By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 12:13, 31 March 2017 | UPDATED: 13:58, 31 March 2017

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) – The Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it had shut down the Nembe Creek Trunk Line, which exports Bonny Light crude oil, in order to remove theft points.

The managing director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) said the company was working to “remove a significant number of oil theft connections and repair any leaks on the pipeline.”

The line, operated by Aiteo, is one of two along with the Trans Niger Pipeline that carries Bonny Light crude oil to the export terminal. Exports of roughly 232,000 barrels per day (bpd) were planned in April, according to loading programmes, but it was not immediately clear how much of this would be impacted by the pipeline shutdown. read more

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 13:13, 31 March 2017

By Arathy S Nair and Tanvi Mehta

March 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to double the capacity of its liquefied natural gas import facility at Hazira on India’s west coast to 10 million tonnes a year, a top company executive said on Friday.

Shell Gas B.V, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, owns a 74 percent stake in Hazira LNG Ltd, while Total Gaz Electricite France, a unit of France’s Total SA, holds the rest.

“We’ve done all the work, now it’s sort of taking a look at when is the right timing in terms of demand that’s available,” Nitin Prasad, chairman of Shell Companies in India, told Reuters, without giving a timeline for the expansion. read more

by  Rigzone Staff | Friday, March 31, 2017

Royal Dutch Shell plc has opened a new major technology hub in Bangalore, India, which can house up to 1,500 workers.

Expanding its R&D activities in Asia, Shell Technology Center Bangalore (STCB) will bring together R&D staff who previously worked at separate locations in the region.

By housing all R&D staff in Bangalore in one center, the technology hub will create new opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration, and drive relevant and affordable innovations, Shell said in a company statement. read more

FRIDAY, 31 MARCH 2017

LONDON: As they guided Europe’s largest oil companies through the industry’s worst slump in two decades, the bosses of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc had a simple message for investors: we’ll protect the dividend at all costs.

Not everyone is convinced they’ll be able to keep their word.

Even after they raised billions of dollars by cutting costs, selling assets and adding debt, cash is pouring out of both companies in the form of hefty shareholder dividends. Yields on those payments – which fell through 2016 as crude started to recover – have risen this year, typically a signal that investors fear a cut in payouts. read more

 Tom DiChristopher: 30 March 2017

President Donald Trump‘s effort to roll back Obama-era climate change policies will not do much to improve demand for coal at America’s power plants, Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Chad Holliday said Thursday.

Coal’s use in U.S. power plants has been falling for years in the face of stiff competition from natural gas. Former President Barack Obama‘s initiatives to rein in the impacts of climate change have hastened the retirement of old, inefficient coal-fired plants and the switch to cleaner-burning natural gas. read more

Mar. 29, 2017 12:57 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDS.A, RDS.B) VP of crude oil trading is out with a strong defense against accusations that the company’s activity in the North Sea crude market has skewed the benchmark Brent contract that underpins global oil prices.

Shell allegedly traded very aggressively in the region during 2016, with large positions in North Sea crude at times running contrary to clear signs of oversupply in the market, with the buying spree seen potentially pushing up prices. read more

by Rakteem Katakey: 30 March 2017, 00:01 BST 30 March 2017, 11:40 BST

As they guided Europe’s largest oil companies through the industry’s worst slump in two decades, the bosses of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc had a simple message for investors: we’ll protect the dividend at all costs.

Not everyone is convinced they’ll be able to keep their word. Even after they raised billions of dollars by cutting costs, selling assets and adding debt, cash is pouring out of both companies in the form of hefty shareholder dividends. Yields on those payments — which fell through 2016 as crude started to recover — have risen this year, typically a signal that investors fear a cut in payouts. read more

by: Anjli Raval, David Sheppard and Neil Hume in Lausanne

Royal Dutch Shell’s top oil trader has launched a staunch defence against accusations that the company’s activity in the North Sea crude market had skewed the benchmark that underpins global oil prices. Shell is alleged to have traded aggressively in the region last year, contributing to heavy losses among rivals…

FULL ARTICLE

(Photo: John Li / Getty Images)

Regin Olimberio: Mar 28, 2017 07:10 PM EDT

Oil and petroleum giant Shell blamed the Nigerian residents in the Delta community for its slow response in cleaning up the two oil spill incidents in 2008. Amidst almost a decade-long effort, Shell wasn’t able to fully contain the spill. However, there is a possibility that the clean-up might start next month.

To recall, the Royal Dutch Shell admitted responsibility for two pipeline leaks that subsequently contaminated the Bodo community. Shell also agreed to a $68 million settlement after accepting the liability over the corroded pipelines in 2015. Since then, the oil spills haven’t yet been addressed. read more

This is what’s really behind the America’s sudden oil production boom

Patti Domm

When OPEC points at U.S. oil producers, it’s always the shale drillers they blame for oversupplying the world market.

But while shale is in resurgence, the real source of recent growth has been the offshore drillers in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, U.S. oil production growth between September and December was almost entirely the result of offshore wells, which increased production by 220,000 barrels a day in that period.

Offshore projects are much more long-term investments. They are far more costly to develop and take years to get started. “Those projects have an inertia,” said John Kilduff of Again Capital. read more

Gary Bourgeault: 28 March 2017

One of the best things to happen to the U.S. shale industry was the plunge in the price of oil. It caused creative companies with good management to aggressively pursue ways of slashing costs, while at the same time improving productivity.

A number of the pure plays like EOG Resources (NYSE:EOG) have been able to significantly improve efficiencies, to the point EOG can generate a 30 percent return when oil is at $40 per barrel. Lately, major producer Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has taken a larger position in shale, and says new wells in its Permian holdings can generate a profit at $20 per barrel. Overall, it can make money when oil is at $40 in the Permian. read more

BY DR. BENNY PEISER, GWPF ON MARCH 27, 2017

Hurricane Energy has made a further oil discovery west of the Shetland Islands days after Royal Dutch Shell and BP won exploration licences in an area the UK is counting on to breathe new life into its struggling oil and gas industry. The latest find adds to a series of successful wells drilled by Hurricane in a geological formation that analysts say looks likely to be the biggest new oil discovery beneath UK waters this century.

FULL ARTICLE

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 06:03, 27 March 2017

By Ron Bousso and Ernest Scheyder

LONDON/HOUSTON, March 27 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp may let a 10-year joint venture in the oil-rich Permian Basin of Texas expire and split their properties, hoping to speed up development, according to a senior Shell executive.

The divorce and re-parceling of acreage would let each company drill and develop new wells at its own pace in the Permian, which has become the U.S. oil industry’s hottest development area for its low operating costs as crude prices hover under $50 per barrel. read more

Royal Dutch Shell sees that facing a lower-carbon transport future will need a “mosaic of fuels and engines,” but the energy conglomerate is leaning toward hydrogen as the alternative fuel of choice.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are classified globally as zero emission vehicles, and are seeing a wave of policy support in North America, Europe, and Asia. The water vapor emissions are fascinating to many. Shell sees a distinct place for itself in supporting the vehicles and leading development of the fueling infrastructure needed for mass adoption. read more

A whistleblower has accused oil giant Shell of concealing data on the health effects of two major oil spills on communities in Nigeria. 

In a letter seen by the Independent, Kay Holtzmann, a former employee at the company, said data gathered in the Bodo community which was devastated by two huge oil spills in 2008 and 2009, showed levels of pollution were “astonishingly high”. He also accused the company of refusing to make the findings public. 

Mr Holtzmann was the former director in charge of Shell’s project to clean up oil spills in the Bodo community, which is located in the oil-producing Niger Delta region.  read more

BY MICHELLE FAUL: Associated Press: JOHANNESBURG: MARCH 24, 2017 7:36 AM

Royal Dutch Shell’s Nigeria subsidiary “fiercely opposed” environmental testing and is concealing data showing thousands of Nigerians are exposed to health hazards from a stalled cleanup of the worst oil spills in the West African nation’s history, according to a German geologist contracted by the Dutch-British multinational.

An environmental study found “astonishingly high” pollution levels with soil “literally soaked with hydrocarbons,” geologist Kay Holtzmann wrote in a letter to the Bodo Mediation Initiative. read more

Mar. 24, 2017 2:19 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

The head of a group helping organize Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDS.A, RDS.B) clean-up of 2008 oil spills at a Nigerian Delta community says he hopes work can begin next month.

Shell agreed in 2015 on a £55M ($68.6M) settlement with the Bodo community after accepting liability for two pipeline leaks, but it says members of the community denied it access in August 2015 when clean-up work was set to begin.

A WSJ report yesterday said the Shell spills had contributed to “astonishingly high” pollution levels in the area, citing a consultant who helped produce a confidential damage assessment. read more

by Angela Macdonald-Smith: Mar 24, 2017 at 11:00 PM

Outgoing Shell Australia chairman Andrew Smith has held up Australia’s faltering energy policy and its “complacent” stance on competitiveness as risks to the energy giant’s appetite for investment here to grow in “new energy” areas such as renewables.

Mr Smith, who started with Shell as a refinery engineer in Geelong in 1986 and is being promoted after four years as “country chair”, said Australia needs “massive” investment to move towards a position of “net zero” emissions. read more

By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 10:08, 24 March 2017

By Ron Bousso

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – Carlyle Group has bought Royal Dutch Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon for $587 million as the world’s largest private equity fund expands in the global oil and gas sector.

For Shell, the deal marks a further step in a $30 billion asset disposal programme to help cut debt after its $54 billion acquisition of BG Group last year. The Anglo-Dutch oil company has sold assets for more than $15 billion since 2016. read more

The former director of the cleanup project says Shell has denied him permission to publish the study’s results, which dictated a need for health screenings in the Bodo community.

Mar. 23, 2017 5:19 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) oil spills that have not been cleaned up for more than eight years have contributed to “astonishingly high” levels of pollution in a Nigerian community, WSJ reports, citing a consultant who helped produce a confidential damage assessment for the company and its partners.

The former director of the cleanup project says Shell has denied him permission to publish the study’s results, which dictated a need for health screenings in the Bodo community. read more

By Jessica Resnick-Ault and Ron Bousso | NEW YORK

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is in talks with several potential buyers for its refinery outside of San Francisco, but the Anglo-Dutch oil giant is reluctant to part with its last asset in California, three people familiar with the process say.

The company is in the midst of a massive asset sale, shedding properties from Thailand to the North Sea to pay down debt following its $54 billion purchase of smaller British rival BG Group last year.

Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, has sold around $15 billion of assets over the past year as part of a planned $30 billion in asset sales to trim debt incurred from the transaction. read more

By Elida Moreno and Marianna Parraga | PANAMA CITY/SAN ANTONIO

Royal Dutch Shell agreed to lease capacity at a large oil terminal in Panama that has been used by U.S. refiner Tesoro Corp, sources involved in the deal told Reuters, gaining much-needed storage for its crude operations.

The facility, designed for storage and transshipment of oil, is owned by Petroterminal de Panama and provides up to 14 million barrels of storage capacity, a pipeline network that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and docks for very large tankers. read more

Harvey Jones | Thursday, 23rd March, 2017

Brent crude is now only a splash above $50. West Texas Intermediate has dripped to around $48. Predictions that oil would hit $60 or $70 on last year’s OPEC and non-OPEC production cuts have been shown to be desperately optimistic, and oil looks a tough play right now.

Straight to Shell

The share price of Anglo-Dutch major Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) flew upwards in the wake of the OPEC deal, hitting a 52-week high of 2,390p in early December. After management’s campaign of cost-cutting, non-core disposals and capex slashing, analysts reckoned it could break even at around $55-60, which would help to sustain its proud record of never having cut its dividend since the war. read more

Mar. 22, 2017 6:35 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) led the way in today’s federal offshore lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, which drew $275M in high bids following years of declining offshore interest that dates back before the downturn in oil and gas prices.

Shell made 20 bids totaling $55.9M, including the single highest apparent bid of $24.1M on Atwater Valley Block 64; Statoil (NYSE:STO) counted 13 apparent high bids totaling $44.5M, and Hess (NYSE:HES) ranked third with 12 apparent high bids totaling $43.9M. read more

Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it will drill 161 new gas wells at its Queensland operations by the end of 2018, helping to underpin its promise to continue supplying 10 percent of the domestic gas market to help prevent a shortage.

The project at its QGC operations in the Surat Basin in southeast Queensland has been planned for some time as existing wells decline, with the new wells due to be drilled this year and next. The wells will help sustain Shell’s 75 petajoules of gas supplies a year to eastern Australia’s gas market. read more

• LYNN COOK, SARAH KENT
• The Australian
• 12:00AM March 22, 2017

Royal Dutch Shell is trying to ­reinvent its business with a concept that sounds oxymoronic: budget deepwater drilling.

On the Mars oil platform, a hulking steel behemoth 200km southeast of New Orleans, more than 170 roughnecks and engineers are working to quickly wring more oil out of a massive field — and keep it profitable even if oil sinks to $US15 a barrel.

Shell, the world’s second-largest publicly traded energy company, is making a high-stakes bet that it can take highly efficient technology and processes per­fected onshore and deploy them in deep-sea production. read more

by Javier Blas: 21 March 2017, 10:26 GMT

Big Oil is muscling in on shale country.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp., are jumping into American shale with gusto, planning to spend a combined $10 billion this year, up from next to nothing only a few years ago.

The giants are gaining a foothold in West Texas with such projects as Bongo 76-43, a well which is being drilled 10,000 feet beneath the table-flat, sage-scented desert, and which then extends horizontally for a mile, blasting through rock to capture light crude from the sprawling Permian Basin. read more

Adekunle Ade- Adeleye: March 19, 2017

IT will get to a point where OPL 245, the lucrative oil block with multiple, feuding owners, will not even recognise itself, not to talk of its owners. The block, believed to contain more than nine billion barrels of crude oil and much more natural gas, has an illustrious and convoluted history that began controversially in 1998 when the Gen Sani Abacha government awarded it to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, a company in which an Abacha son, a diplomat, and oil minister at the time, Dan Etete, had interests. In 2002, it was revoked by the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency and awarded to Shell, thereby prompting Malabu to sue the government and the new owners. To settle out of court, the oil block was again revoked and given back to Malabu in 2006. Naturally Shell also went to court, and in 2011 the block reverted to Shell which paid $1.3bn to the Nigerian government, $1.1bn of which was transferred to Malabu. Dizzying, complex back and forth, and labyrinthine. read more

Saturday, March 18, 2017 9:26 p.m. EDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A fire was extinguished at Motiva Enterprises’ 235,000 barrel per day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery on Saturday with no injuries, a company spokeswoman said in a statement.

Two sources familiar with plant operations said the fire broke out shortly before noon on the 45,000 bpd heavy oil hydrocracker, called the H-Oil Unit, which was being restarted to full production for the first time since a fire last August.

Motiva’s spokeswoman, Angela Goodwin, did not identify the unit involved in the fire. read more

By Holly Black for the Daily Mail: PUBLISHED: 21:51, 17 March 2017 

Oil stocks took a knock this week as the price of the black stuff slipped to its lowest level since November.

Despite an agreement to cut production by 1.2m barrels a day by the oil cartel Opec being widely adhered to, supply is still outpacing demand.

Now some experts are concerned the deal could be derailed by a surge in the US, where a 55 per cent year-on-year jump in active rigs has driven production levels to record highs.  read more

Nigerian court overturns seizure of oilfield from Shell and Eni

By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 09:48, 17 March 2017 | UPDATED: 10:18, 17 March 2017

ABUJA, March 17 (Reuters) – A Nigerian court on Friday overturned a request by Nigeria’s financial crimes agency to seize an oilfield from Royal Dutch Shell and Eni.

In January, a court had ordered the seizure of the OPL 245 oil block and transfer of operations to the federal government on the request of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Oil companies Shell and Eni had filed motions to dispute this. read more

LeAnne Graves

SINGAPORE // Shell has added hundreds of jobs to its New Energies division as it plans to expand further in alternative fuels, wind and solar, a company executive said.

The oil and gas giant created a new division last year that focuses on investing in hydrogen, biofuels, solar and wind. Mark Gainsborough, Shell’s executive vice president of new energies, said the division’s workforce has expanded to more than 200 staff as the company looks to invest in excess of US$1billion per year by 2020. read more

Matt DiLallo | March 14, 2017

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (TSX:CNQ)(NYSE:CNQ) made a big splash last week when it signed agreements to acquire several oil sands assets from Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A)(NYSE:RDS.B) and Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO).

Overall, the Canadian oil giant paid a massive $12.74 billion to bulk up its position in western Canada, which marked the largest acquisition in the company’s history. However, what was more impressive about the deal wasn’t the size of the purchase price, but the size of the discount the company got on the assets, which was well below the replacement cost. read more

By Sonali Paul | SYDNEY

Australia’s top gas producers, led by ExxonMobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell, agreed to boost supply to the country’s domestic market to help avert an energy shortage following crisis talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Australia is on track to become the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG), yet its energy market operator has warned of a domestic gas crunch from 2019 that could trigger industry supply cuts and broad power outages. read more

Zacks: March 14, 2017

Shares of BP plc BP rallied after a London-based newspaper claimed that ExxonMobil Corporation XOM is looking to place a takeover bid for the British energy group.

A bid for BP cannot be ignored as these rumors about ExxonMobil’s interest have been doing the rounds for years. However, analysts believe that such a deal is unlikely as it does not seem to be a strategic fit.

The merger would create a company too big and complex to be managed. The weak oil price environment has resulted in just one big deal – Royal Dutch Shell plc’s RDS.A $54 billion purchase of BG Group Plc in 2016. Other key oil players in the industry have embarked on smaller acquisitions as they intend to preserve cash and maintain their balance sheets. Though oil prices have increased from the 12-year lows of last year, companies are still uncertain if the recovery is sustainable. read more

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA, March 13 (Reuters) – A Nigerian court case in which Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni are seeking to have a government seizure of a long-disputed oilfield lifted has been adjourned until March 17, a judge said on Monday.

The court in January ordered the temporary seizing of assets and the transfer of operations of the OPL 245 field owned by Shell and Eni, among others, to the federal government on request of the EFCC financial crime agency.

The inquiry is investigating whether the $1.3 billion purchase of OPL 245 involved “acts of conspiracy, bribery, official corruption and money laundering”, court papers seen by Reuters in January showed. read more

Mar. 13, 2017 1:36 PM ET|By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) says it is ending development of its proposed Prince Rupert liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia but is still considering the potential of its other Pacific coast LNG option.

Prince Rupert LNG was part of a portfolio of projects acquired in the takeover of BG Group last year, but Shell says the project no longer stacks up against existing options.

Shell said it continues to actively move forward on the proposed Kitimat LNG Canada project in B.C. with its partners, even though last year it indefinitely deferred a final investment decision on it because of market conditions. read more

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has updated the terms which govern Brent oil trade to allow for the addition of a fifth crude oil grade into the basket used to assess the global oil benchmark.

Oil pricing agency S&P Global Platts (SPGI.N) plans to add Norway’s Troll crude to the four already used to assess Brent from January 2018. This will join Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk, or BFOE as they are known.

With effect from Friday, Shell updated its “SUKO 90” terms and conditions on its website to add Troll to the existing four crudes, and so bring them into line with the plans of Platts. read more

Benjamin Franta and Geoffrey Supran: Monday 13 March 2017 

The event’s sponsor was Shell Oil Company. The producer of the film series was Shell. The film’s director is Vice President of a family-owned oil and gas company, and has taken approximately $300,000 from Shell. The host, Harvard Kennedy School, has received at least $3.75 million from Shell. And the event’s panel included a Shell Executive Vice President.

FULL ARTICLE read more

Adam Vaughan: Saturday 11 March 2017 15.59 GMT

hen Shell sold most of its Canadian tar sands operations last week, the Anglo-Dutch oil company took a modest step towards making good on its promise to be part of the solution on global warming, rather than the problem. But the $7.25bn (£6bn) sale of the majority of its tar sands assets to an independent Canadian oil company is less about the company cleaning up its image than about cleaning up its debt.

FULL ARTICLE

By Dmitry Zhdannikov | LONDON

Royal Dutch Shell has bought only three cargoes of Iranian oil since sanctions were eased a year ago, a small fraction of what it used to buy and an indication of the legal difficulties and high prices that still hamper the trade.

The Anglo-Dutch firm did not give a reason for the drop in purchases, which were disclosed in its annual report, and the company declined to comment further.

But oil trading sources say Iranian oil is often too expensive and in any case remaining sanctions make dealing with the Islamic Republic a legal minefield. read more

By Tracy Johnson, CBC News Posted: Mar 09, 2017 4:17 PM ET

Royal Dutch Shell’s deal to sell most of its stake in Alberta’s oilsands was in the works for more than a year, says the company’s chief executive Ben van Beurden.

“We said we would high-grade the portfolio,” he said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

“We would get out of positions where we do not have the scale or the capability, or that did not fit us in the longer run strategically. And the oilsands is one of them.” read more

Patti Domm: 9 March 2017

Royal Dutch Shell‘s announcement of the sale of $7.25 billion in Canadian oil sands assets Thursday is an important step to turning itself into a company of the future — with a broader mix of energy assets and a smaller carbon footprint.

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said the company is committed to reshaping itself and believes that renewables and new energy will play a bigger role. The company is retaining just 10 percent of its Canadian sands assets.

“We are right in the middle of transforming the company into the company of the future,” he said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, sponsored by IHS Markit. read more

The oil and gas industry risks losing public support if progress is not made in the transition to cleaner energy, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday.

The world’s second largest publicly-traded oil company plans to increase its investment in renewable energy to $1 billion a year by the end of the decade, van Beurden said, although it is still a small part of its total annual spending of $25 billion.

The CEO said that the transition to a low carbon energy system will take decades and government policies including putting a price on carbon emissions will be essential to phase out the most polluting sources of energy such as coal and oil. read more

9 March 2017

TORONTO (BLOOMBERG) – Royal Dutch Shell will sell almost all its production assets in Canada’s oil sands in a US$7.25 billion (S$10.24 billion) deal that cuts debt and reduces involvement in one of the most environmentally damaging forms of fossil-fuel extraction.

The company will sell all of its oil-sands interests apart from a 10 per cent stake in the Athabasca Oil Sands mining project, The Hague-based Shell said on Thursday (March 9). It will also continue as operator of the Scotford upgrader and Quest carbon capture and storage project. read more

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) said on Thursday its chief executive Ben Van Beurden saw his total pay jump 60 percent in 2016 to 8.263 million euros from 5.135 million a year earlier mainly due to deferred bonuses and share plans.

Van Beurden’s salary was little changed at 1.460 million euros and his bonus fell to 2.4 million euros from 3.5 million, however, from the company’s long-term incentive plan and deferred bonuses he received 4.381 million euros, up from 163,000 a year earlier. read more

* Shell to boost shale output by 140,000 bpoed by 2020

* Shell shale output profitable at average oil price $40/bbl

* Argentina shale development decision in 18 months

A drive to cut the cost of producing oil and gas from U.S. shale deposits has proven so effective that Shell has accelerated development plans, Guidry said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek industry conference in Houston.

It aims to boost output by 140,000 boepd over the next three years in the Permian basin in West Texas and the Duvernay region in Canada, said Guidry, an executive vice president. read more

Nicholas Ibekwe and Idris Akinbajo: 5 March 2017

Multinational oil giant, Shell, set up an Intelligence network made up of some of Europe’s top spies which gathered information on some of the top actors involved in the infamous Malabu oil scam during the negotiations leading to payment of $1.1 billion for OPL 245, an investigation by UK-based Finance Uncovered has revealed.

The network made up of former members of UK’s MI6 spy agency, including Guy Colegate and John Copleston, gathered information which they circulated within Shell. read more

By Zainab Calcuttawala – Mar 06, 2017, 4:40 PM CST

Royal Dutch Shell fears that reopening a pipeline in Nigeria will cause local separatist groups to re-bomb the facility for a third time, according to reports emerging from the area.

The Trans Forcados Pipeline, which takes 400,000 barrels to the Forcados export terminal every day, has been out-of-operation for all but three weeks in the past year, according to risk analysis published by SBM intelligence on Friday.

Previously, militants dove underwater to install bombs near the section of the pipeline in the Atlantic Ocean that they aimed to destroy. Shell brought in underwater engineers to repair the pipeline in an act of defiance against the militants and their most sophisticated attack to date. read more

by Javier Blas, Joe Carroll, and Margot Habiby: 7 March 2017

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will pay Royal Dutch Shell Plc $2.2 billion including debt to finalize the breakup of a 19-year refining partnership known as Motiva Enterprises LLC.Saudi Aramco’s Saudi Refining unit will take full ownership of the Motiva Enterprises name and legal entity, including the largest refinery in the U.S. at Port Arthur in Texas, and 24 distribution terminals, according to a joint statement. Shell will take sole ownership of the Norco and Convent refineries in Louisiana and 11 distribution terminals.

Aramco will make a $2.2 billion balancing payment, split between debt and cash and subject to adjustments including working capital, Shell said in a separate statement. Aramco will assume almost all of Motiva’s $3.2 billion of net debt, including $1.5 billion of Shell’s share. A cash payment will cover the balance, Shell said. The arrangement will also take the Anglo-Dutch company closer to its target of selling $30 billion of assets in the three years to 2018.

“Motiva is a strong competitor among U.S. refiners, and we value this important link with the dynamic U.S. energy sector,” said Abdulaziz Al-Judaimi, senior vice president of Aramco’s downstream business. “Our intent is to continue providing Motiva with strong financial support as it transitions into a stand-alone downstream affiliate.” read more