One team of analyst contends Exxon’s organic growth could be hurt by problems at its Groningen gas field.
By Ben Levisohn:
ExxonMobil (XOM) has enough problems with the price of oil dropping, but it may have on in a large Dutch gas field known as Groningen.
Exxon runs the field with Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), which is being blamed for an increase in the number of earthquakes in the region. That’s led to caps being imposed on production, and could eventually lead to a shutdown altogether say Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov and Muhammed Ghulam. They look ahead to the Groningen endgame:
An eventual field shutdown, which cannot be ruled out, would erase nearly all of Exxon’s organic growth through 2020. Next week, the top Dutch administrative court will hear NAM’s appeal against the new directive. Given that lower courts have backed the government’s policy of caps, we doubt the appeal will succeed. For Exxon, compliance would translate into an incremental reduction of 72 MMcf/d from 4Q17, erasing 0.7% of the company’s gas volumes, and 0.3% of company-wide oil and gas volumes. While not the end of the world, it needs to be seen in the context of a company with a 1% targeted organic growth rate. More worryingly, some local activist groups in the province are advocating that production be halted altogether. The government is not in favor of such a radical step, but the current policy essentially seems to amount to a controlled phase-out. Whether it occurs abruptly at some point, or more gradually, a full shutdown – with the resulting loss of 2.9% of Exxon’s production – cannot be ruled out over the medium term.
Shares of ExxonMobil have dropped 1.5% to $80.83 at 10:34 a.m. today, while Royal Dutch Shell has fallen 1.3% to $52.97. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF(XLE) has slumped 1.8% to $64.97.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
