LONDON, November 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ —

NOT FOR RELEASE, PRESENTATION, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISIDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OF SUCH JURISDICTION.  

• Competitive underlying performance in low oil prices – planning for prolonged downturn 
• Both net investment and dividends have been covered by operating cash flow over the last year to Q3 2015, when oil prices have averaged $60 per barrel 
• Delivering our commitments to reduce costs and spending – $11 billion reduction in 2015 
• Reorganisation of Shell upstream increases accountability for performance and aligns us to deliver on the strategy  
• Further analysis and Shell’s integration planning for the recommended combination with BG has enabled us to identify a $1 billion (40%) increase in pre-tax synergies to $3.5 billion 
• BG transaction on track for completion in early 2016, leading to a simpler and more profitable Shell  

Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) (NYSE: RDS.A)(NYSE: RDS.B) today presents a strategic update to shareholders and investors in London. Speaking at the presentation, Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden will say:

“Low oil prices are driving significant changes in our industry. I am determined that Shell will be at the forefront of that, and emerge as a more focused and more competitive company as a result.” read more

By a regular contributor

Only one member of the EC is directly involved in North American activities, Marvin Odum. 

Perhaps worth noting is that investment decisions on the scale of the recent Shell write-offs would have required approval by the entire EC in the Hague long before BvB was around. Few of the EC members who made those decisions are still present. 

It seems strange that so many of the huge projects which have been abandoned are in North America, and serious questions need to be asked about why approval was given by the EC for these huge projects. Only one member of the EC is directly involved in North American activities, Marvin Odum.  read more

By Paul Barrett: BLOOMBERG.COM: 28 SEPT 2015: 6:12 PM BST

Royal Dutch Shell’s abrupt announcement today that it would cease all offshore drilling in the Arctic is surprising for several reasons. One is the unusual degree of confidence the company expressed as recently as mid-August that it had identified 15 billion barrels of oil beneath the well known as Burger J it’s now abandoning. 

What on earth happened?

Mistaken geology

After spending $7 billion over several years to explore a single well this summer, Shell said in a statement that it “found indications of oil and gas … but these are not sufficient to warrant further exploration.” This contrasts sharply with Shell officials’ statements as recently as July and August that based on 3D and 4D seismic analysis of core samples, its petroleum geologists were “very confident” drillers would find plentiful oil. read more

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and STANLEY REED

As oil prices have continued their steady decline this year, rig after rig has been shut down, costing thousands of jobs in the United States. Yet major oil producers have been loath to pull the plug on their most ambitious projects — the multibillion-dollar investments that form the backbone of their operations.

Until now. On Monday, Royal Dutch Shell ended its expensive and fruitless nine-year effort to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic — a $7 billion investment — in another sign that the entire industry is trimming its ambitions in the wake of collapsing oil prices. read more

BY ZOË SCHLANGER 9/28/15

After a season spent drilling an exploratory oil well in one of the harshest environments on Earth, Royal Dutch Shell announced Monday morning it was abandoning its attempt to develop the Alaskan Arctic “for the foreseeable future.”

The exploratory well 150 miles offshore in the Chukchi Sea did not turn up enough oil to warrant the expensive and “unpredictable” enterprise, Shell said in a statement. It will be sealed and abandoned “in accordance with U.S. regulations,” the company said. read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell has abandoned its long quest to become the first company to produce oil in Alaska’s Arctic waters, darkening the nation’s long-term oil prospects and delighting environmental groups that tried to block the project.

After years of effort, Shell is leaving the region “for the foreseeable future” because it failed to find enough oil to make further drilling worthwhile.

The company has spent more than $7 billion on the effort, slogged through a regulatory gauntlet and fought environmental groups that feared a spill in the harsh climate would be difficult to clean up and devastating to polar bears, walruses, seals and other wildlife. read more

FoxNews.com: Sept 28, 2015

Royal Dutch Shell said early Monday that it was ceasing offshore oil and gas exploration in Arctic waters after a test well yielded unsatisfactory amounts of oil and gas.

The announcement was a huge blow to Shell, which was counting on offshore drilling in Alaska to help it drive future revenue and had poured billions in investment and years of work into the exploratory well. Environmentalists, however, had tried repeatedly to block the project, and welcome the news.

A statement from the company’s headquarters in The Hague said Shell was ending exploration off Alaska “for the forseeable future” after what it called “a clearly disappointing exploration outcome.”

Shell said it had found indications of oil and gas in the well in the Chukchi Sea, about 80 miles off Alaska’s northwest coast. However, the petroleum was not in quantities sufficient to warrant additional exploration in that portion of the basin, the company added. read more

September 28, 2015 | By Jennifer A. Dlouhy

WASHINGTON — After spending $7 billion and seven years searching for oil under Arctic waters, Royal Dutch Shell on Monday said its quest had come up dry.

Shell announced that its exploratory oil well in the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska encountered “indications of oil and gas” that are “not sufficient to warrant further exploration” — a significant blow for the Anglo-Dutch firm that had hoped to find a multibillion barrel crude reservoir in those remote waters.

“Shell continues to see important exploration potential in the basin, and the area is likely to ultimately be of strategic importance to Alaska and the U.S.,” said Marvin Odum, director of Shell Upstream Americas. “However, this is a clearly disappointing exploration outcome for this part of the basin.” read more

Associated Press: Monday 28 September 2015 07.04 BST

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has said it is ceasing exploration in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future, saying an exploratory well drilled to 6,800ft (2,100m) found oil and gas but not in sufficient quantities.

Shell USA’s president, Marvin Odum, said in an announcement early on Monday in the Netherlands that it was a disappointing outcome for that part of the Chukchi sea basin.

Shell drilled in 150ft (45m) of water about 80 miles (130km) off Alaska’s north-west coast. The exploratory well was the first in the Chukchi in 24 years. read more

By DAN JOLING: 18 Sept 2015

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Critics of Arctic offshore petroleum drilling have used climbing gear, kayaks and polar bear costumes to protest industrial activity in the Arctic. They’re now trying humor.

Actors Alexander Skarsgard of “True Blood” and Jack McBrayer of “30 Rock,” along with Andy Bichlbaum of “The Yes Men” activists, are on a Greenpeace ship in the Greenland Sea with a team from the Funny or Die production company to make a comedy series focused on industrial threats to the Arctic. read more

by CYNTHIA MCFADDEN and JAKE WHITMAN: SEP 17 2015

At Royal Dutch Shell’s operations center in Anchorage, the cries of outrage that greeted the start of offshore drilling in the Arctic are drowned out by optimism.

The energy giant’s president, Marvin Odum, told NBC News that he’s confident that the $7 billion already spent to find oil under the sea — a bet that no other company is making in the American Arctic — was the right business decision.

And he says he’s also certain that Shell can handle any accident that might unfold during exploration or extraction, which wouldn’t even happen until 2030. read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Sep 2, 2015, 12:31 AM ET

By DAN JOLING Associated Press

The president of Shell Oil Co. said Tuesday exploratory drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast is going well despite stormy weather last week that caused the company to halt operations for a few days.

And in an interview with The Associated Press Marvin Odum said he expects further protests against the company’s plans for Arctic drilling like the ones in Seattle and Portland where activists in kayaks tried to block Shell vessels. read more

By Tony Dokoupil: 15 July 2015

It seemed like a hopeful sign of the times: News that Shell Oil might soon drop the word “oil” from its name. British Petroleum made a similar move not long ago, rechristening itself as BP, a company with a vision “beyond petroleum.”

But alas, Shell is not changing its name. “We are not,” Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith told msnbc in a brief statement, the company’s first definitive denial of the rumor.   

As if to prove the point, Shell Oil—the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company—is right now amassing a multi-billion dollar team in Alaska. In the days to come, it plans to drill in the icy waters offshore, opening the largest untapped oil reserve on the planet. While in the area, it will not be putting up solar panels and praying to the sun gods. read more

By: MICHEAL KAUFMAN

Exploring for new oil has now become a difficult task for the oil majors. Oil and gas are now mostly situated in the deep-waters, Canadian tar sands and the Arctic waters where the cost of exploration and production is very high. These high costs coupled with the lower crude oil prices make the task difficult for oil companies.

Crude oil prices last week fell again following claims by Iran to double its production if a nuclear deal was reached. The US benchmark for crude oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) which had gone high at $60 per barrel, has plunged again to less than $45 per barrel. read more

by Gerrit De Vynck: 9 July 2015

The U.S. unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc may soon drop the word “oil” from its name in a move that would symbolize its transition to other sources of energy, an executive said.

With Shell Oil Co.’s parent focusing more on natural gas and looking at other energy alternatives, the oil in the name “is a little old-fashioned, I’d say, and at one point we’ll probably do something about that,” Marvin Odum, director of the company’s upstream Americas business, said Thursday at the Toronto Global Forum. read more

Marvin Odum, Shell’s head of oil and gas production in the Americas, told the Financial Times that the company’s success or failure this year and next in making a significant discovery was critical for the future of Arctic oil development.

FULL FT ARTICLE WITH WORKING LINKS.

WARNS THAT PRODUCTION IS UNLIKELY TO COMMENCE UNTIL THE “2030s”