Randall L. Little and Joel F. Arnold issued the proceedings in the name of the United States Government. They allege that Shell filed false information on Form MMS-2014 returns with the intention of reducing royalties owed to the U.S. government arising from the production of minerals from leases on Federal land.
November, 2011:
Randall L. Little v. Royal Dutch Shell Plc
Olomoro villagers besiege Shell facility
November 14, 2011
By Emma Amaize
WARRI- NO fewer than 200 members of Awhakia family of Olomoro community in Isoko South Local Government Area, Delta State, have besieged Olomoro Flow Station operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company, demanding that the oil company implement the terms of agreement reached with them.
They came with canopy and chairs.
The protesters said they would not leave until the company starts payment of adequate compensation, environmental clean-up, proper community development projects and creation of good and harmonious working relationship with the families.
Shell reports new oil spill in Nigeria
By Samuel Tife
YENAGOA, Nigeria | Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:50pm EST
(Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch energy major Shell said on Sunday it was containing a new oil spill in Nigeria’s onshore delta, the latest in a string of leaks from the company’s pipelines, which it has blamed on sabotage attacks and oil theft.
The spill came from part of Shell’s Okordia/Rumuekpe oil pipeline in the Niger Delta, where a fire last week forced the company to cut out some production.
Oil spills are common in Nigeria and are often caused by oil thieves and saboteurs who tap into the hundreds of kilometers of unguarded pipelines that vein through the vast waterways, creeks and swamplands of the Niger Delta.
Shell litigation against RMS Engineering and Tesoro Corp
Stumbled across a current US court case in which, for a change, Shell is suing other another companies for allegedly stealing its intellectual property. In our experience it is most often the other way round. Shell Global Solutions and Shell Oil Company are suing RMS Engineering, Inc., Tesoro Corporation and its named subsidiaries, for alleged willful and deliberate patent infringement relating to refinery equipment.
Article extract about RoyalDutchShellplc.com
20 October 2011
EXTRACTS FROM THE ARTICLE:
The strategic application of Web 2.0 in the mining industry [Mining Engineering]
The introduction of Web 2.0 platforms (also referred to as social media), with their architectures of participation, has ushered in a new era of technological interaction and information exchange that is changing the nature of corporate-community communications. Web 2.0 platforms give users the ability to generate data collaboratively, meaning that more stakeholders maintain the expectation of being able to contribute to online dialogue. In light of these changes, it is important for business to consider how social media can be used strategically to enhance stakeholder relationships and increase business efficiencies.
Syria stops payments to Shell and Total
FINANCIAL TIMES
November 10, 2011
By Javier Blas and Sylvia Pfeifer in London and Abigail Fielding-Smith in Beirut
Syria has stopped paying for oil produced within the country by Royal Dutch Shell and Total, highlighting the economic tensions affecting Bashar al-Assads regime after months of pro-democracy protests.
Their continued domestic oil production in Syria is fuelling government tanks shelling peaceful protesters, said Wissam Tarif, of Avaaz, a campaign group.
Petronas, Shell in $12 Billion Oilfield Development Deal
NOVEMBER 11, 2011
By GURDEEP SINGH
SINGAPOREMalaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd. said Friday that it has agreed with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to jointly develop oilfields in Malaysia using enhanced oil recovery techniques.
The companies say the $12 billion project will help the Malaysian national explorer extract a greater portion of oil from its existing reserves and extend the lives of its oilfields.
The Malaysian company, also called Petronas, has been grappling with shrinking output from aging fields and targets capital expenditure of 50 billion ringgit-55 billion ringgit ($15.89 billion-$17.47 billion) a year over the next five years to replace and refurbish them.
Shell must pay $1bn to deal with Niger Delta oil spills, Amnesty urges
Rights group says oil giant’s 2008 spills have wrecked livelihoods of 69,000 people and will take 30 years to clean up
- Reuters
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 November 2011 18.04 GMT
Royal Dutch Shell’s failure to mop up two oil spills in the Niger Delta has caused huge suffering to locals whose fisheries and farmland were poisoned, and the firm and its partners must pay $1bn to start cleaning up the region, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
A spokesman for Shell said the company and its partners had already acknowledged the two oil spills and started cleaning up, adding it had been hampered by oil theft, which was responsible for most spills in the Delta.
The report by the human rights group to mark the 16th anniversary of the execution of environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nigerian authorities said the two spills in 2008 in Bodo, Ogoniland, had wrecked the livelihoods of 69,000 people.
Shell, Total cut Syrian oil output amid sanctions
LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and Total have slashed Syrian oil production as international sanctions make exports impossible, industry sources told Reuters.
MOSOP CLAIMS: A SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
Diigbo, who was speaking today at the Ken Saro-Wiwa Peace and Freedom Center, to mark 16th Remembrance of the hanging of the Ogoni leader, late Ken Saro-Wiwa said the setting up of the Ogoni Central Indigenous Authority is a significant step towards actualizing the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Ogoni Bill of Rights, and all the dreams for which late Saro-Wiwa and other Ogonis gave their lives.
SHELL TO SEA SUPPORTER BECOMES PRESIDENT OF IRELAND
SHELL TO SEA SUPPORTER MICHAEL D. HIGGINS (RIGHT) BECOMES PRESIDENT AS CAMPAIGN MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF GARDA BATON CHARGE AT SHELL’S REFINERY SITE
10 November 2011
— Michael D. Higgins: The people of Erris deserve protection from any company that seeks to trample over their rights. No company should be outside the law —
As Shell to Sea supporter Michael D. Higgins prepares to be sworn in as President of Ireland tomorrow (Friday Nov 11th), hundreds of campaigners will gather in north Mayo to mark the fifth anniversary of the infamous Garda baton charge at Shells refinery site.
In February 2010, Michael D Higgins said of the Corrib project: Agencies of the State got involved on the side of the developer, rather than on the side of the community. Given that alternative models were available in other countries, it was scandalous that we proceeded as we did. [1]
Another shell director playing General Patton?
Purported leaked email with video link received from an anonymous source with the covering message:
“Potential for another Shell director playing *General Patton…listen to the video…”
THE INTERNAL EMAIL
On behalf of Bob Turner,
All,
We have just posted the latest video clip on the IPO website. In this clip I talk about Gas to Offshore and our preparations and some issues around our culture which I call NO will no longer be the low risk option.
Please have a look. I hope you find it informative and topical. My previous clips will be archived in the Library folder.
As always I welcome your feedback.
Have a safe day
Bob.
?Bob Turner Video
ENDS
*From Wikipedia article “List of plagiarism controversies“
On 6 June 2007, the Financial Times published a front page article under the headline: “‘Pipeliners All! Shells memo to Sakhalin”[24]
Shell and SSE join forces for UK’s first carbon-capture project
Firms announce CCS plans for Peterhead power station following collapse of £1bn proposals for Longannet
- Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
- The Guardian, Thursday 10 November 2011
Two major energy companies have combined forces to bolster the case to build the UK’s first carbon-capture project at Peterhead power station near Aberdeen.
The power company SSE and Shell, the fuel producer, announced their alliance after the collapse of £1bn proposals to fit carbon-capture and storage (CCS) plant to Longannet coal-fired power station, one of Europe’s largest coal-powered stations, last month.
Ministers have insisted they are still committed to funding a pilot project but the collapse of the ScottishPower scheme at Longannet has damaged confidence that the UK will build carbon-capture plant.
Amnesty urges Shell Nigeria to start $1 bln clean up
* Rights group says 2008 Delta spills poisoned rivers, farmland
* Shell says clean up operation hampered by sabotage, theft
* U.N. report in August proposed $1 billion Ogoniland clean up
By Tim Cocks
LAGOS, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s failure to mop up two oil spills in the Niger Delta has caused huge suffering to locals whose fisheries and farmland were poisoned, and it must pay $1 billion to start cleaning up the region, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
A spokesman for Shell said the company had already acknowledged the two oil spills and started cleaning up, adding that oil theft was responsible for most spills in the Delta.
Oil drilling returns to Gulf of Mexico
John Moylan goes behind the scenes at Perdido to see how Shell’s operation works
9 November 2011
It’s a one-and-a-half-hour flight by helicopter to the loneliest platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Perdido lies 200 miles (322km) south of the coast of Texas. It’s just nine miles from the edge of US territorial waters.
The huge structure floats in more than 8,000ft (2,438m) of water, making it the deepest deep water drilling and production platform anywhere in the world.
It collects oil from wells at depths of more than 9,000ft.
Fire out on Shell Nigeria pipeline, output curbed
* Shell gives no figures on fire’s impact on production
* Damaging spills common in the oil-rich Niger Delta
* Local community leader blames pipeline sabotage
LAGOS, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Fire broke out on Wednesday on the Okordia/Rumuekpe oil pipeline in Nigeria and some production has been shut down, but the blaze has since been put out, a spokesman for operator Royal Dutch Shell said.
The fire on the pipeline in Ikarama, Bayelsa State, started a day after the company received reports of an oil spill there and was still burning at 1.45 (1245 GMT), spokesman Precious Okolobo said by telephone.
Shell steps up involvement in UK carbon capture
LONDON | Wed Nov 9, 2011 11:13am EST
(Reuters) – Oil and gas major Shell stepped up its involvement in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology on Wednesday by formalizing its partnership with Britain’s SSE to install CCS technology at one of the utility’s Scottish gas-fired power plants.
The two companies signed a joint development agreement for the Peterhead CCS project on Wednesday, three weeks after the British government scrapped plans to fund a CCS project at Scottish Power’s Longannet coal-fired plant.
Shell must pay $1 bn for Niger Delta clean-up: rights groups
10 Nov, 2011, 02.35AM IST, AFP
LONDON: Oil giant Shell should commit $1 billion (700,000 euros) as a first step to clean up the Niger Delta following two devastating oil spills in 2008, rights groups said Thursday.
Shell has accepted responsibility for the spills in the southern Nigerian state of Ogoniland that affected the Bodo fishing community and has agreed to pay compensation, which is currently being decided in the British courts.
But Amnesty International and the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD) accused Shell in a report of failing to act quickly enough to fix the damage and demanded the Anglo-Dutch group make the billion-dollar contribution.
Yet Another Report Lambasts Shell Nigeria
By Jerome Mwanda
IDN-InDepth NewsReport
NAIROBI (IDN) – “We help to meet the world’s growing energy needs in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways,” claims the oil giant Shell on its website. But a new report avers that it has been doing just the opposite: triggering devastating oil spills, indulging in the illegal practice of gas flaring, and crassly violating human rights in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria by paying money and awarding contracts to armed militants.
Peter Voser article: Burning issue for leadership
Updated: 2011-11-09
By Peter Voser (China Daily)
Coordinated global response is needed to meet challenge of providing more energy for more people and cutting CO2
Our world reached a significant milestone on Oct 31 when a mother gave birth to the Earth’s 7 billionth inhabitant. At this rate, the Earth will be home to more than 9 billion people by 2050 a number with an enormous potential impact on the global demand for energy, water and food.
Planning wisely for the future energy needs of this huge population is one of the most important challenges our generation faces, in part because it is far more than just an energy issue. Our future energy challenge is also a global security issue, an environmental issue, an economic issue and a jobs issue.
State department faces Keystone XL review
8 November 2011
The US state department’s handing of a request to build Keystone XL, a 1,600-mile (2,700km) oil pipeline, will be reviewed for wrongdoing.
Reports have surfaced that a company involved in the environmental review had listed developer TransCanada as a “major client”.
The review decision comes a day after demonstrators protested against the pipeline plans outside the White House.
A review could potentially delay a final decision on the pipeline.
The state department is handling public consultations on the project as the pipeline would cross the US border with Canada, but the White House has made it clear that President Barack Obama will influence the final outcome.
Royal Dutch Shell: Profits and No Principles
(Modified 23 April 2018: Relevant Shell executives name changed to initials only “AJL” or denoted by xxxx’s)
By John Donovan
For the record, the litigation news reports in the “Motiva Live News Feed” – eg. Nintendo Stomps Motiva’s Patent Infringement Claims – relate to a small company called Motiva LLC, not Motiva Enterprises, the company owned jointly by Shell and the Saudi regime.
The apparent clash prompted memories of the time that we approached Nintendo and Shell proposing a Nintendo themed instant win promotional game for Shell forecourts. We went to the trouble of obtaining approval from Nintendo before disclosing our proposal to a Shell executive, AJL, on a strictly confidential basis.
Woodside Petroleum: To Shell or Not to Shell?
NOVEMBER 8, 2011
By Gillian Tan
Its been a year to the day since Royal Dutch Shell blindsided Australias largest oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum by selling down a 10% stake for A$3.3 billion (US$3.4 billion).
Appeasing Woodside, Shell promised to hold onto its remaining 24.27% interest for a year unless a takeover offer or a strategic buyer surfaced.
Given that no industry interest arose even when stock fell to a three-year low below A$30 (US$31.08), analysts believe the only way Shell can divest is to return to the market.
Shell’s toxic legacy in Curacao
From pages 52, 53, 54 & 55 of Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles Background report to the Erratum of Shells Annual Report 2010
The report was made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.
A toxic legacy in Curacao
Curacao and its oil refinery
Curacao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. It is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and has a land area of 444 square kilometres. As of January 2010, its population amounted to around 142,000 people. Prior to 10 October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles were dissolved, Curacao was administered as the Island Territory of Curacao, one of five island territories of the former Netherlands Antilles.
From 1918 until 1985, Shell owned and operated the Isla oil refinery in Curacao. During this period, the refinery has been one of the most important lifelines of Curacao. For example, in the early fifties it employed more than 12,000 people out of the total island population of 110,000 people. The refinery generated the foreign exchange necessary to finance the imports the island could not produce itself. In the beginning of the eighties, Shell-companies provided for 33% of the island’s Gross National Product. Apart from the refinery, Shell had a local sales company, an oil storage/transshipment company, and a shipping company on the island. Shell was very important to Curacao, and the government of Curacao treated Shell kindly. In 1980, a former director of Shell declared towards a reporter of the Dutch newspaper NRC: The Antillean government? We were that government.
Europe CEOs Gird for Recession Risk Amid Greek Flipflopping
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-04j4z9hZ3Q
We Found Oil! Is That Good?
New ways to extract oil and natural gas could buy the U.S. some time to develop renewable energy. Or they could keep us addicted to dirty fuels.
INTRODUCTION
For renewable energy, even the successes can reveal how much work remains to be done: huge amounts of hydroelectric and wind power in the Pacific Northwest sometimes threaten to overwhelm the grid. So is it good news that recent approaches to drilling have created a boom for fossil fuels?
Companies can now extract oil and natural gas from the high Arctic, shale, oil sands and deepwater wells. These fossil fuels are still finite and dwindling, but tapping the new sources pushes back the date of “peak oil.” Does that give the United States necessary time to develop sustainable energy sources, or will it keep Americans needlessly addicted to dirty fuels by keeping them cheap — and eroding the energy security argument?
US EPA fine Motiva for emissions and permit violations
Florida Home to Seven Air Polluters on EPA Watch List
November 7, 2011
By Trevor Aaronson and Mc Nelly Torres
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, in partnership with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity, is disclosing for the first time the air polluters in the Sunshine State that have most concerned federal regulators. These sites were included on the EPA Watch List in August or September for having unresolved violations.
The other Florida sites on the Facility Watch List were the Brevard County Central Disposal Facility in Cocoa, Eager Beaver Trailers in Lake Wales, the Miami-Dade County Resource Recovery Facility in Doral, Motiva Enterprises in Tampa, Tampa Electric Companys Big Bend Station in Apollo Beach, and Naval Air Station Jacksonville.
Shell voices long-term concerns over Europe as profits double
By Emma Rowley
EUROPE’S failure to cultivate growth is a bigger worry for oil and gas major Royal Dutch Shell than the region’s current sovereign debt crisis.
The Anglo-Dutch company has cut its support of European projects to just 15pc of its total investment spend, which it puts at $100bn (£62bn) over four years. Shell expects to keep reducing that share amid longer-term concerns about the region, according to Simon Henry, its chief financial officer.
“Europe’s macroeconomic position can only recover, and the sovereign debt crisis can only be addressed, through underlying economic growth, and we do not see the European Union creating the conditions for that – in fact, quite the opposite,” he said. “Most moves made by the Commission, one way or the other, tend to almost, either directly or indirectly, reduce the competitiveness of European industry.”
Arctic marine drilling under review
By DAN JOLING, Associated Press October 4, 2011
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Royal Dutch Shell paid the federal government $2.1 billion for petroleum leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest shore. But nearly four years later, the oil giant has not been allowed to drill an exploratory well.
The company currently is in limbo as it waits for word on the 2012 drilling season.
Explaining the scenario to a pro-development crowd in a state that gets upward of 90 percent of its revenue from the oil industry can be a tough gig, the Interior Department’s No. 2 official acknowledged Thursday.
Gas work at Shell Gannet Alpha leak pipeline completed
4 November 2011
Work to release gas trapped in a pipeline which spilled more than 200 tonnes of oil into the North Sea has been completed, Shell has said.
Divers earlier closed a relief valve after the incident at the Gannet Alpha platform in August.
Shell said the latest operation on the 4km structure had “further enhanced its stability and security”.
Plans are being made to deal with the remaining oil in the pipeline. An investigation into the leak is ongoing.
The impact of the oil spill in the North Sea was minimal, Scottish Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead said in September.
Shell was squeezed out of the Sakhalin-2 project precisely five years ago
By Motley Fool Staff Posted 9:58PM 11/03/11
EXTRACTS
Last week, my Foolish colleague Alex Planes wrote a superb article offering the conclusion that “Cheap Oil Isn’t Coming Back,” an assessment with which I completely agree. Beyond that, though, I’d add, “And Cheap Gas Has a Brief Future, Too.” With that in mind, it’s crucial to look back at the recent earnings season to garner what we can about which major oil companies appear to offer the biggest boosts for our portfolios.
Shell’s full of LNG
Royal Dutch Shell also doubled its earnings in the past quarter, chalking up a growth rate that one advertisement used to refer to as “a silly millimeter” beneath Chevron’s. The company is casting a major lot with LNG, where it leads the world in production and distribution. That’s a sufficient reason for placing the Anglo-Dutch giant next to Chevron as another member of Big Oil’s most promising trio.
Peter Voser warns of slower economy or even ‘slight’ recession
European CEOs Prepare for Recession Risk Amid Greek Flipflopping
November 04, 2011, 4:53 AM EDT
By Tara Patel and Matthew Campbell
Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — The squabbling over Greeces future in the euro zone may push Europes economy into recession and reduce companies ability to compete internationally, according to executives of some of the regions biggest corporations.
There are legitimate reasons to be worried, Alexey Mordashov, CEO of Russias second-biggest steelmaker OAO Severstal, said yesterday in an interview in Cannes, France, where the Group of 20 leaders are meeting this week. We expect it to undermine growth in Europe.
Warning issued by Garda watchdog over Corrib tapes
The Irish Times – Monday, October 31, 2011
LORNA SIGGINS, Western Correspondent
THE IRISH Federation of University Teachers has expressed serious concern about a warning of possible prosecution issued to an academic at NUI Maynooth by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.
The warning relates to alleged obstruction of the Garda Ombudsmans continuing inquiry into taped comments made by gardaí after a Corrib gas protest on March 31st last.
The federations general secretary Mike Jennings says that the Garda Ombudsmans approach illustrates the lack of protection for both bona fide researchers and journalists in protecting sources.
Worlds leading online free source of oil and gas industry news
MORE FREE NEWS ABOUT SHELL AND ITS LEADING RIVALS THAN ANY OTHER WEBSITE. FREE LIVE NEWS FOR SHELL, EXXONMOBIL, BP, CHEVRON AND RELATED CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECTS – OIL SANDS, OIL SPILLS & FRACKING. FREE access to historical information, news archive and current news articles (subject to subscription required on some third party websites). This is an entirely non-commercial independent website owned and operated by Alfred and John Donovan. No subscription or any other charges. No advertising. No donations solicited or accepted. 2,888, 319 million hits and 1,525,967 million page views in August 2012.
Shell uses Internet to show Nigeria oil spill data
By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, November 2, 4:13 PM
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) Royal Dutch Shell PLC long has argued that thieves are to blame for most of the oil spills coming from pipelines in Nigeria’s crude-producing southern delta. Now the company is trying to prove that claim in real time on the Internet.
Shell, the dominant oil company in Nigeria since production began there more than 50 years ago, has started posting photographs and reports on a website from every oil spill investigated by the company this year.
Gas Fracking Probably Caused Earthquakes in U.K.
Two small earthquakes near Blackpool in northwest England earlier this year were probably caused by hydraulic fracturing, a technique of grinding underground rocks to extract natural gas.
It is highly probable that fracking, as the process is known, at the Preese Hall-1 site caused the seismic events, Cuadrilla Resources Ltd., a U.K.-based shale explorer, said in a report published today. The combination of geological factors that led to the events were rare and the strongest possible tremor, of a magnitude of 3, would not be a risk to safety or property on the surface, the report said.
Royal Dutch Shell: Unprecendented number of oil thefts target its Nigeria operation
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, November 2, 10:07 AM
LAGOS, Nigeria Royal Dutch Shell PLC says its Nigerian subsidiary faces an unprecedented level of oil thefts targeting its operation in the oil-rich African nation.
Shell said in a statement Wednesday that it has seen 10 spills caused by theft since the end of August. The company said it had to shut its Imo River field in August, which produces about 25,000 barrels of oil a day.
Shell said pipelines bore drill holes and valves, signs of thieves siphoning off crude oil.
Meanwhile, the firm said it lifted a production warning on its Forcados production after it discovered a sabotage leak on its Trans Forcados pipeline.
Australia Delays Ruling on Shell-PetroChina Bid
NOVEMBER 2, 2011, 4:52 A.M. ET
By DAVID WINNING And DAVID FICKLING
SYDNEYAustralia’s foreign-investment watchdog has pushed back by up to 90 days a decision on the takeover of coal-seam-gas developer Bow Energy Ltd. by a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and PetroChina Co.
In a government notice to parliament, the Foreign Investment Review Board said it needed more time to decide whether to approve the 535 million Australian dollar (US$557 million) deal, which would enable Shell and PetroChina’s Arrow Energy venture to expand its proposed gas-export facility in Queensland state.
Asia will drive growth for Shell, says CEO
Devjyot Ghoshal
Energy-hungry Asia will remain the major growth driver for Shell, though the regions appetite may diminish slightly next year owing to global uncertainties, the Dutch oil and gas majors chief executive officer, Peter Voser, said on Monday.
I think Asia-Pacific for us is the key growth region. We see a lot of growth, and, hopefully, enough growth, that can actually drive the worldwide economy coming out of Asia-Pacific, Voser said on the sidelines of the Singapore International Energy Week.
Shell Is Very Interested in Renewing Abu Dhabi Oil Rights
By Anthony DiPaola – Oct 31, 2011 2:47 PM GMT
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) is very interested in renewing its right to pump oil in a venture with Abu Dhabis state-run crude producer after its concession there expires in 2014, an executive with the Anglo-Dutch company said.
Shell wants to develop natural-gas resources in the sheikhdom to help meet rising domestic demand and to bolster its partnership there, John Barry, the companys country chairman in the Persian Gulf emirate, said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.