In the corruption case, Eni and Shell are accused of buying Nigeria’s OPL 245 offshore oilfield in the knowledge that the vast majority of the $1.3 billion purchase price would be siphoned off to agents and middlemen in corrupt payments.

Emilio Parodi: JULY 4, 2019

MILAN, July 4 (Reuters) – Italian prosecutors are widening an investigation into suspected obstruction of justice by officials of oil group Eni, sources said, threatening to open a new legal front for the company as it defends itself in a major corruption trial.

The inquiry is preliminary and has been overshadowed by the ongoing trial, which centres on the 2011 purchase of a Nigerian oilfield by Eni and oil major Shell, but it is gathering momentum, said three sources familiar with the probe. read more

An Italian prosecutor told a local court on Wednesday the court was made aware that managers at Italy’s oil major Eni tried to tamper with a witness in an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in an oil block award in Nigeria.

“We have become aware that Eni, through its managers, would have tried to influence and would have approached the defendant (Vincenzo) Armanna to convince him to withdraw some of his statements,” Reuters quoted prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale as telling the court today. read more

In May 2018, the main trial in Milan started, in which Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi, former Shell exploration chief Malcolm Brinded and 11 other defendants, as well as the two companies, were accused by Italian prosecutors of paying bribes to secure the licence. All the accused denied wrongdoing.

FACTBOX-Legal cases sparked by Nigerian oilfield licence award

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) – One of the oil industry’s biggest corruption trials revolves around a Nigerian offshore licence known as OPL 245, which Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni bought in 2011.

Italian prosecutors accuse former and current executives of the two energy giants of paying bribes to secure the licence.

Shell and Eni, and their executives, have denied the accusations and any wrongdoing.

Below are a list of legal actions that have arisen from the award of OPL 245:

* Some key issues related to the OPL 245 case came to light in two separate civil suits  filed shortly after the 2011 deal by a Nigerian, Emeka Obi, and a former Russian diplomat, Ednan Agaev, who said they were owed millions of dollars by a Nigerian company, Malabu Oil and Gas, for arranging meetings with Shell and Eni in relation to the licence, court filings show. Obi was awarded at least $100 million for his work as a “dealmaker”, the court records show. Agaev reached an out-of-court settlement. read more

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that there was no impact to operations at the Prelude floating LNG facility as a result of the earthquake. The company had earlier declined to comment.

JULY 15, 2019 

MELBOURNE, July 15 (Reuters) – Oil and gas operations onshore and offshore Western Australia were unaffected by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake that struck off the northern coast of the state on Sunday, the country’s offshore petroleum safety regulator and companies said.

“NOPSEMA has not received any reports of impacts to offshore oil and gas facilities following the earthquake,” a spokesman for the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) said. read more

LONDON, July 9 (Reuters) – London-based asset manager Sarasin & Partners has sold nearly 20% of its holdings in Royal Dutch Shell, saying the oil and gas company’s spending plans are out of synch with international targets to battle climate change.

The 33.8 million pounds ($42.1 million) sale represents a fraction of Shell’s $261 billion market value.

But it is a rebuke of Shell’s strategy less than a year after the Anglo-Dutch company, together with a large group of investors including Sarasin known as Climate Action 100+, agreed on a landmark resolution outlining Shell’s ambition to reduce carbon emissions. read more

By Reuters• last updated: 01/07/2019 – 16:04

(Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> confirmed two fatalities as a result of an incident at its Auger Tension Leg Platform in the deep-water U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Sunday morning.

“One other non-life-threatening injury was sustained, and that individual is being treated at a nearby hospital,” Shell said in an emailed response on Monday.

The accident occurred around 9:00 a.m. CST during a routine and mandatory test of a lifeboat launch and retrieval capabilities at the platform, located 214 miles south of New Orleans. read more

Swiss police found the documents in a briefcase they seized in April 2016 in an inquiry unrelated to the corruption case, and the source said Milan prosecutors believed the documents could be vital to their prosecution of Eni and Shell. But Italy’s request for the documents to be handed over has been blocked by Swiss courts after repeated legal challenges by the owner of the briefcase, Nigerian lawyer Emeka Obi, who was charged alongside Eni and Shell executives in the graft case.

By Reuters• last updated: 21/06/2019 – 13:04

MILAN (Reuters) – Italian prosecutors have complained to Switzerland about lengthy delays in obtaining evidence they have requested in an international corruption case involving oil firms Shell and Eni, a source familiar with the matter said.

Milan prosecutors wrote in April to the Geneva prosecutors’ office in a previously undisclosed letter, describing their three-year wait for documents to be handed over by Swiss authorities as “unprecedented”, the source said. read more

JUNE 19, 2019

MELBOURNE, June 19 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell sees more opportunities for floating liquefied natural gas projects, but not necessarily like its $17 billion Prelude operation off Australia, which shipped its first cargo last week, over two years behind schedule.

Shell Australia Chair Zoe Yujnovich said on Wednesday that it was too early to tell whether Prelude, one of two floating LNG (FLNG) projects in the world, would be replicated in future, as the company was still commissioning the project. read more

JUNE 17, 2019 / 2:17 PM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch court on Monday ordered Royal Dutch Shell to pay a 2.5 million euro ($2.8 million) fine for failing to prevent an explosion at its Moerdijk facility in 2014 and for breaching emissions limits at the plant.

The district court in Den Bosch said Shell had not done enough to prevent an incident on June 3, 2014 which resulted in a series of explosions and a large fire at the Moerdijk chemical plant.

“The factory, employees, the surroundings and the environment were subject to great danger that day”, the court said. “This justifies a significant punishment.” read more

Its employees — there are 180,000 around the world — have reported that customers accuse them of “working for Nazis.” There have been boycott threats…

By John Donovan

A New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 reveals that billionaire descendants of a family who control a company which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and a number of other famous brands are grappling with the exposure of an unspeakable secret – a Nazi history. 

Extracts:

Decades after World War II, Benckiser evolved into one of the largest consumer goods conglomerates on the planet. Known today as JAB Holding Company…

For decades, they say, they did not know about their father’s Nazism and the abuses that took place at the company they inherited: read more

(Reuters) – Shell Energy Retail’s top boss apologised to customers after Britain’s energy regulator ordered the utility to compensate around 12,000 customers it overcharged on default tariffs after a price cap was introduced this year.

Shell Energy Retail Ltd, previously known as First Utility, will pay 200,000 pounds ($253,520) in addition to the refund to its consumer redress fund, bringing the total payment to 390,000 pounds.

This is the first such action against a company for overcharging since the price cap on default energy bills came into force on Jan. 1. read more

Ron Bousso: JUNE 4, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday outlined plans to increase spending and dividends after 2020 in a show of confidence by the energy company despite an uncertain outlook for oil and gas prices.

In a strategy update, the Anglo-Dutch company said it was on track to deliver its previous commitments to increase cash generation and carry out one of the world’s largest share buyback programs of $25 billion by the end of next year.

Shell, the world’s second-largest listed oil and gas company after Exxon Mobil, underwent deep cost cuts following the 2016 acquisition of smaller rival BG Group for $53 billion and the collapse of oil prices in late 2014. read more

“I understand that for many people… being seen to make profits here in the Netherlands and not having any profit to pay tax on can be odd.”

29 MAY 2019: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC will disclose how much tax it pays in every country in which it operates, an executive told a Dutch parliamentary panel on Wednesday, in a report to be published later this year.

Shell’s vice president for taxation Alan McLean made the promise at a hearing on taxation of multinationals called by parliament after reports emerged last year that Shell does not pay any corporate tax in the Netherlands, despite being headquartered in The Hague.

Ahead of Wednesday’s panel, Shell disclosed that it does not pay Dutch corporate taxes apart from at its NAM gas subsidiary, a joint venture with Exxon.

Worldwide, Shell reported it paid $10 billion (7.92 billion pounds) in corporate tax in 2018 and that it had an effective tax rate of 33 percent.

However, in the relatively small Dutch market it was able to use deductions on loss-making operations elsewhere to reduce its corporate tax bill to zero.

“When there’s a loss there’s no profit tax to be paid, so the arithmetic is simple,” Alan McLean told sceptical lawmakers. read more

Toby Sterling: MAY 21, 2019

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – A group of environmental activists tried to disrupt Royal Dutch Shell’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, calling for this year’s gathering to be the company’s last.

Around 20 activists from Dutch environmental action group Code Rood (Code Red) dressed in red jumpsuits held up banners with the slogan “shut down fossil power” and jeered at passing shareholders as they stood outside the energy giant’s meeting in the seaside town of Scheveningen near The Hague. read more