As BP Plc’s new chief delivers his vision to transform the company on Wednesday, investors and activists want to know just how much appetite he has to take on the existential crisis facing the oil industry.

12 February 2020

Bernard Looney’s big challenge will be to navigate BP through an energy transition with the world falling out of love with oil, and louder demands from investors to pivot toward clean energy. When climate protesters forced the company to shut its London headquarters last week, the 49-year-old Irishman promised them he would address their concerns.

BP is already taking some modest steps to address climate change, including investment in renewables and selling some of its most carbon-intensive assets. But it remains an oil major through and through, still very much the company that tapped the first fields in Iran early in the last century and drilled wildcat wells on the Alaskan frontier more than 60 years ago. read more

“Investors are gradually moving away from energy stocks. A look behind the dividend payments of the leading companies helps explain why. For the core business of these companies, there is more money going out than coming in.” 

By Jordan Blum: Thursday, January 16, 2020

The largest oil and gas companies for years have lived beyond their means and paid more money to investors than they can reasonably afford, according to a new report.

The study from the Cleveland-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that the five largest Big Oil majors — Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total — spent $536 billion on shareholder dividends and stock buybacks since 2010 while bringing in just $329 billion in free cash flow. 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

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In brief

*The number of accidents per man-hour worked has risen again for the first time in a long time last year.

*A series of incidents, criminal investigations and warnings from regulators are damaging Shell’s safety image.

*Shell CEO Van Beurden himself is also not satisfied and wants to do more to guarantee safety.

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

Beeld: Getty Images/ bewerking: FD Studio

Shells gas leaks, fires and accidents

Bert van Dijk: 13 March 2019

Last year the number of accidents per hour worked increased at the oil company. Supervisors warn that Shell needs to do more about safety.

In December 2017, during regular maintenance work, a lifeboat suddenly came loose on the Shell platform Brent Alpha in the North Sea. The lifeboat fell into the sea and was recovered a day later. Although no one is injured, it was not the first time. In 2008, it was discovered that two lifeboats on another nearby Shell platform, Brent Bravo, were technically in such poor condition that they had to be replaced. And in 2007 a rescue boat on another Shell platform broke loose and collapsed into the sea. read more

Ben van Beurden Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

The boss of oil giant Shell has admitted he is “still unhappy” with the firm’s safety performance, despite pledging a redoubling of efforts in 2018.

Written by David McPhee – 07/01/2019 1:03 pm

Chief executive, Ben van Beurden, raised a call to redouble the firm’s focus on safety last year after a number of serious incidents in 2017.

An overturned tanker spill and explosion in Pakistan caused the tragic death of 200 people, while there were also fatalities in Canada and Nigeria.

Mr van Beurden added he is also focusing on restoring trust in the oil firm.

He said: “I’m still unhappy with our safety performance.

“In 2018, sadly two people died on our watch – one at a refinery in Germany and another at an onshore well in the USA.

“More broadly, the safety performance at our facilities has improved, but our performance on personal safety is worse than the previous year.

“We have to step up our efforts to keep people safe.”

Mr van Beurden also said that he can see that trust has noticed an “eroding” or trust in the UK, the Netherlands and the USA.

Shell came under heavy criticism from climate groups in 2018, with high profile opposition coming from investor group Follow This.

The firm also faced widespread shareholder opposition over chief executive pay last year.

Mr van Beurden said: “I feel an attack on Shell as an attack on my personal integrity. It’s something I feel deeply, probably at least once a day. If I can reduce that to once every other day, I’ll know that we are making progress.

“Of our three strategic ambitions – to become a world-class investment case, to thrive through the transition to lower-carbon energy and to have a strong societal licence to operate – I’m confident that we can achieve the first two.

“But I can’t see a sure path towards strengthening our societal licence to operate just yet.

“We need to change people’s perceptions through better performance and behaviours. And we need to have a better dialogue with civil society in some parts of the world.”

SOURCE

Marissa Luck, Houston Chronicle: Monday, Jan 7, 2019

The Gulf Coast has become home of one the largest producers of a common plastic: Shell fired up its fourth alpha olefins unit at its chemical plant in Geismar, Louisiana, the company said Monday.

The multi-billion dollar expansion adds 425,000 metric tons per a year in capacity to the chemical manufacturing site, bringing its total alpha olefin production up at Geismar to more than 1.3 million metric tons per a year. That makes it the largest alpha olefins producing site in the world, the company said. read more

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Shell celebrates 40 years of deep-water innovation: CISION: 15 Oct 2018

Gazprom and Shell discuss next steps in Baltic LNG project: LNG INDUSTRY: 15 Oct 2018

Shell reaches milestone on plastics plant in Northeast, potentially a Gulf competitor: Houston Chronicle: 14 Oct 2018

By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor: 12 July 2018

Kaikias, an economically resilient, subsea development in the US Gulf of Mexico

HOUSTON, May 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Shell Offshore, Inc. (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, announces today the early start of production – around one-year ahead of schedule – at the first phase of Kaikias, an economically resilient, subsea development in the US Gulf of Mexico with estimated peak production of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d). Shell has reduced costs by around 30% at this deep-water project since taking the investment decision in early 2017, lowering the forward-looking, break-even price to less than $30 per barrel of oil. FULL ARTICLE read more

Map showing the location of Shell’s Dover discovery and its proximity to Shell’s new Appomattox host in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico 

HOUSTON, May 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Shell Offshore, Inc. (“Shell”) today announced a large, deep-water, exploration discovery in the Norphlet geologic play in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico with its Dover well (100% Shell). The Dover discovery is Shell’s sixth in the Norphlet and encountered more than 800 net feet of pay (244 meters). The discovery is located approximately 13 miles from the Appomattox host and is considered an attractive potential tieback. Shell’s Appomattox host has now arrived on location in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and is expected to start production before the end of 2019. read more

Shell rendering of its Vito deep-water development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Vito will feature a new, simplified host design and associated infrastructure.

HOUSTON, April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Shell Offshore Inc. (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, today announces the final investment decision for Vito, a deep-water development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico with a forward-looking, break-even price estimated to be less than $35 per barrel. This decision sets in motion the construction and fabrication of a new, simplified host design and subsea infrastructure. read more

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS: MARCH 21, 2018

HOUSTON — In a setback to Trump administration efforts to increase offshore oil production, the industry responded with only modest interest on Wednesday in a federal auction covering a record 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. Companies bid on only 1 percent of the acreage, and the winning bids yielded a mere $125 million for the government. The results reflected broad uncertainty among oil executives that global oil prices can remain at current levels over $60 a barrel, as well as a general preference for drilling in onshore shale fields that require smaller investments and are less risky. FULL ARTICLE read more

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden speaks at the CERAWeek conference at the Hilton Americas, Wednesday, March 7, 2018, in Houston. Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle

Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle: Updated 12:01 pm, Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said Wednesday that climate change is the biggest issue facing the energy sector, encouraging the European oil major to invest more in cleaner-burning gas and renewable energy. Shell aims to cut its carbon footprint in half by 2050 while shifting its roughly 50-50 oil and gas balance to a portfolio that’s closer to 70 percent gas, van Beurden said at the CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston. Shell already is the world’s leader in liquefied natural gas. “There’s no other issue with the potential to disrupt our industry on such a deep and fundamental level,” van Beurden said of climate change and the need to help meet the Paris climate accord goals, even though the United States plans to split from the agreement under the Trump administration. FULL ARTICLE read more

FILE PHOTO – Wael Sawan, Executive Vice President for Shell’s deepwater division, poses for a picture before an interview for Reuters during an oil conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

Ron Bousso: 7 MARCH 2018

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A potential tariff on U.S. steel imports could affect Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) plans to go ahead with a major oil field development in the Gulf of Mexico, a company executive said on Wednesday. Wael Sawan, who heads Shell’s deepwater operations, said President Donald Trump’s intention to slap up to 25 percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminium could materially impact the value of the Vito development off the Louisiana coast, one of a handful of projects Shell is planning to greenlight this year. FULL ARTICLE read more

Shell’s oil and gas reserve life – the number of years it can sustain production at its current levels – has steadily declined in recent years despite the acquisition of BG Group

LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – The gasps in the audience were clearly audible at the auction of Mexico’s oil blocks a month ago as Royal Dutch Shell’s hefty bids were announced one by one. The size of Shell’s cash payments – $343 million out of the total of $525 million that Mexico earned in the sale – far outstripped its competitors’ offers, guaranteeing that the company swept up nine of the 19 offshore blocks. The Anglo-Dutch major knew something no one else did. FULL ARTICLE read more