HOUSTON, May 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Dutch Shell plc (“Shell”) announces today the completion of the transaction for the separation of assets, liabilities and businesses of Motiva Enterprises LLC (“Motiva”).   As announced when the definitive agreements were signed, the separation is as follows:

• Saudi Aramco (through its wholly owned Saudi Refining, Inc. subsidiary) assumes full ownership of the Motiva Enterprises LLC name and legal entity, including the refinery at Port Arthur, Texas and 24 distribution terminals. Additionally, Motiva has the right to exclusively sell Shell-branded gasoline and diesel in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., as well as the eastern half of Texas and the majority of Florida.
• Shell (through various affiliated companies) assumes sole ownership of the Norco, La., refinery (where Shell operates a chemicals plant), the Convent, La., refinery, 11 distribution terminals, and Shell-branded markets in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, a portion of the Florida panhandle, and the North-eastern region of the U.S.  These assets are now fully integrated with Shell’s downstream business in North America.

About Shell

• Royal Dutch Shell plc, a global group of energy and petrochemical companies with operations in more than 70 countries. In the U.S., Shell operates in 50 states and employs more than 20,000 people.
• www.shell.com
• www.shellus.com

Inquiries
Shell Media Relations:  International +44 207 934 5550; Americas +1 713 241 4544
Shell Investor Relations:  Europe + 31 70 377 4540; North America +1 832 337 2034 read more

Photo taken in happier times several years before the divorce

Comment posted on Wall Street Journal article: Shell Seeks to Streamline in 2017

The US operations will face drastic cuts. with the breakup of Motiva, many people will be reassigned, told to post for other positions, or face layoff.

The process has already begun, and will intensify as the April 1 target date for the breakup gets closer.

Middle management will be realigned, as some northeast terminals will be sold off to raise cash, and managers will be scrambling for other available positions which may involve relocation, taking early retirement or the unemployment line. read more

HIROFUMI MATSUO, Nikkei senior staff writer

TOKYO — Idemitsu Kosan‘s founding family is treading on treacherous ground as it attempts to block a planned merger with Showa Shell Sekiyu.

The family’s opposition to the deal, struck last November, has baffled the rest of the Japanese oil industry and apparently riled Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. The future of Japan’s second-largest oil distributor hangs in the balance. 

Speculation about Saudi anger has swirled in the Japanese oil sector since the family’s stance came to light in late June. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., better known as Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s state oil company, is Showa Shell’s No. 2 shareholder, after Royal Dutch Shell. The Saudi company intends to retain a stake in the new entity created through the Idemitsu-Showa Shell merger. Under the proposal, Idemitsu would buy Showa Shell shares held by Royal Dutch Shell. read more

HOUSTON Sat Feb 21, 2015 12:13am EST

(Reuters) – The U.S. refinery strike was widening on Friday night as workers at the nation’s largest refinery gave notice of a walkout beginning at 12 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Saturday, the United Steelworkers union (USW) said.

Shortly after talks between union and oil company representatives ended on Friday night, the union notified Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL] of a strike by its members at the company’s 600,250 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. read more

The Washington Post has reported today that the Dutch foreign minister Frans Timmermans is considering flying to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to defuse the situation, which includes threats of looming sanctions against Dutch interests, including Royal Dutch Shell.

By John Donovan

Royal Dutch Shell Group has had a long relationship with the Saudi regime.

In the USA, Motiva Enterprises is a joint project of Shell and Saudi Aramco. The company owns three refineries and 35 refined product terminals.

Extract from the Motiva website

Motiva markets Shell gasoline in 49 states and the District of Columbia together with Shell Oil Products US. Together we lead the industry in national retail volume and market share in one of the world’s best known gasoline brands. We also refine and market gasoline and other petroleum products under the Shell brand across the eastern and southern parts of the US, providing product to over 8,200 Shell-branded retail outlets. read more

Might as well melt it all down and start over…

CAUSTIC COMMENTS ON MOTIVA REFINERY DEBACLE

FIRST COMMENT (FROM SHELL BLOG)

Re: Motiva Refinery Debacle – Unbelievable. Lock-out, Tag-out, the most basic safety rule, strikes again.

The same thing that blew-up Piper Alpha. Caustic – the same thing that blew up Norco. Unbelievable.

And Caustic doesn’t just pit stainless, it causes cracks in stress areas. They will have to use advanced ultrasound techniques on every millimeter of hundreds of miles of piping because a hidden crack will propagate and cause a failure days or years in the future.

Might as well melt it all down and start over. read more

(Reuters) – In the end, all it took was a small chemical spill — perhaps less than a barrelful — to bring down the newest, mightiest oil refinery in the United States.

By Erwin Seba

PORT ARTHUR, Texas | Mon Jun 25, 2012 11:50am IST

(Reuters) – In the end, all it took was a small chemical spill — perhaps less than a barrelful — to bring down the newest, mightiest oil refinery in the United States.

Three weeks ago, while workers repaired a minor leak at the Port Arthur, Texas plant owned by Motiva Enterprises, a few gallons a day of so-called “caustic” was inadvertently seeping into the newly built crude distillation unit (CDU), the 30-story-high network of interconnected cylinders and latticed pipelines at the heart of the refining process. read more

Fri Jun 8, 2012 10:25pm IST

(Reuters) – A newly commissioned 325,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) remained out of production on Friday at Motiva Enterprises’ 600,000-bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with operations at the plant.

No firm date has been set for returning the CDU to production, the sources said. Workers were still attempting to find the source of a leak that is interfering with the unit’s operation, they said.

Once the source of the leak is found, repairs and restoration to normal operation are expected to take two to three days, they said. read more

Tue Jun 5, 2012 3:02pm EDT

* Crude unit expected back in operation Wednesday A.M.
* New unit was centerpiece of $10-billion expansion

HOUSTON, June 5 (Reuters) – A newly commissioned 325,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude distillation unit at Motiva Enterprises’ 600,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery remained out of production on Tuesday for repairs to a leaking valve, according to sources familiar with refinery operations.

The unit was expected to return to production as early as Wednesday morning once the repairs are completed, the sources said. The CDU was placed on circulation meaning it has crude oil in it and remains at the high temperature needed for refining. read more

Motiva Port Arthur HCU shut by fire -filing, company

HOUSTON May 13 (Reuters) – A lube oil hydrocracking unit was shut on Saturday at Motiva Enterprises’ 600,000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, after a fire, according to a notice filed with Texas pollution regulators.

No injuries were reported due to the fire, a Motiva spokeswoman said in a statement. The company declined to identify the unit involved.

The fire broke out in a heater check valve, according to the notice filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. read more

By Angus McDowall of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES OCTOBER 26, 2010

LONDON (Dow Jones)–A joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) to drill for natural gas in the kingdom’s empty quarter has extended its exploration license by five years to 2015.

The South Rub al-Khali Co., or SRAK, was one of three ventures launched in 2003-04 that gave international oil companies upstream access to Saudi Arabian energy reserves for the first time since 1980.

“We…requested for a second exploration period, which means a new commitment from the company including drilling wells and collecting seismic data,” a spokesman for SRAK told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday. “The government officially approved our request of entering a second exploration period for five years.” read more

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January there was standing room only at the session on the future of oil. Peter Voser, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, sat alongside the head of the Saudi oil giant Aramco, Khalid al Falih, and the chairman of Total, Thierry Desmarest. In the middle was Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP. The session was so popular, Davos staff had to turn people away at the door.

By Kamal Ahmed
Published: 9:02PM BST 01 May 2010

Mr Hayward spoke about the pressures the industry was under as it struggled to keep up with ever rising demand from the emerging economies. Such was the “supply challenge” companies would have to explore more and more difficult environments from which to gain oil – the lifeblood of markets around the world. A 40pc increase in demand would create the need for 15m barrels per day (bpd) increased production over the next two decades. read more

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

APRIL 19, 2010

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell said Monday that a worker died at the Motiva Port Arthur refinery it operates in Texas.

The worker’s death “can be confirmed, and we are investigating what the cause was,” a Shell spokeswoman said. No further details were available, but the company said a statement will be issued soon.

The Motiva Port Arthur refinery, 50% joint venture between units of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSA.LN) and Saudi Aramco, has the capacity to process 275,000 barrels of crude oil a day. read more

By John Donovan

The following is a self-explanatory email I sent earlier today to Robert (Bob) Pease, President & Chief Executive Officer of Motiva Enterprises LLC, which is jointly owned by a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco and Shell.

From the Motiva Website:

Formed in 1998, Motiva Enterprises LLC operates primarily in the eastern and southern United States. Its operations include nearly 7,700 Shell-branded gasoline stations, three refineries with a combined capacity of 740,000 barrels per day, and ownership interest in 41 refined product storage terminals with an aggregate storage capacity of approximately 19.8 million barrels. read more

Royal Dutch Shell and BP played pivotal roles in the "oil for arms" deal said to be the biggest scandal in history. We have published evidence including declassified documents revealing details of the top secret agreements involving the UK government, BAE Systems, Shell, BP, and members of the Saudi Royal family. The US Justice Department investigation is highly sensitive and the outcome potentially explosive for Shell in view of its close relationship with the state owned oil company Saudi Aramco, involving joint ventures in the USA under the Shell/Motiva umbrella.

(Reuters) - Japanese oil distributor Showa Shell Sekiyu KK and Saudi Aramco Oil Co plan to jointly set up small-scale solar power facilities in Saudi Arabia next year, the Nikkei business daily reported without citing sources.