Posts from ‘December, 2018’

Oil giant Shell today announced that it had finished offloading shares in its New Zealand business to Austrian oil company OMV.

Written by David McPhee – 28/12/2018 7:19 am

The £456m sale includes Shell’s interest in the Maui, Pohokura, and Tank Farm assets, and operatorship of the Great South Basin venture, which was subject to a separate agreement.

Shell said the deal was part of the firm’s effort to simplify its portfolio.

The company also confirmed that employees of Shell Taranaki and Shell NZ 2011 are now part of OMV New Zealand.

Zoe Yujnovich, Shell’s vice president in Australia and New Zealand, said: “We are proud of having worked in New Zealand for more than 100 years and completion of the sale to OMV marks an important milestone in the company’s history. read more

Dec. 27 (UPI) — Shell Argentina, which two months ago sold a refinery and fuel stations, said Thursday it will move to develop unconventional oil fields in the Vaca Muerta basin, aiming at 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2025.

The decision includes developing the Sierras Blancas, Cruz de Lorena and Coiron Amargo southwest blocks, the company told UPI in a statement sent by email on Thursday.

“Vaca Muerta makes up an important part of our global shale portfolio and we see substantial long-term growth potential there,” said Andy Brown, Shell Global Upstream Director. read more

Spreadsheet-analysing investors in control of trillion-dollar funds are forcing polluters to change

Anjli Raval and Attracta Mooney in London: 27 December 2018

When an activist shareholder group last year launched a campaign to force Royal Dutch Shell to set hard targets for cutting carbon emissions, just 6 per cent of those eligible to vote backed the plan. Yet within months Shell had announced an “ambition” to halve its carbon footprint by 2050… This December it pledged to set firm short-term emissions targets from 2020 that will be tied to executive pay. “If we don’t meet them there will be consequences to my salary and others,” said Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive. FULL FT ARTICLE read more

By Irina Slav – Dec 26, 2018, 10:00 AM CST

Shell plans to increase the annual amount of money it invests in renewable energy to US$4 billion, the supermajor’s head of gas and new energy, Maarten Wetselaar told The Guardian in an interview.

The figure is double the maximum current annual investment Shell has allocated for cleaner energy initiatives but the increase will only materialize if these initial investments prove to make financial sense.

“I would like my current business to be financially credible enough for not only the company, but shareholders, to want to double it and look at more,” Wetselaar told The Guardian. read more

Jessica Jaganathan: December 26, 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday it has begun output at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in Australia, the world’s largest floating production structure and the last of a wave of eight LNG projects built in the country over the last decade.

Though the project started up later and cost more than originally estimated, it is expected to further cement Australia’s lead as the world’s biggest LNG exporter, after the country took the crown in November. read more

Company already committed to spend $1bn-$2bn annually in the next two years on low carbon energy read more

Written by Rebecca Buchan – 24/12/2018 7:40 am

REVVY, STEADY, GO: The Shell Recharge initiative is being brought to Scotland after it met with great success south of the border

Energy giant Shell has announced it is throwing its weight behind renewable energy in Scotland with the introduction of three electric charge points at locations around the country.

Charging docks will be placed at service stations in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dunblane in a move which rolls out an already well established initiative, Shell Recharge, north of the border following its success in England. Jane Lindsay-Green, Shell UK future fuels manager, said the sites were chosen because of their proximity to main driving routes, and where there is an opportunity to reach more EV drivers. read more

Shell’s giant Prelude floating LNG vessel is edging closer to production as the accommodation vessel that housed up to 750 workers over the year moves away to allow the final stages of start-up to occur.

The Posh Arcadia accommodation vessel sailed to a station about 6km north of Prelude on Thursday morning, according to vessel tracking website MarineTraffic.

A Shell spokeswoman said the company continued to prepare Prelude for operations. “We expect to see production around the end of the year,” she said. read more

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: December 21, 2018

Royal Dutch Shell has boosted its expansion into the offshore wind sector with two deals to establish a significant position in the nascent US industry.

The Anglo-Dutch energy group has splashed out $175 million over the past week on the rights to develop hundreds of turbines in the waters off New Jersey and Massachusetts, which could power more than 1.5 million homes.

Dorine Bosman, vice-president for wind development at Shell, below, said its expertise from developing offshore oil and gas fields should help it to compete against established offshore wind players to secure subsidy contracts needed for the proposed wind farms to go ahead. read more

19 December 2018

(Reuters) – EDF Renewables North America said on Wednesday it had formed a joint venture with oil and gas firm Royal Dutch Shell plc’s (RDSa.AS) new energies division to co-develop a lease area for offshore wind energy in New Jersey.

The area, spread over 183,353 acres and located off the coast of Atlantic City, has the potential to produce about 2,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy, EDF said in a statement.

The Trump administration is streamlining permits for offshore wind industry and carving out new areas for leasing to boost domestic energy production and jobs. read more

December 20, 2018

MUMBAI: Royal Dutch Shell Plc has picked up 49% stake in Cleantech Solar, a Southeast Asia and India-focused solar energy systems developer, for $100 million in what could be the British energy giant’s first investment in the alternate energy space in Asia.

The transaction is expected to get concluded in January 2019, the two companies said on Wednesday. Headquartered in Singapore, Cleantech Solar owns and operates more than 120 solar power plants across Southeast Asia, representing ove .. read more

By Sara Castellanos: Dec. 17, 2018 4:27 p.m. ET

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is testing how artificial intelligence-enabled drones could help prevent costly maintenance problems on expensive equipment while improving worker safety, said Jay Crotts, the oil company’s executive vice president and global chief information officer.

Beginning early next year, the company will deploy several drones in a proof-of-concept project at the Shell Technology Center in Houston, which encompasses 1.2 million square feet and 44 buildings of laboratory and office space. read more

Dec. 18, 2018 7:06 AM ET

Summary

• Enormous reductions in development costs have made new upstream oil projects in the US Gulf of Mexico quite economical.
• Royal Dutch Shell plc expects the Vito field to break even in a low pricing environment.
• Commentary on where these cost reductions are coming from, with an eye on third-party pricing deflation in the offshore space.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) is investing in upstream projects that are capable of earning a decent return in most oil pricing environments. The US Gulf of Mexico is one of the energy giant’s core upstream plays for this reason. In May 2018, Royal Dutch Shell plc reached first-oil at the Kaikias project in the Gulf of Mexico a year ahead of schedule. Reducing the Kaikias project’s total development costs by 30% allowed Royal Dutch Shell plc to announce that it will break even on that endeavor when realizing just $30 per barrel of oil sold. Next year, the Appomattox development in the US GoM is expected to reach first-oil and Royal Dutch Shell plc has already achieved major cost savings at that project. Farther out, the Vito development in the US GoM is expected to achieve first-oil by 2021. Let’s dig in. read more

China signaled its openness for business with a raft of deals that’ll give oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc new opportunities to develop fields in partnership with the nation’s biggest offshore explorer.

Written by Bloomberg – 18/12/2018 9:29 am

China National Offshore Oil Corp. said in Beijing on Tuesday that it had inked oil and gas accords with nine firms. The signing ceremony followed President Xi Jinping’s address to party cadres marking 40 years of reform and broadly underlining the nation’s commitment to global trade.

The agreements cover 64,000 square kilometers in the Pearl River basin, to a depth of up to 3,000 meters. In addition to the Netherlands-based Shell, France’s Total SA and U.S.-based Chevron Corp. were also awarded parcels. All three majors hold existing production sharing contracts with CNOOC. The other firms involved are: ConocoPhillips, Equinor ASA, Husky Energy Inc., Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., Roc Oil Co., and SK Innovation Co. read more

By Irina Slav – Dec 18, 2018, 10:30 AM CST

Shell is in talks to acquire Endeavor Energy Resources for US$8 billion, Bloomberg reports, citing sources close to the negotiations. Earlier, Shell was not the only suitor, with Exxon, Conoco, and Chevron also reportedly interested in the acquisition but not enough to pursue it.

The value of the deal Bloomberg’s sources mentioned is half the sum Endeavor was believed to be able to score when it announced earlier this year that it was selling. The talks with Shell are still at an early stage, and it is uncertain whether a deal will be agreed, especially since the founder of Endeavor, Autry Stephens, has insisted that he keeps a substantial part of the company’s mineral rights after the sale, if a sale takes place. read more

By Neal Baker: 

JAMIE Oliver has been slammed after agreeing a £5million business deal with oil giant Shell – despite his green campaigning.

The TV chef has been hired to revamp the food offering at Shell service stations.

It comes after his business empire lost £20million last year, forcing him to close a further 12 of his 37 remaining Jamie’s Italian restaurants and making 600 staff redundant.

But his latest venture has been heavily criticised, leading to accusations he is “not taking seriously” the threat of climate change. read more

Jamie Oliver has agreed a £5million tie-up with Shell – despite his green campaigning.

The TV chef’s £5million deal with the oil giant comes after his business empire lost £20million last year – and despite years of him campaigning for action on climate change.

The arrangement will see him update food at Shell service stations.

Labour’s Anna McMorrin, who is on the Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee, said the move sent out the wrong message given that “he has a lot of support from young people”.

The Cardiff North MP, who visited the Arctic recently to see the ravages of global warming first-hand, said: “ Climate change is the major issue facing all of us. read more

14 December 2018

About 180 jobs are at risk after energy giant Shell announced the closure of two fire-damaged chemical units within an oil refinery in Cheshire.

The positions at Stanlow in Ellesmere Port are in question following a blaze at the site in August, which damaged the units.

Shell said the cost of fixing the damage was “not economically viable”,

The two chemical plants at the site are owed by Shell but are run under a management agreement by Essar Oil UK.

Essar Oil UK employs over 900 staff, and a further 500 contractors also operate at the refinery. read more

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: 

Nigeria is suing Royal Dutch Shell and Eni for $1.1 billion that it claims it missed out on as a result of alleged corruption in a 2011 oil deal. The country said that it had lodged the claim in the High Court in London against the companies to recoup payments they made for an offshore oil exploration block. It alleges that the oil majors knew that much of the $1.3 billion they had paid to the Nigerian government to secure ownership of the OPL 245 licence ultimately would be paid in bribes. The allegations are already the subject of criminal proceedings in Italy and Nigeria. Both Shell and Eni deny any wrongdoing. Shell is an Anglo-Dutch group that employs about 80,000 people in more than… Want to read more? read more

Almost a year on from raids that led to over a dozen arrests, including of several former employees of the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell, charge sheets state that around 340,000 tonnes of gasoil were stolen from the oil major’s Pulau Bukom site in Singapore. Some of the incidents date back to 2014.

Smokes rises out of chimneys from a Shell oil refinery on Pulau Bukom, five kilometres to the south of the main island of Singapore on January 13, 2015. 

Around $150 million worth of oil was stolen from Shell’s biggest global refinery over several years, Singapore court documents reviewed by Reuters show, far more than reported when police first revealed the heist earlier this year.

Almost a year on from raids that led to over a dozen arrests, including of several former employees of the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell, charge sheets state that around 340,000 tonnes of gasoil were stolen from the oil major’s Pulau Bukom site in Singapore, in incidents dating back to 2014. read more

Dec 12, 2018

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Talks about a possible asset swap deal between Royal Dutch Shell and Gazprom have been suspended, Kommersant business daily reported on Wednesday, citing Cederic Cremers, head of Shell’s business in Russia.

The memorandum on the possible asset swap was signed in 2015 and was seen as a coup for Gazprom at a time when many Western companies were reducing their exposure to Russia because of Western sanctions over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Cremers also told the newspaper that the plans for the expansion of Sakhalin-2 plant, which produces 11 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year, hinge on the outcome of the talks with the Sakhalin-1 consortium led by Exxon Mobil Corp and Rosneft about gas supplies. read more

Shell’s confirmation that it is expanding the Shearwater hub could lead to further North Sea investment, according to an analyst. 

The Shearwater platform will serve newly-sanctioned projects like Fram and Arran, as well as the nearby Columbus field.

However, Jack Allardyce from Cantor Fitzgerald, highlighted that it could be host to other discoveries such as Jackdaw, which have been “mired in development purgatory”.

Shell holds a 74% stake in Jackdaw, which was discovered in 2005 and is thought to be capable of producing more than 100million barrels of oil equivalent.

The hub expansion is the operator’s seventh investment decision in the UK North Sea, showing the “ongoing commitment” to the region. read more

While it is true that Royal Dutch Shell gave shareholder activists on climate an early Christmas present, agreeing to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent by 2035 and 50 per cent by 2050 ( FT View, December 7), a closer look reveals that the commitment is a cynical game.

FULL FT ARTICLE

Alexandra Alper: DECEMBER 11, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A small amount of crude oil belonging to Royal Dutch Shell Plc leaked during a ship-to-ship oil transfer in Brazilian waters last month, the company confirmed to Reuters on Monday.

About 200 milliliters of crude were released on Nov. 30 during the maneuver, which was halted after the drip was detected, Shell said, adding that authorities were notified and the incident left no trace of oil in the sea.

However, a letter obtained by Reuters and sent to Brazilian environmental regulator Ibama by chartering firm Triaina Agencia Maritima said “drops of oil spilled into the ocean” and that the small quantity could not be measured. read more

The gas is coming from the Shearwater platform

A new pipeline to help take gas from Shell’s Shearwater platform to the St Fergus plant in Aberdeenshire has been announced.

The 23-mile (37km) link will join Shearwater, 140 miles (225km) east of Aberdeen, with the Fulmar Gas Line.

Shell said the move – part of the creation of a gas infrastructure hub in the central North Sea – would reduce costs.

The hub is expected to produce as much as 400 million cubic feet of gas a day.

Analysis by BBC Scotland business and economy editor Douglas Fraser read more

DECEMBER 10, 2018 / 12:28 PM

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it would expand the Shearwater gas hub in the British North Sea, its seventh project to get the green light in the aging basin this year.

The project, a joint venture with Exxon Mobil and BP, will include a modification of the Shearwater platform to allow production and processing of wet gas as well as the construction of a 23 mile (37 kilometre) pipeline from the Fulmar Gas Line (FGL) to Shearwater, Shell said in a statement. read more

Australia will further cement its top position as the final new project in the pipeline, Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude, comes online by next year.

Jessica Jaganathan: DECEMBER 10, 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Australia overtook Qatar as the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the first time in November, data from Refinitiv Eikon showed on Monday.

The surge in Australian exports follows the start up of a number of export projects in the country over the past three years, most recently the Ichthys project offshore its northern coast.

In November, Australia loaded 6.5 million tonnes of LNG for exports while Qatar exported over 6.2 million tonnes, the data showed. read more

By Kelly Gilblom: 10 December 2018, 00:00 GMT

• Dutch group Follow This may also target Exxon Mobil, Chevron
• Resolutions ask companies to align business with Paris accord

The activists who rankled Royal Dutch Shell Plc by filing climate-change resolutions for three straight years now are targeting other oil majors.

Follow This, a Dutch group that accumulates shares in oil companies in order to press them over greenhouse gas emissions, has filed another resolution against Shell for 2019. It also filed its first resolution against BP Plc and may target Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. in the same way.

The group, led by former journalist Mark van Baal, has been a source of frustration for Shell management, even though its resolutions have gone down to defeat. Van Baal stood up at the Anglo-Dutch supermajor’s May 2018 shareholder meeting and said Shell was misleading its investors by saying it was on track to meet global climate targets, prompting CEO Ben van Beurden to angrily retort that wasn’t the case. read more

7 December 2018

Dow Chemical Co and Shell Oil Co have been hit with a lawsuit by the city of Arcadia, California accusing the companies of contaminating the city’s drinking water with a toxic chemical found in pesticides the companies once made.

Filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, the lawsuit said the companies knew or should have known that the chemical, known as 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP is toxic and renders drinking water unsafe.

The companies still manufactured and marketed pesticides containing the chemical for years, the lawsuit said. read more

Written by Allister Thomas – 06/12/2018 7:50 am

The UK Government has said it will encourage other oil and gas firms to follow Shell in linking executives’ pay packs to climate targets.

Earlier this week the energy major announced an unprecedented move to link remuneration to reducing its carbon footprint.

Climate groups widely welcomed the action, as Shell aims to make a 20% reduction by 20135 and 50% by 2050.

Starting in 2020, Shell will set the target each year, for the following three or five-year period.

In the House of Lords yesterday, the Bishop of St Albans,  Alan Smith, asked about efforts to encourage more oil and gas firms to follow suit. read more

DECEMBER 5, 2018

MILAN (Reuters) – The Russian government has asked Italy to be “reasonable” over a Russian citizen caught up in a Nigerian graft case in Milan and drop the charges against him, according to legal documents seen by Reuters.

Ednan Tofik ogly Agaev, a former Russian ambassador in Colombia, is charged with international corruption in a case revolving around the 2011 purchase by oil majors Eni and Shell of Nigeria’s OPL 245 oilfield.

Milan prosecutors allege bribes totalling around $1.1 billion (£862.4 million) were paid to win the licence to explore the field. read more

Ben van Beurden

The linkage of carbon reduction targets to bonuses will not just apply to the top team but to a thousand or more senior Shell managers.

CARL MORTISHED: 5 Dec 2018

It’s tough setting pay incentives for the boss. You want him to have an eye on the big prize — more profits, more dividends. But you also want him to invest well, to run a tight ship and not sacrifice the long-term in pursuit of a quick buck. But what incentive is right when you worry that the core business might be banned within several decades?

Big oil companies wrestle with this. Investors adore the cash dividend from crude. But many want to know what the oil majors will do if petroleum-based fuels are phased out in order to reduce carbon emissions. Shell has been playing cat and mouse with some saintly shareholders who want their dividends free of soot and CO2. In order to achieve that, these investors want carbon-reduction targets embedded in the bosses’ bonus plans. read more

Jessica Jaganathan: DECEMBER 4, 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell expects production at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit to start at the end of the year, a spokeswoman told Reuters on Tuesday.

“We continue to progress Prelude towards operations, with safety and quality being our main focus … We expect to see production around the end of the year,” she told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Prelude – which will process natural gas produced offshore northern Australia and export it as LNG – is expected to have an annual LNG production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes. It will also produce 1.3 million tonnes a year of condensate and 400,000 tonnes a year of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). read more

Gas production at the earthquake-prone Groningen field will drop by at least 75% to below 5B cm/year in the next five years, the Dutch government says, as measures to reduce demand for Groningen gas are working ahead of schedule.

The government decided this year to shut down in 2030 what was once Europe’s largest natural gas field, citing several earthquakes over decades of extraction that damaged thousands of homes and buildings.

Production is set to drop to 19.4B cm in the year that began in October, already down 65% from its peak of 54B cm in 2013. read more

Shell issued a big announcement Monday: Not only will it be setting short-term targets in line with its longer-term “Net Carbon Footprint” ambition, but it will also be linking these targets with executive remuneration. Greener Shell = richer executives, or at least that’s the plan — the link will be subject to a shareholder vote at the company’s 2020 AGM.

The move is not entirely unprecedented — Statoil’s head of Norwegian production and development gets more money when absolute carbon emissions fall — but the scale of Shell’s proposal, which reverses a previous aversion to hard targets, is something else. According to the Financial Times, the link between long-term financial incentives and emissions reductions could affect up to 1,200 Shell executives. read more