Tony Hayward, BPs chief executive, played down talk of consolidation between Western oil majors Tuesday, as his company announced its first quarterly loss in seven years. But he did say that the crash in oil prices might spark another kind of energy transaction: deals with state-owned oil companies.
February 3rd, 2009:
Predicting a Different Kind of Oil Deal
BP Posts First Loss in Seven Years, Sees Weak Demand
BP joins Royal Dutch Shell Plc, its larger rival, in reporting a loss following crudes record plunge.
BP swings to a loss after oil price decline
Shares in other oil companies also declined over the last year amid concern the global recession will continue to weigh on oil prices. Shell last week posted its first quarterly loss in ten years while France's Total reported a 25 percent drop in revenue.
Shell’s Green Ads Take New Tack
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
FEBRUARY 2, 2009
Campaign Stresses Potential Role of Innovation in Fighting Climate Change
By GUY CHAZAN
LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell, censured twice by Britain’s ad police for exaggerating its commitment to green issues, is hoping to avoid controversy in its latest ad campaign. It isn’t clear if it has succeeded.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant drew fire from activist groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth for past attempts to extol its environmental responsibility. It tended to boast of its investments in alternative energy with ads that spoke of the “power to create a cleaner, safer world.”
Royal Dutch Shell Plc Tax Dodgers: Offshore – and out of reach to the Revenue
This means that, legally speaking, Shell is now simultaneously a British public company, tax-resident in Amsterdam, whose brands are Swiss.
Advertising regulators get tough over “greenwash”: many businesses are forgetting one not-very-small point: the claims need to be true
Complaints were upheld either entirely or in part by the watchdog include one about an advertisement by Shell in which the oil company claimed that its waste carbon dioxide was used to grow flowers. The ASA said that the advertisement implied that Shell used all its waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers, when it was shown that only 0.325 per cent of its emissions were used in this way.