February 1st, 2008:

By John Donovan

The oil giant Shell has made a disconcerting start to the new year with uncertainty over how many Shell jobs are being cut, who will take over from Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer when he retires in June 2009, safety issues on North Sea platforms and why Shell has decided not to reveal with its financial results the volume of its proven reserves.  In the latter connection, there are still ongoing repercussions from the last time controversy over Shell reserves machinations turned into a full blown scandal. read more

The main item on the UK TV Channel 4 News published at 7pm UK time tonight focussed on the inadequacies of Shell North Sea platform safety. It included a reference to a document we published an hour ago on the same subject. We provided the document shown on Channel 4 News.

This is the link to watch the report…

http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=10959

A transcript will be published on this website ASAP.  

EXTRACT: “…this company is run by a bunch of ruthless bastards who would sell their grannies to improve shareholder returns, along with their ever increasing personal bonuses and pensions…”

By John Donovan

We are already aware of the deplorable way Shell is treating IT staff. This week we heard from a Shell insider claiming to represent Shell North Sea employees who apparently are also being treated like commodities, rather than human beings, many of whom until recent events, had a genuine affection for Shell as a company. read more

Friday February 1,2008

MANY people’s first instinct when reading about Shell’s extraordinary profits may be to agree with those Left-wingers who are calling for a windfall tax on oil companies.

But the very last thing hard-pressed motorists need is for more tax to be levied on petrol producers.

The Government is already getting a massive financial windfall from higher world oil prices. More than £3billion a year extra is flowing into Treasury coffers thanks to higher tax receipts from North Sea oil and gas production and higher VAT revenue from the pumps. That’s enough to fund a cut in fuel duty of at least 7p a litre. read more

By Kelly Fiveash
Published Friday 1st February 2008 10:14 GMT

Union representatives for Royal Dutch Shell’s IT workers demanded talks with the firm’s top management yesterday over the outsourcing of up to 3,000 jobs at the oil giant.

The call came as Shell reported full-year earnings of £13.9bn – the biggest ever profit for a British company. The numbers prompted outrage amongst workers who were told a month ago that the firm was in talks with EDS and other companies about outsourcing as many as 3,000 jobs. read more

By Joe Carroll

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest oil company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 14 percent amid the biggest increase in crude prices in the 148-year history of the petroleum industry.

Net income climbed to a record $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, from $10.3 billion, or $1.76, a year earlier, the Irving, Texas-based company said today in a statement. Per-share profit was 16 cents higher than the average of 16 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. read more

World-wide traffic stats for the website www.royaldutchshellplc.com

For January 2008

Traffic viewed:

6,748,874 Hits

4,381,421 Page Views

Traffic not viewed 

342,114 Hits

218,129 Page Views

(Not viewed traffic includes traffic generated by robots, worms, or replies with special HTTP status codes)

If you would like a break down of the above figures into individual Countries, please send an email to [email protected] and we would be pleased to send you the information (requests from Shell welcome).

02/01/08

Royal Dutch Shell has waltzed into the record books, reporting a mind-blowing $31.3 billion in net profit in 2007, the highest ever for a British or Dutch company. But, the profit party has been interrupted by an old demon: oil reserve replacement.

The Anglo-Dutch company will delay the release of data about its reserves — the raw stuff it owns in the ground — until March. Shell says it wants to report its reserve levels at the same time as its U.S. rivals. Investors might find the delay worrying nonetheless, because the memory of the company’s reserve-accounting scandal four years ago is still fresh.
 
The problem then was the way Shell accounted for new reserves. It previously had adopted a more-optimistic approach to estimating the quantity of oil and gas. That pushed up its reserve-replacement ratio, the standard measure of the sustainability of an oil company’s production. For a few years, Sir Philip Watts, Shell’s then chief executive, looked like a hydrocarbon rock star. He appeared to have found a way to replace reserves faster and cheaper than in the past. read more

By NEIL KING JR.
February 1, 2008

VIENNA — With OPEC widely expected to hold oil production steady at its meeting today, the cartel’s leaders are facing the politically thorny possibility of an output cut in the weeks ahead.

For now, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate cuts will bring the U.S. economy in for a soft landing. The U.S. is the world’s largest oil consumer. A stronger U.S. economy would shore up demand, stabilize oil prices and give leverage to OPEC members who want to keep production levels where they are. read more

Access to Resources
Shrinks, Costs Rise;
High Prices Lift Net
By GUY CHAZAN
February 1, 2008

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC reported $31.3 billion in profit last year, one of the strongest results ever for a European company, as soaring oil prices offset lower production and weaker refining margins.

But it said output would likely be lower this year, partly because of continuing problems in Nigeria, where unrest has forced it to suspend 141,000 barrels a day of production. It also posted lower-than-expected fourth-quarter results and unveiled a modest increase to its capital-spending program, in a sign of the difficulties facing major oil companies. read more

By Andrew Hill
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00

“Obscene” profits and calls for “windfall taxes”: it’s oil company reporting season again. Royal Dutch Shell formally launched the 2007 full-year results festival in the UK yesterday by recording the largest profit ever reported by a listed European company – $27.6bn (£13.9bn) after tax, adjusted for changes in the value of fuel inventories.

If the chorus of complaint from unions and environmental groups at the “£1.6m-a-hour” profit was predictable, so was the reaction of analysts: disappointment. Fourth-quarter net income was slightly below the market consensus. If the company reaped a bonus from the higher oil prices last year, it had to use it to offset lower production. read more

By Ed Crooks and Dino Mahtani
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00

Daniel Yergin, the chairman of Cambridge Energy Re-search Associates and author of The Prize, a history of the oil industry, argues that this is one of the toughest times for oil companies since the wave of nationalisations in the 1970s.

“The irony is that the other challenging times were when the oil price was low,” he says. “Now it is because oil has gone to $100 [a barrel].” read more

By Dino Mahtani in London
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00

Royal Dutch Shell warned yesterday that oil and gas production was likely to fall for a sixth consecutive year in 2008 as it struggles to make up shortfalls at key projects, writes Dino Mahtani in London.

High oil and gas prices helped the multinational oil company to report record full-year profits, with its current cost of supply earnings rising 8 per cent to $27.6bn in 2007. However, shares in Shell fell in early trade as investors focused instead on the company’s declining production trend. read more

Nils Pratley , Friday February 1 2008

Which quoted oil company is most critical to the functioning of the global economy? Which one, if it went out of business overnight, would cause the machine to stall most quickly? A few years ago, we would have chosen from the obvious short list – Exxon, Shell, BP – but the other day one UK oil chief executive gave a surprising answer. It’s Schlumberger, he said.

US group Schlumberger is the world’s largest oil -services company. It doesn’t own any oil itself, but its 80,000 employees in 80 countries are busy looking for the stuff, and producing it, as contractors. Remove them overnight and an awful lot of oil would stop flowing very quickly. read more

· Claim that gains made at expense of environment
· Company’s plans to go into Iraq spark controversy

Terry Macalister The Guardian, Friday February 1 2008

Shell recorded the biggest annual profits in British corporate history yesterday at $27.6bn (£14bn) causing a storm of protest from trade union leaders and green groups who said the “obscene” profits came at the expense of motorists, pensioners and the environment and suggested it should be met with a windfall tax.

The world’s second largest quoted oil company said it had no intention of cutting back on its operations, saying it needed to increase production to meet rising demand and unveiling controversial plans to start oil operations in Iraq. read more

Despite making £93m a day, Royal Dutch Shell has not impressed the markets, concerned by resource nationalism and rising extraction costs.

By Danny Fortson
Friday, 1 February 2008

If understatement were an art, Jeroen van der Veer would be given a seat among the masters. In unveiling the largest-ever annual profit for a UK or Dutch company yesterday, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell deemed the group’s $27.6bn (£13.9bn) annual profit thus: “Overall these are satisfactory results.” read more

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 1, 2008; D01

After insurgents attacked a link to a key oil export terminal on the Forcados River in Nigeria’s Delta region in February 2006, it took a year and a half for Royal Dutch Shell to make repairs and get part of it running again. It took just two months for insurgents to shut it down again.

The result: Just when oil-consuming countries want more high-quality petroleum to cool off high oil prices, a group of insurgents in the West African nation forced oil companies to stop pumping an average of 475,000 barrels a day last year, and at times as much as 600,000 barrels a day. read more

By Ben Harrington
Last Updated: 1:36am GMT 01/02/2008

The steady risers of the day were natural gas explorer BG Group, which closed up 55p at £11, and condom maker SSL International, which led the second liners to firm up 34½ at 520½p. Both BG Group and SSL International have been at the centre of takeover speculation in the past.

Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company, and Royal Dutch Shell were last year said to have held talks to buy BG.

While it was unclear yesterday whether a new predator had emerged for BG Group, banking sources said the company has been working with Goldman Sachs and NM Rothschild as defence advisors. read more

Sir Richard Branson was feted like a cult hero in Moscow: “Having a very large boat is not going to give you a lot of satisfaction”

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Moscow
Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 01/02/2008

Sir Richard Branson is to launch a Virgin Russia airline as the first of a series of ventures in the booming oil economy, leading a wave of western investors pouring into Europe’s last frontier.
 
“There are 150m people here within a three-hour flight from Moscow, and a lot of potential to take business from the rail services,” he told the Troika Dialog Russia Forum in Moscow. read more

Last Updated: 1:32am GMT 01/02/2008

Shell boss Jeroen van der Veer always knew yesterday was going to be turbulent, but his rough ride could have been so much worse.

When the Anglo-Dutch giant announces profits figures, it holds two sets of press conferences and analysts meetings – starting first in The Hague and then a mad dash to the airport for briefings in London.

Assailed from all sides about the oil giant’s record profits – not enough, complained the City; too much, screeched consumers – van der Veer was steeling himself for a battering. And then the hand of God intervened. Yesterday’s dreadful weather was deemed too much for midget planes used between Rotterdam and London City airports. Van der Veer was grounded. read more

Understatement: Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer,
said the figures were “satisfactory”

By Russell Hotten, Industry Editor
Last Updated: 1:32am GMT 01/02/2008

Royal Dutch Shell has been forced onto the defensive after its announcement of record profits sparked calls for a windfall tax and complaints from motorists about soaring pump prices.
 
While investors fretted about whether the $27.6bn (£13.9bn) profits based on the current cost of supply masked deep problems facing the world’s second largest non-government oil company, Shell received a barrage of complaints that its earnings were “obscene”. read more