Energy firms hound customers over money they don’t even owe

Homeowners threatened with debt collectors over incorrect bills

By Will Kirkman: 14 May 2021

Martin Stanley, 48, from Leicester, was forced to pay nearly £400 after being threatened with debt collectors and a default against his credit file by SSE, after it incorrectly increased his final bill.

Mr Stanley had tried to switch from SSE to Shell Energy, but after submitting a final reading, was told that it was too low compared to industry data. Shell then based his starting reading on the “estimated usage”. This meant Mr Martin suddenly owed £675 to his old supplier. read more

I switched over to Shell Broadband Superfast fibre… the worst decision of my life

More extracts from Shell Energy customer reviews posted during the past 48 hours on Trustpilot: “Rubbish broadband. Sometimes I can’t get WiFi in the same room as the router”: “is advertised as fibre but the speeds are really poor. It’s terribly frustrating when you’re working from home.”: “If you want a broadband that only works 50%of the time then go for shell”: completely unreliable. It is slow, buffers and fails to play internet tv.”: “Disaster, the whole experience was a train wreck, surprised they’re still in business!” read more

Shell investor RWC to support alternate climate proposal at upcoming AGM

Royal Dutch Shell investor RWC to back Follow This climate proposal at AGM

Simon Jessop: May 13, 2021: 12.27 PM BST

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) investor RWC said on Thursday it planned to back a climate-related shareholder proposal put forward at the company’s annual meeting by activist group Follow This.

RWC said the company’s energy transition plans were not ambitious enough, lacked detail and did not put the company on a path to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement within the next decade. read more

BP and Shell not serious about net zero: Sarasin

By Alex Hamer: May 12, 2021

Oil and gas majors face votes on actually bringing their strategies in line with the Paris Agreements, while activist fund Sarasin & Partners says they are marching towards stranded assets and more write-downs

Sarasin head of stewardship Natasha Landell-Mills said that neither major was close to shifting their business models from extracting oil and gas.

“We do not believe BP or Shell can be serious about getting to net zero until their accounts and capex plans are aligned with that goal,” she said. read more

Extracts from Shell Energy customer reviews posted during the past 24 hours on Trustpilot: “Its terrible, customer service is basically non existent and broadband speed is only 4mbm.”: “Misleading information to get you to sign up then despite cancelling they still access your bank account and take money….. Bunch of unscrupulous thieves …DO NOT USE !!!!”: “Terrible! Hard sell on the doorstep promising me cheaper bills. My energy bills have tripled! DONT DO IT!! I also have £100 exit fees! Shocking and should be stopped!” read more

Judge calls for more JP Morgan disclosure in OPL 245 case

JP Morgan must provide more documents to Nigeria, as the two sides duke it out over payments in connection to the OPL 245 scandal.

Justice Calver handed down a judgement this morning, following a hearing that took place on May 5.

Nigeria welcomed the ruling. A representative said JP Morgan had been required “to disclose documents from 5 further senior executives and compliance officers at the bank who were involved in signing off on US$875 million of fraudulent payments in connection with the OPL 245 scandal and in US compliance investigations carried out shortly before the bank decided to pay out anyway”.

The bank should give a “clear and unambiguous account of exactly how the decisions to make these huge payments were made when it was on notice that to pay out risked its customer, Nigeria, being defrauded,” the representative continued.

“Justice will be sought for the people of Nigeria, who will be pleased the trial will begin early next year.”

Calver’s ruling set out a number of searches JP Morgan must carry out. Among those named to comply with the order are Pamela Johnson, Lester Pataki and John Gibbons, high-ranking executives at the bank. read more

Shell announces deep-water discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Shell Offshore Inc. 

May 11, 2021, 08:00 ET

HOUSTON, May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Shell Offshore Inc. (“Shell”), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, today announced a significant discovery at the Leopard prospect in the deep-water U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The Leopard well encountered more than 600 feet (183 meters) net oil pay at multiple levels. Evaluation is ongoing to further define development options. read more

Advisory firm PIRC slams Shell on climate strategy before AGM

Ron Bousso: May 11, 2021

Shareholder advisory PIRC recommended investors vote against Shell’s non-binding resolution on its energy transition strategy on Tuesday, setting up a showdown at its annual general meeting next week.

The Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), a major proxy advisory, said Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) strategy to cut emissions “does not seem to have a clear plan for the competitive aspects of the energy transition”. read more

Big Oil and its green ambitions could be about to get a serious reality check

Sam Meredith: PUBLISHED TUE, MAY 11 20211:29 AM EDT

KEY POINTS

• Oil and gas majors on both sides of the Atlantic are preparing to hold their annual shareholder meetings in the coming weeks.

• At present, not a single oil and gas company is aligned with Paris-consistent emission reduction targets or investment levels.

• In a first for the industry, Shell will put its own net-zero transition plan to its shareholders on May 18.

LONDON — The month of May promises to be a ground-breaking one for Big Oil.

Oil and gas majors on both sides of the Atlantic are preparing to hold their annual shareholder meetings in the coming weeks. It comes at a time when the world’s largest corporate emitters are under immense pressure to set short, medium and long-term emissions targets that are consistent with the Paris Agreement.

At present, not a single oil and gas company is aligned with Paris-consistent emission reduction targets or investment levels more than five years after the landmark climate accord was ratified by nearly 200 countries. The agreement is widely recognized as critically important to avoid an irreversible climate crisis. read more

Half of Shell Energy Mix to Be Clean Next Decade

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s head expects clean energy to make up half of the company’s energy mix “somewhere in the next decade.”

“If we do not make that type of process by the middle of next decade, we have a problem not just as a company but as a society,” Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said in an interview with AXIOS on HBO.

Like its European peers, the Anglo-Dutch major has set itself an “ambition” to become a net-zero emissions energy company by the middle of this century. The feat involves producing less oil, more gas and renewables, as well as using technologies still in their infancy like hydrogen and carbon sequestration. Not everyone is convinced, with the energy giant set to clash with some shareholders on the matter at its annual general meeting later this month. read more

Extracts from Shell Energy customer reviews posted today on Trustpilot: “Be very wary of Shell Energy”: “Disgusting service…”  “have been told we have to wait 38 days for our complaint to be looked at???????? AVOID SHELL ENERGY AT ALL COSTS”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted in the past 24 hours on Trustpilot. Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. This article posted on 10 May 2021. read more

Extract from Shell Energy customer review posted today on Trustpilot: “Absolutely horrific service by Shell Energy Broadband”

Featured below are extracts from negative customer reviews about Shell Energy posted in the past 24 hours on Trustpilot. Visit the Shell Energy page on Trustpilot to view all reviews in their entirety, positive and negative (and Shell Energy responses). Watch out for any fake reviews. Note the reoccurring themes in the negative reviews, including difficulty in communicating with the company. This article posted on 10 May 2021. read more

Royal Dutch Shell Consortium To Receive $2.4B For Carbon Capture Project – Report

[email protected] (Ben Mahaney): Mon, May 10, 2021, 1:39 PM

According to Dutch broadcaster NOS, the Dutch government will grant Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and its group about $2.4 billion in subsidies for a climate change project.

In January, Shell, Exxon (XOM), Air Liquide, and Air Products sought the government’s support for their project to reduce the Netherlands’ carbon footprint. The project encompasses capturing and storing carbon dioxide from industrial operations in the Rotterdam port area instead of letting it go into the atmosphere. The government has granted their request. read more

Big Oil Is In Desperate Need Of New Discoveries

By Alex Kimani – May 10, 2021, 2:00 PM CDT

The year 2020 was a watershed moment for the fossil fuel sector. Faced with a global pandemic, severe demand shocks and a shift towards renewable energy, experts warned that nearly $900 billion worth of reserves–or about one-third of the value of big oil and gas companies–were at risk of becoming worthless.

Even Big Oil mostly appeared resigned to its fate, with Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) CEO Ben van Beurden declaring that we had already hit peak oil demand while BP Plc. (NYSE:BP)—a company that doubled down on its aggressive drilling right after the historic 2015 UN Climate Change Agreement--finally gave in saying “..concerns about carbon emissions and climate change mean that it is increasingly unlikely that the world’s reserves of oil will ever be exhausted.” BP went on to announce one of the largest asset writedowns of any oil major after slashing up to $17.5 billion off the value of its assets and conceded that it “expects the pandemic to hasten the shift away from fossil fuels.” read more

Will Supermajors Finally Be Held Accountable For Oil Spills?

By Global Risk Insights – May 08, 2021, 12:00 PM CDT

A British Supreme Court ruling has brought to a head a 13-year-old battle to hold Royal Dutch Shell accountable for massive oil spills in the Niger Delta in 2008 and 2009. This creates a precedent for taking multinational corporations to trial in the home countries of their parent companies. This may mark the beginning of a more regulated global environment, in which subsidiary companies responsible for human rights abuses happening abroad could be held more accountable. Whether this will be an effective solution remains to be seen.  read more