120,000 home owners in Groningen to get compensation for quake property value cut

(Information added by John Donovan: NAM is the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible along with the Dutch government for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and the consequential bill for dealing with 120,000 damaged residences.)

May 27, 2020

Some 120,000 home owners in Groningen province are entitled to financial compensation because the value of their property has gone down due to the earthquakes, the institute set up to assess the damage says. read more

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Oil and Gas Climate Initiative

May 26, 2020, 08:03 ET

Focusing on what matters

LONDON, May 26, 2020 /CNW/ — The unprecedented challenges the world is facing force us all to sharpen our focus on what really matters. Our immediate priority, as CEOs, is to do everything we can so that our people and communities are safe and capable of confronting the pandemic effectively. We will work to help the world recover from the economic shock of this crisis that has undoubtedly hit some more than others yet impacts us all. read more

LOS ANGELES — Big Oil lost a pair of court battles Tuesday that could lead to trials in lawsuits by California cities and counties seeking damages for the impact of climate change.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by energy companies and ruled state courts are the proper forum for lawsuits alleging producers promoted petroleum as environmentally responsible when they knew it was contributing to drought, wildfires, and sea level rise associated with global warming.

The lawsuits claim Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other companies created a public nuisance and should pay for damage from climate change and help build sea walls and other infrastructure to protect against future impact — construction that could cost tens of billions of dollars. read more

The coronavirus pandemic has brought into sharp relief the existential threat posed to the world’s biggest oil companies from policies aimed at combating climate change by offering a glimpse into a future with little demand for petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

It has also brought to the fore a question with profound implications for the energy industry and Houston, where fortunes rise and fall with the price of oil. Has the virus — in two short but life-altering months — fundamentally changed society and consumer behavior, making it likely that global oil demand would peak earlier than expected, perhaps even during this decade? read more

This 1988 Shell report, discovered by Jelmer Mommers of De Correspondent, shines light on what the company knew about climate science, its own role in driving global CO2 emissions, the range of potential political and social responses to a warming world.

The confidential report, “The Greenhouse Effect,” was authored by members of Shell’s Greenhouse Effect Working Group and based on a 1986 study, though the document reveals Shell was commissioning “greenhouse effect” reports as early as 1981. Report highlights include: read more

* European oil majors boost share of low-carbon investments

* European CEOs see faster energy transition after coronavirus

* GRAPHIC: European oil majors’ spending tilts green tmsnrt.rs/3dWh9VV

By Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) – Europe’s top oil and gas companies have diverted a larger share of their cash to green energy projects since the coronavirus outbreak in a bet the global health crisis will leave a long-term dent in fossil fuel demand, according to a Reuters review of company statements and interviews with executives. read more

By Nick Cunningham – May 12, 2020, 7:00 PM CDT

Oil prices continue to rise on the prospect of a rebound in fuel demand as economies begin to reopen.  But there is a large difference between oil demand rising from recent lows and actually growing relative to pre-COVID-19 trends. In other words, demand destruction on the order of nearly 30 million barrels per day (mb/d) may have been brief, but we are a long way from a 100-mb/d oil market.

In fact, some are wondering whether the world will ever get back to 100 mb/d of oil demand. Even oil executives have their doubts. Royal Dutch Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden recently suggested that a rebound is unlikely, even looking out beyond 2020. “We do not expect a recovery of oil prices or demand for our products in the medium term,” he said. read more

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, one of the market’s most reliable income providers, has cut its dividend for the first time in over 70 years. Matthew Partridge reports.

Last week Royal Dutch Shell cut its dividend for the first time since World War II, says Anjli Raval in the Financial Times. The payout for the first quarter was slashed from 47 cents to 16. No wonder. Not only did profits for the first three months of the year fall from $5.3bn last year to $2.9bn in 2020, but the oil major thinks that the situation will be “more severe” in the second quarter, with oil prices already down to $24 a barrel. The shares sank by 11% on the news.

The scale of the cut suggests that Shell believes that the crisis isn’t just a short-term event, but will cause “permanent change” in customers’ behaviour, say Anna Edwards and Laura Hurst on Bloomberg. The long-term impact on the way consumers work and travel “could be even more devastating for the industry” than the initial turmoil. Attitudes toward oil have been changing for some time “as the world shifts gradually toward cleaner forms of energy”. read more

The petroleum giant is adjusting to falling oil demand, cutting both its dividend and its capital budget

The difference between Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) is that Shell knows it’s a zombie, something Exxon refuses to believe. Regardless of whether you trade the Dutch version of Shell stock (NYSE:RDS.A) or the British version (NYSE:RDS.B), you’re buying an fossil fuel company that is now promising to disappear.

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden put it this way: “There is an energy transition underway which may even pick up speed in the recovery phase of this crisis and we want to be well positioned for it.” read more

English translation of an article published by the Dutch FT.

Shell surprises investors with a historic decrease in dividend

Bert van Dijk and Saskia Jonker

• Shell is reducing the dividend due to challenging macroeconomic conditions.
• Shell’s dividend has been under pressure for some time.
• Due to sharply declining oil and gas prices and the drop in demand for oil products, net profit decreased 46% to $ 2.9 billion in the past quarter.

It took four board meetings, but then the time had come: oil and gas multinational Shell RDSA cut € 15.48-10.43% for the first time in 80 years in its dividend. “A difficult day for the company,” said Shell CEO Ben van Beurden. ‘No chairman of the board wants this on his track record, but it is wise to do’.

Shell reduces its quarterly dividend by 66% to $ 0.16 per share. It is the first time since World War II that Shell, one of the largest dividend payers in the world, is reducing the dividend. Shell paid $ 15 billion to shareholders last year. read more

Ron Bousso, Shadia Nasralla: APRIL 30, 2020

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell RDSa. cut its dividend for the first time since World War Two on Thursday as the energy company retrenched in the face of an unprecedented drop in oil demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Shell also suspended the next tranche of its share buyback programme and said it was reducing oil and gas output by nearly a quarter after its net profit almost halved in the first three months of 2020.

Shell’s shares in London dropped 6.7% in early trading on Thursday, underperforming rival BP (BP.L).

“Given the risk of a prolonged period of economic uncertainty, weaker commodity prices, higher volatility and uncertain demand outlook, the Board believes that maintaining the current level of shareholder distributions is not prudent,” Shell Chairman Chad Holliday said. read more

By Nick Cunningham – Apr 26, 2020, 4:00 PM

The oil majors are facing a financial vice like they never have before.  With oil prices hovering around $20 per barrel and no end in sight for the global pandemic, the financial pain has only just begun. Norway’s Equinor became the first large oil company to cut its dividend, slashing it by 67 percent. It may not be the last.

On Friday, Italy’s Eni reported a 94 percent decline in profit in the first quarter, a period that did not capture the full brunt of the current slump. Eni cut spending by 30 percent and lowered its production guidance for this year by 100,000-125,000 bpd. “The period since March has been the most complex period the global economy has seen for more than 70 years,” Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said. “Like everyone, we expect a complicated 2020.” read more

Apr. 5, 2020 2:47 PM ET|About: Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)|By: Liz Kiesche, SA News Editor

Some of the world’s largest oil companies  have raised more than $32B in recent weeks to ensure they have the cash to deal with the economic effects of the coronavirus while preserving dividends, the Financial Times reports.

ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B), Equinor, Total, and BP (NYSE:BP) have sold debt to raise dollars or euros since mid-March.

They’re also paring capex, reducing costs, pausing stock buybacks, and delaying project approvals.

Besides the bond sales, Shell and BP have also obtained new multibillion-dollar credit facilities. read more

Shell, for example, said last month that it was diverting resources to the increased production of isopropyl alcohol, which is the primary ingredient in hand sanitizers. It also said it would make 2.5 million liters of the ingredient freely available to the healthcare sector in the Netherlands. The supermajor is also offering free food and drink to healthcare professionals at 15,000 retail outlets globally as well as to truck drivers and delivery personnel “who are vital to maintaining supplies.”

• Royal Dutch Shell is collaborating with Udacity to digitally train its workers in artificial intelligence.
• This began long before the coronavirus pandemic and the company continues to use this training method.
• The digital workforce skilling platform may become the training method of choice for a growing number of companies who need to keep employees up to speed in the weeks and months ahead.

Working at Royal Dutch Shell’s Deepwater division in New Orleans gives Barbara Waelde a front-row seat to how the right data can unlock crucial information for the oil giant. So when her supervisor asked her last year if she was interested in a program that could sharpen her digital and data science capabilities, Waelde, 55, jumped at the chance.

Since she began her online coursework, the seven-year Shell veteran has learned Python programming, supervised learning algorithms and data modeling, among other skills. read more