Why energy companies are still investing gasoline in the age of the electric vehicle
Tucked away off a Houston highway and behind a tightly-secured check point, Royal Dutch Shell’s tree-lined campus is packed with hundreds of researchers working on the next technological breakthroughs that could transform how the Anglo-Dutch oil major powers the world economy through the energy transition.
As Shell’s largest research and development center, the 200-acre Houston campus has 1,500 employees and hundreds of contractors. They’re working on everything from formulating new biodiesel to advancing liquefied natural gas into transportation fuels. Their research also extends into something more tangible in the near term: how to improve gasoline.read more
By Ron Bousso and Susanna Twidale: Reuters June 19, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell wants to build a power business more profitable than the competitive sector’s existing players, banking on its global scale and oil and gas income to maximise on the transition to cleaner energy.
Demand for electricity is set to soar as Asian economies grow and electric vehicles replace petrol cars. Shell is under pressure to shed the Oil Majors’ century-old business model and position itself for a future with lower use of fossil fuels.read more
Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.
Shell is looking for a green future in silence
How should Shell still make money if the role of fossil fuels becomes smaller and smaller? The company is sorting out with investments in green start-ups.
The construction of a large wind farm in the North Sea, an offer for Eneco and the acquisition of the charging station company NewMotion; it is the big steps that everyone can see that oil and gas multinational Shell is putting to a little less fossil. But under the bonnet of Shell and out of view of the general public, many smaller investments in start-ups give at least as interesting an insight into Shell’s view of the future. A search for the green future of Shell.read more
Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.
Maarten Wetselaar: ‘There has been a period of thirty years in which the industry and we also only talked about the largest oil platforms that were built and the deepest wells that were drilled.’ Photo: Michel de Groot
‘The energy transition gives power back to the customer’
ShellRDSA € 27.85 + 1.05% is still an oil and gas multinational, but is sorting for a future in which it will become one of the largest electricity companies. ‘We are faced with a revolution’, says Maarten Wetselaar, member of the Executive Board of Shell in an interview with the FD. He is responsible, among other things, for the New Energies division that was established two years ago.read more
Ben Marlow, executive business editor: 9 SEPTEMBER 2018 • 8:39PM
Like a pair of mysterious soothsayers, Maarten Wetselaar and John Abbott are peering into the future. The world they see is almost unrecognisable from the one we inhabit today, and yet it is only just around the corner. In the west, the petrol car has become obsolete. Lorries are powered by liquid natural gas. Freight liners criss-cross the oceans fuelled by hydrogen. Solar and wind provide the energy to our homes. And the petrol station has been reimagined as an unlikely retail hotspot where people routinely gather to do their food shopping, pick up parcels, and sip artisan coffee. A convoy of vehicles are being rebooted at one of many charging points on the forecourt. FULL ARTICLEread more
Shell closed a deal to buy First Utility, a British energy company that owns neither power plants nor gas pipelines, in March. CreditTom Jamieson for The New York Times
COVENTRY, England — There seems to be little about the scrappy energy company in central England that would appeal to Royal Dutch Shell, the button-down oil giant. The little company, First Utility, is an upstart challenger. It offers friendly customer service, and low prices on electricity and natural gas. But it doesn’t own any power plants or gas pipelines; First Utility is a virtual energy company — the product of technological advancement and deregulation.read more
Sinead Lynch, UK country chair for Shell, said yesterday that the oil giant knows that it “needs to change” in the coming energy transition, and “that is what Shell is going to do”.
As part of a panel at the All-Energy conference in Glasgow, Ms Lynch said that Shell was part of a movement within the industry which was recognising the energy transition and that Shell was “beginning that change”. She said: “Shell has a deep history and deep roots across Scotland, in our upstream business where we have been investing in and producing from the North Sea for 50 years. But also in our downstream business where we have been producing a number of downstream products to our customers here for almost a 100 years, and that’s a range of products that’s beginning to change. FULL ARTICLEread more
April 12 (UPI) — A transition to a cleaner economy is underway as evidenced by a rate of decline in global oil demand, but it’s a long journey, Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday. The Dutch supermajor has committed to reducing its carbon footprint in half by 2050 and said it would invest about $2 billion per year on alternative energy solutions until the end of the decade. CEO Ben van Beurden said that Shell would play its part in meeting global energy demand with cleaner options. The company last year signed on to a transparency measure on climate steered by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who steered efforts through the multilateral Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. The task force estimated the transition to a low-carbon economy could require as much as $1 trillion in net investments per year. FULL ARTICLEread more
FILE PHOTO: Electric car chargers are seen at the Holloway Road Shell station where Shell is launching its first fast electric vehicle charging station in London, Britain October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner/File Photo
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it saw little risk of having “stranded assets” in its portfolio as the world shifts to low carbon energy because the oil major will have four-fifths of its current oil and gas reserves extracted before 2030 anyway. read more
The Department for Transport has awarded £8.8million in funding, with £4.3million going to clean energy firm ITM Power. It will use the funds to create four new hydrogen refuelling stations in the UK, and upgrade five existing ones to help support a larger fleet of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. ITM Power is joined by Shell, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai in the consortium. The government funding will be also be used to create nearly 200 clean energy vehicles which will be used by taxi drivers and the police. FULL ARTICLEread more
A new hydrogen pump has been installed at Beaconsfield services on the M40, the second on Britain’s motorway network and the first to be built ‘under the canopy’ at an existing petrol station. The machine has been supplied to Shell by Sheffield-based energy company ITM Power. It can be used by motorists to refuell hydrogen fuel cell cars such as the Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Nexo and Honda Clarity. FULL ARTICLEread more
The idea that the world can do without oil or gas in the short term is not realistic. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden argues for setting feasible goals. If that does not happen then ‘the energy transition becomes a big disappointment’. Van Beurden said that on Monday evening in the first Elsevier Economics lecture in De Rode Hoed in Amsterdam.
The Shell Chairman of the Board held a plea for a sold out room for cooperation with governments, NGOs, companies and citizens to successfully realize the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources. In doing so, he emphasized, as he did before, that more realism is needed.read more
Students from the University of Aberdeen are designing a hydrogen-fuelled car as they prepare to compete against teams from around the world in Shell’s Eco-marathon.
The challenge sees students design, build and test energy-efficient cars to see which vehicle can go furthest with the least fuel. Aberdeen’s Team ProtoAU has made it through several qualifying stages and will compete in the finals in London in July. Their 20-strong group of engineering and business students will now work on building a car to compete in the prototype class, which is being constructed in the university’s Fraser Noble building, home to the School of Engineering. FULL ARTICLEread more
Norbert Barthle (Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport), Thomas Bystry (Project Manager Shell), Michael Reinhardt (Project Manager Air Liquide) and Sybille Riepe (H2 Mobility) at the opening in Wendlingen
H2 Mobility Deutschland, Shell and Air Liquide today jointly opened the first hydrogen (H2) station in the district of Esslingen – the twelfth in Baden-Württemberg, taking another step towards a nationwide H2supply network in Germany. Owned and operated by the joint venture H2 Mobility, which is building a H2 infrastructure in Germany, the location is at the Shell petrol station Heinrich-Otto-Straße. Air Liquide is supplying the H2.FULL ARTICLEread more
SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 12 February 2018 – Today, Oath announces a global deal with Mediacom and Shell to take the energy brand’s “Make the Future” campaign into its next phase. The new phase brings the content of its “On Top of the World” music video to life through a crafted WebGL “Globe” activation, created by Oath’s RYOT Studio global solutions team in collaboration with UNIT9: allowing people to explore the five cleaner energy projects featured within the music video through its interactive design.read more
LondonLad: Well “Theo” when you say that “I know for sure the following” followed by a former director said “Black Gold we are digging up” then I think perhaps you are making this up. Most directors of an oil company (even including Shell) would not use the word “digging”! “Drilling” or “producing” yes but certainly not “digging” - exception being the muppets in the HR departments perhaps. In addition your last two sentences are irrelevant to the usual attacks on Shell and are somewhat waffle and insulting to most readers here. You clearly have a problem. I await the onslaught!!
Bogus Group: There are normally two sides to every story, but Mike Curless’ version of his termination employment under the pretext of the takeover of BG reorganisation could hold some credence. However, if there was a fair and transparent succession strategy, Sarah Franklin’s self-promotion, see previous post and article, https://www.accdocket.com/articles/tips-and-insights-a-world-class-combination.cfm must have made her a good candidate for one of the “vacant” roles within the Shell legal team. Time will tell if the relevant due diligence was done on Ms Franklin, considering her escapades with a previous company.
Theo Benschop: I know for sure the following. A former director of Royal Dutch Shell had said: it is a simple problem with the Black Gold that we are digging up and selling. All what the government has to do is fix the price of the Black Gold at a level nobody will notice. Maybe add something. But there you have the money to pay for the transition to a more sustainable energy. So actually what everybody wants in the agreements in Paris.
Also I know for sure that beloved sister Rep. Ilham Omar was perfectly right in her conclusion that a few guilty criminals did something to create the chaos of nine eleven, so not the rest of the world.
So that about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey are supporting her for keep on being the one and only first president of all sovereign or not sovereign United Nations.
jaun carlos: Good day
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Bill Campbell: Caution needed over false almost hysterical claims about current Brent Structures
It was a long time ago but as London Lad highlights in his blog post the onshore disposal of Brent Spar Greenpeace apologised formally to Shell for its claims during that period of intense scrutiny and public interest that the Spar could not be disposed of at sea because it held over 5000 tons of crude oil when in fact it was found to have contained 100 tons of oily sludge much of which was inert silt.
We currently see the emergence again of false and highly emotive claims about what remains in the Brent structures despite Shell and independent published reports being available with assessments of what remains in the cells. These assessments indicate that the environmental impact of leaving these structures in situ is negligible compared to the safety risks to personnel involved in the attempted removal and disposal on land.
Money in the pockets: The next round of Nigerian "engagements" are well and truly happening now. Bonga SW/A has been a great tool for regulators and others to return to the potential contractors for additional assistance to progress the project.
It might just fly in 2020, and get on stream 20 years after the initial project.
This will be a real money maker to everyone that can participate (staff, EPC contractors, fabricators, installers, regulators, etc.) just not the nation that continues to suffer.
John Donovan: Hello LondonLad.
Good to see that you still visit. Hope you are well. Glad you have felt sufficiently motivated to post a comment again, the first one since 2013 if I recall correctly.
Under your former alias as MUsaint and your current alias LondonLad we have argued extensively about Shell's track record in Nigeria.
I know you speak with authority given your own years in a senior position with Shell in Nigeria.
Suffice it to say that Shell has already paid out over £15 million in compensation to some relatives of the Ogoni 9 and millions more in fines relating to Shell corruption in Nigeria.
The posting of articles and other evidence dating back to those days have emerged from the current Dutch litigation against Shell brought by Esther Kiobel and two other Ogoni 9 widows who have yet to be compensated for the loss of their beloved husbands. Most of the archived articles supplied to me via Amnesty International have never been posted online. There are more to follow.
I note your mention of Greenpeace, the unfortunate subject of undercover activity by Shell's cherished MI6 hires via Hakluyt & Company. No doubt that situation continues.
These companies, including Shell, admitted they “approved of or condoned the payment of bribes on their behalf in Nigeria and falsely recorded the bribe payments made on their behalf as legitimate business expenses in their corporate books, records and accounts”.
Shell must pay a $30million “criminal penalty” over charges it paid $2million to a sub-contractor “with the knowledge that some or all of the money” would be used to bribe Nigerian officials to allow equipment into the country without paying duty. Shell, which has not admitted guilt, must pay a further $18million to repay profits and interests.
LondonLad: Oh, and while I'm on my soapbox why don't those idiots at Greenpeace learn from their mistakes? Now claiming that various Shell North Sea production platforms contain this and that amount of crude should trigger someone in the German Government to question their numbers. Greenpeace were completely wrong with their figures quoted for Brent Spar.
LondonLad: Jeeeez Mr.D you really are scraping the barrel. Articles from the "Tempo" dating from 1996 with still unproven (so one might assume false) claims about corruption in Ogoniland. Have to say that it's still clear that Nigerians remain convinced that the best way to extort money is by attacking Shell (SPDC/SNEPCO) rather than the real culprits which still remain as the State Government, DPR, NAPIMS etc. etc.
Bogus Group: https://www.accdocket.com/articles/tips-and-insights-a-world-class-combination.cfm
Sarah Franklin, Shell’s Associate General Counsel for Safety & Environment and her new team still don’t appear to have a focus on “complex safety matters”. As noted in the article, she would still appear to be “getting her Shell sea legs” despite being in the role for nearly 3 years.
Yesterday’s announcement that the HSE had issued Shell with an Improvement Notice for failing to ensure that the Temporary Refuge on the Gannet Alpha Installation was capable of remaining effective in an emergency, must question the validity of Shell’s focus on safety. TR compliance is not complex, it’s a fundamental prerequisite for the safety of the installation’s personnel in the event of an emergency, anything less is tantamount to dereliction.
If they can’t get basic safety requirement’s right, what chance have they with something more complex. Word of advice to Shell, employ more technically competent people who disclose and address safety concerns and fewer lawyers who suppress them.
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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.
OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL: LATEST NEWS
$1.3bn Malabu Oil Scandal: Italy Protests Swiss Delay in Releasing Evidence against Shell, Eni 22 Jun 2019 04:10 This Day Chika Amanze-Nwachuku with agency report
Italian prosecutors have expressed dissatisfaction about lengthy delays in obtaining evidence they have requested from Switzerland in the criminal charges against Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni with regard to …
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 …
Why energy companies are still investing gasoline in the age of the electric vehicle
Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, 
Beeldbewerking FD studio
Maarten Wetselaar: ‘There has been a period of thirty years in which the industry and we also only talked about the largest oil platforms that were built and the deepest wells that were drilled.’ Photo: Michel de Groot
Aristofanis Papadatos:
Written by 
By 
FILE PHOTO: Electric car chargers are seen at the Holloway Road Shell station where Shell is launching its first fast electric vehicle charging station in London, Britain October 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mary Turner/File Photo
A consortium including energy giant Shell has won a multi-million pound government grant to improve use of hydrogen vehicles in the UK.
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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.