Big Oil Asset Write-Downs Are Not The End Of The Oil Age

Tilak Doshi: Contributor Energy: Aug 23, 2020

Climate change activists have long lobbied for divestment from fossil fuel-producing companies. They have largely failed in this quest. This year, the steep falls in the value of the large oil and gas companies, however, occurred with a rapidity that astonished market watchers. Within weeks, the coronavirus pandemic and the oil market-share battle between Saudi Arabia and Russia launched after the collapse of the OPEC+ talks in early March led to unprecedented falls in Big Oil equity. read more

By Nick Cunningham – May 12, 2020, 7:00 PM CDT

Oil prices continue to rise on the prospect of a rebound in fuel demand as economies begin to reopen.  But there is a large difference between oil demand rising from recent lows and actually growing relative to pre-COVID-19 trends. In other words, demand destruction on the order of nearly 30 million barrels per day (mb/d) may have been brief, but we are a long way from a 100-mb/d oil market.

In fact, some are wondering whether the world will ever get back to 100 mb/d of oil demand. Even oil executives have their doubts. Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden recently suggested that a rebound is unlikely, even looking out beyond 2020. “We do not expect a recovery of oil prices or demand for our products in the medium term,” he said. read more

Bloomberg News: Javier Blas: April 26, 2020

(Bloomberg) — Negative oil prices, ships dawdling at sea with unwanted cargoes, and traders getting creative about where to stash oil. The next chapter in the oil crisis is now inevitable: great swathes of the petroleum industry are about to start shutting down.

The economic impact of the coronavirus has ripped through the oil industry in dramatic phases. First it destroyed demand as lockdowns shut factories and kept drivers at home. Then storage started filling up and traders resorted to ocean-going tankers to store crude in the hope of better prices ahead. read more

By KATHERINE DUNN: April 16, 2020 4:07 PM GMT+1

Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday it would aim to reduce its emissions to net-zero by 2050, making it the largest global oil and gas company in the world so far to sign on to the target. It’s a commitment that will fundamentally shift the nature of its business.

The target will cover emissions from the manufacture of its products, the company said. A net-zero goal means to reduce all possible emissions, while offsetting those that can’t be cut entirely; the 2050 target coincides with guidelines under the Paris climate change accord. read more

By Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla: 09 March 2020

LONDON (Reuters) – An oil price plunge means the world’s top energy companies will have to review promises to return billions to investors, either by slowing down share buybacks or reintroducing non-cash dividends, analysts said on Monday.

Brent crude <LCOc1> was trading at around $36 a barrel, down around 20% by 1645 GMT on Monday, when analysts lowered share price forecasts for top oil and gas producers. [O/R]

The Brent benchmark has fallen by as much as a third since Thursday, just before Russia walked away from an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output. read more

Jonathan Watts:  @jonathanwatts: Fri 5 Jul 2019 16.13 BST Last modified on Fri 5 Jul 2019 16.31 BST

The criticism of striking students by the trillion-dollar Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) highlights the growing reputational concerns of oil companies as public protests intensify along with extreme weather. Mohammed Barkindo, the secretary general of Opec, said there was a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion against oil, which was “beginning to … dictate policies and corporate decisions, including investment in the industry”. READ MORE read more

Royal Dutch Shell News 12 March 2019:

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Mar. 11, 2019 1:59 PM ET|About: Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)| By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Colombia’s government says it signed two offshore exploration and production contracts with Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) that will require the company to make $100M in initial investments.

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

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

Rania El Gamal: APRIL 30, 2018

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 ARTICLE read more

By Tsvetana Paraskova – Apr 20, 2018, 10:00 PM CDT

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

• Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari met with Shell on Wednesday as part of talks that could lead to a $15 billion investment in his country.
• Oil accounts for approximately 35 percent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product, according to OPEC.

Justina Crabtree | @jlacrabtree: 19 April 2018

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 ARTICLE read 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 ARTICLE read 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

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

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS: JAN. 28, 2018

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 ARTICLE read more