Russian President Vladimir Putin met the head of the Royal Dutch Shell, Ben Van Buerden, this week to discuss liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, the Kremlin’s press service said.

As reported by bne IntelliNews, earlier this year Shell pulled out of the Baltic LNG project with Russian natural gas giant Gazprom.

“Shell is one of the largest foreign investors in [the] Russian economy, with over $15bn [in] investment. The company [has been] working in Russia since 1892, when it first sold gasoline in [the] Russian empire. We have a lot to talk about,” Putin’s press secretary Dmitri Peskov told Interfax. “To be serious, we have many projects related to LNG,” he added. read more

Ben van Beurden suggested Shell could work with Australia to press for credits for low-carbon LNG exports.

Angela Macdonald-Smith: Senior Resources Writer: Jul 16, 2019 — 7.00pm

Shell’s global chief executive Ben van Beurden has declared a global carbon price of about $US250 a tonne and “tens of thousands” of carbon capture and storage plants would be needed for the world to keep within the 2 degree warming goal.

Nature-based carbon offsets “to the tune of the Amazon” and a “massive” electrification of energy supply would also be needed he said in Sydney, ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison where energy and climate policy – and the troubled east coast gas market – were set to be discussed. read more

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that there was no impact to operations at the Prelude floating LNG facility as a result of the earthquake. The company had earlier declined to comment.

JULY 15, 2019 

MELBOURNE, July 15 (Reuters) – Oil and gas operations onshore and offshore Western Australia were unaffected by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake that struck off the northern coast of the state on Sunday, the country’s offshore petroleum safety regulator and companies said.

“NOPSEMA has not received any reports of impacts to offshore oil and gas facilities following the earthquake,” a spokesman for the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) said. read more

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC aims to become the world’s largest electricity company without necessarily generating very much power. Shell’s power strategy will be light on assets and focus on trading electricity generated by others. Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said at the company’s management day last month. “Of course we will be involved in generating electricity […] but we have a preference for being asset-light and balance our supply by providing electricity from other producers.” Oil and gas will remain Shell’s core business, the company says, but it is aiming to be the world’s largest electric power company by the early 2030s. read more

11 Jul 2019 04:42PM (Updated: 11 Jul 2019 04:50PM)

SINGAPORE: The chief officer of a tanker involved in receiving US$2.6 million (S$3.5 million) worth of gas oil stolen from Shell’s Pulau Bukom refinery was on Thursday (Jul 11) sentenced to jail for two-and-a-half years.

Vietnamese national Dang Van Hanh, 38, is the first person to plead guilty in the “unprecedented” case of misappropriation, which involved two syndicates of Shell employees.

Dang had helped to receive about 5,600 metric tons of stolen gas oil on four occasions between Jul 31, 2016 and Jan 7, 2018. read more

Van Beurden told the New York Times in 2016 about how he had once come home to find one of his children crying inconsolably. He thought at first that it was because he was going out with his wife that evening, but he soon learned that she was upset because she had been learning about climate change at school.

By Joe Sandler Clarke: 19 June 2019

Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Shell, wants you to do your bit to solve climate change.

In early June, he told an audience of corporate bosses in London that we should eat fruit in season and recycle more.

“I have three daughters, they are all quite fashion conscious,” he explained. “I like to point out to them, having something new for every season four times a year is creating quite a significant ecological footprint, have you realised that? Because they are all about climate change.” read more

Second LNG cargo from Prelude

Overnight intelligence information about Shell Prelude sent to retired Shell International HSE consultant, Bill Campbell

It looks as though there is still “trouble at mill” as its almost 24 days since the first cargo which would suggest around running at 25% capacity. 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

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

JUNE 19, 2019

MELBOURNE, June 19 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell sees more opportunities for floating liquefied natural gas projects, but not necessarily like its $17 billion Prelude operation off Australia, which shipped its first cargo last week, over two years behind schedule.

Shell Australia Chair Zoe Yujnovich said on Wednesday that it was too early to tell whether Prelude, one of two floating LNG (FLNG) projects in the world, would be replicated in future, as the company was still commissioning the project. read more

Miles Costello: June 14 2019

An energy provider set up to challenge the dominance of the Big Six and now owned by Shell has agreed to compensate thousands of customers after breaching the government’s price cap.

Ofgem has ordered the former First Utility — known since last year as Shell Energy Retail, after it was taken over by the oil and gas group — to repay 8,800 individual customers who were overcharged after the cap came into force in January.

It must also pay tens of thousands in compensation and contribute £200,000 to the regulator’s fund to help vulnerable gas and electricity customers. read more

The utility company overcharged 12,000 customers on its default tariffs after the energy price cap was introduced on 1 January

By Wale Azeez, business reporter: Friday 14 June 2019 09:24, UK

Shell Energy Retail has been forced to pay £390,000 compensation and refunds after overcharging customers.

Energy watchdog Ofgem made the ruling after the supplier overcharged some 12,000 customers on its default tariffs when the energy price cap was introduced in January.

Ofgem’s price cap monitoring found that in the three months to March 2019, around 12,000 electricity and gas customer accounts were charged a total of £100,736.63 above the price cap. read more

FOUR DIFFERENT ARTICLES REPORTING ON FIRST PRELUDE LNG CARGO: TUESDAY 11 JUNE 2019 

Sonali Paul: 11 JUNE 2019

* Prelude seals Australia as world’s top LNG exporter

* Prelude marks last of Australia’s $200 bln LNG construction boom

* Start-up comes amid glut in LNG market

* Rival Ichthys LNG could sap some Prelude gas reserves (Adds comment on Prelude gas sources)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE, June 11 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell on Monday shipped the long-awaited first cargo of liquefied natural gas from its massive Prelude floating LNG plant off northwest Australia, sealing the nation’s position as the world’s top exporter of the fuel. read more

PLEASE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH FURTHER EXPERT COMMENT AND THE INVESTIGATIVE RESULT DOCUMENT AT THE FOOT OF THIS ARTICLE…

• AuthorEric Yep
• EditorJames Burgess
• CommodityLNG,  Natural Gas
• 07 Jun 2019

Singapore — The 97,730 dwt LNG tanker Valencia Knutsen has been circling near Shell’s Prelude FLNG vessel to load the first LNG cargo from the facility in Western Australia, according to Platts trade flow software cFlow.

The Spanish-flagged Valencia Knutsen departed the port of Darwin on June 2 and has been in the vicinity of Prelude FLNG since June 3, Platts cFlow showed.

The loading of the first LNG cargo will mark the startup of exports from one of the world’s most anticipated LNG projects, also the world’s largest floating LNG platform, adding to Australia’s LNG export capacity. read more