Shell’s investment could surpass $650M if exploration continues, according to the president of Colombia’s National Hydrocarbons Agency.
The government recently modified contractual terms for offshore exploration and launched a new process that allows companies to apply to explore in areas of interest, offering 20 blocks as part of a strategy to boost the oil sector.read more
Nigeria: Shell’s Oil Spill Dispute With Nigerian Villagers Back in UK Court
By Ejiofor Alike with Agency Reports
Lawyers for the Bodo community in Ogoniland of Rivers State, which was devastated by two major oil spills in 2008, went to court in London yesterday to fend off what they said was an attempt by Shell to kill off their litigation.
This is coming as crude oil price rose briefly to $80 per barrel yesterday after the United States toughened its stance on Iran and Venezuela, key oil producers and members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The Bodo oil spills have been the subject of years of legal wrangling.read more
DUBAI (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is fully committed to its gas joint venture in Iraq, after the energy major exited its oil assets in the OPEC country, and plans to boost its gas output there to 1.4 billion cubic feet (bcf) a day by 2020, a senior executive said. Iraq’s gas development plans have long focused on Basra Gas Co (BGC), a $17 billion, 25-year project in which Iraq has 51 percent, Shell 44 percent and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T) 5 percent. The project was designed to aggregate gas from fields in the south including West Qurna 1, operated by Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N); Zubair, operated by Italy’s Eni (ENI.MI); and Rumaila, developed by BP (BP.L).FULL ARTICLEread more
Oil major Shell has snapped up over 8 million barrels of June-loading crude oil grades from the Middle East and Russia and has resold some of the cargoes in Asia, taking advantage of the strong Asian demand, Reutersreported on Friday, citing five trading sources.
Wider Brent premium over the Middle Eastern benchmark Dubai this month has made Atlantic crude oil supplies more expensive than the Middle Eastern and Russian supplies, which are priced off the Dubai benchmark.read more
Daniel Leal | Olivas-WPA Pool | Getty Images: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the Commonwealth Business Forum at the Guildhall on April 18, 2018, in London, England.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari met with Shell on Wednesday as part of talks he said were to secure $15 billion of investment in his country. “I saw Shell Group, they came here, they saw me, they are preparing to invest $15 billion in Nigeria… so really, we are not doing too badly,” Buhari said to applause at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London on Wednesday. He was speaking as part of a panel on the ease of doing business between Commonwealth countries. FULL ARTICLEread more
(Reuters) – Oil major Royal Dutch Shell on Friday agreed to sell its entire stake in Iraq’s West Qurna 1 oilfield to Japan’s Itochu Corp for $406 million. The deal comes shortly after the Anglo-Dutch company agreed to exit the Majnoon oilfield, one of the largest fields in OPEC member Iraq, and hand over its operation to state-run Basra Oil Co (BOC) by end-June. Shell EP Middle East Holdings B.V. will sell the entire share capital of Shell Iraq B.V. (SIBV), which holds a 19.6 percent stake in the oilfield to a unit of Itochu, the Anglo Dutch company said. FULL ARTICLEread more
Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.
Begins
Is the era of rising oil prices already over?
From our editor • Fair
Oil prices were on the rise. A barrel of Brent oil, benchmark for the world oil markets, dipped on the $ 45 last year, then started a climb that ended two weeks ago at $ 70. Then the draft came in. Last week, the price of a barrel of Brent dropped by the $ 62. Is this the beginning of an oil price decline?
Hans van Cleef, energy economist at ABN Amro
‘Oil may start to decline in the short term. The prices were very much gone. There has been some fear about the potential of American shale oil. That puts pressure on prices in a fairly speculative market.read more
FILE PHOTO: Filled oil drums are seen at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s lubricants blending plant in the town of Torzhok, north-west of Tver, November 7, 2014. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File PhotoAyenat MersieEjigu: 8 FEB 2018
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices fell to their lowest in seven weeks on Thursday amid fears of rising global supplies after Iran announced plans to increase production and U.S. crude output hit record highs.
Brent futures LCOc1 fell 70 cents, or 1.1 percent, to settle at $64.81 a barrel, their lowest close since Dec. 20.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1, meanwhile, was down 64 cents, or 1 percent, to settle at $61.15, its lowest close since Jan. 2.
Both benchmarks fell for the fifth straight day, the longest losing streak for Brent since November 2017 and for WTI since April 2017.
Brent futures have lost as much as 15 percent since hitting a four-year high above $71 in late January.read more
A pump jack in a Permian Basin oil field in West Texas. The area has been a focus of the shale drilling boom.Credit Spencer Platt/Getty Images North America
HOUSTON — A substantial rise in oil prices in recent months has led to a resurgence in American oil production, enabling the country to challenge the dominance of Saudi Arabia and dampen price pressures at the pump. The success has come in the face of efforts by Saudi Arabia and its oil allies to undercut the shale drilling spree in the United States. Those strategies backfired and ultimately ended up benefiting the oil industry. Overcoming three years of slumping prices proved the resiliency of the shale boom. Energy companies and their financial backers were able to weather market turmoil — and the maneuvers of the global oil cartel — by adjusting exploration and extraction techniques. FULL ARTICLEread more
LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s top oil companies are expected to generate more cash in 2018 than at any other time this decade after three painful years of cuts, but it isn’t party time yet.
The shift in sentiment has been rapid as crude prices have risen by more than 50 percent over the past six months to reach $70 a barrel, a level not seen since the crash year of 2014, thanks to global supply cuts led by OPEC.
Only a year ago, many investors still fretted over the sustainability of the sector’s lavish dividend payouts in a weak energy market. Now the focus on company boards is gradually switching from slashing jobs and investment to boosting shareholders’ returns and growth.read more
God didn’t die in 2017, but he did throw his hands up. Andy Hall, the oil trader blessed with that nickname, caused a stir this summer by closing down his main hedge fund after long arguing for oil prices to rally and reportedly suffering big losses. Hall didn’t declare oil was dead; indeed, he warned his withdrawal could be a contrarian signal (which turned out to be prescient). Hall’s capitulation was a warning of a different kind. And while it may be mere coincidence, the appearance of something called OilCoin four months after God bowed out is a fitting coda. FULL ARTICLEread more
Companies like Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp.historically invested tens of billions of dollars over many years to develop huge reserves in isolated areas like northern Alberta, Kazakhstan or in the middle of the ocean. Shale is different. A tight-oil well could be drilled within a year for a few million dollars. As prices fell, more companies jumped in with more investment. Now, shale regions that were barely a blip on world markets a decade ago are expected to pump 7.5 million barrels a day in four years, and output probably won’t peak until after 2025… FULL ARTICLEread more
* OPEC-led supply cuts, Forties pipeline outage support crude
* But rising U.S. output, driven by shale, weighs on market
SINGAPORE, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Oil markets were stable on Friday as the Forties pipeline outage in the North Sea and the ongoing OPEC-led production cuts supported prices, while rising output from the United States kept crude from rising further. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.13 a barrel at 0119 GMT, up 9 cents from their last settlement.read more
Oil prices rose 2.2 per cent yesterday amid expectations that Opec will agree to extend curbs on production at its meeting this month.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $62.72 a barrel, reversing four consecutive days of losses.
Separately, it emerged that the world’s most powerful oil trader, Mike Muller, of Royal Dutch Shell, would step down after 29 years with the company.
Mr Muller, known for handling as many as eight million barrels of oil per day, left after the appointment of Andrew Smith as Shell’s new head of supply and trading. He is set to leave at the end of the year.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is hedging its bets over the next two decades with expectations that motor fuel consumption will be diminishing and other markets rising.
Since the oil price plummet it 2014, Shell has transitioned its business model over to refining oil, offering other refined oil products, and producing petrochemicals. The oil giant will produce well beyond gasoline to serve other growing economic sectors, and to offset the role EVs will play by the 2030s.FULL ARTICLEread more
Global oil prices broke above two year highs and could climb higher to hit $70 a barrel in the wake of a shock anti-corruption purge of Saudi royals and senior officials.
Oil prices bounded to highs not seen since July 2015 at over $64 a barrel on Monday following a sweep of arrests targeting ministers, investors and members of the Saudi royal family on corruption charges over the weekend.
The shock crackdown also helped drive shares in Royal Dutch Shell to within a breath of its highest ever share price at £24.89 following the company’s rosy financial results last week. Before the oil price crash in late 2014 the company’s shares traded at a peak of £25.76. FULL ARTICLEread more
Bogus Group: In 2015 this prospect was given a production life of "at least 10 years"Did Shell expect such an early exit, or was this another BG Group recoverable miscalculation?https://www.upstreamonline.com/hardcopy/1805800/shell-to-pull-plug-at-knarr
uscitizen: Shell, the world’s second-largest listed oil and gas company after Exxon, cut costs heavily following its 2016 acquisition of BG Group for $53 billion and the 2014 oil crash.
Despite a slow and bumpy recovery in oil prices, it reported the largest profit among its peers last year and a jump in revenue from previous years.
Shell said its free cash flow - cash available for dividends and share buybacks - was set to rise to around $35 billion per year by 2025 based on a Brent crude oil price of $60 per barrel.
That compares with $28-33 billion in free cash flow it expects to deliver by the end of next year. Brent is currently trading just under $61 per barrel.
Shell, the world’s biggest dividend payer at $16 billion in 2018, expects to increase its dividend payouts to shareholders once it completes the $25 billion share buyback by the end of 2020 that it promised following the BG acquisition.
Shell last increased its quarterly dividend in the first quarter of 2014 to $0.47 per share.
uscitizen: All of the folks bashing Shell for the BG merger, I think we can now say this has been a very good financial move. Shell has overtaken Exxon and Integrated Gas is a big reason why. I am sure there are examples where some good people got pushed out, and I hate to hear that. However, lets not pull the wool over folks eyes and say this business decision was not sound.
Bonus Group: Further to yesterday's post.
Sound Energy plc
("Sound Energy" or the "Company")
Director/PDMR Shareholding
Sound Energy, the Moroccan focused upstream gas company, announces that it has been notified that Brian Mitchener, Executive Director, has today purchased 150,000 ordinary shares in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 12.04 pence per Ordinary Share. As a result of this purchase, Mr Mitchener is interested in 150,000 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.0142% of the Company's issued ordinary share capital.
Bonus Group: UnSound Energy?
Readers may wonder why the darling of the AIM Market is now preparing itself for a sale of its Eastern Morocco acreage.
Perhaps, the answer may be found in the Annual Report 2018 available to download as a .PDF from the Sound Energy Website:
Page 49
Loss of Office and Change of Control Provisions
In the event of a change of control of the Company, the CEO, CFO and Exploration Director have the option to give notice and receive a lump sum equivalent to 18 months’ salary for the CEO, 12 months’ salary for the CFO and 8 months’ salary for the Exploration Director.All of the Company’s current share plans contain provisions relating to a change of control.
On a change of control, outstanding awards would normally vest and become exercisable, subject to the satisfaction of any performance conditions at that time.
Page 50
Summary Of Actual Remuneration (including Benefits in Kind and Performance Awards) Of Directors
Executive Directors
James Parsons £995,000
Brian Mitchener £323,000 (RSU Awards No. of Shares 862,682, Granted 26.04.18 Settlement date 01.01.21)
JJ Traynor £168,000 (RSU Awards No. of Shares 961,194, Granted 26.04.18 Settlement Date 01.01.21)
It should be remembered that Brian Mitchener is of the failed BG Group stable. It would seem that Bonus Group habits are hard to let g0!
Bogus Group: I concur with Bonus Group recollection of the tin pot, lacklustre, parvenu outfit. There was no place in BG Group for experienced professionals if they didn’t possess the sycophant tendencies required to stoke the egos of those deluded by corporate grandeur.
Large remuneration packages were not uncommon then too, the chief executive received circa £13mm (published) in bonuses throughout his 12 year tenure. During that period there were 26 fatalities, roughly £500k for each. That was more than distasteful.
Bonus Group: Today is the anniversary date of the agreement on terms of the takeover of BG Group (a tin pot, lacklustre, parvenu outfit) by Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2015. In consequence of BG Group's consistent failures to meet targets and the engineered predatory takeover by Royal Dutch Shell plc the careers and professional lives of many experienced Geoscientists and Engineers were brutally butchered, terminated, and cast aside like so much offal, so it is rather distasteful to see the size of Ben van Beurden's remuneration package being flaunted in the press by Royal Dutch Shell plc.
CEP Problems: It seems to be impossible right now to get any chance of landing a job inside Shell these days. Everytime people apply for jobs unless they have high potential or a diversity point they get rejections. I got told recently that the hiring manager was looking for someone with high potential. Don't these people realise that they also need QUALIFIED people to actually do the work. Ridiculous but it almost getting to age discrimination these days. Rant over.
Shell Canada Insider: SHELL CANADA
...they are wanting to sell their Alberta operations..... because there is no money left in it...they have syphoned it all off.....
I think also on 2010-2011 they had multiple explosions at their Caroline facility supposedly an employee during an explosion at the south compressor station had to be airlifted to hospital and was seriously injured.
The aer/ govt shut it down. it was closed for 6 months and half of the plant was decommissioned when it restarted.
That must have cost them millions of dollars.....there should be government records of this stuff....
The description of the fairleads causing the mooring ropes to chafe to such an extent is almost so ridiculous to render ex-seafarer speechless. The fitting of nylon liners inside the fairleads is something new for me but the idea behind it would may be to reduce the friction of the mooring lines when running through the fairlead thus reduce any temperature potential in a zone 2 area. Fixing one potential risk appears to have created another one of greater risk potential. I am not sure how the nylon liners in the fairleads would have such sharp edges to chafe the mooring lines on their own and perhaps there may have been something else to which the journalist has missed out. The reported leakage of LNG in the manifold area from a flange should not have happened but the liquid transfer areas are all bunded in low-temperature materials and provided with a constant supply of running water during cargo handling activities. Power outages during start-up operations and ongoing are nothing new and others can be expected, hopefully not very often as the restart of such a complicated process system takes a long time and much effort. The problem with firewater deluge over the LNG storage tanks reported is of considerable concern but the journalist does not mention if this was during the period when systems were being tested prior to the introduction of LNG or after. If before then this section of the report is just journalistic license and of no consequence whatsoever. The other issues as reported can be considered minor during the preparation phase before the introduction of hydrocarbons in any form but definitely of concern if these incidents were after the introduction of hydrocarbons. I wish the people who are experiencing the startup of such a complicated and complex plant every success. Take the time that is needed to be successful by being safe, good luck.
John Donovan: Irish Backstop Update
According to a Sunday Times article two days ago, "Ireland continues to dodge difficult questions about how it will protect the single market and also maintain an open border under a no-deal."
IRELAND has been warned it faces the difficult choice between implementing a hard border or being forced out of the EU’s single market in an unprecedented move to protect the bloc from a no-deal Brexit.
Dublin will be forced to make the tough choice if Britain quits the EU without a deal, according to a number of senior EU figures.
The European Commission sparked fury from Ireland after declaring Dublin would have to implement a hard border in the event of a no-deal Brexit. After significant protests from, which involved a heated debate between Leo Varadkar and Jean-Claude Juncker, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, suggested “operational solutions” would have to be found in order to prevent a hardening of the border.
But now high-ranking MEPs have hardened their position, insisting the single market must not be compromised even to maintain peace on the island of Ireland.
Elmar Brok, a German MEP with close ties to Angela Merkel, insisted that if Ireland failed to police its own borders the EU would have to take its own protectionist action.
“We would have to set up a customs border with Ireland,” the German said.
He also warned that if Brussels didn’t make the demands then "we will soon have American chlorine chicken in the EU".
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 …
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.
Nigeria: Shell’s Oil Spill Dispute With Nigerian Villagers Back in UK Court
By 
Nigerian President 
Reuters Staff: MARCH 23, 2018
Hans van Cleef, energy economist at ABN Amro
By 
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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.