Posted 20 Sept 2019

Federal courts require asbestos manufacturers to compensate cancer victims

Plant workers employed before 1981 diagnosed with various cancers are entitled to special benefits. Lung cancer, esophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, pharyngeal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, and mesothelioma are frequently caused by asbestos exposure. Asbestos-laced products were used for decades at Shell Chemical.

Neither employees nor management were aware of the asbestos risk. read more

Expert Opinion on the content of the recent Upstream Online article: “Shell learns from Prelude challenges” 

Rob Jager cannot be as naive as this, he has a  distinguished career in Shell and also been appointed by the New Zealand Government to lead investigations into the tragic Mining accident some years ago.  Clearly not a numpty so why is he making such statements claiming the Prelude is such a magnificent project it will operate perfectly and become boring.

Hydrocarbon Production Operations that I have experienced over many years have never been boring ever.  Every day brings something different to be addressed and Prelude is and will be no different.  Prelude is not receiving a semi-processed feed stack to refine or reform or blend but raw reservoir hydrocarbons.  Even in the case of a rich gas hydrocarbon reservoir, the well effluent will contain a full range of hydrocarbon gas mixtures, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide water vapour and a whole host of trace gasses and other undesirable soluble and insoluble salts.  Notwithstanding during initial production or subsequent well work-over, residual drilling fluids and completion debris some of which will have found its way into the umbilicals and hydraulic well control and safety shut down systems and cause untold havoc. read more

Upstream Online: Shell learns from Prelude challenges

Shell is currently in the process of ramping up its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas development off Western Australia, but the ambitious project …

Extract ends

Printed below are extracts from recent postings on our Shell Blog relating to the above Upstream Online article and its interview with Shell VP Prelude, Bob Jager.

Posting on 19 August 2019

I would be interested to know the content of the article just published by Upstream Online about the Prelude FLNG problems?

What I do know is that Prelude is still having difficulties in with the processed volumes of any of the three streams of product, LNG, LPG and condensate.

I have been monitoring the Marine Traffic web site with Prelude as the target. The offtake tankers, LNG or condensate, can be seen hanging around but at a greater distance from Prelude making it not as easy to keep track of as in previous occasions. The latest LNG tanker, Symphonic Breeze, has been nearby for nearly a week waiting for its nominated cargo. The demurrage costs must be quite high by now as the “notice of readiness” will have been tabled on arrival. read more

The people who some would say have sold their souls to a toxic oil company with an evil history. Back Row: Catherine J. Hughes, Sir Nigel Sheinwald GCMG, Euleen Goh, Gerrit Zalm, Linda G. Stuntz, Roberto Setubal, Ann Godbehere. Front Row: Jessica Uhl (CFO), Ben van Beurden (CEO), Charles O. Holliday (Chair), Tjalling Wiersma, and Gerard Kleisterlee

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The information in italics comes from a Daily Mail article published on 12 August 2019.

You can buy shares through an AJ Bell Youinvest account online for £9.95, for example, with ongoing fees of up to £7.50 a quarter.

You need to purchase only one share in the company you want to target. A share in Shell currently costs £23.98…

Once you are a shareholder, you should be sent the firm’s annual report and other information for investors, which can also be found on its website.

You will also have the right to attend annual general meetings (AGMs) and vote on company policies. read more

SHELL TO BE A BIG PLAYER IN MICROPLASTICS

By John Donovan

The timing of President Trump’s delayed visit to Shell’s new Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex, which will produce more than a million tons of plastic in the form of tiny pellets, turned out to be unfortunate.

It happened to coincide with the release of scientific research and evidence about the unknown consequences of airborne microplastics on the heath of “birds, fish, whales and people”.

Please read the extracts below from various news organisations covering the Trump visit, which inevitably was surrounded by controversy and scandal. read more

Ciara Newton had her dream job at a Shell refinery. But she was fired after enduring months of harassment, including sexist comments from supervisors and a lewd sticker.

Zahra Hirji: BuzzFeed News Reporter: Reporting From Oakland, California
Last updated on August 6, 2019, at 1:14 p.m. ET
Posted on August 6, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. ET

OAKLAND, California — She walked toward the witness stand at eight months pregnant, her slow steps echoing in the cavernous federal courtroom.

Two years earlier, she had been fired from her dream job at a Shell refinery after enduring months of harassment — sexist comments from two male supervisors, reprimands for documenting her coworkers’ mistakes, a lewd sticker on her desk. She got the termination notice just days before the end of her job’s nine-month probation period. The fallout was devastating. She lost the loan needed to buy her recently widowed mother’s house, spiraled into depression and anxiety, and ended up working at an airline two hours from her home for half the pay. read more

Second LNG cargo from Prelude

Overnight intelligence information about Shell Prelude sent to retired Shell International HSE consultant, Bill Campbell

It looks as though there is still “trouble at mill” as its almost 24 days since the first cargo which would suggest around running at 25% capacity. 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

Associated Press:

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A Dutch court has fined oil giant Shell 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million) for breaching Dutch labor and environmental laws in a case linked to two explosions and a gas leak at a chemical plant south of Rotterdam.

The East Brabant court ruled Monday that Shell did not take sufficient precautions to prevent two blasts and a subsequent fire that injured two workers when the company restarted two reactors at a chemical plant in the village of Moerdjik on June 3, 2014. read more

Robert Finn, the Shell Director who was a vitally important functionary of the Nazi WW2 economy

Finn worked for Shell’s Nazi-infested German subsidiary Rhenania Ossag in the years before WW2. More significantly, during WW2, Finn directed the vitally important German lubricants supply. After WW2 Finn returned to Shell as a director of a Shell chemical company in Hamburg. Shell was apparently happy to reward him with a promotion. 

By John Donovan

A spotlight was shone on the Nazi past of the German Robert Finn after a Hamburg Sports Club Hall was to be named in his honour. Finn was a former chairman of the sports club.

Following a renovation of the hall in 2006, a major re-inauguration ceremony in honour of Finn was organised – with numerous prominent guests from sports and politics (who were informed about Finn’s role in the Nazi war economy) with his sons as guests of honour. 

There was also controversy about clubhouse design elements, including symbols of the Nazi regime, such as swastikas, to be on open public display. 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

FURTHER EXPERT SPECULATION ON THE ARTICLE: Shell’s giant floating LNG facility Prelude set to ship first cargo when mooring issues resolved

The mooring failures are indeed a concern but it is very doubtful they were the main contributor to the startup delay even if they are “shoehorned” into a very congested construction.

The process design is a well proven, a design in use in many of the LNG plants in many countries. read more

The article below was brought to my attention by industry experts, one of whom made the following comment:

XXXXX was shocked when he read this as the damage to the mooring system was much worse than he originally thought from reports, it appears it may have been the mooring system that has caused delays not so much the process.

The giant Prelude floating LNG facility is close to exporting its first LNG, almost two years after it arrived in Australian waters from Korea during which it has had several problems bringing vessels alongside.

Shell director of gas and new energies Maarten Wetselaar yesterday told investors that Prelude had been producing LNG for more than a week and the first shipment of LNG was imminent.

The Spanish LNG carrier Valencia Knutsen, which was moored off Darwin for some days, yesterday moved to the vicinity of Prelude, 475km north-east of Broome, according to vessel tracking site Marine Traffic. read more

JUNE 4, 2019

LONDON, June 4 (Reuters) – Shipment of the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo from the long-awaited Prelude floating production project in Australia is “imminent”, Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday.

Prelude – the world’s biggest floating LNG production unit and the biggest maritime vessel ever built – is expected to have an annual LNG production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes.

It will also produce 1.3 million tonnes a year of condensate and 400,000 tonnes a year of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). read more

Reading Rob Jäger, who I knew in Shell many years past, is like listening somewhat to my comments about Prelude starting way back in 2012 or so being replayed and replayed………suddenly, everything is not so tickety-boo. Think it’s telling that this historically proud, nay boastful and confident project so sure and aware of itself in the past is so reluctant to give a firm start-up date for LNG and so reluctant to just tell the world why?

By retired Shell Global Safety Consultant, Bill Campbell

Just some background thoughts, we all wish this project well but there is a lot that doesn’t appear to stack up in the Jager piece

Reading Rob Jäger, who I knew in Shell many years past, is like listening somewhat to my comments about Prelude starting way back in 2012 or so being replayed and replayed………suddenly, everything is not so tickety-boo.  Rob talks about safety and risk so underplayed before, he talks about large vessel but small area for LNG plant so underplayed before, he talks about risk almost discounted before because Prelude was so safe , now Safety, safety is the key, its the first project by the way in the long history of Shell that is in his words NOT driven by milestones and schedule, sorry don’t believe a word of it. read more

Shell veteran Rob Jager had been contemplating retirement in his native New Zealand when he got called up to take responsibility for the world’s biggest offshore facility.

When he arrived in Perth in November, Shell’s 488m-long Prelude floating LNG project had been moored to the seabed off the Kimberley for 12 months and was yet to produce.

Six months later, Prelude has produced condensate. It is still to churn out LNG but when Mr Jager,right, talks about the project there is one point he makes above all else: “We’re not driven by milestones, we’re not driven by schedule, we’re driven … to make sure that it’s safe to start up.” read more