LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN) Monday agreed to sell a majority stake in much of its African downstream to Vitol Holding BV and Helios Investment Partners for around $1 billion, as it trims non-core assets.

Oil-products businesses are generally considered of less importance to oil majors than oil and gas exploration and production assets.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant will sell 80% in fuels and lubricants assets in 14 African countries to oil trading giant Vitol and Africa-focused private investment firm Helios and keep the remaining 20%. read more

Feb 19, 2011 2:07 PM GMT+0000

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC has entered into a $1 billion agreement to sell a majority share of most of its downstream businesses in 14 African countries to the Vitol trading company and Helios, an African investment company.

The announcement by the three companies says two joint new ventures will be created. One, to be 80 percent owned by Helios and the Netherlands-based Vitol, will continue supplying the Shell brand of fuels and lubricants in the 14 countries, with five more nations possibly joining later. read more

PROTEST BY SHELL EMPLOYEES IN MOROCCO OVER SHELL PLANS TO EXIT 21 AFRICAN COUNTRIES WITHOUT SEVERANCE OR COMPENSATION PAYMENTS

Business Daily (Nairobi)

Benson Wambugu 2 July 2010

More than 180 employees of Kenya Shell have successfully blocked the oil marketer from selling its business to Oil Libya Holding Company until their statutory dues are settled.

Oilibya is said to have made a Sh160 billion offer for the downstream African operations of the Anglo-Dutch transnational.

An injunction was on Thursday issued by the Industrial Court restraining the oil giant from selling or transferring its assets to Oilibya before receiving written consent that the employees were agreeable to the transition. read more

A Shell Petrol Station along Nyerere Avenue, Mombasa. Photo/ ABDULRAHMAN SHERIFF

SUNDAY NATION

Sunday June 20, 2010
By MUNA WAHOME and KENNEDY SENELWA
Posted Saturday, June 19 2010 at 19:51

Shell’s intended exit from 21 African countries appears headed into headwinds in Kenya where employees are plotting to block the departure in court.

The Sunday Nation learnt that behind-the-scene consultations between two law firms representing both parties failed to satisfy the employees who accuse Shell Kenya of “glossing over” the matter. read more

MAY DAY PROTEST BY SHELL EMPLOYEES IN MOROCCO OVER SHELL PLANS TO EXIT FROM 21 AFRICAN COUNTRIES WITHOUT SEVERANCE OR COMPENSATION PAYMENTS TO SHELL STAFF

We kindly invite you to visit the following group: SHELL PEOPLE ARE NOT FOR SALE, on facebook…

Dear Mr Alfred,

On behalf of all Shell staff from Africa, I am writing to you to seek your support and guidance to our cause. As you might know from the newspapers, Shell has decided, as part of its new strategy, to exit from All countries in Africa, except South Africa, while maintaining its Upstream business in many countries (Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, and lately Tunisia…).

Many of us are mobilized to stop this discrimination, and we are hoping we can get some support from overseas to help us with our cause. read more

Comments from our sources on recent statements about Shell’s operations in Angola made by it’s Executive VP for sub-Saharan Africa, Ann Pickard (Right).

Shell’s exit from Angola was not a success story and it throws a slightly different light on Ann Pickard’s remarks in Nigeria.

Her comment about Angola’s production exceeding that of Nigeria sounds like an attack on Bichsel et al who pulled Shell out of Angola a few years ago. It is Brinded and (especially) Bichsel who threw the Angola opportunity away. read more

For big state-owned and private oil companies, Africa has played an outsized role. It is responsible for adding nearly a quarter of the globe's total increase in reserves over the past decade. That has been a boon for companies such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon MobilCorp. and Total SA, all of which have struggled to replace reserves on their books

By 2015, America will buy one quarter of all its oil from Africa, compared with about 15 per cent from Saudi Arabia, and the continent will become the superpower's largest single supplier, with the sole exception of Canada.

All around the world, in a multitude of ways, the soaring price of oil is hurting rich and poor alike. For the lucky ones, it is simply a matter of changing their lifestyle. But those most vulnerable to the price of oil have been driven on to the streets in angry protests, which raise a fundamental question: what can we do to survive in a world where a barrel of oil costs $127 (£64)?

A similar deal is being finalized with Royal Dutch Shell, once Nigeria's biggest oil producing company before its output was significantly slashed by militant attacks in the Niger Delta, officials said.

After years of shunning North America and Europe in favor of exotic locales that promised oil in far greater quantities at a much lower cost, the industry's largest players have come crawling back. The reason? Those big projects have been difficult to pull off and haven't made up for declining production in more mature regions like the U.S. Last year the five largest U.S. and British oil companies—ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), and ConocoPhillips (COP), which together account for 11% of worldwide output—saw their oil production slide 3%, to 10 million barrels per day. Those shrinking supplies are one reason that oil now tops $125 a barrel.

Royal Dutch Shell has concluded repairs on two of the four Bonny Light oil facilities damaged by militant attacks, LEADERSHIP learnt yesterday.

Royal Dutch Shell is close to agreeing a deal with Nigeria that would see the company provide loans to meet funding shortfalls that have cut production at one of its most important oil businesses.

It was learnt that no fewer than 3,000 staff of the company might be laid off in a major re-structuring that will be announced by the company soon.

Galp Energia has signed an agreement to buy Royal Dutch Shell fuel businesses in Mozambique, Swaziland and Gambia, for a total amount of $55 million.