Shell says electric vehicles will be crucial in its efforts to lower carbon emissions

• Electric vehicles will play a critical role in Royal Dutch Shell’s decarbonizing efforts – opening up opportunities in this mobility sector, according to a senior executive at the oil giant.
• Huibert Vigeveno, downstream director at Shell, says the company intends to expand its global EV charging stations network worldwide, pledging to have 2.5 million charging points by 2030.

Electric vehicles will play a critical role in Royal Dutch Shell’s efforts to cut emissions, according to a senior executive at the oil giant.

“If you look at the decarbonization opportunities of this mobility sector, EV plays a crucial role,” said Huibert Vigeveno, downstream director at Shell, adding that the company intends to expand its global electric vehicle charging stations network worldwide. read more

Shell expects at best steady fuel sales for first quarter

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell expects its fuel sales to fall or at best be broadly steady for the first quarter as some coronavirus restrictions ease, the world’s biggest fuel retailer said in a trading update on Wednesday.

Shell said it saw refined oil product sales at 3.7-4.7 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first quarter compared with just under 4.8 million bpd in the last quarter of 2020.

Shell’s refining margins have improved to around $2.6 per barrel in the quarter from $1.6 in the previous quarter. read more

Shell changes senior UK leadership in global overhaul

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is changing the senior leadership of its operations in Britain as part of a global overhaul to cut costs and shift away from oil and gas to renewables and power.

Under the changes, which have been announced internally, country chair Sinead Lynch will become Shell’s global head of low-carbon fuels, a company spokeswoman said.

Lynch, who joined the Anglo-Dutch company in 2016 following its acquisition of BG Group, will be replaced by David Bunch who currently runs Shell’s retail business across Europe and South Africa. Bunch joined Shell in 1997. read more

BUSINESS: 25/02/2021 10:45 GMT

Despite Its Pledges, Shell Funded Anti-Climate Lobbying Last Year

The oil giant belonged to one group that pushed for a rule designed to preempt banks’ policies against lending for Arctic drilling and coal mining.

• By Luke Barratt
• Alexander C. Kaufman, HuffPost US

Royal Dutch Shell vowed last September to reach net-zero carbon pollution in its business by 2050. The goal was vague but notable, and seemed to become more realistic when the corporation announced earlier this month that its crude oil production had peaked in 2019 and would likely never increase again. read more

Shell’s Strategy Is Satisfactory

Summary

• This article takes a close look at Shell’s Strategy Day 2021, which focused on a net-zero emissions target and the businesses that Shell plans to operate.
• Ultimately, Shell isn’t changing its strategy too much, sticking to its core oil and gas businesses.
• By focusing on oil and gas and value over volume, Shell is a safer bet than BP which is betting big on a risky corporate restructuring.

The purpose of this article is to analyze Shell’s recent and very important Strategy Day. Shell had promised to give a lot of detail on an organizational restructuring at this event and it had the potential to radically change Shell’s direction. This means the Strategy Day presentations had a possibility to change my bullish thesis on the company. In that article I also gave some of my expectations of what I expected to see in Shell’s Strategy Day, and here I review the key takeaways of the Strategy Day and what they mean for my bullish thesis. read more

Editorial: Big oil confronts climate change – not a minute too soon

The Editorial Board: Feb. 13, 2021Updated: Feb. 13, 2021 2:13 p.m.

On Thursday, one of the world’s largest oil companies — Royal Dutch Shell — confirmed it will never again produce as much oil as it did in 2019. Peak oil production at Shell, said CEO Ben van Beurden, has come and gone.

The week before, ExxonMobil had made a similarly telling announcement: It is spending billions on a subsidiary formed to advance technologies to reduce the company’s carbon emissions and develop new products to help its customers do the same. read more

Shell’s Falling Oil Output Ends Century-Long Business Model

Laura Hurst: Feb 11 2021, 12:52 PM Feb 12 2021, 1:43 PM

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said its carbon emissions and oil production have peaked and will decline in the coming years as the company laid out a detailed plan for its transition to cleaner energy.

In a sign of how much the petroleum industry has shifted away from its mantra of growth and exploration, Shell said its oil production will fall by 1% to 2% a year. Assuming an annual reduction on the upper end of that range, the oil major’s production would fall by 18% by the end of the decade. Output of “traditional fuels” will be 55% lower by 2030. read more

Shell, in a Turning Point, Says Its Oil Production Has Peaked

Europe’s largest oil and gas producer said oil production would gradually decline 1 or 2 percent annually, underscoring the company’s desire to shift to greener energy.

By Stanley Reed: Feb, 11, 2021

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday made the boldest statement among its peers about the waning of the oil age, saying its production reached a high in 2019 and is now likely to gradually decline.

Shell’s “total oil production peaked in 2019” and will now drop 1 or 2 percent annually, the company said in a statement. read more

SHELL ACCELERATES DRIVE FOR NET-ZERO EMISSIONS WITH CUSTOMER-FIRST STRATEGY

Source: Shell International B.V.

The Hague, February 11, 2021 − Shell today set out its strategy to accelerate its transformation into a provider of net-zero emissions energy products and services, powered by growth in its customer-facing businesses. A disciplined cash allocation framework and rigorous approach to driving down carbon emissions will deliver value for shareholders, customers and wider society. Shell also confirmed its expectation that total carbon emissions for the company peaked in 2018, and oil production peaked in 2019. read more

Oil majors suffer massive losses in 2020

At the worst of the crisis the two US oil majors considered another solution according to the Wall Street Journal — a merger that would have created a massive oil firm.

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden called 2020 an extraordinary year.

While much of the losses were accounting charges to record the drop in the value of their assets, the drop crude oil prices — which briefly turned negative in 2020 for the first time ever — caused real pain. read more

Big Oil’s future could be smaller than its past

Paul Takahashi, Staff writer: Feb. 6, 2021

Oil companies have crisscrossed the world for more than a century, drilling on nearly every continent and in ever deeper oceans to prospect for fossil fuels that power the global economy.

While they did, the biggest six or seven companies collectively known as Big Oil reshaped international politics and economies, bending them to their will. Oil executives became statesmen in their own right, negotiating deals with foreign leaders to extract oil from the tar sands of Canada, the deserts of the Middle East, off the coasts of South America and Africa and in the shale formations of the U.S. read more

Debt-laden oil majors retreat amid rally

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday added itself to the growing list of supermajors to post disappointing fourth-quarter results. Like many of its peers, the Anglo-Dutch company reported weak cash flow and net income that fell short of expectations.

The earnings came as an unpleasant surprise to investors that had been expecting a tailwind after crude recovered from last year’s historic lows. But with Covid-19 lockdowns still depressing fuel sales and refining margins, the industry’s focus is on playing defense rather than on taking advantage of a rally that’s pushing Brent crude toward $60 a barrel. read more

Royal Dutch Shell sees huge loss as pandemic hits oil demand

Shell announced that up to 9,000 jobs would go worldwide as the company responded to the effects of the pandemic.

Thu, February 4, 2021, 10:20 AM

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell sank to a net loss of $21.7bn (£16bn) last year after the coronavirus pandemic caused demand to slump.

The announcement comes after two of its rivals, BP and Exxon, posted similar big losses.

Looking ahead, Shell said “significant uncertainty” would continue to have a negative impact on demand for oil and gas products. read more

Shell’s profit slumps in 2020 as the pandemic bites

By Ron Bousso, Shadia Nasralla: 5 MIN READ: FEBRUARY 4, 2021

The Anglo-Dutch oil major’s annual profit slumped 71% to $4.8 billion as its oil and gas production and profits from refining crude into fuels dropped sharply.

In a sign of confidence, however, Shell said it planned to raise its dividend in the first quarter of 2021, which would be the second slight increase since its slashed its payout by two-thirds at the start of last year due to the pandemic. read more

Supreme Court questions Big Oil effort to duck liability

During oral arguments in BP PLC v. Baltimore, justices posited that industry lawyers might be leveraging a dispute over a narrow technical question to quash lawsuits by state and local governments contending that energy companies should be on the hook for flooding, wildfires and other disasters fueled by rising global temperatures.

“It seems as though we are smuggling into appellate review other issues that are not necessarily the issues that are front and center of the federal law concerned,” Justice Clarence Thomas said to a government attorney arguing alongside lawyers for BP, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and other companies in the lawsuit. read more

Shell to lay off nearly 700 workers in Louisiana after refinery closes

The layoffs will begin in March and be completed by the end of August when the plant closes, according to information filed with the Louisiana workforce commission last month.

“The decision is part of the company’s global strategy to invest in a core set of uniquely integrated manufacturing sites that are also strategically positioned for the transition to a low-carbon future,” the Hague-based company said in November, when it began shutting down the refinery after failing to find a buyer for it. read more