Oil Block: Bloomberg: 8 July 2017
A group of communities in Nigeria’s Niger River delta demanded a stake in an oil block it said it was promised when Royal Dutch Shell Plc sold its share to a local company six years ago. Read Moreread more
The issue of confidentiality comes up most often when employees who feel wronged were former high-level executives privy to corporate secrets that they promised not to reveal…
Crockett Oaks III, a former FBI agent who led the U.S. security operations of Shell Oil Co… Shell Oil, the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, last week obtained a temporary court order blocking Oaks from revealing potentially damaging information about Shell’s…
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) sold its stake in a New Zealand gas field while taking over the field’s operating company as part of a plan to possibly divest its holdings in the country later on, the company said Thursday.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) has taken a step toward an exit from its New Zealand assets with a deal to sell its 50% stake in a natural-gas field to its local venture partner, Todd Energy.read more
In the coming months, roughly 3,400 Shell Oil Co. employees will be moving from the oil giant’s downtown headquarters into its Energy Corridor campus as Shell looks to eventually house all of its Houston-based employees on the west side.
The move is indicative of an energy industry downturn in Houston that has led oil companies to slash thousands of jobs and consolidate office space to meditate costs.
Shell will leave its One Shell Plaza headquarters, a 50-story skyscraper, after 45 years.read more
Bogus Group: In 2015 this prospect was given a production life of "at least 10 years"Did Shell expect such an early exit, or was this another BG Group recoverable miscalculation?https://www.upstreamonline.com/hardcopy/1805800/shell-to-pull-plug-at-knarr
uscitizen: Shell, the world’s second-largest listed oil and gas company after Exxon, cut costs heavily following its 2016 acquisition of BG Group for $53 billion and the 2014 oil crash.
Despite a slow and bumpy recovery in oil prices, it reported the largest profit among its peers last year and a jump in revenue from previous years.
Shell said its free cash flow - cash available for dividends and share buybacks - was set to rise to around $35 billion per year by 2025 based on a Brent crude oil price of $60 per barrel.
That compares with $28-33 billion in free cash flow it expects to deliver by the end of next year. Brent is currently trading just under $61 per barrel.
Shell, the world’s biggest dividend payer at $16 billion in 2018, expects to increase its dividend payouts to shareholders once it completes the $25 billion share buyback by the end of 2020 that it promised following the BG acquisition.
Shell last increased its quarterly dividend in the first quarter of 2014 to $0.47 per share.
uscitizen: All of the folks bashing Shell for the BG merger, I think we can now say this has been a very good financial move. Shell has overtaken Exxon and Integrated Gas is a big reason why. I am sure there are examples where some good people got pushed out, and I hate to hear that. However, lets not pull the wool over folks eyes and say this business decision was not sound.
Bonus Group: Further to yesterday's post.
Sound Energy plc
("Sound Energy" or the "Company")
Director/PDMR Shareholding
Sound Energy, the Moroccan focused upstream gas company, announces that it has been notified that Brian Mitchener, Executive Director, has today purchased 150,000 ordinary shares in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 12.04 pence per Ordinary Share. As a result of this purchase, Mr Mitchener is interested in 150,000 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.0142% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital.
Bonus Group: UnSound Energy?
Readers may wonder why the darling of the AIM Market is now preparing itself for a sale of its Eastern Morocco acreage.
Perhaps, the answer may be found in the Annual Report 2018 available to download as a .PDF from the Sound Energy Website:
Page 49
Loss of Office and Change of Control Provisions
In the event of a change of control of the Company, the CEO, CFO and Exploration Director have the option to give notice and receive a lump sum equivalent to 18 months’ salary for the CEO, 12 months’ salary for the CFO and 8 months’ salary for the Exploration Director.All of the Company’s current share plans contain provisions relating to a change of control.
On a change of control, outstanding awards would normally vest and become exercisable, subject to the satisfaction of any performance conditions at that time.
Page 50
Summary Of Actual Remuneration (including Benefits in Kind and Performance Awards) Of Directors
Executive Directors
James Parsons £995,000
Brian Mitchener £323,000 (RSU Awards No. of Shares 862,682, Granted 26.04.18 Settlement date 01.01.21)
JJ Traynor £168,000 (RSU Awards No. of Shares 961,194, Granted 26.04.18 Settlement Date 01.01.21)
It should be remembered that Brian Mitchener is of the failed BG Group stable. It would seem that Bonus Group habits are hard to let g0!
Bogus Group: I concur with Bonus Group recollection of the tin pot, lacklustre, parvenu outfit. There was no place in BG Group for experienced professionals if they didn’t possess the sycophant tendencies required to stoke the egos of those deluded by corporate grandeur.
Large remuneration packages were not uncommon then too, the chief executive received circa £13mm (published) in bonuses throughout his 12 year tenure. During that period there were 26 fatalities, roughly £500k for each. That was more than distasteful.
Bonus Group: Today is the anniversary date of the agreement on terms of the takeover of BG Group (a tin pot, lacklustre, parvenu outfit) by Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2015. In consequence of BG Group's consistent failures to meet targets and the engineered predatory takeover by Royal Dutch Shell plc the careers and professional lives of many experienced Geoscientists and Engineers were brutally butchered, terminated, and cast aside like so much offal, so it is rather distasteful to see the size of Ben van Beurden's remuneration package being flaunted in the press by Royal Dutch Shell plc.
CEP Problems: It seems to be impossible right now to get any chance of landing a job inside Shell these days. Everytime people apply for jobs unless they have high potential or a diversity point they get rejections. I got told recently that the hiring manager was looking for someone with high potential. Don't these people realise that they also need QUALIFIED people to actually do the work. Ridiculous but it almost getting to age discrimination these days. Rant over.
Shell Canada Insider: SHELL CANADA
...they are wanting to sell their Alberta operations..... because there is no money left in it...they have syphoned it all off.....
I think also on 2010-2011 they had multiple explosions at their Caroline facility supposedly an employee during an explosion at the south compressor station had to be airlifted to hospital and was seriously injured.
The aer/ govt shut it down. it was closed for 6 months and half of the plant was decommissioned when it restarted.
That must have cost them millions of dollars.....there should be government records of this stuff....
The description of the fairleads causing the mooring ropes to chafe to such an extent is almost so ridiculous to render ex-seafarer speechless. The fitting of nylon liners inside the fairleads is something new for me but the idea behind it would may be to reduce the friction of the mooring lines when running through the fairlead thus reduce any temperature potential in a zone 2 area. Fixing one potential risk appears to have created another one of greater risk potential. I am not sure how the nylon liners in the fairleads would have such sharp edges to chafe the mooring lines on their own and perhaps there may have been something else to which the journalist has missed out. The reported leakage of LNG in the manifold area from a flange should not have happened but the liquid transfer areas are all bunded in low-temperature materials and provided with a constant supply of running water during cargo handling activities. Power outages during start-up operations and ongoing are nothing new and others can be expected, hopefully not very often as the restart of such a complicated process system takes a long time and much effort. The problem with firewater deluge over the LNG storage tanks reported is of considerable concern but the journalist does not mention if this was during the period when systems were being tested prior to the introduction of LNG or after. If before then this section of the report is just journalistic license and of no consequence whatsoever. The other issues as reported can be considered minor during the preparation phase before the introduction of hydrocarbons in any form but definitely of concern if these incidents were after the introduction of hydrocarbons. I wish the people who are experiencing the startup of such a complicated and complex plant every success. Take the time that is needed to be successful by being safe, good luck.
John Donovan: Irish Backstop Update
According to a Sunday Times article two days ago, "Ireland continues to dodge difficult questions about how it will protect the single market and also maintain an open border under a no-deal."
IRELAND has been warned it faces the difficult choice between implementing a hard border or being forced out of the EU’s single market in an unprecedented move to protect the bloc from a no-deal Brexit.
Dublin will be forced to make the tough choice if Britain quits the EU without a deal, according to a number of senior EU figures.
The European Commission sparked fury from Ireland after declaring Dublin would have to implement a hard border in the event of a no-deal Brexit. After significant protests from, which involved a heated debate between Leo Varadkar and Jean-Claude Juncker, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, suggested “operational solutions” would have to be found in order to prevent a hardening of the border.
But now high-ranking MEPs have hardened their position, insisting the single market must not be compromised even to maintain peace on the island of Ireland.
Elmar Brok, a German MEP with close ties to Angela Merkel, insisted that if Ireland failed to police its own borders the EU would have to take its own protectionist action.
“We would have to set up a customs border with Ireland,” the German said.
He also warned that if Brussels didn’t make the demands then "we will soon have American chlorine chicken in the EU".
FG names Shell, Eni executives in $1bn bribery case – The Punch 08 May 2019 11:43 Google ’Femi Asu with agency report
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA face additional corruption allegations over a Nigerian oil deal, after the Federal Government said in a London lawsuit that it believed a handful of executives, including Chief Executive …
FG files fresh charges against Shell executives, JPMorgan over Malabu Oil scandal 08 May 2019 10:01 Herald Sequel to the lawsuit filed last year against Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni and JP Morgan for being involved in a $1bn oil block bribery case, the Federal Government has submitted new case documents that indict their top executives.
FG said in the court files …
FG names Shell, Eni executives in $1bn bribery case 08 May 2019 08:09 Punch Newspapers ’Femi Asu with agency report
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA face additional corruption allegations over a Nigerian oil deal, after the Federal Government said in a London lawsuit that it believed a handful of executives, including Chief Executive …
Dutch Prosecutors to Arraign Shell over $1.3 billion Acquisition of OPL 245 02 Mar 2019 10:19 Biz Watch Nigeria Dutch Prosecutors to Arraign Shell over $1.3 billion Acquisition of OPL 245
Dutch prosecutors are preparing criminal charges against Royal Dutch Shell over its $1.3 billion acquisition of Nigerian offshore oilfield OPL 245 in 2011.
Shell said in a …
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
Shell Offshore to pay $2.2 million fine for 2016 Gulf spill
By Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
ROYAL Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden has underlined the fact the company wants to grow in the UK North Sea even as he expressed concern about the prospect of a no-deal Brexit. Speaking after Shell posted a 36 per cent increase in annual profits to a four year high of $21.4 billion (£16.3bn), from $15.8bn, Mr van Beurden said the oil giant believed a no deal Brexit would be “a very bad outcome” but had prepared for the possibility. FULL ARTICLE
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.
Shell’s greener future is a matter of survival
..reacting to the allegation of intimidation, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, Media Relations Manager of Shell, denied use of force to compel the company’s host communities to sign the JIV report.
By 
Shell sues former head of security for threatening to reveal secrets
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EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.