March 13th, 2018:
WSJ: Shell in talks on $30B gas supply deal for its Egypt facility
Despite Alberta’s warnings, oil majors Shell and BP are falling in love with carbon capture technology all over again
Geoffrey Morgan: March 13, 2018
HOUSTON — Major oil companies Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc are taking another hard look at carbon capture storage much to the alarm of Alberta which sank more than a billion dollars in the technology but was heavily criticized for pursuing an expensive method to rein in carbon emissions.
“I’m fairly surprised,” Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd said of the widespread enthusiastic touting of CCS investments at CERA Week, an important Houston energy conference organized by IHS Markit at the beginning of March.
BSEE: Burial of Subsea Well Led to Oil Spill
The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has released its final report on the 2016 leak at Shell’s Glider field in the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted in the release of an estimated 80,000 gallons of oil.
The leak resulted from a fracture in a load limiting joint on the field’s well #4 jumper. The load limiting joint is a pipe fitting that is designed to fail in a known manner when placed under excessive stress, thereby preventing damage to complex, hard-to-repair parts of the subsea production system.
Nigeria State Oil Company Hasn’t Explained Missing Billions
An agency tasked with cleaning up Nigeria’s murky oil industry says even though financial accountability has improved the state oil company still hasn’t explained billions of dollars of missing revenue.
While energy producers have cooperated and complied with requirements to publish payments, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has struggled with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., Waziri Adio, executive secretary of the agency known as Neiti, said in a March 7 interview in Abuja, the capital. The state oil company hasn’t explained what it did with at least $22.7 billion earned from the sale of oil licenses and in dividends from its stake in Nigeria LNG Ltd. over a 15-year period, he said.
Kazakhstan offers stake in state oil firm to Shell: sources
State-owned KMG is the central Asian nation’s third largest oil producer and has stakes in all major Kazakh projects including the giant Kashagan oil field. It is Shell’s partner in several joint ventures.
Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign fund, plans to float KMG next year as part of the government’s privatization program.
The fund owns a 90 percent stake in the company and Kazakhstan’s central bank holds the remaining 10 percent.
The central bank took a stake after effectively printing $4 billion to help KMG pay off its debt after the oil price crash.A source close to KMG said Shell has been offered the chance to buy a stake of up to 20 percent, which could include the central bank’s stake.
BP, Shell React to Superbrands Recognition
BP plc and Royal Dutch Shell plc have reacted to the results of the latest UK Superbrands rankings, which saw both companies crowned as one of the top 20 UK business and consumer Superbrands of 2018.
“We are proud to be included in the Superbrands list,” BP Director of Brand, Duncan Blake, told Rigzone.
“Our industry is changing rapidly and ensuring that consumers understand how BP is participating in the transition to a lower-carbon future is something we will continue to work for,” he added.