REUTERS

Nigerian widows end their case in the Netherlands against Shell

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A group of four widows who had sought to hold Shell liable for damages in the Netherlands after their anti-oil activist husbands were executed by the Nigerian government in 1995 have cancelled further legal proceedings, their lawyer said on Monday.

“Obviously this is not without disappointment and frustration,” said lawyer Channa Samkalden in statement announcing that the widows have cancelled an appeal launched after the Hague District Court rejected their case earlier this year. read more

thenationalnews.com

Shell boss reveals regrets and pride as he steps down after decade

Ben van Beurden’s regrets were linked to financial issues in the Arctic and safety at a Dutch oilfield

Soraya Ebrahimi: Oct 28, 2022

Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden has said he regretted not acting earlier on two problems linked to the environment, as he prepares to step down after nearly a decade in charge.

Mr van Beurden said he should have acted in 2015 on data coming out of the Groningen gasfield in the Netherlands. read more

Malabu Oil Scandal: International Organisations File Appeal At The Hague, Demand Fresh Probe Of Shell Company, Managers

October 24, 2022

Three non-governmental organisations, Re:Common (Italy), HEDA Resource Centre (Nigeria) and Corner House (UK) on Monday announced that they had filed a complaint at the Court of Appeal in The Hague challenging the decision by the Dutch Prosecutors Office to drop its investigation of Shell and Shell management relating to alleged corruption in Nigeria.

The Complaint was filed by the Dutch law firm Prakken pursuant to Article 12 of the Dutch Code for Criminal Procedure.

Article 12 permits interested parties to challenge prosecutorial decisions not to investigate or prosecute an alleged crime.

In 2017, the three NGOs sought an investigation by the Dutch Prosecutors Office into Shell’s involvement in the 2011 acquisition of the exploitation rights to the Nigerian oil block OPL245. They have since submitted further concerns relating to Shell’s divestments of oil mining licences in the Niger Delta.

Separately, Shell also reported a senior manager to the Dutch Prosecutors Office for bribery relating to one of the oil field divestments. read more

Dutch prosecutors to pursue pollution case against Shell-Exxon gas venture

By Syndicated Content Oct 12, 2022 | 7:53 AM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch prosecutors said on Wednesday they will pursue a pollution case against NAM, a joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil that operates gas fields in the Netherlands.

The prosecutors “(suspect) NAM of injecting waste streams from natural gas extraction into the deep subsurface without a permit”, a statement from their office said.

Prosecutors say they believe the company took waste products from natural gas extraction in the North Sea, then processed and injected them into empty gas fields in the province of Groningen.

A spokesperson for NAM said the company would respond later on Wednesday.

Reuters reported last month that Shell And ExxonMobil have put their 50-50 venture up for sale, with expected proceeds of over $1 billion.

NAM started producing natural gas in 1963 following the discovery of the giant Groningen field, which was a major source of gas for the Netherlands and Europe for decades.

But extraction has been almost completely wound down in the past 10 years as tremors blamed on drilling damaged buildings and prompted protests by residents and campaigners. read more

REUTERS

Shell should have quit Groningen gas project in Netherlands earlier -CEO

AMSTERDAM, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told a Dutch parliamentary panel investigating problems relating to natural gas production at the large Groningen gas field in the Netherlands that the company should have pulled out of the project earlier.

Production at Groningen was scaled back sharply over a period of years in the 2010s after the Dutch government and producer NAM, a Shell-Exxon joint venture, realized the earthquakes it caused posed too great a threat to life and property.

“We had to continually ask what makes sense,” as production was dialled back to levels at which NAM made little to no profit, Van Beurden told lawmakers.

“What made sense for Shell was to quit. In any other country we would have stopped this operation. But in the Netherlands that was impossible because the Netherlands was dependent on Groningen gas.”

A damning report in 2015 from the independent Dutch Safety Board had accused the government and the field’s operators of ignoring the threat of earthquakes linked to the field for years. As vast amounts of gas were removed from under the province since 1963, the ground sank and settled above empty pockets, triggering quakes. read more

OILPRICE.COM

Activist Investor: Shell Must Do More To Curb Emissions

By Charles Kennedy – Sep 30, 2022, 5:00 AM CDT

An expected drop in Shell’s net greenhouse gas emissions is not aligned with the Paris Agreement and with a Dutch court order for the now UK-based supermajor to slash emissions much more by 2030, activist investor Follow This says.

A recent report from Australia-based Global Climate Insights showed that Shell’s net emissions, after CCUS and offsets, are forecast to be 6% lower in 2030 compared to 2019, assuming it is on track to achieve its targets for CCUS and offsets. read more

Reuters

Shell, Exxon launch joint sale of UK, Dutch North Sea assets -sources

Ron Bousso: Tue, September 27, 2022 at 4:16 PM

LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) – Shell and Exxon Mobil have launched a joint sale process of a large package of offshore natural gas assets in the southern UK and Dutch North Sea, three industry and banking sources said.

The two companies have hired investment bank Jefferies to run the sale, which could raise over $2 billion, the sources said.

Launched earlier this month, the sale comes after Shell and Exxon independently ran initial sales processes for their British and Dutch assets.

Shell declined to comment. Jefferies declined to comment. Exxon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

In July, Shell and Exxon launched the sale of the 50-50 NAM joint venture in the Netherlands, operator of the Groningen gas field and one of Europe’s largest and oldest natural gas production companies.

The two companies have also separately put up for sale their stakes in their British southern North Sea gas hub, which include the Clipper Leman Alpha hubs as well as the Bacton terminal in eastern England, the sources said. read more

Dutch limit Groningen gas production despite energy crisis

AMSTERDAM -Gas production at the Groningen field in the Netherlands will be lowered to the minimal amount needed to keep wells operational in the coming year, as extraction is expected to end by 2024 at the latest, the Dutch government said on Monday.

Production at Groningen, once one of Europe’s major suppliers of natural gas, will be capped at 2.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the year starting Oct. 1, the government said, down from 4.5 bcm in the current year.

The Groningen field, operated by a joint venture of Shell and Exxon Mobil, still holds massive reserves of natural gas. read more

The energy crisis in Europe and the buried treasure of the Netherlands of 1000 billion

By Hans von der Brelie  •  Updated: 23/09/2022

Despite skyrocketing energy prices and a shortage of natural gas supplies in the European Union, the Dutch government has taken the decision to go ahead with shutting down the natural gas wells in the Groningen region. The field is one of the largest in the world, with a value of up to 1,000 billion euros. But for now, it is a treasure that will remain untapped for the foreseeable future. read more

DutchNews.nl

Regulator receives 136 damage claims after two earthquakes strike Groningen

SEPT 26, 2022

More than 100 claims for structural damage have been filed since two earthquakes, the largest measuring 2.7 on the Richter scale, hit Groningen province on Saturday.

The larger of the two quakes struck the village of Uithuizermeerden, on the north coast, at around midday, followed by a smaller one measured at 1.7 in Uithuizen.

The Institute for Mining Damage in Groningen (IMG) said it had received 136 reports of damage over the weekend, including three saying there was an acute risk to safety. Inspections at two of the three sites established that there was no immediate danger,  while a third is ongoing. read more

At Royal Dutch Shell, an October 2020 email sent by an employee, discussing talking points for Shell’s president for the United States, said that the company’s announcement of a pathway to “net zero” emissions — the point at which the world would no longer be pumping planet-warming gases into the atmosphere — “has nothing to do with our business plans.”

The New York Times

Oil Executives Privately Contradicted Public Statements on Climate, Files Show

The documents, subpoenaed in a House investigation of climate disinformation, show company leaders contravening industry commitments. read more

Dutch state earned €363.7 billion through Groningen gas extraction

NL TIMES

TUESDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2022 – 08:44

After almost 60 years of gas extraction in Groningen, the involved parties finally announced how much money they made from it. Adjusted for inflation, the Groningen gas field yielded a total profit of 428 billion euros, of which the Dutch state received 363.7 billion euros, Het Financieele Dagblad reports based on calculations from shareholder Shell.

After almost 60 years of gas extraction in Groningen, the involved parties finally announced how much money they made from it. Adjusted for inflation, the Groningen gas field yielded a total profit of 428 billion euros, of which the Dutch state received 363.7 billion euros, Het Financieele Dagblad reports based on calculations from shareholder Shell.

The remaining 64.7 billion euros in profit went to the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), the operator of the Groningen gas field. NAM paid the amount out as dividends to its shareholders – Shell and ExxonMobil. read more

NL TIMES

Tens of thousands to get compensation for Groningen earthquakes

TUESDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2022

Tens of thousands of Groningen residents are still eligible for compensation for earthquake damage. This is reported by the Groningen Institute for Mining Damage (IMG), which will offer a one-time fixed payment of 5,000 euros as compensation to people who, in the past, received little or no restitution. In total, the institute estimates that it will cost an additional 100 million euros more than the hundreds of millions already spent on compensation for physical damage. read more

OILPRICE.COM

Exxon And Shell Look To Sell $1.5 Billion Natural Gas Venture

By Tsvetana Paraskova – Sep 06, 2022, 9:30 AM CDT

Supermajors ExxonMobil and Shell are looking to sell their 50/50 NAM natural gas producing joint venture in the Netherlands in a potential sale worth up to $1.5 billion, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing industry sources and a document it had seen.

Shell and Esso set up the NAM joint venture in the 1950s and started producing gas from the giant Groningen field in the Netherlands in the 1960s. According to NAM’s website, the company supplies 75% of the natural gas required by Dutch households and businesses. A total of 93% of all Dutch households use natural gas and gas accounts for 45% of all the energy that is used in the Netherlands.

Shell and Exxon’s decision to sell one of the oldest gas-producing ventures would be part of both companies’ plans to divest aging assets they no longer consider core to their respective operations, Reuters notes.

According to Reuters’ sources, NAM’s assets up for sale – including three gas processing plants, pipeline networks, and offshore gas fields – could be valued at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.

The two international majors expect that the current dire need for gas supply in Europe and the high natural gas prices could make those assets attractive to prospective buyers, the sources told Reuters. read more

DutchNews.nl

Groningen gas: former mining director says gas firms taken more seriously than supervisor

Sept 1, 2022

The economic affairs minister took gas companies more seriously than government safety supervisors, according to evidence at the six-week enquiry into what has gone wrong in Groningen.

This week the enquiry restarted into how decades of gas extraction caused ever more earthquakes and damage for local people, and why compensation schemes have failed so badly. It will run until October 14. read more

This is MONEY

Shell’s £80m boss Ben van Beurden preparing to join stream of FTSE100 bosses heading for the door

By LUCY WHITE FOR THE DAILY MAIL: PUBLISHED: 21:50, 2 September 2022 | UPDATED: 08:04, 3 September 2022

The £80million boss of Shell is preparing to join the stream of FTSE100 bosses heading for the door. 

Ben van Beurden – who, it emerged in March, bagged £4.6million in bonuses on top of his £1.4million salary last year, taking his total pay and bonuses to almost £80million during his nine years at the helm – could step down as soon as 2023 as the oil giant begins its search for a replacement. 

His departure will mark the end of an era for Shell, as it tries to toe the tricky line of boosting Britain’s energy security with embracing sustainable technologies. While Van Beurden’s legacy includes a commitment to reduce oil production, he has been criticised for failing to take more drastic action. read more