Posts from ‘December, 2009’

However, the 800-mile project, — spearheaded by Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil — jumped a major hurdle late Wednesday.

This just in from Shell online…

Change to Daily Dilbert cartoon

Please note:

As of January 1, 2010, Daily Dilbert is no longer available on the Shell Online homepage itself. Instead, those wishing to access the cartoon can do so by visiting the external site www.dilbert.com.

Although polls have shown that Dilbert has been one of the most popular elements of the Shell Online homepage, repeated user feedback has also revealed that some users have difficulties understanding the language in the cartoon or are uncomfortable with the topics covered and sense of humour. read more

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal Communications Decency Act gives the site immunity from liability for libel based on posts by users. The ruling upholds a decision issued last year by U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in Alexandria, Va.

Financial Times

By Hugh Williamson

Published: December 30 2009 22:06

It is dusk in London and Amnesty International has mobilised hundreds of protesters in its campaign against Shell’s allegedly damaging business practices in the Niger Delta. They march in a snake formation, some carrying flaming torches, others a replica pipeline on their shoulders. Their aim is to draw attention to huge oil spills and gas flaring that, they say, are ruining the health and livelihood of many in this troubled corner of Nigeria. read more

Shell gas flaring in the Niger Delta. The practice has proved controversial. Photograph: Pius Otomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

Shell must face Friends of the Earth Nigeria claim in Netherlands

Shell disappointed at Hague court ruling on Oruma oil spill compensation case

Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 22.00 GMT

A judge in the Netherlands has opened the door to a potential avalanche of legal cases against Shell over environmental degradation said to be caused by its oil operations in the Niger Delta.

The oil group expressed “disappointment” tonight that a court in The Hague had agreed to allow Friends of the Earth Netherlands and four local Nigerian farmers to bring a compensation case in its backyard for the first time. read more

Russia, holder of the world’s biggest gas reserves, in February inaugurated an LNG plant on Sakhalin Island, entering Asia Pacific markets after relying on pipelines to Europe for decades. The $22 billion Sakhalin-2 project began year-round oil exports in December last year after previously being limited to seasonal shipments because of ice. Sakhalin-2 partners, who include Royal Dutch Shell Plc, had planned to send 55 LNG tankers from the plant this year. Gazprom owns 50 percent plus one share of Sakhalin Energy, while Shell owns 27.5 percent, Mitsui & Co. 12.5 percent and Mitsubishi Corp. 10 percent.

AMSTERDAM, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and its Nigerian unit will face compensation demands in a Dutch court for alleged damage caused by oil spills in Nigeria after the court ruled on Wednesday it was competent to handle the cases.

AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- A Dutch court Wednesday said it has jurisdiction to rule on alleged oil spills by Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB) subsidiary in Nigeria, a ruling which could set a legal precedent for multinationals in the Netherlands.

Documents released by Royal Dutch Shell Plc under the Data Protection Act to John Donovan, a prominent critic of the world’s largest oil company, show that Shell does not deny that his intervention in the Sakhalin2 project in Russia cost Shell billions – according to the Sunday Times – $22 billion.

Shell internal correspondence from December 2006 to March 2007 reveal that Shell was concerned that:

“…the Sunday Times has picked up the Sakhalin/drilling leaked e-mail story from Donovan’s website, They are responding with agree Os and As that have been used previously with the Guardian, but are first trying to kill the story by pointing out that is old news – slim chance that this will work.” read more

QUOTE FROM ROYAL DUTCH SHELL CEO PETER VOSER IN A COMMENT TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: “I was very positively surprised by how you kept your eyes on the operational performance — on the day-to-day job you had to do — while going through the uncertainties of the last few months…”

Introduction by John Donovan: Printed below is a syndicated Bloomberg article published by the Houston Chronicle containing the above quote. It must rank as Grade A BS on a par with Shell Ethics and Compliance Chief, Richard Wiseman, making an anti-corruption speech, when in fact he has a track record of supporting and encouraging corruption, deceit and predatory IP theft by Shell managers. read more

Equilon Enterprises LLC, d.b.a. Shell Oil Products US, and tied to Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) is also listed as a top holder with 19.95% of the company prior to this offering.

Pensions&Investments

Md. drops Shell holdings over Iran

December 28, 2009, 12:01 AM ET

Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, Baltimore, divested more than 1 million shares of common stock valued at more than $38.3 million and $3.5 million in bonds of Royal Dutch Shell and its affiliates because the company does business in Iran, the $31.8 billion system announced earlier this month.

The action is the result of a state law enacted last year that requires the system to consider divesting investments in companies that do business in Iran or Sudan and have no plans to cut those operations. read more

By John Donovan

Extracts from a current Reuters report…

Iraqi and Iranian forces are dug in on either side of a disputed inactive oil well in the sensitive border area, with Iraqis vowing to fight if necessary to fend off another occupation of the well by Iranian soldiers.

The seizure of the well, which Iraq says is part of its Fakka oilfield in southeast Maysan province, triggered protests from the government in Baghdad and caused a rise in prices on jittery world oil markets.

The Iranian forces have since pulled back, but Iraq says they are still on its territory, stirring echoes of the border dispute that led to the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, in which about 1 million people died. read more

Shell Asset Management Co., the manager of Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s various pension funds, has taken its stake in hybrid electric power company Enova Systems to almost 20% following a $10 million capital raising exercise.

Nigeria, whose population of about 140 million people makes it Africa’s most populous country, is almost evenly split between the mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said Dec. 19 it attacked a pipeline in the southern oil region used by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp.

Extract from a Shell internal email regarding our article: “An email to Bill O’Reilly at Fox News: Shell’s treachery in Iran“ read more

By John Donovan

Printed below is an email reply received yesterday from Royal Dutch Shell Plc Company Secretary & General Counsel Corporate, Michiel Brandjes (right) together with my self-explanatory, constructive response sent today.

Any further response from Mr Brandjes will be published.

On 22 Dec 2009, at 11:18, [email protected] wrote:

Dear Mr Donovan,

Thank you for your message. I have referred all your emails regarding Data Protection Act (“DPA”) matters to the relevant staff and officers dealing with such matters and take it that they have responded as they deem appropriate. I am at this time not a spokes person for the Company in these DPA matters and a response by a Shell spokes person to a message addressed to me should count as a response by me. read more

By John Donovan

Reference my recent email, I received yesterday an email response from Michiel Brandjes, Company Secretary and General Counsel Corporate of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. I will publish it later today along with my reply, which will reveal more information from the remarkable Shell internal documents the company was compelled to provide, following my application under the Data Protection Act.

As will be seen, we remain fans of Mr Brandjes.

MICHAEL DWYER, the Tipperary man shot dead in Bolivia, worked in security on the Shell Corrib project with a Hungarian associate of the main …

But the officials didn't even stop to blink. They tipped their forelocks to the oil executives, gave a two-finger salute (metaphorically speaking, of course) to the local residents and told the hearing they were entirely satisfied with the project. The rest, as they say, is history

Dec. 22, 2009

By Jon Krenek
[email protected]
815-937-3370

There won’t be a check from Shell Oil in the mailboxes of Limestone Township residents this Christmas.

All the payments to class-action claimants in the record-breaking $46 million settlement over a 1988 Shell Oil gasoline pipeline spill are being tied up in a legal appeal.

FULL ARTICLE

In March, Northern Economics released a study on the impact of drilling. It was paid for by Shell Oil, the largest lease holder in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, and showed that OCS development would employ 35,000 people annually over the next 50 years. The North Slope Borough questioned the reality of those numbers.

Two Chinese government-controlled companies are among front-runners in a £3 billion battle for control of oil assets in Nigeria that have been put up for sale by Royal Dutch Shell.

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria’s Oil Minister said Royal Dutch Shell Plc will need government approval to sell oilfields following a report that it plans to sell as much as $5 billion of assets in the West African nation.

Since I know from our contact with you over recent years that you are normally an unfailingly polite and efficient Company Secretary, I suspect that this change results from criticism you have received internally for being “a bit too enthusiastic about responding to Donovan…:" Apparently one of your colleagues - I can guess who - is jealous at the praise you have received on our website.

REUTERS

Nigeria says not aware of any Shell oil sale plans

Nick Tattersall
LAGOS
Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:52am EST

LAGOS (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has not informed the government of any plans to sell oil fields in Nigeria, as reported by several newspapers over the weekend, Minister of State for Petroleum Odein Ajumogobia said on Monday.

The UK’s Sunday Times reported that Europe’s largest oil company planned to sell fields valued at up to $5 billion as the OPEC member prepares to impose harsher terms on foreign operators and hand greater control to domestic oil firms. read more

Since the contamination was discovered almost four months ago, most of the 275 homeowners in the Carousel tract have signed on to a lawsuit against Shell Oil. The Carousel development is north of Lomita Boulevard, between Marbella and Panama avenues.

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc has signed a letter of intent to sell its New Zealand downstream assets to Infratil Ltd. and the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, Infratil said today.

An insider familiar with the talks said that Shell was likely to sell the fields in individual transactions in the first half of 2010.

Business chiefs hit at climate agreement

By Ed Crooks and Fiona Harvey in Copenhagen

Published: December 20 2009 19:26 | Last updated: December 20 2009 21:39

EXTRACTS

Global energy businesses are disappointed and confused by the climate deal agreed in Copenhagen, saying it does not provide enough certainty to justify the huge investments needed to cut carbon emissions.

Peter Voser – the chief executive of oil and gas group Royal Dutch Shell, which has supported limiting emissions – said “much more” was needed.

Mr Voser said: “We…recognise that the accord reflects a true political willingness to combat climate change. However, it remains unclear how this political willingness will translate into concrete steps.” read more

It’s unclear how many of Shell’s 13,000 employees in Houston will be affected by the migration plans. Partly, that’s because company officials are still deciding which jobs will stay or go abroad, and are rolling out the plans in phases that run into next year. But at least a few divisions in Houston are preparing to be downsized dramatically.

The Sunday Times

Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant, has launched a shake-up of its controversial operations in Nigeria by offering oilfields valued at up to $5 billion (£3.1 billion) for sale.

The auction comes as Nigeria prepares to impose harsher terms on foreign operators next month and hand greater control to domestic firms.

Shell is the biggest western oil firm in Nigeria, the world’s tenth largest producer, and has had operations there for 70 years.

It is understood that the company recently launched a formal sales process that is being overseen by Ann Pickard, head of Shell Nigeria. read more

Sat Dec 19, 2009 1:51pm GMT

LAGOS, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said on Saturday it had no reports of attacks on facilities operated by its SPDC joint venture in Nigeria, following a claim by militants to have struck an oil pipeline overnight.

“At this time we don’t have reports of our facility being attacked,” a Shell spokesperson said. (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ )

(Reporting by Nick Tattersall; editing by David Stamp) read more

Makes us wonder here at Norco, when they are going to announce we have been sold. They are doing the Band-Aid approach painting things and fixing things that been needing it for a long time. No major repairs only those that you would do if you were going to sell your house.

FROM A SHELL INSIDER

John

Do you know how many VP’s there are now in Shell HR?

EIGHTY SIX…

All ruthless offspring sired by the windbag Hofmeister.

In the UK they would all be called FitzHR  or similar because most are bastards. (But a Fitz is a royal bastard I believe? )

POSTING BY A SHELL INSIDER: “JO BLOW”

The state of Accountability within Royal Swiss err.. I mean Dutch Shell

After the recent announcements concerning moving more of the finance functions to shared service centers in India and Manilla I thought now would be a perfect time to make a few points that are obvious to me.  If we all recall last May, the Board of Directors for RDS came under intense fire from shareholders on the disparity between executive pay packages versus performance.  Mr. Voser apparently heard the cry and began cutting fixed cost immediately, however the question remains whether his cost cutting will be effective and sustainable.  In my humble opinion all he has accomplished is short term cost reduction, I don’t see that he has fixed anything culturally that will translate to sustainable cost structure improvement.  At this point you may be saying “but Jo, these folks he got rid of are not coming back so that cost reduction is permanent”, and ordinarily I might be inclined to agree with you.  The fact of the matter is simple he did not hold the people accountable that created the bloated cost structure, he promoted them.  This does not really suprise me in the least because despite the corporate claims, Accountability for actions does not exist, I will qaulify this assertion with a few specific points. read more

AMSTERDAM, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The Dutch NAM oil joint venture, owned by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), said on Friday it would postpone plans to drill three gas fields near an island off the coast of the Netherlands.

Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, Baltimore, divested more than 1 million shares of common stock valued at over $38.3 million and $3.5 million in bonds of Royal Dutch Shell and its affiliates because the company does business in Iran, the $31.8 billion system announced today.

NEW DELHI -- Shell India Ltd. plans to expand "aggressively" as it keeps pace with accelerating fuel consumption in the world's second-fastest-growing economy, Shell India Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said Friday.

Barack Obama’s administration has granted Shell the right to drill for oil in the environmentally sensitive seas off Alaska during the middle of climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

For major oil companies like Exxon, Shell, BP or Chevron, who have found it tough to increase their production and reserves on their own, big acquisitions offer a quick way to expand their operations after amassing mountains of cash in recent years.

Reliance names ex-Shell executive overseas head

BLOOMBERG

Thu, Dec 17 2009.

New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd appointed Walter van de Vijver as chief executive officer of its overseas business.

Van de Vijver replaces Atul Chandra as head of Reliance’s overseas business. He was the former exploration chief at Royal Dutch Shell Plc till 2004.

That does not mean 5,000 employees of Shell's 13,000 employees in the Houston area will be "transitioning" abroad, Op De Weegh said. Shell has 21,000 employees in the United States.

Fred Pearce
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 December 2009 07.00 GMT

Shell drip-feeds its environmental ‘credentials’ to the public. Photograph: James Boardman

Editors must love Shell. Almost whatever I have read about climate change and the UN talks in Copenhagen in recent weeks, it has been flanked by the familiar Shell logo somewhere in the background.

From geeky titles like New Scientist to politico mags such as Prospect and New Statesman; and newspapers like the Guardian, the world’s second largest corporation has been splashing out – filling screens and newsprint with adverts and underwriting special supplements. Shell also sponsored a major research project by the Economist Intelligence Unit, called Countdown to Copenhagen, launched early this year at a Shell-sponsored “sustainability summit”. read more

Shell also said in its statement that the company had "always refrained from commenting on specific issues raised by the Donovans..." This was to put it politely, totally untrue. Shell has often supplied us with comment for publication in respect of specific issues.

By BRETT CLANTON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

(NOW WITH AN ADDED COMMENT FROM “JO BLOW”)

Dec. 15, 2009, 8:40PM

Shell shipping Houston jobs overseas

Royal Dutch Shell has publicly announced it will slash 5,000 jobs by year end—including “hundreds” in Houston—as part of a sweeping reorganization new CEO Peter Voser said is needed to make the company more competitive.

But under a separate program, the European oil giant has been quietly transferring additional office jobs from Houston and elsewhere to India and the Philippines to reduce costs, according to internal Shell documents obtained by the Chronicle and a person familiar with the plan. read more

Oil companies have come under pressure at Copenhagen to scale back investment in production from tar sands, as Royal Dutch Shell was branded the world's second worst corporate lobbyist for its support of the industry.

The case follows up on a prior challenge to an earlier exploration plan proposed by Shell in 2007.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A coalition of environmental groups and Arctic communities has filed a second lawsuit aimed at blocking a Shell Oil subsidiary from drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

December 15, 2009

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Oil major Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) may sell its Gothenburg refinery and marketing operations in Sweden, the company said Tuesday.

“Shell has started to gauge potential interest in the Gothenburg refinery and marketing businesses,” company spokeswoman Kirsten Smart said in an emailed statement. “It is very early days and we are at a very early stage of the process,” she added.

The move is in line with a shift in Shell’s global downstream strategy toward larger, more flexible and sophisticated refinery sites. read more