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.
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 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.
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.
The Syrian Job: Uncovering the Oil Industry’s Radioactive SecretBy 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.
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.
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.
By Rachel Adams-Heard: 3 May 2020, 23:12 BST
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.
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.
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.“
The first factory that Shell Pernis is working on is under construction. Photo Bas Czerwinski for the FD
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.
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.
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.”
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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