MAY 31, 2016

The multinational oil giant Shell must not be allowed to palm off its responsibility to clean up decades of oil pollution which continues to blight the Niger Delta, said Amnesty International ahead of the Nigerian government’s long overdue clean-up of Ogoniland, due to begin on June 2.  

Scores of oil spills from Shell operations in the Niger Delta have yet to be properly cleaned up, and even sites the multi-national company claims to have cleaned remain polluted. To make matters worse, there were at least 130 oil spills from Shell operations in 2015. read more

By Daniel J. Graeber: May 31, 2016

ABUJA, Nigeria, May 31 (UPI) — A militant group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers issued a warning to oil companies working in the region that its campaign is about to get bloody.

The Niger Delta Avengers have launched a steady string of attacks on energy infrastructure in the region, issuing a manifesto earlier this month that warned oil companies the attacks marked only a beginning. The group said it was frustrated by what it saw as a lack of attention to the region paid by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. read more

31 May 2016

After several global law firms made moves to consolidate legal staff abroad, Royal Dutch Shell is following suit.

The company is scouting possible locations and considering headcount numbers for a new offshore legal operations center, according to reports in the U.K. legal press.

Per Legal Business, the company’s legal director Donny Ching is leading the charge and plans to scope out geographies and come up with a plan by the fall.

The office is expected to house both lawyers and non-lawyers focusing on back-office functions as well as traditional legal work around contracts. For now, Ching is keeping his mind open about the fine details. read more

Shell’s legal team has previously sent specific parts of its work to dedicated centres in cheaper locations.

by Kathryn McCann: 31 May 2016

Royal Dutch Shell is preparing to open its own offshore legal centre to service the oil giant’s global operations.

A projects team, reporting to the company’s legal director Donny Ching (pictured), is currently scouting possible locations and considering headcount numbers for the centre, with a brief to come back by autumn.

A mixture of non-qualified and qualified lawyers will be doing more high-end work as well as the traditional back office work which is more typically suited to offshore centres. Potential locations for the centre will ultimately depend on whether Shell can recruit the right quality people in a particular area. read more

By Ed Crooks: 27 May 2016

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” That widely-misattributed line, first published by the novelist Rita Mae Brown, has apparently been taken to heart in the oil market at last.

After a succession of Opec meetings that were preceded by fevered speculation about action to support crude prices – mostly recently the much-discussed plan for a production “freeze” that fell apart in Doha in April – no-one has any great expectations for the ministerial gathering in Vienna next week. “The freeze is finished,” one Opec delegate said. read more

29 MAY 2016: This Day (Lagos)

The 2013 audit report of financial and process activities in Nigeria’s oil industry which the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) released last Monday shows nothing has really changed in the way Nigeria runs her oil industry. Chineme Okafor reviews the report

“It is important to re-state that these reports covered the year 2013. Clearly, a few things have or could have changed since then.

“But it is clear that despite the gap of three years, most of the issues raised in the reports are still relevant today and should guide us on the way forward,” said Minister of Solid Minerals and chairman of the board of NEITI, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. read more

Bridget Carter: Mergers and Acquisitions Editor, Sydney

Gretchen Friemann: Mergers & Acquisitions Editor, Sydney

There was fresh talk in the market last week that a $3 billion block trade by Shell selling out of Woodside Petroleum could be imminent.

However, there were a number of analysts who dismissed the speculation, which they said would have been largely fuelled by the recent rise in the oil price.

They said a more likely deal was an exit by Spark Infrastructure from the $6bn Duet Group, and it could happen sooner rather than later. read more

However, it is perhaps best known in the West, as the operator of the endlessly controversial Corrib Gas project; but as its long history around the world has shown, controversy is no stranger.

John Lynch: PUBLISHED 30/05/2016 | 02:30

The latest recession in the oil sector has thrown up some truly remarkable business paradoxes.

Imagine, if you can, a company which suffers a $200bn plunge in revenues and sees its operating profits collapse by 93pc.

Imagine that company surviving such a life-threatening trauma but being resilient enough to get stuck into the acquisition of a serious competitor.

Well, that’s been the precise up-to-date experience of Royal Dutch Shell (Shell). And the rival it picked up amidst all its woes is BG plc. But then oil companies are a law unto themselves and some can afford to ship revenue and profitability damage, which would be fatal for most other corporations. read more

Angela Macdonald-Smith: Energy Reporter: 29 May 2016

A move to cleaner transportation fuels could mop up the surplus in the global liquefied natural gas market more quickly than anticipated and open up a new growth market for producers such as Woodside Petroleum.

Woodside is following major Royal Dutch Shell in positioning itself to benefit from increased use of gas in road transport and shipping.

Demand for LNG from the transport sector could reach 24.4 million tonnes a year by 2020, representing a 7 per cent rise from estimated global demand, according to new findings from Bernstein Research. read more

By HILARY UGURU, ASSOCIATED PRESS: WARRI, Nigeria — May 28, 2016, 10:32 PM ET

Militants blew up strategic gas and crude pipelines belonging to Shell and Agip on Saturday in an increasingly fierce campaign that has chopped Nigeria’s oil production in half, militants and residents said.

A new militant group, calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, reported in social media that they had dynamited the trunkline linking the Dutch-British Shell company’s Bonny terminal and the Brass export terminal of the Italian company Agip. A local community leader Eke-Spiff Erempagamo confirmed the attack.

Nigeria’s oil production had already fallen from a projected 2.2 million barrels a day to 1.4 million barrels before the latest attacks on the oil industry in southern Nigeria, including three within the past week on facilities of the U.S. oil major Chevron. Several companies have evacuated some of their workers. read more

Ryan Schleeter, Greenpeace | May 27, 2016

For the second time in two weeks, Shell has spilled thousands of gallons of oil, this time in California’s Central Valley.

Less than two weeks after dumping nearly 90,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, Shell Oil is at it again. The company’s San Pablo Bay Pipeline, which transports crude oil from California’s Central Valley to the San Francisco Bay Area, leaked an estimated 21,000 gallons into the soil near in San Joaquin County this week.

Responders are on the scene to clear oil that’s reached the surface, which county officials say covered roughly 10,000 square feet of land. As of today, Shell representatives claim the pipeline has been repaired, but have not resumed operations. read more

By Emma Amaize, Sam Oyadongha, Egufe Yafugborhi, Brisibe Perez and Akpokona Omafuaire: 29 May 2016

Delta militants blew up trunk lines belonging to Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, and Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, in Bayelsa State, while soldiers took over Oporoza community, the headquarters of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.

An industry source, who confirmed the attacks, believed to have been carried by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) group, told Sunday Vanguard: “Information at my disposal is that somewhere around the Lagos-gbene axis of the Tebidaba-Bras trunk line, was attacked with dynamites, this morning (yesterday). read more

Written by Phil Allan – 26/05/2016 7:00 am

A senior executive from Shell’s multi billion dollar Brent field decommissioning team said the delay in deploying the enormous would not add to the cost of the project, despite putting put back a year.

Allseas’s Pioneering Spirit was originally due to have begun the mammoth project to remove the topside of the Brent Delta platform in the first half of 2016. The project is now scheduled for the 2017 lifting season.

Duncan Manning, business opportunity manager on the Brent project, said putting the removal of the 24,000 tonne topside into 2017 was “not a big issue” for the Shell. read more

Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, insisted the company was ‘not the opposition’ to renewables. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Terry Macalister Energy editor: Thursday 26 May 2016 19.35 BST

Shell will avoid investing too heavily in solar or other technologies until they can make financial profits, its chief executive has said.

Ben van Beurden told a meeting of shareholders in London that the oil company was already established in windfarms, a carbon capture plant, and wanted to gradually increase its operations in clean energy. read more

Written by Reporter – 26/05/2016 6:00 am

Oil major Shell cannot switch too quickly to producing renewable energy without risking its dividend payments according to its chief executive.

More than 97% of Shell shareholders agreed at its annual meeting earlier this month to reject a resolution to invest profits from fossil fuels to become a renewable energy company.

The firm had previously said it was against the proposal.

Shell’s climate change policy has been criticised in recent months including by Dutch pension fund PGGM. read more

SaharaReporters has learned that the corporate management of Shell Petroleum in the Niger Delta region have ordered that their employees refrain from any external movements between today and 8am on Monday, May 30th. An employee with Shell told SaharaReporters that an email was sent to staff following the latest bombing of the Chevron tank farm in Escravos, Warri South Local Government Area (LGA) in Delta State by the Niger Delta Avengers.

BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK: MAY 26, 2016

SaharaReporters has learned that the corporate management of Shell Petroleum in the Niger Delta region have ordered that their employees refrain from any external movements between today and 8am on Monday, May 30th.

An employee with Shell told SaharaReporters that an email was sent to staff following the latest bombing of the Chevron tank farm in Escravos, Warri South Local Government Area (LGA) in Delta State by the Niger Delta Avengers. read more

Written by Erikka Askeland – 26/05/2016 7:45 am

Paul Goodfellow, Shell’s Vice President for UK & Ireland, has said that despite the “tough message” he had to deliver yesterday to staff in Aberdeen, he saw green shoots of sustainable change emerging in the North Sea.

The 475 North Sea job cuts – part of a wider round of 2,200 across Shell’s global operations – comes after a 90 day review since Shell’s £36million mega-merger with BG Group earlier in the year.

He said this most recent round of job losses was not just in response to “lower for longer” – the common industry view that oil will stay around $50 for the forseeable future – but “lower forever”. read more

By GREG CHRISTISON: PUBLISHED: 22:22, Wed, May 25, 2016 

The move, announced yesterday, is a result of the firm’s £35billion merger with the BG Group and the prolonged slump in oil prices. 

A total of 475 positions will be lost from the company’s UK and Ireland upstream business, which deals primarily with exploration, by the end of the year. 

All job losses are expected to affect Scotland – home to around 2,200 Shell employees – with most coming from the firm’s Aberdeen headquarters. Around 40 offshore posts will be cut and there will also be losses at St Fergus Gas Terminal, in Aberdeenshire, and the firm’s plant at Mossmorran, in Fife. read more

By PAUL WILSON: Wednesday 25 May 2016

SCOTLAND’S oil and gas sector is reeling from yet another hammer blow after Shell announced plans to slash its UK workforce by a fifth.

The oil giant said it will cut 475 people from its UK and Ireland business. All the jobs are understood to be based in Aberdeen and the north-east.

Shell announced it will lose 2,200 jobs from its workforce globally as it grapples with lower oil prices, meaning 12,500 staff and contractor roles will be lost between the start of 2015 and the end of this year. read more

DOHA | BY TOM FINN: Business | Wed May 25, 2016 5:20pm BST

Six international oil firms including BP and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have bid to operate Qatar’s largest offshore oil field, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The other bidders are the field’s current operator Maersk, as well as Total SA, Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information was private.

The people said state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) would award the contract for the oil field, which is 80 kilometres (50 miles) off Qatar’s coast and currently produces around 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), in the second half of the year. read more

Rupert Neate in Dallas: Wednesday 25 May 2016 20.25 BST

Rex Tillerson, the boss of oil giant ExxonMobil, said cutting oil production was “not acceptable for humanity” as he fought off shareholders’ and activists’ attempts to force the company to fully acknowledge the impact of climate change on the environment and Exxon’s future profits.

During a long and fractious annual meeting in Dallas on Wednesday, Tillerson, who serves as Exxon’s chairman and chief executive, beat back several proposals to force the company to take more action on climate change. read more

The cuts are mainly due to Shell’s takeover of oil and gas exploration firm BG Group and prolonged low oil prices, it said.

Shell has announced more than 10,000 job losses over the past two years.

In February, the firm posted its steepest fall in full-year earnings for 13 years.

“Despite the improvements that we have made to our business, current market conditions remain challenging,” said Shell UK and Ireland vice president Paul Goodfellow.

“Our integration with BG provides an opportunity to accelerate our performance in this ‘lower for longer’ environment. read more

By Rupert Hargreaves – Wednesday, 25 May, 2016

Shell’s (LSE: RDSB) Chief Executive Ben van Beurden shocked the market yesterday when he revealed that Shell’s dividend payments and even its very existence are under threat if the shift to renewables takes place too fast.

The group’s CEO made these comments at Shell’s annual meeting this week as 97% of the company’s shareholders voted to reject a resolution to invest profits from fossil fuels in becoming a renewable energy company. Speaking at the meeting, Ben van Beurden said: “We cannot [transition to renewables] overnight because it could mean the end of the company.” read more

By Rakteem Katakey: May 25, 2016 — 11:19 AM BST

Royal Dutch Shell Plc will cut 2,200 more jobs, taking the total tally of losses to 12,500 from 2015 to 2016 as the world’s second-biggest oil company continues to adjust to the slump in prices. 

At least 5,000 jobs will be cut this year, the company said in an e-mailed statement. These reductions are in response to oil prices staying “lower for longer,” and as a result of the acquisition of BG Group Plc earlier this year, said Paul Goodfellow, Shell’s vice president for the U.K. and Ireland.  read more

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: LONDON — May 25, 2016, 6:08 AM ET

Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell says it will trim at least 2,200 jobs globally amid challenging times in the oil industry.

The losses are in addition to cuts already being implemented because of the energy company’s merger with BG. The losses will include some 475 positions in the North Sea.

Oil companies around the world are slashing jobs and postponing investments to adjust to lower energy prices. Prices have fallen because production remains high even as slower economic growth, particularly in China, reduces consumption. read more

Chris Foote: Wed 25 May 2016

Dutch oil giant Shell plans to cut nearly 500 jobs from its North Sea workforce.

The announcement on Wednesday came as the result of a £47bn merger with the BG Group.

All 475 jobs are expected to be lost by the end of the year, along with 4500 others worldwide.

It is believed to be one of the largest announcements of North Sea job losses in recent years.

UK and Ireland Shell vice-president Paul Goodfellow said: “We’re continuing the improvement journey we’ve been on to create a competitive and sustainable business in the North Sea. read more

By LAURA CHESTERS FOR THE DAILY MAIL: PUBLISHED: 22:53, 24 May 2016

Royal Dutch Shell is facing allegations that the firm which signs off its accounts is not impartial.

A leading investor yesterday raised concerns that EY, which has been appointed as auditor of the oil supermajor, had a conflict of interest because it had checked the books of BG Group ahead of its £36billion merger with Shell.

Standard Life, which raised the objection, said it had it had already voiced concerns about conflicts of interest at the Shell annual general meeting last year and said that it voted against the appointment this year and was ‘disappointed’ with Shell’s decision to select EY. read more

(Reuters) – A Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) pipeline near Tracy, California has been repaired after spilling up to 21,000 gallons of oil, ABC News reported on its website on Tuesday.

Shell shut down its San Pablo Bay pipeline at Tracy, California last week after noticing very low suction and increased flow rate.

Shell did not give a timeline for the resumption of oil flow, according to the report.

(Reporting by Harshith Aranya in Bengaluru; Editing by Frances Kerry)

SOURCE

Jillian Ambrose: 24 MAY 2016 • 3:17PM

Shell shareholders have approved plans to pay boss Ben Van Beurden £4.3m despite calls from top proxy advisors to vote against his bonus ahead of the oil major’s AGM.

Investors voted 85.83pc in favour of the payout at the meeting in The Hague today.

Mr Van Beurden’s pay packet includes a salary of £1.4m, a bonus of £3.5m, and a pension of £441,000 for 2015, despite Shell reporting its steepest losses in 13 years and a planned job cull of 10,000. He has also received shares worth £9.7m, which vest in three years if he meets key performance targets. read more

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 16:01, 24 May 2016

By Ron Bousso

THE HAGUE, May 24 (Reuters) – Investor discontent with Royal Dutch Shell over multi-million euro pay packages for its top executives rose sharply at this year’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday.

Although Shell’s shareholders approved the oil and gas group’s remuneration report, including chief executive Ben van Beurden’s 5.14 million euros ($5.74 million) package, 14.17 percent of investors opposed it, up from 3.84 percent last year.

Royal London Asset Management, which holds Shell shares worth nearly 1 billion pounds, said it was “disappointed” that van Beurden received very close to the maximum possible bonus in a year when the firm’s overall financial performance was weak. read more

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 15:23, 24 May 2016

By Ron Bousso

THE HAGUE, May 24 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell cannot switch too quickly to producing renewable energy without risking its dividend payments and even its very existence, the oil and gas group’s chief executive warned.

Major investors, including Dutch pension fund PGGM, have criticised Shell’s climate change policy in recent months, saying it should do more to mitigate climate change risks.

However, 97 percent of Shell shareholders at its annual meeting on Tuesday rejected a resolution to invest profits from fossil fuels to become a renewable energy company. The Anglo-Dutch firm had previously said it was against the proposal. read more

Eoin O’Cinneide  24 May 2016 13:15 GMT

Shell came under fire at its annual general meeting on Tuesday as a delegate led a photographic demonstration against the Anglo-Dutch supermajor’s deep-water drilling plans in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf Coast resident Monique Verdin turned up at the meeting at The Hague headquarters to display 10-foot prints of her photographs depicting what she says is the environmental and community impact of US Gulf drilling.

FULL ARTICLE

Tuesday 24 May 2016

TRACY, CA — Hazardous materials crews are cleaning up as many as 21,000 gallons of oil after a pipeline rupture in Northern California.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Shell Pipeline Co. officials say a response team is clearing contaminated soil and helping local and state officials monitor local air, water and ground conditions.

Shell reported the leak after noticing that a line lost pressure Friday. The underground pipeline near Tracy was leaking crude oil into the soil but not near any waterways. read more

THE HAGUE — Reuters: Tuesday, May 24, 2016: 7:40AM EDT

Royal Dutch Shell shareholders on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favour of Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden’s 2015 remuneration of €5.14-million ($5.8-million U.S.).

His total package, including pension and tax equalization, was €5.58-million, down from 24.2 million the previous year, mainly due to a significant fall in pension which had been boosted in 2014 by van Beurden’s promotion to chief executive.

This is a catch-all ASF view; only displays when an unsupported article type is put in an ASF drop zone read more

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 12:47, 24 May 2016

THE HAGUE, May 24 (Reuters) – The oil and gas industry will need to invest up to $1 trillion per year even within the limits of the U.N.-backed goal of curbing global warming to 2 degrees, Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

“If collectively we find a way to stay within the 2 degree (Celsius limit), we will still need significant investment in oil and gas. I am not talking about a few millions, I am talking about up to a trillion dollars every year that industry has to invest just to stay within 2 degrees in oil and gas,” Ben van Beurden said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in The Hague. read more

OSLO | BY ALISTER DOYLE: Mon Apr 4, 2016 4:40pm BST

Trillions of dollars of non-bank financial assets around the world are vulnerable to the effects of global warming, according to a study on Monday that says tougher action to curb greenhouse gas emissions makes sense for investors.

Rising temperatures and the dislocation caused by related droughts, floods and heatwaves will slow global economic growth and damage the performance of stocks and bonds, according to the report, led by the London School of Economics.

“It makes financial sense to a risk-neutral investor to cut emissions, and even more so to the risk-averse,” lead author Professor Simon Dietz, an environmental economist, told Reuters. read more

On 4^th of May REP published its seventh annual ‘State of Exploration’ report, which benchmarks the performance of international conventional oil and gas exploration. The report has grown to become one of the definitive global benchmarks in the E&P sector. 

In a world awash with the stuff, new oil discoveries continue to be elusive. Global exploration drilling in 2016 is forecast to be down 73% on 2014 with discovered oil volumes at a decade low, according to Richmond Energy Partners’ annual ‘The State of Exploration’ report. read more

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JOHN SCHWARTZ: A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2016, on page A1 of the New York edition

HOUSTON — Exxon Mobil has been under pressure for over a year to explain its handling of climate change issues in the past. Now the company faces new pressure to explain its future, particularly how it will change in response to a warming world.

At the company’s planned annual meeting on Wednesday in Dallas, shareholders will vote on a resolution to prod Exxon Mobil to disclose the risks of climate change to its business. read more

George Odling, Senior Reporter: 23 May 2016

A leisure club owned by Shell Oil has defended its position to block plans for a renewable energy scheme near its land.

Its decision, which has left council-tax payers footing the bill, has been blasted as “shameful” by a Teddington councillor.

Teddington’s Lensbury Club, wholly owned by the oil giant, is appealing a High Court dismissal of a review into Richmond Council’s decision to grant planning permission to the Teddington and Ham Hydro scheme. read more

Investors say Shell has failed to fully address the impact of lower oil & gas demand due to new technologies

Coalition says Shell’s climate change management could have a bearing on executive pay

Philip Waller: 23 May 2016

Campaigning investors have urged Royal Dutch Shell PLC (LON:RDSB) to be more upfront with its plans to handle climate change, saying it could affect executive pay.

The Aiming for A coalition says Shell has failed to fully address the impact of reduced demand for oil and gas because of new technologies such as carbon capture and electric cars.

The group acknowledged improvements made by the company, but demanded more risk and strategy disclosure.

It said investors with assets worth US$5.05trln, including Rathbone Greenbank Investments, will provide Shell with direct feedback on progress at Shell’s AGM on Tuesday. read more

Written by Reporter – 23/05/2016 2:28 pm

Oil major Shell is said to be reducing its workforce at the Majnoon oilfield in Southern Iraq as the country continues to manage a number of financial pressures.

The field has an estimated recoverable reserves of almost 13 billion barrels.

It has managed to provide significant financial funds for the Iraqi government in recent years since exporting began.

According to reports, the expatriate workforce has been reduced from 400 to 200 workers.

A Shell spokesman said the move had been taken in “light of the economic challenges” facing the region. read more

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 18:56, 23 May 2016

AMSTERDAM, May 23 (Reuters) – Dutch pension fund PGGM, a major shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell, criticised the company’s climate change policy on Monday, a day before Shell’s annual meeting.

“We are not yet convinced Shell has sufficiently internalised the consequences of climate change in its strategy and future plans,” the fund said in a statement published on its website.

But PGGM said it would not vote in favour of a resolution put on the shareholder meeting’s agenda by activist group “Follow This” directing the oil giant to transform itself into a “sustainable energy” company. read more

BOSSES at Royal Dutch Shell will face shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting tomorrow amid concern over the chief executive’s “unacceptable” £4million pay deal.

Investors have been urged to vote against the firm’s remuneration report in protest at Ben van Beurden’s pay for 2015, even though it marked a significant reduction from the £18.6million he was paid in 2014 in the wake of plunging profits.

Shell’s latest annual report revealed boss Mr van Beurden’s total pay for last year was £4.3million – a 77 per cent fall on 2014 after the tumbling cost of crude took its toll on the group. read more

A statement tabled by Aiming for A, a coalition of investors, with the backing of asset managers with $5 trillion under management, calls on Shell to do more to model the impact of reduced demand for oil and gas because of new technologies.

FULL ARTICLE (PAYWALL)

Damian Carrington: Sunday 22 May 2016

Shell is involved in blocking the development of a renewable energy project in a legal battle between a private club owned by the company and a community hydropower scheme on the river Thames.

The latest legal moves came just as Shell created a separate division, New Energies, to invest in renewable and low-carbon power.

The site is by the bank of the Lensbury, which was formerly a staff club for Shell employees and is now a hotel and private leisure club. The Lensbury is wholly owned by Shell and its five named directors are all “oil company executives” according to filings to Companies House, including Mike Napier, executive vice-president of external communications at Shell. read more

Jillian Ambrose: 21 MAY 2016 • 7:47PM

Shell executives are braced for a shareholder backlash this week after influential retail advisor ShareSoc joined the growing rebellion against its multi-million pound executive pay.

The UK’s largest individual investor group will urge its 4,000 members to follow the lead of major Shell investor Royal London Asset Management and proxy institutional advisors in opposing Shell’s rising pay packet for boss Ben Van Beurden.

Mr Van Beurden is in line for a salary of £1.4m, a bonus of £3.5m, and a pension of £441,000 for 2015, despite reporting its steepest losses in 13 years and a planned job cull of 10,000. He has also received shares worth £9.7m, which vest in three years if he meets key performance targets. read more

By AFP: PUBLISHED: 21 May 2016

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered security to be stepped up in Nigeria’s oil-producing south, after a spate of attacks blamed on local militants that he said threatened the economy.

Buhari on Friday met senior executives of the Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell, whose Nigerian subsidiary has been targeted in recent months by a group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers.

The group wants a fairer share of oil revenue for local people and wants a government amnesty programme that brought similar unrest to an end in 2009 to be continued. read more

ABUJA/ONITSHA, NIGERIA | BY FELIX ONUAH AND ANAMESERE IGBOEROTEONWU

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said he ordered a heightened military presence in the restive Niger Delta region to deal with a resurgence of attacks on oil and gas facilities, a day after yet another pipeline explosion.

British Foreign Minster Philip Hammond warned on Saturday military action would not end a wave of attacks in the southern swamps because it did not address rising anger among residents over poverty despite sitting on much of Nigeria’s oil wealth. read more

Terry Macalister: Saturday 21 May 2016

The world’s largest oil companies have in recent weeks announced a series of “green” investments – in wind farms, electric battery storage systems and carbon capture and storage (CCS). These unexpected moves come hot on the heels of revelations by Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, that it plans to sell off parts of its national oil company and diversify its economy away from petroleum.

They also come in the aftermath of a United Nations climate change agreement and before annual general meetings for Shell and Exxon Mobil this week, meetings at which shareholders will demand that more be done to tackle climate change. read more

May 21, 2016 (San Diego) — Mark Manning, director of The Road to Fallujah, has been covering the BP Oil Spill for six years. Being immersed in the communities suffering severe health circumstances following that spill and the risky ‘clean-up’ operations using chemical dispersants prompted him to act on the current response to the Shell spill off the Louisiana coast last Thursday.

break

Manning released a short outtake from his documentary film on http://www.therisingfilm.tv/ and his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheRisingDocumentary/ highlighting the risks that all spill workers face and the risks that current Shell clean-up contractors are unknowingly facing today. read more