Energy giant Shell is to urge the prime minister to make the electric car-charging network more accessible.

Industry bosses are set to meet Theresa May on Wednesday to explore ways to boost the uptake of electric cars. Sinead Lynch, Shell’s chairwoman in the UK, said one of the problems was the array of subscription cards or mobile phone applications still needed to access different charging points.

She said: “There needs to be truly open access so that people can just charge seamlessly wherever they go. They [ministers] have started to address it, but haven’t gone to where Europe is.” read more

As Dutch journalist Jelmer Mommers revealed last year, Shell has known about the climate crisis for nearly four decades and its own considerable role in causing it.

THE FIRST THREE SLIDES of climate scientist Peter Kalmus’s plenary speech to Shell’s Powering Progress Together conference were intended to gauge audience reactions. First, he would have asked attendees if they are “concerned about climate breakdown.” Then, to raise their hands if they are “EXTREMELY CONCERNED” about it. In the third slide, Kalmus would have asked panel-goers to raise their hands if they agreed with a simple statement: “Fossil fuel causes harm.”

He never got the chance. Last Wednesday, the day before he was scheduled to appear, Kalmus was disinvited from what the oil giant billed as “an action-oriented day of dialogue focused on accelerating the energy transition.” For those curious about what spooked them, The Intercept is publishing Kalmus’s contraband slideshow. read more

The world needs to get to the point at which it will no longer add to the stock of greenhouse gases, and reducing emissions to net zero “is the only way to go,” Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said in a speech at The Energy Summit near London, calling on businesses to work together to move faster in addressing climate change.

While admitting that the world still needs oil, and will need it still for decades to come, van Beurden said that the supply and the demand side of the energy use should work together to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement to restrict the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius. read more

“We know that Shell had its own surveillance operation and that these operatives had received training from Nigeria’s Internal Security Agency, which itself was directly responsible for a number of human rights violations, such as arbitrary killings, rape, destruction of property, burning of homes — not just crimes under international law or human rights violations, but also crimes under domestic law.”

kwbu 103.3FM Heart of Texas Public Radio: Living on Earth: July 05, 2019 · 11:00 AM EDT: Writer Adam Wernick: This article is based on an interview that aired on PRI’s Living on Earth with Steve Curwood.

Esther Kiobel (centre) and Victoria Bera (right) with their lawyer Channa Samkalden for the verdict at the court in The Hague. Photo: Bart Hoogveld for the FD (the Dutch Financial Times)

This May, Esther Kiobel came one step closer to justice in her battle against the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. read more

Jonathan Watts:  @jonathanwatts: Fri 5 Jul 2019 16.13 BST Last modified on Fri 5 Jul 2019 16.31 BST

The criticism of striking students by the trillion-dollar Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) highlights the growing reputational concerns of oil companies as public protests intensify along with extreme weather. Mohammed Barkindo, the secretary general of Opec, said there was a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion against oil, which was “beginning to … dictate policies and corporate decisions, including investment in the industry”. READ MORE read more

The government decided to cut production after residents blamed hydraulic fracturing for damage to buildings in the area. It was decided earlier to schedule the field’s closing for 2030 while progressively reducing production, after a 3.4 magnitude earthquake occurred near the field last year. The field is operated by Nam, a joint venture established by oil supermajors Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil.

July 5, 2019

Dutch advisory body Council of State’s Administrative Jurisdiction Division (Adj) Wednesday requested from the government further explanation for the closing of a major onshore field, Kallanish Energy learns.

The Groningen field is the largest in Europe. The government decided to cut production after residents blamed hydraulic fracturing for damage to buildings in the area.

It was decided earlier to schedule the field’s closing for 2030 while progressively reducing production, after a 3.4 magnitude earthquake occurred near the field last year. read more

Jul 6th 2019

When Ben van Beurden was a boy in the Netherlands, one of his chores was to fill the coal scuttle. It was a hateful task—especially in the cold weather when he had to traipse out to a shed in the back garden. “I can still feel the wet, freezing cold creeping up my legs,” he told a Dutch audience last year. He hated the coal furnace because he had to wash himself next to it. He hated the washcloth because it did not stay hot for long enough. But it gave him a cold, hard lesson in the importance of energy. Mr van Beurden, boss of Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s second-biggest publicly traded oil company, is not the first well-paid executive to dwell on the hardships of his youth. But his story is poignant because of what came next. In the 1960s the vast Groningen field in the Netherlands brought natural gas to the country for the first time. The coal scuttle and cold washcloth gave way to a hot shower—and progress for his whole family. READ MORE read more

Oil and gas giant weighs further opportunities in renewable energy

SUGURU KURIMOTO, Nikkei staff writer July 05, 2019 00:15 JST

Royal Dutch Shell’s entry will intensify competition in Japan’s retail electricity market.

TOKYO — Royal Dutch Shell has begun selling electricity to businesses in Japan and is considering residential sales in the future.

Shell is distributing power procured from the wholesale market, with approval from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The oil and gas company is also looking into potential options in renewable energy. It acquired German home battery maker Sonnen in March and may bring that business into Japan.

Japan began a feed-in tariff scheme in November 2009 to purchase excess electricity generated by solar panels on homes. But households with a combined generating capacity of 6.7 million kilowatts — the equivalent of seven nuclear reactors — will stop qualifying for this program by 2023. They are expected to seek new buyers for their solar power or consume more themselves, likely boosting demand for home batteries. read more

Eneco Group operates more than 2,000 MW of renewable energy and serves over two million customers in The Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.

According to insiders, Dutch-British Shell, in collaboration with Dutch pension investor PGGM (healthcare and welfare sector), offers a great opportunity to win the takeover battle. With its New Energies division, Shell has set aside billions to invest in green energy.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FT, Financieele Dagblad.

Shell, Mitsubishi, Macquarie and KKR continue in Eneco auction

Gijs den Brinker

Four parties are in the battle for energy company Eneco. This is a consortium of oil and gas company Shell and pension investor PGGM, the Japanese company Mitsubishi, the Australian infrastructure investor Macquarie and the American investor KKR.

Multiple sources say that to the FD. KKR is a surprising name in the playing field. Never before was it known that the American investment company was making a shot at the energy company that advertised itself as green.

Eneco is currently owned by 44 municipalities, including Rotterdam and The Hague, but is for sale. Candidate buyers were able to express their interest until the end of May. The sale goes through a so-called controlled auction. At the end of last week, the company, together with representatives of the shareholders, decided which parties could continue to the next round. 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

The top lawyer at Shell has already disputed irrefutable evidence and threatened legal action against me, but it has all proven to be empty bluster. The last thing Shell wants is for its Nazi past to be aired in open court. 

By John Donovan

Toxic ramifications from Nazi business connections continue to make news headlines several decades after the end of WW2.

Two weeks ago we published a story about Shell arising from a New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 revealing 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. See No atonement from Royal Dutch Shell for its Nazi history read more

George Monbiot: Wed 26 Jun 2019

Don’t buy the greenwash. Shell’s initiatives, which have won over many conservation groups, are dwarfed by its investment in oil and gas

It is hard to believe it needs stating, but it does. The oil industry is not your friend. Whatever it might say about its ethical credentials, while it continues to invest in fossil fuels, it accelerates climate breakdown and the death of the habitable planet. You would think this point was obvious to everyone. But over the past few weeks, I have spoken to dozens of environmentalists who appear to believe that Shell is on their side. read more

Fossil fuel industry giants such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are maintaining an outsized presence at global climate discussions, working to undermine scientific consensus and slow policy progress, according to findings released Wednesday…

Delegates from major oil companies have influenced international accords for decades.

By Luke McGrath: 24 June 2019, 10:00 BST

Fossil fuel industry giants such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are maintaining an outsized presence at global climate discussions, working to undermine scientific consensus and slow policy progress, according to findings released Wednesday by an environmental monitoring organization.

The Climate Investigations Center (CIC) report claims that fossil fuel trade associations have sent more than 6,400 delegates to climate talks since 1995, including delegates from Shell, BP and ExxonMobil. read more

A verdict returned June 14 states defendants Shell Pipeline Co. and Alon USA Paramount Petroleum Corp. “acted with malice, oppression or fraud”…

BY JOHN COX [email protected]

A federal jury has awarded $40.6 million to Bakersfield developers who sued after discovering three petroleum pipelines under a property they were planning to turn into a logistics center just north of Meadows Field Airport.

A verdict returned June 14 states defendants Shell Pipeline Co. and Alon USA Paramount Petroleum Corp. “acted with malice, oppression or fraud” in connection with three pipelines found to have trespassed on land purchased in 2013 from Chevron USA Inc. by developers C&C Properties Inc., JEC Panama LLC and Wings Way LLC. 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

Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent: Thu 20 Jun 2019 07.00 BST

The UK’s largest energy companies have withheld support for a legally binding target to reduce the EU’s emissions to net zero by 2050, even while publicly backing the plans. Although BP and Shell have both voiced public support for the Paris commitments, neither backed the EU’s plans for a net zero carbon target by 2050 in their response to an official consultation. The companies’ decision to withhold support for the target has reignited criticism that major polluters are “greenwashing”… read more