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Shell plans to hang on to Norco refinery – Reuters

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May 26, 2021: A Day That May Live In Infamy For Big Oil

David Blackmon: Senior Contributor: Energy: May 27, 2021,07:56am EDT

Wednesday was a quite an epic day for a trio of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations, and not in a positive way for their management teams. The C-suites at both ExxonMobil XOM -0.6% and Chevron CVX -1% suffered defeats at the hands of activist shareholders, while Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell was handed a major adverse decision from the Dutch courts. It’s hard to know which event will have the biggest impact on the respective companies – and potentially the industry as a whole – in the long-term, but in the short-term each presented a shock to the oil and gas system.

The adverse event of the day with the most obvious potential bite may well be the Dutch court’s decision ordering Shell to dramatically expand its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Already one of the more aggressive major oil companies in this arena, Shell had earlier this year adopted targeted cuts of at least 6% by 2023, 20% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and by 100% by 2050 from its 2016 levels. But, as reported by Reuters, the court found that Shell’s plan was “not concrete and is full of conditions…that’s not enough.” read more

Royal Dutch Shell: One Year Later, Shareholders Are $50 Billion Poorer Despite Solid Results

Summary

Taking money from fossil fuel companies today is like taking money from tobacco firms in the 1990s. The damage public institutions inflict on themselves by receiving this sponsorship exceeds any benefits. Just as their hands were once stained with nicotine, now they are stained with oil. The tobacco experience suggests that it can take many years to expunge these damn’d spots and restore their reputations.

This is the position in which the Science Museum now finds itself. It appears to have learned nothing from the reputational harm it caused itself by accepting money from the oil companies BP and Equinor. Last week it revealed that Shell was funding – wait for it – its new exhibition on climate breakdown. read more

London museum under fire over climate exhibit sponsored by Shell

“It beggars belief that this iconic British institution has freely chosen to link up with Shell … at such a crucial time,” Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, said in a statement.

By Umberto Bacchi, Thomson Reuters Foundation: APRIL 16, 2021

April 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – London’s Science Museum came under fire on Friday for having oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell as a sponsor of an upcoming exhibition on climate change, a move described by environmental groups as “out-of-step”. read more

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell says it will take a £145m first-quarter hit from Texas freeze that left nearly 200 dead

• Severe freezing weather hit Texas in February this year triggering many deaths
• Millions of people were also left without power and Shell’s operations were hit 

By JANE DENTON FOR THISISMONEY

PUBLISHED: 09:22, 7 April 2021 | UPDATED: 09:24, 7 April 2021

Royal Dutch Shell has warned that the severe winter storm in Texas earlier this year looks set to hit its bottom line for the fist quarter.

In February, a snowstorm swept across Texas and swathes of North America, knocking out sections of the former’s electricity grid, leaving millions without power and nearly 200 people dead. read more

Iraq Moves To Exploit Its Massive Natural Gas Reserves

EXTRACTS

…that said, it has made some progress in developing gas resources, most notably in 2019/2020 when the US$17 billion 25-year Basra Gas Company (BGC) project with Royal Dutch Shell…

The original design plans for Nebras – formulated between Shell and the Iraq Oil Ministry and Ministry of Industry and Minerals – were for a project that could produce at least 1.8 million metric tonnes per year (mtpy) of various petrochemicals. read more

Federal, state agencies probing Shell’s Falcon ethane pipeline after whistleblowers’ allegations

Early last year, Penn­syl­va­nia’s top en­vi­ron­men­tal of­fi­cial tried to raise an alarm at the high­est level of the fed­eral agency re­spon­si­ble for pipe­line safety.

“I write to you re­gard­ing a very se­ri­ous pub­lic safety mat­ter for Penn­syl­va­nia,” the let­ter from Patrick McDon­nell, sec­re­tary of Penn­syl­va­nia’s Depart­ment of En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion, be­gan. read more

Shell Pennsylvania petchems project 70% complete, operational in 2022: spokesman

• AuthorJacquelyn Melinek 
• Editor Richard Rubin 
• Commodity Oil,  Petrochemicals
• OIL | PETROCHEMICALS
• 12 Mar 2021 | 18:00 UTC
• New York

New York — Shell Chemical’s $6 billion petrochemical complex in Pennsylvania is now more than 70% complete and projected to be operational sometime in 2022, a company spokesman said March 12.”

On a daily basis workers are commissioning major pieces of equipment within our infrastructure units – a phased process that will continue until start-up” said the spokesman, Curtis Smith, in an email. “That includes connecting pipes and wiring that will eventually loop and extend for hundreds of miles along the site’s 386 acres,” he said. read more

Shell publishes Annual Report and Accounts

Royal Dutch Shell plc published its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended December 31, 2020.

The 2020 Annual Report and Accounts can be downloaded from www.shell.com/annualreport.

In compliance with 9.6.1 of the Listing Rules, on March 11, 2021, a copy of the 2020 Annual Report and Accounts was submitted to the National Storage Mechanism. This document will shortly be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism. In compliance with section 5:25m(5) Financial Markets Supervision Act the Annual Report and Accounts was submitted to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). The AFM publishes the report in its public register. read more

SHELL ACCELERATES DRIVE FOR NET-ZERO EMISSIONS WITH CUSTOMER-FIRST STRATEGY

Source: Shell International B.V.

The Hague, February 11, 2021 − Shell today set out its strategy to accelerate its transformation into a provider of net-zero emissions energy products and services, powered by growth in its customer-facing businesses. A disciplined cash allocation framework and rigorous approach to driving down carbon emissions will deliver value for shareholders, customers and wider society. Shell also confirmed its expectation that total carbon emissions for the company peaked in 2018, and oil production peaked in 2019. read more

Shell aims to double power sales by 2030

Published: Feb. 11, 2021 at 2:30 a.m. 

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Thursday laid out its green transition strategy, including targets to double electricity sales, expand its liquefied natural gas capacity and gradually reduce oil production.

The Anglo-Dutch energy major, which is committed to becoming a net zero emissions business by 2050, said that it will rebalance its portfolio in the near term by annually investing between $5 billion and $6 billion in its growth pillar, which comprises marketing, renewables and energy solutions. read more

SHELL TAKES 40% STAKE IN MONTREAL WASTE-TO-CHEMICALS PLANT

By Mary Page Bailey | January 8, 2021

Shell will take a 40% interest in a waste-to-fuels plant using technology developed by Enerkem, a leading Canadian clean tech company. Enerkem announced the project in December 2020, subject to finalization of commercial agreements.

The approximately C$875 million commercial-scale facility will be constructed in Varennes, Québec, and will produce low-carbon fuels and renewable chemicals products from non-recyclable waste using Enerkem’s proprietary technology. Commissioning of the first phase of the facility is scheduled for 2023. Critical investment in the plant comes from Shell, Enerkem, Suncor, Proman and Hydro-Québec, as well as from the Québec and Canadian governments. read more

Translation of an article published by the Dutch financial newspaper, the FD. 

Shell Crown Prince: ‘We must show more predictable financial results’

Shell has had a bad year. The global corona pandemic left a huge hole in the financial results. The oil and gas multinational had to write off more than $20 billion on oil and gas fields and announced it would cut thousands of jobs.

Bert van Dijk 31 Dec ’20

Huibert Vigeveno is in charge of all Shell refineries and petrol stations. These will play a key role in the coming years, expects the 51-year-old Dutchman, tipped as a successor to Shell CEO Ben van Beurden. About CO₂ emissions: ‘There is often a gap between what a company promises and what it actually does. With us it is the other way around. ‘ read more

Fuel for Thought: Singapore looks to next energy transition, this time away from oil

Eric Yep: 29 December 2020

SHELL RELATED EXTRACTS

Shell, which started out as M. Samuel & Co. and built the first fuel depot in Singapore in the 1890s, said in November it was shutting half of its refining capacity on Singapore’s Pulau Bukom island, a move signaling the start of one era and the beginning of another for the energy hub.

Shell said Pulau Bukom will become one of its roughly six energy and chemicals parks and part of a “pivot from a crude-oil, fuels-based product slate towards new low-carbon value chains.” read more

Sixty-one new COVID-19 cases were reported at Beaver County’s cracker plant this week, bringing the total number since March to 335.

CHRISSY SUTTLES | BEAVER COUNTY TIMES: 12 Dec 2020

POTTER TWP. — Coronavirus cases continue to grow at Shell Chemicals’ ethane cracker plant site as COVID-19’s third wave hammers the region.

Sixty-one new virus cases were reported at Beaver County’s petrochemical complex this week, bringing the total number since March to 335. Since mid-November, total cases have tripled. read more