Royal Dutch Shell Group .com Rotating Header Image

February 8th, 2014:

Will Shell’s Prelude FLNG project be another white elephant?

It is to me an example where common sense has been put aside and the herd followed the leader ‘we need elephants’. I sincerely hope for Shell that Prelude does not turn out to be yet another white elephant. …this spirit of ‘Olympic targets, Moonshots, if you can think it you can do it’ has also led to disasters for Shell USA in Alaska, huge write offs in the USA on shaleoil, a nonfunctional EP Europe when it was launched, the reserves crisis of Shell, the cost overruns in Sakhalin, Pearl and Kashagan by a factor 3-8 etc etc.

Introduction by John Donovan

On 10 January we published an article under the headline: Royal Dutch Shell Prelude to disaster?

It was based on information received from a Prelude insider source voicing deep concern over the safety of the construction of Shell’s Prelude FLNG flagship vessel, said to be the biggest ship in the world.

Since then, further information has been obtained, including more information from the same whistleblower.

Shell has to a large extent staked it future on this mega project. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Russia’s Bashneft to buy oil from Shell worth $1.4 bln

Screen Shot 2014-01-17 at 08.38.13

Feb 7 (Reuters) – Russia‘s Bashneft said on Friday its board had approved a deal to buy oil from Shell worth up to $1.4 billion before February 2016.

Bashneft also said in a regulatory filing that it agreed to sell oil products worth up to $2.4 billion to oil trader Septo Trading, registered in the British Virgin Islands, before January 2015.

Bashneft, owned by Sistema oil-to-telecoms conglomerate, needs to buy oil to feed its refineries located in the Urals mountains region.

SOURCE read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Fixing the fix

Screen Shot 2013-04-20 at 08.36.20

The European Union wants to change how commodity benchmarks are set

BRUSSELS: Feb 8th 2014

Screen Shot 2013-05-17 at 01.06.41“THE oil price” has a comforting ring of clarity about it. But in reality many benchmark prices for oil and other commodities are merely estimates based on incomplete information from unregulated, illiquid markets. …the European Commission last year raided BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil (all oil firms) and Platts (the biggest PRA) in an investigation of possible market-rigging. An American regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is investigating price-fixing by trading houses and oil companies. Many see similarities to scandals involving financial benchmarks such as LIBOR, which purported to track the price of loans between banks in London, but turns out to have been manipulated with gusto. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

3 Reasons Why Royal Dutch Shell plc Could Be Set To Tank

Screen Shot 2013-09-16 at 00.01.41

Screen Shot 2013-12-22 at 19.09.52Royston Wild has “picked out a handful of reasons why Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) (NYSE: RDS-B.US) could be ready to dive lower.” He says the acceleration in asset disposals across the group and the attempt to curtail spiralling capital expenditure threaten to derail the firm’s long-term earnings prospects. He also points out that the oil price outlook looks murky and explains why there is a question-mark over long-term dividends.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

UK environmental science: In association with Shell

The Natural Environment Research Council signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Shell. You should be disturbed by this

Screen Shot 2013-01-29 at 17.46.10

Screen Shot 2014-02-07 at 23.28.10

Workers subcontracted by Shell clean up an oil spill from an abandoned well in Oloibiri Town, Nigeria. Photograph: Ed Kashi/Corbis

Posted by Friday 7 February 2014 15.19 GMT theguardian.com

Today, the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Shell. My thanks to Greenpeace for the tip.

From what I can make out, the memo doesn’t contain specific details of joint activities; it’s more a formal expression of shared interests and desire to interact more. A few eyebrows were raised when a similar agreement was signed with Arup in November, but such memos are not common and tend to be reserved for building relationships with similar public institutions in other countries. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.