Saudi Arabia buys stakes in four big European oil firms: source

LONDON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has accumulated stakes in four major European oil companies, a source familiar with the transaction said.

The four are Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total, Norway’s Equinor and Italy’s Eni, the source said, confirming a Wall Street Journal report.

The source did not confirm the combined value of the stakes, which the WSJ reported were worth $1 billion.

“The Saudis have been buying every day almost for the past few weeks, specially since the share prices of many of these companies were in correction territory and dividend yields were very high,” the source familiar with the transactions said. read more

Energy giant Shell paid no taxes on its upstream oil and gas business to the UK government last year, instead receiving large rebates, according to a new report.

by Allister Thomas: 8/04/2020, 6:00 am

Shell has published its Payments to Governments report, a legally required document outlining contributions it made to countries around the world in 2019 from its extractive oil and gas activities.

It shows the oil major paid no taxes for upstream to the UK last year, instead receiving a $116.5m (£94.5m) refund from HM Revenue and Customs, mainly related to decommissioning.

Activist group Greenpeace reacted with “anger” to the report and the tax regime in the United Kingdom.

The UK’s system, designed to encourage future investment, means that participators in certain older oil fields can carry-back losses – such as those arising from decommissioning – against profits previously made from them. This can lead to repayments of Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT). read more

Royal Dutch Shell, the parent company of the Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Limited, says it paid a total of about $5.63 billion to the Nigerian government in 2019.

The payment is the largest payout out of a total $22.63 billion the company said it made to about 28 host-governments covering countries where it has exploration and production activities around the world.

The closest rivals to the payment to Nigeria were payments the company said it also made to Malaysia $3.84 billion, and Norway ($3.07 billion). read more

Apr. 5, 2020 2:47 PM ET|About: Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)|By: Liz Kiesche, SA News Editor

Some of the world’s largest oil companies  have raised more than $32B in recent weeks to ensure they have the cash to deal with the economic effects of the coronavirus while preserving dividends, the Financial Times reports.

ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B), Equinor, Total, and BP (NYSE:BP) have sold debt to raise dollars or euros since mid-March.

They’re also paring capex, reducing costs, pausing stock buybacks, and delaying project approvals.

Besides the bond sales, Shell and BP have also obtained new multibillion-dollar credit facilities. read more

Shell, for example, said last month that it was diverting resources to the increased production of isopropyl alcohol, which is the primary ingredient in hand sanitizers. It also said it would make 2.5 million liters of the ingredient freely available to the healthcare sector in the Netherlands. The supermajor is also offering free food and drink to healthcare professionals at 15,000 retail outlets globally as well as to truck drivers and delivery personnel “who are vital to maintaining supplies.”

Thousands of barrels of oil spouted out of the broken pipeline at Bodo for 10 weeks before Shell finally clamped it on 7 November 2008. © CEHRD

Pastor Christian Kpandei contemplates the damage done to his fish farm in Bodo, Nigeria, May 2011. The farm flourished before the August 2008 oil spill, but the pollution destroyed his fish farm, leaving him and his workers without a regular income. © Amnesty International

3.2.1 FOUR FARMERS’ CASES

The first of the pollution-related cases marked the first time that any Dutch company had been sued in the Dutch court for the operations of its subsidiaries overseas.

In 2008, four Nigerian farmers (Eric Barizaa Dooh, Fidelis Ayoro Oguru, Alali Efanga and Friday Alfred Akpan), along with Milieudefensie, the Dutch section of Friends of the Earth, filed claims against RDS and SPDC.44

They are seeking to obtain compensation for alleged damage to fish ponds and land caused by oil spills from two underground pipelines and an oil well operated by Shell in the villages of Goi, Ikot Ada Udo and Oruma between 2004 and 2007.45 read more

• Royal Dutch Shell is collaborating with Udacity to digitally train its workers in artificial intelligence.
• This began long before the coronavirus pandemic and the company continues to use this training method.
• The digital workforce skilling platform may become the training method of choice for a growing number of companies who need to keep employees up to speed in the weeks and months ahead.

Working at Royal Dutch Shell’s Deepwater division in New Orleans gives Barbara Waelde a front-row seat to how the right data can unlock crucial information for the oil giant. So when her supervisor asked her last year if she was interested in a program that could sharpen her digital and data science capabilities, Waelde, 55, jumped at the chance.

Since she began her online coursework, the seven-year Shell veteran has learned Python programming, supervised learning algorithms and data modeling, among other skills. read more

By Francois De Beaupuy: 2 April 2020, 09:24 BST

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and Equinor ASA are selling $12 billion of bonds as the combined effect of the slump in oil prices and the collapse in demand threaten to sap cash flows for months.

Big Oil, already under pressure from shareholders before the coronavirus crisis to improve returns, has moved swiftly to defer projects, cut spending and halt share buybacks. They are seeking to protect dividends as the economic slump and a price war led by Saudi Arabia undermines profits. read more

Mar. 31, 2020 10:30 AM ET|About: Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A +5.6%) opens with strong gains after saying it expects only a “relatively minor” impact from the coronavirus on overall demand for its oil products during Q1.

Shell sees oil products sales volumes at 6M-7M bbl/day for the quarter, compared with 6.5M bbl/day in the year-earlier period, with Q1 upstream oil and gas production estimated at 2.65M-2.72M boe/day, with margins affected by the weak environment.

The company says it has secured a new $12B credit facility as it seeks to safeguard dividends, which follows a $10B facility obtained in December, combining to boost available liquidity to more than $40B. read more

MESSAGE FROM GLOBAL WITNESS REGARDING SHELL/ENI OPL 245 CORRUPTION CASE

An online event this Friday

On Friday, Global Witness is hosting a virtual event, The Oil Heist of the Century: Journey around the world in search for truth and accountability, as part of the Skoll World Forum alongside our partners Olanrewaju Suraju the Chair of the Nigerian NGO Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) and Antonio Tricarico a Director of Italian NGO Re:Common.

The event will take place on Friday 3^rd April at 4pm BST, 5pm CET, 4pm WAT.

We will tell the story of infamous Shell and Eni corruption case that Global Witness and partners has been investigating and exposing for many years. It will take you on a journey around the world from an oil field in Nigeria via London and Abuja to a courthouse in Milan. read more

UPDATE 2-Shell pulls out of U.S. Lake Charles LNG project, Energy Transfer delays FID

* Energy Transfer delays FID from late 2020 to early 2021

* Shell relinquishes 50% stake amid spending cuts

* Decision comes after collapse in oil prices 

By Ron Bousso and Shradha Singh

March 30 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc pulled out of a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant under development in Louisiana following the recent crash in oil and natural gas prices that has forced the company to make deep spending cuts.

Energy Transfer LP, which was developing the project with Shell, said it remains focused on the commercial development of Lake Charles and is working toward making an early 2021 final investment decision (FID) to build the plant. read more

Oil pollution in Kegbara-Dere (K-Dere) community in Ogoniland, Rivers State, Niger Delta, Nigeria. This community has experienced multiple oil spills since Shell started operations there in the 1960s. September 2015. © Michael Uwemedimo/cmapping.net

Shell’s pipelines in Ogoniland are old and poorly maintained. There have been several spills and in 2009 there was a huge fire, at the Bomu Manifold, at K. Dere, Rivers state. September 2015. © Michael Uwemedimo/cmapping.net

Dead periwinkles covered in oily mud from Bodo creek, Nigeria, May 2011. There were two massives spills in August 2009 from a poorly maintained Shell pipeline. © Amnesty International

Signboard warning people not to enter stream that has been contaminated by oil spills, Ogale, Rivers State, Nigeria. Every year there are hundreds of spills in the Niger Delta, and clean-up is often slow and ineffective. © Amnesty International

3.2 ENVIRONMENTAL CASES (Pages 16, 17, 18 & 10)

There are three separate legal proceedings taking place against Shell in Dutch and British courts relating to oil pollution. This has devastated the Niger Delta.

Data from Shell’s own spill incident reports reveal that from 2011-18 the company reported a huge number of spills – 1,010 – along the network of pipelines and wells that it operates.25 Spills have a variety of causes – from third-party tampering, to operational faults and corrosion of aged facilities. Shell blames most spills on theft and pipeline sabotage, and are not due to its own negligence.26 read more

The Ogoni Case is a Simple Demand for Basic Rights and Justice – MOSOP

Call for the Exoneration of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Others

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) says all the Ogoni people want in Nigeria is respect for the rights of the people and justice. President of MOSOP, Fegalo Nsuke made this known yesterday in Port Harcourt in a speech to mark the 24th anniversary of the U.N Secretary General’s fact-finding mission to Ogoni which noted that the Special Tribunal which ordered the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa had no jurisdiction to try Saro-Wiwa and the others.

Nsuke said it was shameful that Nigeria’s response to a simple and justifiable demand for basic rights and justice by the Ogoni people in Nigeria was repression by state security forces and the hounding by Shell through its agents which led to the death of thousands of innocent Ogonis. read more

Energy companies slash another $19 billion as oil price remain near 20-year lows

Eleven energy companies over the past several days said they would cut a combined $18.6 billion dollars from their budgets as oil prices remain near 20-year lows, setting the stage for tens of thousands additional layoffs.

West Texas Intermediate crude closed at $23.36 per barrel Monday, a price not seen since March 2002 as Russia and Saudi Arabia flood global markets and the coronavirus pandemic crushes demand.

Energy companies big and small — including Conoco Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, Hess and Halliburton — have responded by slashing spending for new projects and operations, halting stock buy back programs, putting deals on hold and selling assets. read more

PUBLISHED WED, MAR 25 20205:14 AM EDT

• The world’s biggest oil and gas firms should break an industry taboo and consider cutting dividends as they weather the fallout from the pandemic, investors say.
• Investors prefer the dividend cut to companies taking on any more debt to maintain payouts.
• The top five so-called oil majors have avoided reducing dividends for years to keep investors sweet and added a combined $25 billion to debt levels in 2019 to maintain capital spending, while giving back billions to shareholders.

The world’s biggest oil and gas firms should break an industry taboo and consider cutting dividends, rather than taking on any more debt to maintain payouts as they weather the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, investors say.

The top five so-called oil majors have avoided reducing dividends for years to keep investors sweet and added a combined $25 billion to debt levels in 2019 to maintain capital spending, while giving back billions to shareholders. read more