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. read more

Shell airlifts workers after coronavirus outbreak on Gulf rig

Workers aboard a Shell Oil offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico have tested positive for the coronavirus and flown back to land for treatment, a KHOU report says.

by L M Sixel and Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle: 28/05/2020

Shell Oil, the U.S. subsidiary of energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, has evacuated nine workers from a company platform in the Gulf of Mexico for testing and treatment of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. read more

The Syrian Job: Uncovering the Oil Industry’s Radioactive Secret

By Justin Nobel • Wednesday, April 29, 2020 – 10:38

Cancerous lesions have developed across Keith MacDonald’s body and his son is dead from leukemia. His life has disintegrated, and in his eyes fault lies with the third richest company on earth. It is headquartered in the Netherlands, incorporated in the United Kingdom, and is an entity (thanks to the Parliamentary Pension Fund) that every single British MP has a stake in — Royal Dutch Shell.

The story of how MacDonald got here is a tale of adventure and tragedy fit for a Hollywood thriller, only it is real. Even with many unknowns, MacDonald’s case unearths a shocking part of the world’s most powerful industry that somehow has remained hidden for generations. read more

BASRA, Iraq, May 21 (Reuters) – Shell has evacuated its foreign staff, numbering around 60, from Iraq’s Basra Gas Company and flew them out of Iraq on Wednesday, two Basra Gas Company executives told Reuters.

The staff were evacuated for security reasons after workers who had been laid off from work staged a protest in the Basra Gas Company headquarters and close to another company compound, two officials said.

Basrah Gas Company is a joint venture between state-owned South Gas Company, Shell and Mitsubishi. read more

Expert comments received in response to the BoilingCold article by Peter Milne “No winners from Shell’s $US17B Prelude floating LNG”

Comment from retired Shell International Global Safety Consultant, Bill Campbell:

It’s all rather depressing, most worrying aspect as implied in the article is the potential gas supply, or lack of it, from the homogeneous and shared reservoir with another operator bleeding off volumes.

The boilingcold.com.au journalist Peter Milne has given the most detailed analysis yet of the Prelude story, elements of both tragedy and farce.

COMMENT FROM “AN OLD SHELL E&P ENGINEERING SEA DOG”

As before I feel very sorry for the Aussies who are under extreme pressure to get this unit up and running.  I do not quite understand the journalist comment of “gas is running out”.  It is a shared reservoir therefore there will be an agreement for the total volumes in place and a regular review taking place to determine the remaining producible volumes and the agreed volume share for each operator.

The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.

The fears voiced by Bill Campbell about a loss of containment (see article link 3) have proven well-founded.

Ask the Australian National Offshore Petroleum and Environmental Management Authority.

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

ARTICLE: Prelude FLNG risks are on par with modern offshore oil and gas facilities say Shell – but are they?: 23 Sept 2014 read more

  Peter Milne: 15 May 2020 • 10 min read

ANALYSIS

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. read more

By Rachel Adams-Heard: 3 May 2020, 23:12 BST

A controlled fire at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s refinery near Houston cast a plume of black smoke over the city’s industrial suburbs.

A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said Shell alerted the agency of the burn off. The smoke had subsided by 4:30 p.m. local time on Sunday. The refinery in the town of Deer Park on Houston’s east side can process 275,000 barrels of crude a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Shell sent a notice through a community alert system at 3:16 p.m. warning that the company was performing activities that could lead to flaring and noted there wasn’t any threat to nearby residents.

SOURCE read more

LEAKED INTERNAL MESSAGE FROM ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC CEO BEN VAN BEURDEN TO ALL SHELL EMPLOYEES

“…there is no panic. We know what levers we can pull in downturns, even dramatic ones…”

(THE UNSTATED LEVER OF DRAMATIC JOB CUTS – SHELL’S INEVITABLE RESPONSE TO PREVIOUS DOWNTURNS)

Colleagues,

2020 has not started the way that any of us had expected, or hoped. COVID-19 began impacting our colleagues in China in late January, and since then has created health impacts all around us. Four of our colleagues who had been suffering from COVID-19 have tragically lost their lives – something that saddens me deeply. The virus has shut-down normal life as we know it in every country where Shell operates.

Amid everything, I am so proud of the countless stories I hear, emerging from all around the world, of how Shell people are showing care at this incredibly difficult time. Care for each other as colleagues, both those now working from home with all the challenges that entails, and especially those who are leaving their homes every day to keep our service stations, plants, platforms and facilities running to provide vital energy and supplies to customers and indeed entire countries. read more

A TALE OF INSPECTORS AND INVESTIGATIONS INVOLVING DANGEROUS OCCURRENCES AT THE PRELUDE FLNG FACILITY (AND THE INTERVENTION OF COVID-19).

In a letter dated 16 March 2020 to the Australian National Offshore Petroleum and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), Shell Australia Pty Ltd sought an extension of time for compliance with NOPSEMA General Direction ID 780 in relation to dangerous occurrences at the Prelude FLNG Facility

NOPSEMA agreed in its reply letter dated 20 March to “revise the due date for Direction 2 to 31 May 2020 to provide additional time for Shell Australia Pty Ltd (Shell) to fully comply with the directions, due to extenuating circumstances associated with measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus.“ read more

English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FT. Seems something is lost in the Google translation of the second sentence of the first paragraph (highlighted in red text)?

Shell Pernis takes more time for major maintenance

By Frank Gersdorf: 20 April 2020

The first factory that Shell Pernis is working on is under construction. Photo Bas Czerwinski for the FD

• Major maintenance in the petrochemical industry is risky in the corona crisis, because it requires a lot of extra personnel.
• Shell nevertheless continues the renovation plans for three factories in the Botlek.
• Shell Pernis thinks it can work safely and is afraid that if maintenance is delayed, it will soon be can’t get the right people.

Maintenance technicians still like to smoke. They prefer to run a bitch. And that’s why Shell Pernis has come up with something to let the hundreds of employees who will be working on giving three factories a major overhaul in the next six weeks without them gathering together and thereby breaking the corona rules.

Shell has new smoking spots outside that are made of scaffolding tubes. The construction forces each smoker into their own loft. ‘It’s working. The smokers remain at a safe distance from each other and can still talk to each other, ‘says Jan van IJperen during a bicycle tour past Shell’s petrochemical installations in the Botlek. As an event manager, Van IJperen is responsible for the turnarounds, which is jargon for major maintenance. read more

Prelude floating LNG giant still offline after two months

Shell working to address safety concerns and restart production on giant offshore LNG ship

2 April 2020 4:52 GMT UPDATED 2 April 2020 4:54 GMT

By Russell Searancke in Wellington

The Shell-led Prelude floating liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia continues to be offline nearly two months after production was shut down due to safety concerns.

FULL ARTICLE (SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED))

The Prelude first received gas from its subsea wells in December 2018 and by the end of June 2019 had produced 2.32 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, according to emissions data released by the Clean Energy Regulator today.

Conservation Council of WA director Piers Verstegen said the emissions data was absolutely shocking and suggested that Shell was making no effort to reduce Prelude’s emissions. read more

Shell acts to reinforce business resilience and financial strength

Mar 23, 2020

As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the world – seriously impacting people’s health, our way of life and global markets – Shell is putting the safety and health of our people and customers first, along with the safe operations of all our businesses.

At the same time, we are taking decisive action to reinforce the financial strength and resilience of our business so that we are well-positioned for the eventual economic recovery.

“As well as protecting our staff and customers in this difficult time, we are also taking immediate steps to ensure the financial strength and resilience of our business,” said Ben van Beurden, Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell. “The combination of steeply falling oil demand and rapidly increasing supply may be unique, but Shell has weathered market volatility many times in the past.” read more

A worker who has shown symptoms of the coronavirus has been placed into quarantine on Shell’s Brent Charlie platform in the North Sea.

The energy giant said the man has been placed in isolation and that arrangements are being made to fly him back to shore.

A spokesman said: “We can confirm that a colleague on Brent Charlie has been isolated as a precautionary measure, after showing symptoms which may indicate coronavirus.

FULL ARTICLE

RELATED

North Sea ‘chaos’ as more suspected Covid-19 cases spring up

A trade union official has said the North Sea is firmly in the grip of coronavirus “fear” and lamented a perceived lack of leadership. read more

12-Mar-2020

Royal Dutch Shell plc published its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended December 31, 2019.

The 2019 Annual Report and Accounts can be downloaded from www.shell.com/annualreport.

In compliance with 9.6.1 of the Listing Rules, on March 12, 2020, a copy of the 2019 Annual Report and Accounts was submitted to the National Storage Mechanism. This document will shortly be available for inspection at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.

Printed copies of the 2019 Annual Report and Accounts will be available from April 16, 2020, and can be requested, free of charge, at www.shell.com/annualreport. read more