Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalization said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters that “approximately 400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”. read more

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: July 31, 2017

Shell confirmed that it was restructuring its global projects and technology organisation and that about 400 people were at risk of redundancy.

The Anglo-Dutch energy group has already cut 13,000 jobs since the start of last year as it integrates former BG operations and looks to offload $30 billion of assets to pay down its debts from the acquisition.

Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive, warned last week that costs needed to continue to fall as the company adopted a mindset of “lower for ever” oil prices. “We now have 13 per cent less employees than we did at the beginning of 2016. To be clear, costs must continue to go down, and stay down,” he said. read more

REUTERS Staff: JULY 31, 2017

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has contained a leak at its Pulau Bukom refining and petrochemical complex in Singapore, and operations have not been affected, a company spokeswoman said on Monday.

The small leak occurred on Friday, the spokeswoman said, without revealing further details on the affected unit.

The Bukom site, Shell’s largest wholly-owned plant, has a 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery and a steam cracker that produces more than 900,000 tonnes of ethylene a year. read more

By REUTERS: JULY 31, 2017, 4:27 A.M. E.D.T.

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalization said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters that “approximately 400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”. read more

“There will be fewer one-of-a-kind highly complex mega-projects and proportionately more simple to medium complex projects… This heralds a more ‘commoditised’ world for project delivery,” said the document, which was given to royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by Shell staff, and seen by Reuters.

By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 09:26, 31 July 2017 

By Tom Bergin

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalisation said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters that “approximately 400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”. read more

“Shell is in the process of shutting down all the units at the site,” a company spokesman said, as cited by AFP. He added that the process might last for “hours, or even several days.”

Taking all “necessary precautions,” the company said it estimates that “loadings at depot Pernis will be interrupted until and including tomorrow.”

Firefighters succeed in dousing the flames by Sunday morning at around 6:00am [0400 GMT].

However, flashes at the plant could be still seen Sunday evening, as mangement decided to launch a flaring process to burn off excess natural gas in accordance with safety guidelines. read more

Petrol pumps will become a thing of the past as charging points replace them: WEEGEE (ARTHUR FELLIG)/INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY/GETTY IMAGES

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: 31 July 2017

Oil investors are getting worried. Electric cars have accelerated on to the front pages. Sales are surging, carmakers are unveiling plans for all-electric models and this week Britain vowed to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040.

Yet if Big Oil believes that death is about to pull up in a Tesla, it’s doing a good job of hiding it. On Thursday, Ben van Beurden, the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, welcomed Britain’s plans and declared that his next car would be electric. And earlier in the year Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist, bluntly described the arrival of electric vehicles on the oil majors’ lawn as “not a game-changer”, adding that not even “enormous” growth in sales of such vehicles would make a big dent in global oil demand. read more

RON BOUSSO: JULY 30, 2017 / 8:45 PM

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell suspended loadings of oil products from its Pernis refinery in the Netherlands following a fire at the plant, the company said in a statement to traders on Sunday.

Shell shut down most of its production at Pernis, Europe’s largest refinery, after the fire at the 404,000 barrels per day plant late on Saturday caused a power outage.

The company said that no casualties were reported in the incident and the fire was under control, but it expected loadings to be suspended on Monday as well. read more

Royal Dutch Shell is shutting down most units at its refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands after a fire at a high-voltage electricity switch station.

Shell spokesman Thijs van Velzen says the fire started late Saturday and was extinguished by Sunday morning. Nobody was injured.

The Pernis refinery in Rotterdam’s sprawling port is Europe’s largest. It has the capacity to refine just over 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The shutdown led to Shell burning off excess gases at the plant, a process known as flaring. The move sent large flames into the sky on Sunday.Van Velzen says the cause of the fire is under investigation. He declined comment on the financial implications of the shutdown. read more

Julian Lee: July 30, 2017 3:00 AM EDT

You wait decades for an existential crisis, then two come along at once. At least that’s how it must feel for OPEC’s beleaguered ministers. In the short term the market for their oil is being eroded by rising production outside their control. Looking further ahead, oil demand itself is under threat from the electrification of road transport. OPEC may not yet be dead, but its days are surely numbered.

The most obvious short-term threat to the group comes from the rapid rise in U.S. shale oil, but the risks have expanded to include other areas like Brazil’s prolific sub-salt discoveries and more recent finds further north along the east coast of South America. read more

And two other large global energy players with regulatory approval from the B.C. and Canadian governments say they are trying to position themselves to be ready to make a decision on building their own billions-of-dollars of mega-projects in northwest B.C. to coincide with increased demand they forecast could kick in by the middle of next decade. Those projects are LNG Canada led by Royal Dutch Shell plc and Kitimat LNG, a 50-50 venture of Chevron and Australian-based Woodside Energy. read more

Jillian Ambrose: 29 JULY 2017 • 3:31PM

Identifying a tipping point is not always easy. But when one of the world’s most powerful oil bosses says he is in the market for an electric car, there can be little doubt.

Ben van Beurden, the Royal Dutch Shell boss, last week delivered the clearest indication yet that the burgeoning electric vehicle industry is already hastening the decline of global oil demand. “When that will be is not certain. But that it will happen, we are certain,” he told investors. read more

• SARAH KENT
• The Wall Street Journal
• 12:00AM July 29, 2017

Royal Dutch Shell has presented a pessimistic vision for the future of oil, even as the company reported success in generating cash during a prolonged energy downturn.

Shell has cut costs and said it was preparing for a world in which crude prices might never regain precrash levels and petroleum demand declined.

Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said the company had a mindset that oil prices would remain “lower forever” .

“We have to have projects that are resilient in a world where oil has peaked,” Mr van Beurden told reporters on a conference call discussing the company’s second-quarter financial results. “When it will happen we don’t know, but that it will happen we are certain.” read more

Shell Braces For ‘Lower Forever’ Oil As Profits Soar

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is gearing up for a world of “lower forever” oil prices, its Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday, after the company’s profits tripled in the second quarter.

The oil and gas industry has struggled with three years of weak prices while also facing the prospect of oil demand plateauing by the end of the next decade.

But Europe’s largest energy company was able to boost its profits more than expected, increase cash flow to $12.2 billion and reduce debt thanks to asset sales and as big savings introduced since the oil price collapse kicked in. read more

Jul 28 2017 at 9:03 AM

When the boss of Europe’s biggest listed oil company says his next car will be electric, it says a lot about the future of fossil fuels.

Royal Dutch Shell responded to the worst oil-price crash in a generation with its $US54 billion ($68 billion) takeover of BG Group, betting that demand for natural gas will rise as the world shifts to cleaner-burning fuels. Now chief executive officer Ben Van Beurden says the next thing he’ll buy is a car that doesn’t depend on either oil or gas to run. read more

Written by Alan Shields – 28/07/2017 7:25 am

Chief executive Ben van Beurden said a number of final investment decisions are due to be made in the next 18 months.

And among the eight upstream projects is Shell’s Penguins developments in the northern North Sea comprising of several oil and gas fields in the northern end of the East Shetland Basin.

Although discovered in the 1970s, the cluster field has never been fully developed due to variety of factors including poor reservoir performance, lack of subsea technology, tricky geology involving faults and the large area involved. read more

MATT CHAMBERS: Resources reporter, Melbourne: 28 July 2017

Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has said he is very supportive of Malcolm Turnbull’s moves to impose export restrictions to increase domestic supply on the east coast, where Shell runs the Queensland Curtis LNG project.

But the oil major has revealed there have been some unspecified operational problems at QCLNG, which exports coal-seam gas from Gladstone.

Speaking on a second-quarter earnings call in London last night, Mr Van Beurden backed the Prime Minister’s intervention in the markets, which gives the government the power to restrict exports from any LNG project that is not a “net contributor” to domestic markets. read more

By DANICA KIRKA Published July 27, 2017: Associated Press

LONDON –  Royal Dutch Shell is planning for the day when demand for oil starts fading as major economies move away from oil and increasingly turn to electric-powered cars, Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said Thursday.

Van Beurden welcomed recent proposals to phase out passenger vehicles powered by fossil fuels in Britain and France, saying they are needed to combat global warming. Shell is looking at “very aggressive scenarios” as it makes plans to remain competitive in a world that gets more of its energy from renewable sources and less from crude oil, or “liquids,” he said. read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it hasn’t written off its Canadian liquefied natural gas project in Kitimat, British Columbia, yet as a global supply glut killed off a competing project earlier this week.

LNG Canada, which is also backed by Mitsubishi Corp., PetroChina Co. and Korea Gas Corp., is still weighing an investment decision that’s expected by early 2019, Shell’s Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden said on a conference call Thursday.

“We need to get the timing properly right — we think we can,” he said. “If we look at an investment decision in the next 18 months or so, this is going to be a project that could start producing right at the moment when the spot market, the short-term market is getting very tight again.” read more

By REUTERS: JULY 27, 2017, 8:03 P.M. E.D.T.

HOUSTON — Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to begin permanently shuttering the gasoline-producing unit at its 227,586 barrel-per-day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery in January 2018, said sources familiar with the company’s plans on Thursday.

Shell has rescheduled planned repairs on the heavy-oil hydrocracking unit from spring 2018 to summer of that year, the sources said.

The company plans to overhaul the Convent refinery’s alkylation unit in October of this year, according to the sources. read more

July 27, 2017 12:23 PM EDT

The image of a driver slurping an iced latte while pulling a Mustang up to the drive-in window of a fast-food joint is either your idea of a capitalist apotheosis or civilization’s decadent demise.

Or … it’s what flashed through your mind as you listened to Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s earnings call on Thursday.

Jessica Uhl, Shell’s chief financial officer, at one point talked up the oil major’s marketing business:

We’re the world’s largest fuel retailer. Every day, Shell serves more than 30 million customers across our 43,000 sites in close to 80 countries. That is more sites than Starbucks; it is more than McDonald’s. read more

Andy Critchlow: JULY 27, 2017

LONDON (Reuters Breakingviews) – Royal Dutch Shell is great at producing profit, but less so at producing oil. The Anglo-Dutch energy giant has more than tripled its earnings in the second quarter, helped by the strong performance of its downstream refining business and recovering prices. With its debt falling too, the company is doing the right things for shareholders – except in the crucial area of pumping more fuel.

At first glance, Shell’s financial performance suggests that three years in the doldrums for big oil majors may have come to an end. On Thursday, the company reported an impressive 245 percent year-on-year rebound in clean earnings to $3.6 billion for the three-month period ending in June. Prices, which recovered from a slump last January below $30 per barrel, have helped, but there is more to it. read more

By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 11:45, 27 July 2017 

By Ron Bousso and Karolin Schaps

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – The world’s oil consumption could peak as early as the end of the next decade as electric vehicles become more popular, Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday.

The prospect of a decline in oil consumption after more than a century of growth as the world switches to burning cleaner fuels is gathering pace. On Wednesday Britain announced plans to ban diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2040, following a similar move by France. read more

By REUTERS: JULY 27, 2017, 4:48 A.M. E.D.T.

LONDON/PARIS — Europe’s major oil and gas companies have turned a corner after a three-year slump, reporting strong growth in profits as cost cutting paid off and vowing to press on with saving more money amid a fragile recovery in oil prices.

Royal Dutch Shell, France’s Total and Norway’s Statoil reported sharp increases in cash flow from operations in the second quarter as profits beat analyst expectations, meaning they can all comfortably pay dividends and reduce debt. read more

By Press Association: 27 JULY 2017 • 7:41AM

Royal Dutch Shell has reported a large rise in second quarter profits after the energy giant was boosted by higher oil and gas prices.

The firm said adjusted earnings rose from $1.05bn (£800m) to $3.6bn, an increase of 245pc, as chief executive Ben van Beurden said he was making progress on “reshaping the company”.

“Cash generation has been resilient over four consecutive quarters, at an average oil price of just under $50 per barrel,” Mr Van Beurden said. read more

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden

By REUTERS: JULY 27, 2017, 3:03 A.M. E.D.T.

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell more than tripled its profits in the second quarter to beat forecasts boosted by strong refining operations and a rise in oil prices.

The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company also reported a huge recovery in cash flow to $12.2 billion and a drop in debt as its cost reduction efforts in recent years paid off. It has sold some $25 billion of assets since acquiring BG Group last year.

The strong results came despite a dip in oil and gas production versus the previous quarter as a result of reduced output from a facility in Qatar. read more

Shell nears finishing line with $30billion divestment programme

Shell has completed more than 80% of its $30billion divestment programme.

Written by Alan Shields – 27/07/2017 7:07 am

The supermajor announced this morning that it had shed assets worth $25billion as part of the reshaping of its portfolio.

This included the landmark North Sea deal with Chrysaor earlier this year, worth around $3.8billion.

It also comes following the $68.2billion merger with BG Group.

The supermajor also recently agreed to sell its stake in Irish gas project Corrib in a deal worth up to 1.23 billion US dollars (£956 million).

The firm said adjusted earnings rose from 1.05 billion US dollars (£800 million) to 3.6 billion US dollars (£2.7 billion), an increase of 245%. read more

A list prepared by the EU executive, seen by Reuters, shows eight projects including those involving oil majors Anglo-Dutch Shell, BP and Italy’s Eni that risk falling foul of the U.S. measures. EU officials warn the U.S. measures would also hit plans for the LNG plant on the Gulf of Finland in which Shell is partnering with Gazprom.

Alissa de Carbonnel: 26 July 2017

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union warned on Wednesday that it was ready to act within days to counter proposed new U.S. sanctions on Russia, saying they would harm the bloc’s energy security.

Sanctions legislation overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday has angered EU officials: they see it as breaking transatlantic unity in the West’s response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. read more

Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch/Shell is shifting its focus toward downstream operations like refining and chemicals and away from traditional upstream activities like exploring for oil and gas, the Financieele Dagblad said on Wednesday.

This shift is likely to become even clearer when the company publishes its second quarter figures on Thursday, the paper said.

Shell’s investment in exploration slumped to $157m in the first quarter of 2017 from an annual quarterly average of between $500m to $600m in recent years, the paper points out.  This is partly due to the group’s recent acquisition of the BG Group which has large deep-sea reserves off the coast of Brazil. read more

Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, announced its Prelude vessel, a first-of-a-kind ship designed to process LNG off the coast of Western Australia, arrived at its destination after leaving a South Korean shipyard in June. With LNG emerging in market share because of its diverse deliverability options, Shell said the Prelude floating LNG vessel opens up new export opportunities.

By Daniel J. Graeber: 26 July 2017

July 26 (UPI) — With Australia monitoring natural gas demand, a consultant group found gas-fired power could get squeezed out in parts of the country as renewables get cheaper.

A research project from Wood Mackenzie, in coordination with GTM Research, found that wind, solar and battery costs might decline enough to the point that, by 2025, they’re competitive with gas-powered plants. For batteries in particular, whose costs are expected to decline by as much as 50 percent over the next decade, the researchers found storage capacity will be enough to meet the region’s peak residual demand. read more

JEFFREY JONES AND SHAWN MCCARTHY

CALGARY and OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

Published Tuesday, Jul. 25, 2017 1:43PM EDT

Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 25, 2017 2:41PM EDT

Malaysia’s Petronas has cancelled plans for an $11.4-billion liquefied natural gas terminal on the B.C. coast, a major blow to Canada’s efforts to become a global LNG supplier.

The move to scrap the Pacific NorthWest LNG plant, which had been slated for Lelu Island near Prince Rupert, comes after five years of study, a period in which LNG prices fell as other countries such as Australia and the United States started up multibillion-dollar facilities. read more

In Australia, Shell signals new era for LNG

By Daniel J. Graeber: July 25, 2017

July 25 (UPI) — The arrival of a floating liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Australia signals a milestone for the region as an energy hub, Royal Dutch Shell said.

The company’s Prelude vessel, its first-ever floating platform for LNG, arrived off the coast of Western Australia, after leaving its South Korean shipyard in late June.

Large for a floating facility, it’s one-quarter the size of an equivalent inland plant. With LNG emerging in market share because of its diverse deliverability options, Shell said the Prelude FLNG vessel opens up new doors in new countries. read more

EBR Staff WriterPublished 25 July 2017

Royal Dutch Shell’s Australian subsidiary has confirmed the arrival of the Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in Australian waters from South Korea.

The 488m-long FLNG facility began its journey from the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) shipyard in Geoje to Australia in late June to reach the offshore Prelude gas field, located about 475km north-north east of Broome in Western Australia.

According to Shell Australia, the floating facility will extract and liquefy gas from the Prelude gas field prior to its export to the company’s customers around the world. read more

Royal Dutch Shell is interested in selling Iran’s jet fuel in international markets, the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) has said.

The company has held negotiations with Iranian officials, NIOPDC Managing Director Mansour Riahi said, adding if the talks yield positive results, Shell will be able to supply fuel not only at the Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) but also in other areas.

“Shell is willing to ship fuel from Iran and sell it at airports in the Persian Gulf littoral states and neighboring countries,” he said. read more

By REUTERS: JULY 25, 2017, 6:33 A.M. E.D.T.

SINGAPORE — Royal Dutch Shell and SoftBank are among several global groups considering bidding for Equis Energy, Asia’s largest independent renewable energy producer valued at up to $5 billion (3.84 billion pounds), sources familiar with the matter said.

Japanese trading companies, global pension funds and buyout firms are also in the fray to buy Singapore-based Equis, the sources said, at a time when many Asian governments are expanding the use of renewable power and its costs are falling. read more

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: 24 JULY 2017 • 7:51PM

Araft of top European companies will be forced to pull out of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia or face crippling sanctions under draconian legislation racing through the US Congress.

Berlin and Brussels have threatened retaliation if Washington presses ahead with penalties on anything like the suggested terms, marking a dramatic escalation in the simmering trans-Atlantic showdown over America’s extra-territorial police powers.

A consortium of Shell, Engie, Wintershall, Uniper, and Austria’s OMV is providing half the €9.5bn (£8.5bn) funding for the 760-mile pipeline through the Baltic Sea to Germany. “This is a spectacular interference in internal European affairs,” said Isabelle Kocher, the director-general of Engie in France. read more

By REUTERS: JULY 24, 2017, 10:33 A.M. E.D.T.

BRUSSELS — European Commission preparations to retaliate against proposed new U.S. sanctions on Russia that could affect European firms are likely to face resistance within a bloc divided on how to deal with Moscow, diplomats, officials and experts say.

A bill agreed by U.S. Senate and House leaders foresees fines for companies aiding Russia to build energy export pipelines. EU firms involved in Nord Stream 2, a 9.5 billion euro ($11.1 billion) project to carry Russian gas across the Baltic, are likely to be affected. read more

By Daniel J. Graeber: July 24, 2017

July 24 (UPI) — The Chinese appetite for liquefied natural gas increased more than 30 percent from last year, according to the latest government data.

The Chinese General Administration of Customs reported LNG imports to China increased dramatically as the country looks to rely less on coal for its energy needs. First half demand was up 38.3 percent from last year.

“The growth rate is higher than the 21.2 percent increase registered in the same period last year, partly encouraged by the lowering policy barriers for LNG from the United States to enter the Chinese market,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported. read more

Oil companies have focused on cost cutting as they adjust to a prolonged period of lower prices, raising fears of more job losses

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: July 24 2017, 12:01am, 

Analysts expect the Anglo-Dutch group to have one of the strongest performances of the oil majors in the three months to June, with profits leaping to $3.15 billion, from $1.05 billion in the same period last year.

However, the second quarter last year was a torrid one for oil giants after the collapse in crude prices.

Shell’s results a year ago were also weighed down by hundreds of millions of dollars of one-off redundancy and restructuring charges after its takeover of BG Group, cutting its headline profits to only $239 million. read more

LONDON (Reuters) – After a brief respite at the start of the year, the world’s top oil and gas companies are set to double down on cost cutting as a recovery in crude prices after a three-year slump falters.

Corporate hopes were raised by a deal between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other non-OPEC producers to cut production, which lifted oil prices above $58 a barrel in January, after they had slid to as low as $27 in 2016.

But Brent crude prices have since slipped back below $50 and banks have lowered price forecasts, amid surging output from the United States and other nations not bound by the global oil pact. read more

By Zainab Calcuttawala – Jul 20, 2017, 10:00 PM CDT

Oil thieves are bringing Nigerian crude oil pumping stations to their knees, according to a new report from World Oil.

The 60,000-barrel per day Agbada 2 flow station run by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria stood idle for most of June due to significant leaks in the pipeline used to transport its crude to export terminals. These leaks were likely deliberate, caused by illicit groups that collectively steal 30 percent of Nigeria’s crude that flows through pipelines. read more

The phenomenon is no novelty, with 80 000 damage claims totaling €1.2 billion having been filed with the government and NAM, the operator of the Groningen field, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil.

By Viktor Katona – Jul 20, 2017, 3:00 PM CDT

The largest and oldest-producing gas field in Western Europe, the Groningen field, is on the verge of being shut down.

If that happens, it will entail the tumbling of Netherlands’ indigenous gas production, making it a net gas importer. This is a bitter pill to swallow for producers in the Netherlands, EU’s leading gas producer up to now, given that the Dutch led the world in the 1970s in natural gas exports volumes (the ramp-up in exports was so massive that the Dutch government implemented export caps to put some freeze on it). For Dutch locals, however, this might represent a long-awaited victory and a sign that governments can pay heed to their concerns, if sufficient pressure is applied. It remains to be seen whether an abrupt end to gas production in the Netherlands is in anybody’s interest. read more

By Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis July 20 at 1:13 PM

Two California coastal counties and one beach-side city touched off a possible new legal front in the climate change battle this week, suing dozens of major oil, coal, and other fossil fuel companies for the damages they say they will incur due to rising seas.

The three cases, which target firms such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, assert that the fossil fuel producers are collectively responsible for about 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions between 1965 and 2015. They claim that industry “knew or should have known” decades ago about the threat of climate change, and want companies to pay the costs of communities forced to adapt to rising seas. read more

Wappinger Capital Research: 20 July 2017

Summary

*Five of the largest oil sector firms all move directly with the price of oil, but at varying degrees.

*ConocoPhillips has historically moved at an almost dollar per dollar ratio to oil.

*Shell and BP are far less sensitive to the change in oil prices as their American counterparts.

*BP has a quarter of the sensitivity to the price of oil as ConocoPhillips does.

By Eric Mason

As oil approaches its consensus floor for price per barrel, the next move can only be upwards. To take advantage of this pending uptick, which of the major oil sector firms offers the best growth relative to the price of oil? This article will help shine some light on which stock is the best pick for gains. read more

Investors Squeezing Oil & Gas Developers To Cut Methane

Oil and gas developers may soon be feeling the effects of a one-two punch — an adverse court ruling dealing with their methane emissions and now an investor-led initiative pushing them to be more transparent.

Natural gas, of course, has become the fuel of choice — a fuel that markets itself as far less pollutive than coal. But methane is its main component, which is 84 times more potent than CO2, although its lifespan is 20 years compared to 100. Indeed, methane makes up about 25% of the global warming today. read more

NEWTON worked at SHELL as a refinery process operator.  During her tenure, she was discriminated against and harassed by supervisors and co-workers because of her gender. She was taunted with comments like, “If your pussy hurts, just stay home.” (Extract from complaint – link below)

By ANNIE SCIACCA | [email protected] | Bay Area News Group: PUBLISHED: July 19, 2017 at 12:28 pm | UPDATED: July 19, 2017 at 4:42 pm

MARTINEZ — A former employee at Shell Oil’s refinery in Martinez is suing the massive oil company for “sex-based harassment, sex discrimination, (and) failure to take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment,” according to a copy of the lawsuit given to this news organization and originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. read more

The Agbada oil flow station, operated by Shell in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Photographer: George Osodi/Bloomberg

On top of that is the cost of clearing up the pollution from pipe ruptures. A 2011 UN study found that such an undertaking at Ogoni, just south of Port Harcourt, could exceed $1 billion and take 30 years.

By Paul Wallace: 20 July 2017, 05:15 BST

The Agbada 2 flow station should have been buzzing with activity, pumping crude to one of Nigeria’s largest export terminals. Instead it was idle in the muggy, mid-morning heat as Wilcox Emmanuel, the facility’s manager, shrugged in resignation about the thieves who’d shut him down.

As much as 30 percent of the oil sent by pipelines through the swampy Niger River delta is stolen, consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. estimates. That’s depriving the country of income amid a crippling recession and compounding the pain of a global price slump for Africa’s largest producer. read more

By Gregory Brew – Jul 18, 2017, 9:30 AM CDT

Iran is on track to reach a major national milestone this year, if the nation’s oil spokesmen are to be believed. On Wednesday deputy oil minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia predicted oil production would reach 4 million bpd by the end of 2017, and certainly exceed that level by the end of the Iranian calendar year (March 2018).

Since international sanctions on its oil and gas industry were lifted in January 2016, Iran has managed to increase production to pre-sanctions levels, reaching 3.8 million in May 2017, the highest level in seven years. But 4 million bpd, long a national goal and symbolic of a full recovery, is now within reach. read more

Áine Ryan: 18 July 2017

IT was always about ‘sovereignty’ for retired teacher and one of the Rossport Five, Vincent McGrath. So last week’s news that Shell is in the process of selling the controversial Corrib Gas project reminded him of the lines from the War of Independence poem, Shanagolden:
“These hills are at peace again, the Saxon stranger gone.”

Speaking to The Mayo News yesterday (Monday), Mr McGrath, who with four other local men spent 94 days in jail in 2005 for flouting an injunction allowing Shell onto their lands, said: “For me it was always about sovereignty and the health and safety of our community and our Government ceded this to Shell and thus failed in their primary duty to protect their citizens in Erris.” read more