Aristofanis Papadatos: 25 August 2018

Summary

Shell oil traders trade one Caribbean paradise for another

Julia Payne: AUGUST 17, 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) oil traders in the Caribbean island of Barbados are getting ready for a tough gig – they’re being moved to the Bahamas next month. The relocation of the oil and gas company’s trading hub for Latin America will make travel to customers in the key region easier for its employees, a company spokeswoman said. FULL ARTICLE

By Elizabeth Burden and Thomas Biesheuvel
15 August 2018, 08:54 BST

*Methodist fund developing system analyzing company ethics
*Top mining and oil companies will be graded by end of 2018

Divestment may be too blunt an instrument to encourage the world’s biggest oil and mining companies to behave ethically: the Methodist Church is prepared to back those committed to mending their ways. FULL ARTICLE read more

NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, BLOOMBERG: July 9, 2018

A flurry of activity is raising optimism that Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its partners are ready to go ahead with the nation’s largest infrastructure project: a $40 billion liquefied natural gas terminal that could at last unlock energy exports to Asia.

The action is unmistakable in Kitimat, the Pacific coast city hugging a deep inlet that would be the closest launch point on the continent for LNG cargoes to Asia. The lights are on, shades open and SUVs parked outside a 49-unit apartment complex built to house Shell executives, which sat mostly darkened for the last two years. Local workers have left jobs at a Rio Tinto Plc smelter nearby to join contractors ramping up for the LNG project. Landlords are raising rents and houses are selling twice as fast as they used to in anticipation of a flood of workers coming to town. read more

David Keohane in Paris and Andrew Ward and David Sheppard in London: 16 May 2018

Royal Dutch Shell, the largest European oil and gas group, also struck a provisional agreement with Iran in 2016 to carry out studies in three of the country’s biggest oil and gasfields. However, that agreement represented a much less firm commitment than Total’s and Shell has not opened an office in Iran or moved staff there. The Anglo-Dutch group said on Wednesday that it was still assessing the implications of Mr Trump’s withdrawal. FULL FT REPORT read more

FILE PHOTO: The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) headquarters are seen in Abuja, Nigeria December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo

For decades, communities in the Niger Delta oil heartland have complained that spills and pollution have destroyed their land and killed off wildlife. Rights group Amnesty International accused international oil majors Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Eni SpA in March of negligence when addressing spills in Nigeria. read more

By John Donovan 

Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, which has pushed up the price of oil, thus benefiting Shell and other oil companies, threatens to put billions of dollars worth of trade in jeopardy.

Shell has a record of treacherous conduct involving the Iranian regime, including using subterfuge to disguise shipping movements.

How will Shell react this time in an even more complex situation?

Below are extracts from articles published in the last 24 hours.

Sky News: How business could be hit by Iran deal pull-out read more

By Kevin Keane: BBC Scotland’s environment correspondent:

26 April 2018

The Health and Safety Executive has written to all oil and gas operators expressing concern about the number of gas releases in the industry.

The regulator said some had come “perilously close to disaster” and that more needed to be done to tackle them.

The HSE said a “lack of leadership” was often to blame for leaks, and called for firms to review their processes.

Operators have until July to respond with a summary of their planned improvements.

The HSE has written to operators ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster. The platform exploded in July 1988, leaving 167 men dead. read more

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Royal Dutch Shell Plc rode the surge in oil prices to even greater heights, posting a profit not seen since the days of $100 a barrel, but investors continued to worry about the company’s cash flow.

Earnings at Europe’s largest energy company vaulted ahead of the upswing in crude to an average of $67 in the first quarter, reaping the benefits of years of cost cuts. Yet shares fell as analysts raised concerns about whether the company will be able to afford share buybacks. read more

Tristan R. Brown: Apr. 16, 2018 12:44 PM ET

Summary

The world’s largest oil companies have survived a life-changing crisis, and are now poised to reap the rewards, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said. Big Oil is in a sweet spot with rising oil prices and low operating costs, leaving them with the biggest cash-flow growth in two decades and boosting earnings, Goldman said in a report Monday. That will increase their attraction for investors after years of elevated spending followed by crude’s slump sent their weighting in global equity indexes to a 50-year low, according to the bank. FULL ARTICLE 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

Saetre, Pouyanne & van Beurden in Oslo, Feb. 15 2018.: Photographer: Kyrre Lien/Bloomberg

Three of the world’s biggest oil companies called on Norway to help maintain funding for carbon capture and storage technology that is stagnating amid concerns about whether it can ever be cost-effective. The chief executive officers of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and Norway’s state-controlled Statoil ASA gathered on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo to make the case for a flagship Norwegian project, in which the companies plan to store CO2 emissions under the North Sea after they’ve been shipped and piped from onshore industrial plants. FULL ARTICLE read more

Ron Bousso: 12 FEB 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – With years of austerity in their rear-view mirrors, the world’s biggest oil companies are locked in a beauty contest to lure investors with promises of growth and greater rewards. Royal Dutch Shell and Total are emerging as frontrunners after a three-year slump thanks to strong growth projections but Exxon Mobil, the biggest publicly traded oil company, has largely disappointed with a weaker outlook. FULL ARTICLE

By Chris Tomlinson: February 9, 2018

The leaders of the world’s largest and most powerful energy companies are talking about the fight to mitigate human-caused climate change.

Some are even putting their money where their mouths are.

While some conservative political leaders still deny that the Earth is heating up due to humans burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases, the people who produce those fuels and chemicals have recognized the imperative to limit global warming to a rise of 2 degrees Celsius. read more

By Sarah Kent and Benoit Faucon Published January 16, 2018: Dow Jones Newswires

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC is giving up on its last oil fields in Iraq, leaving the world’s second-biggest oil company with a dwindling footprint in the Middle East — a region it helped build into a petroleum powerhouse. Shell said Monday it is selling for an undisclosed amount a stake in the West Qurna 1 oil field in Iraq to Japan’s Itochu Corp., the latest step in a gradual retreat from the region. The company is also expected to give up its holding in Iraq’s Majnoon oil field later this year, though it will retain its natural-gas interests in the country. FULL ARTICLE read more

Anglo-Dutch oil and gas group Shell is making preparations to bid for green energy firm Eneco whose owners, made up of 53 local councils, are divided about its future, the Telegraaf said on Friday. At the same time, a dispute between the local authority shareholders and the company’s board is threatening to slow down the sale process, the paper said. FULL ARTICLE