News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc
Shell sends top HR man to Prelude
09 JULY 2020
SHELL Australia’s top human resources man Adam Ralph has been aboard the Prelude floating LNG vessel some time in an attempt to quell ongoing dissatisfaction, and promising cultural change, Energy News has been told.
Mechanical and safety issues have exacerbated what some have long called a ‘dysfunctional’ work environment and safety concerns saw production stop and half the staff depart in February.
If the unions are correct and Shell did intervene in negotiations, those actions would be considered unlawful.
Shell has refuted the accusations. Shell upholds the highest standards of business ethics and complies with our legal obligations. In everything we do we act fairly, honestly and transparently,” a Shell spokesperson told Energy News this morning.
Unions threaten strike at Australian offshore platforms
Sources, speaking exclusively to Energy News, said the unions expected to receive a Protected Action Ballot Order from the Fair Work Commission imminently.
Published date: 03 July 2020
Australia bore the brunt of Shell’s $22bn impairment charge this week, with the write-down reflecting its expansion into unconventional gas and pioneering floating LNG (FLNG) technology with the 3.6mn t/yr Prelude venture.
Shell said it will write down the value of its Australian gas assets by between $8bn-9bn, with up to 40pc of its asset impairment from Australia.
Along with Prelude, the other Australian asset to see its value cut was Shell’s upstream coal bed-methane (CBM) gas fields that provide feedstock for the 8.5mn t/yr Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG), which it bought through the £47bn ($58.6bn) purchase of UK energy firm BG Group in 2015.
One of the most eye-catching impairments Royal Dutch Shell announced yesterday was of its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project off Australia.
The huge project is one of the largest causes of the $8 billion to $9 billion of writedowns Shell warned it would make in its “integrated gas” division, and highlights the changes that have rocked the energy market in the past decade.
When the Anglo-Dutch group approved Prelude in 2011, it claimed the “revolutionary” development would be “a game-changer for the energy industry”.
Shell slashes valuation of oil and gas assets amid coronavirus crisis
By Mark Williamson: 1st JULY 2020
The company said yesterday it expected to cut the valuation of its integrated gas business by $8 – $9 billion, “primarily in Australia”. It said this would include a partial impairment of the giant Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facility.
ROYAL Dutch Shell has said it plans to slash the valuation of its oil and gas assets by up to $22 billion (£17.9bn) to reflect the expected impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on demand and the wider economy.
POSTING ON OUR SHELL BLOG 25 JUNE 2020
About Dear Rob, he is hardly departing in a blaze of glory, his mission it seems is very much unaccomplished as he departs the scene.
Who will take over the poisoned chalice and get the show on the road?
In what seems a relatively short time Prelude has gone from being the expected Real Madrid of the engineering project world to a sort of Accrington Stanley, maybe being a bit unfair on the latter.
Guess the worst of times was the export of human excrement in paper bags from the installation when the lights went out and nothing on it worked ……..
By John Donovan
Successive Royal Dutch Shell CEO’s cannot say that they were not warned time and again in chilling terms about the Prelude “experiment”, the description used in a Forbes article published today.
The links below are to a series of articles, initially triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell, the retired distinguished Shell Global Safety Consultant and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.
A series of recent events highlight the challenge Shell has ahead of it with Prelude, and plans for sister vessels which are supposed to follow.
Shell doesn’t expect Prelude FLNG restart before Q3
June 22, 2020, by Mirza Duran
LNG giant Shell is not expecting to restart production at its Prelude FLNG facility offshore Western Australia before the start of the third quarter.
Shell hasn’t exported any cargoes from the FLNG for almost five months following an electrical trip on February 2.
“Start-up timing will depend on Covid-19 constraints and compliance with government directions, which will result in a reduction in the number of people on board the facility”, a Shell spokesperson said in a emailed statement on Monday.
Shell’s Prelude FLNG project exec, Rob Jager, to depart
The Shell executive tasked with delivering its $US12bn ($17.5bn)-plus Prelude floating LNG project is set to quit the energy giant.
Jager did not last long…
It was only in December 2018 that his arrival was announced
“Shell Australia, a unit of the Hague-based LNG giant Shell, recently welcomed Rob Jager to Perth as the new vice president for the massive Prelude FLNG project.”
Jager moved to Perth from New Zealand, where he was the Country Chair & VP for Shell New Zealand / Shell Taranaki for more than 13 years.
POSTING SAT 13 JUNE 2020 ON OUR SHELL BLOG
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“And 8% to 12% currently we don’t even make in our upstream business” BvB… That performance includes the huge over runs on Corrib, Penn Chem, Prelude, multiple other LNG projects, Alaska Fiasco, and many other (not to mention OPL 245).
It is such an embarrassing comparison to ExxonMobil in projects like Liza, which is highly likely to exceed returns Shell is chasing as a utility. Brasil (or Mexico) have the capacity to deliver similar returns to Liza, if there was leadership and strategy for a long term development.
Australian LNG exports defy supply glut
Angela Macdonald-Smith Senior Resources writer
Updated Jun 5, 2020 – 12.20pm, first published at 10.55am
Australia’s exports of liquefied natural gas are holding at near-record levels, defying a global supply glut that has swamped the market, causing prices to crash and driving the cancellation of cargoes from the US.
LNG production from the country’s plants on the north-west and eastern coasts rose in the March quarter by 11 per cent from the year-earlier quarter to 19.9 million tonnes, and was only marginally below the record levels of the second half of 2019, according to the latest analysis from consultancy EnergyQuest, released on Friday.
Union plans ‘protected action’ strike aboard Shell’s Prelude floating LNG
18 MAY 2020
Leaked information outlines union plans to conduct a ‘protected action’ strike aboard Shell’s Prelude floating LNG vessel offshore Western Australia, as well as other offshore facilities.
Members of the two unions voted unanimously in taking action over an impasse on working arrangements and a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement with contractor Sodexo.
Sodexo provides catering, cooking and cleaning staff to oil and gas facilities including Shell’s Prelude FLNG project, and Inpex’s offshore facilities.
ARTICLE: Voser wisely abandons an unstable ship: 28 December 2013
ARTICLE: Royal Dutch Shell Prelude to disaster?: 10 Jan 2014
ARTICLE: Shell Prelude FLNG: loss of containment of hydrocarbons almost inevitable: 21 Feb 2014
ARTICLE: What should frighten stiff Royal Dutch Shell shareholders: 15 March 2014
ARTICLE: Tales of the Unexpected and Royal Dutch Shell Prelude FLNG: 28 March 2014
ARTICLE: Prelude FLNG: A case of all your eggs in the one basket: 10 July 2014
While the Prelude did export LNG at about half its capacity for the second half of 2019, it is now idle.
Moored far off the Kimberley coast it is plagued with technical problems, dwindling gas reserves and safety processes condemned by the regulator despite Shell and its partners spending about $US19.3 billion ($A30.0 billion) to the end of 2019.
Neither Shell and its partners nor Australia have gained anything near what they expected from the giant experiment.
Economies worldwide have ground to a halt as virus containment measures have taken their toll, slashing gas demand for power generation, heating, cooking, vehicles and chemical manufacture. The world’s biggest LNG markets – Japan, China, South Korea and India – are all seeing a drop in demand.
Asia’s spot LNG prices LNG-AS dropped to $1.85 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) last week, the lowest ever, as cargoes have flooded the market. [LNG/]
“At prices in the $2/mmBtu range … some producers are getting close to not recovering cash costs of their operations. We are likely to see some producers start to ‘shut in’ (production),” said Alex Dewar, senior manager at the centre for energy impact at Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
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.
: Geert Vermeulen (Ethics & Compliance Officer) posted an article on Linkedin about the Shell OPL 45 debacle and all that surrounds it. This was a response to the article by Adam Bennett: Geert, very easy to pass judgments without knowing full facts and in hindsight. Having previously led the business integrity department at Shell I can tell you things in Nigeria are never that clear cut. One thing I remain certain of is the moral compass of shells leadership. Can’t be the same moral compass most of us are certain of.
: Shell restructuring. See: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/may/27/shell-restructuring-redundancies No better place to start than in Shell's Brazil Asset starting with the BG 'Job for Life' sycophants who have been associated with this asset for more than ten years. Start at the top with the Front End Development and Integrated Reservoir Modelling Manager and work down to the Technical Team Leads comprising sniggering Simons. Invite them all to a meeting entitled 'Wrap-up', make them an 'Offer Without Prejudice' and then constructively dismiss them by discussing their poor performance! A disgraceful asset, corrupt to the core!
: About Dear Rob, he is hardly departing in a blaze of glory, his mission it seems is very much unaccomplished as he departs the scene. Who will take over the poisoned chalice and get the show on the road? In what seems a relatively short time Prelude has gone from being the expected Real Madrid of the engineering project world to a sort of Accrington Stanley, maybe being a bit unfair on the latter. Guess the worst of times was the export of human excrement in paper bags from the installation when the lights went out and nothing on it worked ........
: "And 8% to 12% currently we don’t even make in our upstream business" BvB... That performance includes the huge over runs on Corrib, Penn Chem, Prelude, multiple other LNG projects, Alaska Fiasco, and many other (not to mention OPL 245). It is such an embarrassing comparison to ExxonMobil in projects like Liza, which is highly likely to exceed returns Shell is chasing as a utility. Brasil (or Mexico) have the capacity to deliver similar returns to Liza, if there was leadership and strategy for a long term development. What makes BvB so sure that Shell's management and culture can exceed the returns of the existing players in the "new energies" this time? Maybe the job cuts should start at the top... and not the middle where there is some remaining talent left...
: A recent comment posted here reminded me of an email I received some years ago. It is printed in italics below with one sentence deleted.
If you want some more dirt on Shell Oil, you need to go to the Inspector General’s Office, Defense Security Services, US Dept. of Defense. In 2006 DSS initiated a counter-intelligence operation and Shell USA was implicated as the primary ‘culprit’. The FBI had declined to take the case because they could not get an investigation through the US Attorney Generals office (Alberto Gonzalez) without fear of reprisal. The Houston office of DCIS (the law enforcement arm of the DoD IG’s office) had also tried to initiate an investigation but it was outside their purview.
Do not contact me for further information. I will not respond. The above (alleged) conduct by Shell constitutes a capital crime under US law and there are no statutes of limitations regarding this conduct, for the company or the Shell officials involved. Because of the highly classified nature of the material Shell attempted (unsuccessfully) to gain access to the matter could well trigger a 'diplomatic' incident, and Shell plays 'rough'.
Shell has friends within the US government to whom it turns for intelligence information. I have Shell internal emails confirming this.
: For Mr.Bogus Group: I am a Shell pensioner and I can say we all know that the company is not what it used to be. Its future is not bright and the problem is bad management. When I left the company years ago I chatted with some VP's and they all said the company was not what it used to be and wasn't fun to work for any longer. They also said they would be doing what I was doing if they were 20 years younger. I leave Shell to its inevitable fate.
: USA USA USA, in response to your points. Why was the assurance process broken? – because incompetent managers and executives didn’t understand that implementing an effective work process was more than a Power Point presentation. Why did bullies just tick the box? – because nobody had the courage to challenge them, lest it impeded their prospects to further their own aims. Why did they ignore anyone asking difficult questions? – because imperious managers and executives regarded those who challenged as nonconformists, who threatened their craving for dominance.
: Penn Chem is pure folly. Wasn't the business case tax incentives, using waste products from fracking, being close to customers, good neighbor cleaning up toxic waste, never mind the cost or the risks. But now the only reason to finish is for the tax advantages, and then sell it while the PE price remains low, in the hope that someone thinks they are getting a deal. Demonstration that the first mover risks can outweigh the opportunity... kind of like prelude, or being a power utility, or us wind 15 years ago ... the assurance process is completely broken - bullies just tick the box, while ignoring anyone who asks difficult questions. Maybe we can get another TRUMP visit, and more chants of "USA USA USA"?
: More news of BG diaspora. At the Annual General Meeting of Hurricane Energy plc held on 3rd of June, Ms Beverley Smith was elected as a Director of the Company with 99.85% of the votes in favour, 0.15% votes against. Having previous experience as a VP and overseeing a hasty retreat from Algeria at the now defunct BG Group, will doubtless be valuable when exploring rock bottom and/or fractured basement on the Atlantic Margin!
: Would this be the same managers and geologists that made the competent business development and exploration decision to develop the Knarr Field? A venture that failed to meet its potential, both in terms of daily production and field life. In fact, I recall the UK based BG Group General Manager for Europe was a geologist.
: Useless degree????. 'Also it is not possible to be a competent geologist in the oil and gas business without having a very good background education in both sedimentation and stratigraphy. Both topics go hand in hand. Furthermore, managers at both the middle level and senior level need to be well versed in this subject area in order to make competent business development and exploration decisions.' These would be the same 'job for life', middle to senior level managers and competent geologists who at BG Group, for example, assured work at a cost of £200MM which later cost the company £2Bn because it was wrong (according to the Chief Operating Officer at the time), and also spent more than five years working in an asset following corrupt workflows? From your post on this Blog, I see that your time at a 'reputable university' was well spent in learning how to be exuberant with punctuation. That is all I have to say on the topic. Cheers!
: I was reading your blog today and saw a reference to 'sedimentology' being a 'useless degree'. I do not believe any reputable university offers such a degree. Sedimentology is a sub-discipline within the field of geology. Reputable universities do offer degrees in geology. It is possible to specialize in sedimentology I suppose, but you need to be enrolled in a geology program to do so. I know, I am a geologist, among other things.
Also it is not possible to be a competent geologist in the oil and gas business without having a very good background education in both sedimentation and stratigraphy. Both topics go hand in hand.
That is all I have to say on the topic. Cheers.
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