Posts on ‘May 22nd, 2015’

By Peter Husk: Saturday May 23, 2015

There’s an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about Royal Dutch Shell’s attitude towards the risks involved in its plan to drill for oil in the US Arctic.

The decision has sparked protests in Seattle, where the Polar Pioneer, one of two rigs the Anglo-Dutch oil giant intends to use, is berthed.

Shell sees the risks in its plan as financial. Critics see a far worse threat to the world’s climate.

Another rig, the Noble Discoverer, is docked along the coast at Everett. Both vessels are expected to sail north to Alaska next month and start exploratory drilling in the Chukchi prospect, between the United States and Russia, in late July. read more

Ben van Beurden, chief executive of Shell, acknowledges that we cannot burn all the world’s fossil fuel reserves without risking a breach of the 2C limit needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty

Terry Macalister and Damian Carrington: Friday 22 May 2015  read more

Rose Hackman in New York: 22May 2015

The Obama administration’s process for giving Shell the go-ahead for restarting its drilling in the Arctic lacked transparency and prevented an informed public response, environmental groups have warned.

FULL ARTICLE WITH WORKING LINKS

Article by Demid Getik published 22 May 2015 by nltimes.nl 

SHELL CEO: WORLD “DESPERATELY NEEDS” ALASKA OIL

Alaska has large potential oil reserves that the world is going to demand in the future, Shell CEO Dick Benschop told AD. Oil in the region is increasingly difficult to recover, however, the company’s technological potential fits the challenge.

There is an increasing need in the new sources of oil, said Benschop explaining the company’s decision to come to the state. “Annually, 4 percent of world supplies are consumed. We should therefore continue to invest in new supplies,” he said. “Alaska plays an important role in this.” read more

Extracts from a Rolling Stone article by ANTONIA JUHASZ published 22 May 2015

Meet the Rappers and ‘Kayaktivists’ Out to Stop Shell’s Giant Oil Rig

…several hundred people trying to disrupt business as usual for the world’s largest oil company…

Their target, Royal Dutch Shell’s 400-foot-long, 300-foot-tall offshore oil rig, dubbed the Polar Pioneer, was just out of sight in Elliott Bay, behind the terminal building. In January, Seattleites learned Shell is planning to park the rig at their port for eight months of the year, when it isn’t drilling for oil in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. Since then, a growing group of citizen-activists, elected officials and non-governmental organizations has been plotting ways to not only kick the rig out of the city, but also halt Shell’s Arctic drilling plans altogether.  read more

By Adam Galas: May 21, 2015

Royal Dutch Shell‘s (NYSE: RDS-A  ) $73 billion buyout of BG Group (NASDAQOTH: BRGYY  ) would be the second-largest oil merger in history, but long-term Shell investors should be asking whether the company overpaid. In examining the terms of the deal, and what Shell plans to do with BG’s assets, I think it becomes evident that some skepticism of this deal is warranted. 

Terms of the deal
BG stockholders will receive .4454 shares of Shell class B shares plus $5.94 per share in cash for each share of BG stock. The $73 billion price tag represents a 52% premium for BG Group, and if the deal is approved BG shareholders would own 19% of Shell when the merger is completed in 2016.  read more

By Isis Almeida and Elco Van Groningen: Published 21 May 2015 by Bloomberg.com

A Dutch court will review natural gas production at a cluster of the Groningen field, Europe’s biggest, after earthquakes linked to extraction damaged buildings in the Netherlands’ most northern province.

The Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State will review production at the Eemskanaal cluster before June, judge Peter van Buuren said at a hearing in The Hague Thursday. A request to suspend extraction in the area, which accounted for 5 percent of production from the Groningen field in the first four months of 2015, had been rejected on April 14. read more

By Andy Tully: Posted on Thu, 21 May 2015

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says that whereas the Anglo-Dutch company is aware of the dangers that fossil fuels pose to the environment, it is also realistic and therefore determined to press ahead with plans to drill for energy in the Arctic.

Addressing shareholders at Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 20, van Beurden scorned environmentalists’ outcry for individuals and institutions to divest their portfolios of companies that deal in fossil fuels. That won’t be possible until reliable alternatives are readily available, he said. read more

Setback for Shell’s proposed rail yard in Anacortes

By Seattle Times Staff: 21 May 2015

A Skagit County Superior Court judge Thursday dismissed a Shell Oil lawsuit that challenged an environmental-impact study of a proposed rail yard at the company’s Anacortes refinery.

The ruling is another setback for Shell’s efforts to build the rail yard and spur line to handle oil trains bringing in Bakken crude from North Dakota fields.

In February, a Skagit County hearings examiner ruled that Skagit County should conduct a full-blown environmental study, rather than a shorter review. That decision was a victory for environmental groups that have challenged the facility, and called for a study of the potential effects of a major oil-train disaster as well as an examination of emergency resources for responding to a disaster. read more

Article by Jennifer A. Dlouhy published May 21, 2015 by The Houston Chronicle

Shell lays out its Arctic plans

Photo: Jennifer A. Dlouhy/Houston Chronicle

SEATTLE – The executive leading Shell’s Arctic drilling program on Thursday outlined ambitions to drill new wells in the Chukchi Sea this summer, instead of returning to the one the company started three years ago.

Ann Pickard, Shell’s executive vice president of the Arctic, talked in depth to the Chronicle about the planned wells on a visit to the Transocean Polar Pioneer drilling rig.

While cranes heaved pipes, drilling fluids and other supplies onto the rig in the Port of Seattle, more than 1,400 miles away in Anchorage, some 400 people – boat captains, federal regulators and Shell officials – conducted a simulation to test how they would respond to an oil spill in the frigid Chukchi Sea. read more