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Ben van Beurden on The Sunday Times Business Person of the Year 2022 Shortlist

The Sunday Times Business Person of the Year 2022: The shortlist

The Sunday Times

In a year buffeted by war, falling markets and government upheaval, we present the shortlist for the business person who has stood out above the rest

Ben van Beurden, Shell

The Dutchman will call time on a 40-year career at Shell in 2023, having spent nine years in the hot seat. He gambled early in his tenure on the £36 billion takeover of gas giant BG Group, relocated Shell’s head office to London, and cut its dividend when the oil price tanked during Covid. But the company has surged this year on the back of higher oil prices stoked by the Ukraine war. Van Beurden, 64, leaves Shell in a fitter state and with plans to embrace green energy — read more

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Merger Mania Is Over: Oil Deals To See Quietest Year In Decades

OILPRICE.COM

Merger Mania Is Over: Oil Deals To See Quietest Year In Decades

Extracts

Sir Winston Churchill once admonished leaders to never let a good crisis go to waste, and Big Oil has rarely failed to heed the advice. Under normal circumstances, energy downturns have created perfect opportunities for deep-pocketed oil and gas heavyweights to land prime assets on the cheap. A good case in point: the last oil bust of 2016 was followed by a sizable number of huge M&A deals in the sector including the $60B tie-up between Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) and BG Group, Canadian Oil Sands and Suncor EnergyEnergy, as well as a handful that fell through including the proposed merger between Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR). read more

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Shell: Regaining Dividend Respectability And Shifting Toward Green Hydrogen

Shell: Regaining Dividend Respectability And Shifting Toward Green Hydrogen

The Daily Drilling Report: 10 November 2020

Summary
  • Shell is taking a healthy approach toward energy transition and balancing capital projects in terms of energy source.
  • It’s also forging a leadership position in two key fuels that have been identified as being crucial to meeting Paris Climate goals – natural gas and hydrogen.
  • Shell is back in our good grades with its recent dividend raise and strong earnings prospects going forward.
  • At its recent price in the mid-$20s it represents a nice risk reward profile.

The question is, is the dividend safe? The answer here is yes, as it has just been raised. It seems Uncle Ben has heard the hue and cry of outraged shareholders, and is restoring some of what he took away just last quarter.

Ben Van Beurden, CEO Shell:

So we are announcing an increase of 4% in our dividends this quarter. But we’re also announcing a target milestone for our net debt of $65 billion for the near term. And once we have achieved this milestone, we target to further increase shareholder distribution. So we are not offering the promise of future growth, but also increasing shareholder distributions for the near term. read more

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Shell Foresees LNG Market Rebounding From Coronavirus Lows

Zacks Equity Research: Zacks

Shell Foresees LNG Market Rebounding From Coronavirus Lows

Shell & LNG

Shell became the largest LNG producer in the world following the acquisition of BG Group Plc in 2016, which boosted its portfolio of supply contracts and stakes in LNG plants around the world. In fact, in the recently-released quarterly report, Shell’s earnings per ADS of 74 cents outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 51 cents on higher LNG sales volumes.

Coronavirus Hurts LNG Volumes

Over the past few months, the oil and gas industry has been in shambles, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that shook most sectors until now. Global fuel demand is visibly dented in the aftermath of large-scale travel bans imposed globally. As a result, the outlook for all the industries in the energy sector business is downbeat. read more

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Shell boss ‘bothered’ by depiction of firm as ‘unwelcome player’ in energy transition

Shell boss ‘bothered’ by depiction of firm as ‘unwelcome player’ in energy transition

Royal Dutch Shell Plc had been turning out about 2.7 million barrels of oil each day until the novel coronavirus took hold of the world.

By Bloomberg: 09/06/2020

Demand for oil, the company’s core product, dropped almost a third in April, and the price of West Texas Intermediate briefly dipped into negative numbers for the first time.

It’s not easy to run an oil major when people suddenly stop needing oil.

Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden responded by slashing spending and cutting Shell’s dividend for the first time since World War II. read more

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Shell and the Gas Wealth

Shell and the Gas Wealth

Irina Slav: Oilprice.com: December 8, 2019

When Shell bought BG Group for $53 billion in 2016, becoming the largest gas company in the world, it attracted a lot of criticism. Now, thanks to its natural gas exposure and specifically its LNG exposure, Shell is one of the best-performing stocks in the industry in the year to date. It is also the biggest public oil company by production, which stood at3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day at the end of the third quarter.

The Anglo-Dutch major is not just one of the biggest LNG producers, but also one of the biggest LNG shippers globally. It is also among the top performers in terms of revenue, ranking second in the world after China’s Sinopec. Shell is also actively expanding in renewables and energy storage, preparing the ground for future domination in the energy industry, too. read more

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Shell appoints new head of downstream business

Shell appoints new head of downstream business

By Ron Bousso: Reuters: November 1, 2019

* Downstream business seen as key to Shell’s energy transition

* Vigeveno previously led Shell’s global commercial business 

By Ron Bousso

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has appointed Huibert Vigeveno to head its downstream businesss, the refining, trading and marketing operations that are to become a key pillar for the oil and gas company as it transitions to cleaner energy.

Vigeveno, 50, previously led Shell’s global commercial business and rose to prominence when he oversaw the integration of smaller rival BG Group after its $53 billion acquisition in 2016. read more

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Royal Dutch Shell searches for a purpose beyond oil

, Senior Energy Correspondent: 27 Sept 2019

The preceding three years offered plenty to talk about. Oil prices had collapsed; Shell had embarked on a complex $53bn takeover of natural gas giant BG Group and the company’s offices had been raided over a controversial Nigerian deal. Shell’s top brass were wrestling with a dilemma that has since beset every major oil and gas company. How should a company that generates most of its profits by meeting the world’s still-robust demand for oil and gas navigate the future as the political tide turns increasingly against fossil fuels. read more

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Shell delays U.S. Lake Charles LNG export project to 2025

Sept 4, 2019

LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers, has asked U.S. regulators to extend the time by which it should complete an LNG export project in Louisiana by five years to 2025, regulatory filings showed.

The project, a 50-50 venture with U.S. midstream company Energy Transfer, envisaged converting an existing import and regasification facility in Lake Charles into a multi-train, 16.45 million tonnes per year (mtpa) facility. read more

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Shell Announces the Next Tranche of the Share Buyback Programme

Shell Announces the Next Tranche of the Share Buyback Programme

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Royal Dutch Shell plc

Aug 01, 2019, 02:17 E

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Aug. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Dutch Shell plc (the ‘company’) (NYSE: RDS A) (NYSE: RDS B) today announces the commencement of trading in the next tranche of its share buyback programme previously announced on July 26, 2018. In the next tranche, the company has entered into an irrevocable, non-discretionary arrangement with a broker to enable the purchase of A ordinary shares and/or B ordinary shares for a period up to and including October 28, 2019. The aggregate maximum consideration for the purchase of A ordinary shares and/or B ordinary shares under the next tranche is $2.75 billion. The company’s intention is to buy back at least $25 billion of its shares by the end of 2020, subject to further progress with debt reduction and oil price conditions. read more

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Shell plans to boost returns and become a force in power

Shell plans to boost returns and become a force in power

Ron Bousso: JUNE 4, 2019 LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell outlined plans on Tuesday to boost shareholder returns after 2020, while also increasing spending on oil, gas and power, as it capitalizes on years of cost cutting to prepare for a lower carbon future.

In a strategy update, the Anglo-Dutch energy company said it was on track to deliver on its commitment to sharply increase cash generation and carry out one of the world’s largest share buyback programs of $25 billion by the end of next year.

It then plans to increase payouts to investors through dividends and share buybacks to $125 billion between 2021 and 2025, roughly half of its current market value. That compares with payouts of around $90 billion between 2016 and 2020.

While offering sweeteners to investors, Shell also outlined plans to increase spending in the next decade to grow its gas, oil, renewables and power output. read more

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Shell pursuing $1B exit from Indonesia LNG project – Reuters

May 3, 2019 9:04 AM ET|About: Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)|By: , SA News Editor

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) is moving to sell its stake in Indonesia’s $15B Abadi liquefied natural gas project, Reuters reports, part of its ongoing asset disposal program to raise cash to help pay for its $54B purchase of BG Group in 2015.

Shell hopes to raise ~$1B from the sale of its 35% stake in the Abadi project, according to the report.

Project construction was due to start in 2018 but was delayed in 2016 until at least 2020 after Indonesian authorities instructed a switch from an offshore to an onshore facility. read more

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Shell sells stake in Gulf of Mexico field for $965 million

APRIL 11, 2019 / 8:55 AM /

(Adds comment from Delek CEO, details on Caesar Tonga field, industry background)

April 11 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to sell its stake in the Caesar Tonga field in the Gulf of Mexico for $965 million in cash to a subsidiary of Israel’s energy conglomerate Delek Group.

Company unit Shell Offshore will sell its 22.45 percent non-operated interest in a deal, which is likely to close by the end of the third quarter of 2019, Shell said in a statement. read more

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Shell sticking with spending discipline as 2018 profits soar

Shell sticking with spending discipline as 2018 profits soar

Ron Bousso: January 31, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said to would stick to spending discipline this year after 2018 profits jumped by more than a third to $21.4 billion, their highest since 2014.

The Anglo-Dutch oil company also reported a sharp rise in cash generation, in a further sign that cost savings since the 2014 oil market downturn are filtering into its operations.

Its shares were up by more than 4 percent at 1120 GMT.

A strong performance in the fourth quarter was driven by higher oil and gas prices, year-on-year, as well as a stronger contribution from crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading. read more

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Shell appoints Sawan as upstream boss, replacing Brown

Ron Bousso: January 17, 2019 LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has appointed Wael Sawan to head its oil and gas production division, replacing Andy Brown who will step down after 35 years at the Anglo-Dutch company. Sawan, 44, a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin, currently heads Shell’s deepwater operations, one of the company’s cash growth engines in recent years. He joined Shell in 1997.

Brown, 56, will remain a member of Shell’s executive committee until his departure on Sept. 30, Shell said in a statement. read more

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Shell churns out cash like oil’s above $100 again

Oil is trading well below its price of a decade ago, but you’d have no idea looking at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s giant pile of cash.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major generated the most cash from operations in 10 years last quarter — almost $15 billion. The last time Shell pumped out that much money was the year crude soared to $140 a barrel, compared with about $75 today.

As a result, the company is showing greater confidence. It increased the pace of a $25 billion buyback program, rewarding shareholders who stuck with it through crude’s collapse. The cash surge is a feather in the cap of Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden, who splashed more than $50 billion on buying BG Group Plc in 2016 during the depths of the downturn. read more

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Shell’s greener future is a matter of survival

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant may “turbo-charge” its drive into renewable power and electric vehicles within five years

Jillian Ambrose, energy editor: 13 OCTOBER 2018 • 5:30PM

‘We’re not an oil company,” says Ben van Beurden from across the table. It is an affable, but pointed intervention typical of the man leading the FTSE 100’s highest-valued business.

“I don’t want to be facetious or pedantic,” he continues good-naturedly. “But we are a much broader and more sophisticated company than one that produces oil. We produce much more gas than we do oil, for a start.”

For the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, the distinction is one that rings at the heart of a personal mission to transform a company which for over a hundred years has fuelled the development of the modern world. read more

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Shell to Lay Out Targets to Manage Methane Emissions

By Sarah Kent: Sept. 16, 2018 7:01 p.m. ET

LONDON— Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.37% PLC said it will announce plans to lay out targets to manage its emissions of the greenhouse gas methane Monday, joining a handful of major oil companies that have made similar pledges this year.

Shell has been outspoken about the value of natural gas as a “bridging” fuel—a cleaner-burning fossil fuel that can help bolster renewables like solar and wind energy when, for instance, the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

The company’s long-term strategy is wedded to gas. In 2016, it spent roughly $50 billion to buy smaller rival BG Group, an acquisition that cemented Shell’s position as one of the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas players. read more

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These Are the Biggest Natural Gas Producers in the World

Matthew DiLallo Matthew DiLallo: (TMFmd19Sep 10, 2018 at 12:02PM

Royal Dutch Shell: A bold bet to remain the world’s second-largest gas producer

Royal Dutch Shell became the world’s second-largest gas producer in 2016 after spending $70 billion to buy BG Group, which boosted Shell’s natural gas production rate by 25% while also adding a large-scale LNG business and vast gas reserves. Shell produces natural gas from several countries, with its largest supplies coming from Norway, Malaysia, Australia, the U.S., and Canada. Australia is its biggest source of gas at more than 600 BCF in 2017, which is more than double the output of its other top regions. read more

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Big Oil’s LNG Obsession

By Vanand Meliksetian – Sep 04, 2018, 3:00 PM CDT

Since the early days of the oil and gas industry, a group of Western companies has dominated the industry. These companies have been named ‘Big Oil’ due to the size of their global footprint. Despite their technological superiority and significant access to capital, these organizations are now facing difficulties in maintaining market share and profitability. Changing requirements concerning fuel types as well as an increasing focus on environmental impacts have transformed the global energy market. Inevitably, these companies have been forced to change their strategy to remain relevant to customers. read more

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Shell oil traders trade one Caribbean paradise for another

Shell oil traders trade one Caribbean paradise for another

Julia Payne: AUGUST 17, 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) oil traders in the Caribbean island of Barbados are getting ready for a tough gig – they’re being moved to the Bahamas next month.

The relocation of the oil and gas company’s trading hub for Latin America will make travel to customers in the key region easier for its employees, a company spokeswoman said.

Graphic: reut.rs/2BjNlUz

“Shell Western Supply and Trading can confirm it is relocating from Barbados to the Bahamas, effective September 2018,” the spokeswoman said. read more

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Shell kick-starts £19bn windfall for patient shareholders

Shell boss Ben van Beurden said the move “complements the progress we have made since the completion of the BG acquisition in 2016” 

Jillian Ambrose: 

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Big Oil’s Next Major Move

By Tim Daiss – Jul 08, 2018, 10:00 AM CDT

Several oil majors, including Royal Dutch Shell and BP, are boosting their share of natural gas output. A Bloomberg report said these two oil companies, by increasing gas production, are trimming the lead between them and ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company. ExxonMobil has a current market cap of $348 bn, while Shell has market cap of $317 bn, and BP at $156 bn.

BP expects by 2020 to produce about 60 percent gas and 40 percent oil, a reversal from 2014 when it was the opposite – a pivot that many other oil companies will likely follow. ExxonMobil for its part currently produces about 55 percent oil and 45 percent gas and remains the largest natural gas producer in the US. Shell’s acquisition of UK-based BG Group for $50 bn in 2016 boosted the share of natural gas to 50 percent of its global fossil fuels output and made it the world’s largest natural gas trader. read more

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Future of Big Oil Increasingly Shaped by the Fate of Global Gas

By Kevin Crowley and Kelly Gilblom
25 June 2018, 00:00 BST

Big Oil’s fortunes are becoming tied more closely to natural gas than ever before.

Majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc have boosted their proportion of gas output in recent years, helping them trim Exxon Mobil Corp.’s lead as the world’s most valuable oil company. Meanwhile Chevron Corp. added two giant Australian liquefied natural gas projects and Exxon is punching back with two major projects of its own, in Papua New Guinea and Mozambique. read more

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Shell dumps interest in two Norwegian fields

Shell dumps interest in two Norwegian fields

Shell adds $556 million toward its goal of divesting $30 billion in a streamlining effort.

By Daniel J. Graeber: June 20, 2018

June 20 (UPI) — Supermajor Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it sold off its entire stake in two fields in production off the Norwegian coast for $556 million.

Shell’s subsidiary in Norway sold its entire 44.56 percent interest in the Draugen field and its 12 percent in the Gjøa to Norwegian energy company OKEA.

OKEA CEO Erik Haugane in a statement on the deal said the agreement with Shell was a “high-quality acquisition.”

His company estimates it will become the 19th largest producer offshore Norway with the deal. The Shell acquisition gives it a boost in net production of about 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent. read more

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Tanzanian MP Wants Shell-BG U.S.$500 Million Transaction Investigated

Tanzanian MP Wants Shell-BG U.S.$500 Million Transaction Investigated

Dodoma — Momba MP Mr David Silinde (Chadema) has asked the Parliament to form a special committee to investigate the transaction between Shell and BG over Tanzania’s gas blocks alleging that Shell did not pay capital gain tax.

Debating the budget of the Ministry of Energy on Friday, Mr Silinde said the company should pay the tax estimated at $500 million.

“There is a possibility that the transaction involved corruption. Hence, denies the country the revenue which could address different challenges in the energy sector,” said Mr Silinde. read more

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Shell — yes, that Shell — just outlined a radical scenario for what it would take to halt climate change

Shell CEO Ben van Beurden

March 26, 2018

Royal Dutch Shell on Monday outlined a scenario in which, by 2070, we would be using far less of the company’s own product — oil — as cars become electric, a massive carbon storage industry develops, and transportation begins a shift toward a reliance on hydrogen as an energy carrier.

The company’s Sky scenario was designed to imagine a world that complies with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, managing to hold the planet’s warming to “well below” a rise of 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. Shell has said that it supports the Paris agreement. read more

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Royal Dutch Shell Is Making The Right Moves At The Right Time

Summary

  • Shell declared an income of $13.4 billion compared to $4.8 billion in 2016.
  • Merger with BG was a game-changer for Shell.
  • Shell has now positioned itself as an energy company that is ready to embrace new challenges.

Headquartered in the Hague, Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has established itself as one of the most prominent oil and gas companies in the world. Although the last few years have been tough for the energy giant, Royal Dutch Shell has now started making the right moves, which will reap benefits in near future.

In its recently published Annual report for 2017, Shell declared an income of $13.4 billion compared to $4.8 billion in 2016. Although it must be noted that high oil and natural gas prices contributed to this yearly gain, a year-on-year increase of 279% is commendable. read more

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Shell’s U.S. shale output plans prioritize oil over natgas

Ron Bousso. Ernest Scheyder: 8 March 2018

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) is focused on increasing its U.S. shale operation’s oil production while slowing investment in lower-margin natural gas, an executive said on Thursday.

The Anglo-Dutch company aims to boost its overall shale production by 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) to 500,000 boe/d between 2017 and 2020, mostly in the United States with some production in Argentina.

Although the shale business has yet to generate a profit, it is expected to do so next year, Greg Guidry, who heads Shell’s shale operations, told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

Shell, like Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N), aims to make shale production a driver of growth in the next decade. But today most of its output is natural gas, where profit margins are lower.

As a result, around 85 percent of Shell’s shale budget for at least the next two years will go toward new oil resources, particularly in the Permian oilfield of West Texas and Canada’s Duvernay Basin, Guidry said. read more

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Shell and Blackstone join forces to fuel $10bn BHP shale bid

Shell, the FTSE 100 oil behemoth, is plotting a $10bn (£7.3bn) joint takeover bid for the American shale division of BHP, the world’s biggest miner.

Sky News has learnt that Shell and Blackstone, the private equity firm, have agreed to work together on an offer for the assets, which were put up for sale last summer by BHP amid pressure from an activist investor.

A joint offer from Shell and Blackstone would be only one of several credible proposals that BHP is expecting to receive for the US shale operations, according to banking sources. read more

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Shell gives up on Gaza’s offshore gas field – Palestinians

Nidal-Mughrabi: MARCH 5, 2018 / 3:36 PM

GAZA (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has given up its stake in an undeveloped natural gas field off the Gaza Strip, sending the Palestinians looking for a new foreign group to replace it, Palestinian officials said on Monday.

Cabinet ministers from the Palestinian Authority said in a statement they had been informed that the energy giant was pulling out of the project and were now in the process of“trying to attract a global company” to take its place. read more

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How Shell hid a Whale before placing Mexican oil bet

Ron Bousso, Marianna Parraga: MARCH 2, 2018

Shell’s oil and gas reserve life – the number of years it can sustain production at its current levels – has steadily declined in recent years despite the acquisition of BG Group

LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – The gasps in the audience were clearly audible at the auction of Mexico’s oil blocks a month ago as Royal Dutch Shell’s hefty bids were announced one by one.

The size of Shell’s cash payments – $343 million out of the total of $525 million that Mexico earned in the sale – far outstripped its competitors’ offers, guaranteeing that the company swept up nine of the 19 offshore blocks.

The Anglo-Dutch major knew something no one else did.

Six months earlier, its drilling rig had struck a giant oil reservoir, the Whale well, in the U.S. side of the Gulf of Mexico – just across the border from many of the Mexican blocks, which share a similar Paleogene-age geology.

Calculating that this significantly increased the chances of the Mexican blocks also containing treasure, Shell delayed the announcement of the discovery until the day of the auction, after bids had been submitted. read more

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In the deepwater versus shale oil contest, Shell backs both

Ron Bousso, Dmitry Zhdannikov: FEBRUARY 20,2018 LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) will expand deepwater output and turn a profit from its shale production in coming years as both together will help the oil major cope with a world of low crude prices, the head of its oil and gas production said on Tuesday.

Shell’s deepwater production in Brazil, Nigeria, the Gulf of Mexico is much bigger and more profitable, but the firm sees the nimble, fast-returns U.S. onshore shale as an engine for growth.

“We can see strong (shale) production growth, strong cash surpluses that gives us a balance in our portfolio where you can ramp investment up and down, you can moderate that, very unlike deepwater which is quite chunky,” Andy Brown told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the IP Week conference. read more

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LNG: a US success story that tests the laws of economics

, Energy Markets Editor

“The LNG glut — conspicuously absent isn’t it?” Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben Van Beurden said last week, in a rare display of public self-satisfaction from a modern energy major head. He had good reason to allow himself a moment’s celebration. Shell’s decision to buy BG Group in 2015 was, at least in part, a major bet on the future of LNG. It looks now like it should pay out far sooner than many in the industry anticipated.

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Shell can still grow in ‘rejuvenated’ North Sea, CEO says

Shell’s boss said yesterday that the North Sea is showing signs of “rejuvenation” and can provide the oil major with more room to grow.

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Doubts about Shell’s commitment to the UK were raised last year when it agreed to sell a package of assets to Chrysaor.

But last month the Anglo-Dutch energy giant announced its decision to invest in redeveloping the Penguins area, 150miles north-east of Shetland.

The project will involve the construction of Shell’s first new manned installation in the northern North Sea in almost 30 years.

Chief executive Ben van Beurden said yesterday that the Penguins decision was “important” for Shell. read more

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Shell LNG glut ‘conspicuously absent’: Shell CEO Ben van Beurden

by Angela Macdonald-Smith: Feb 2 2018 at 12:03 PM: Updated Feb 2 2018 at 3:19 PM

Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has declared that the energy giant’s confidence in the LNG market has been justified with no sign of the oversupply that others had warned of.

“The LNG glut is conspicuously absent isn’t it, much to the surprise of those that thought this was inevitable,” Mr van Beurden told reporters at Shell’s fourth-quarter results briefing in London. read more

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Shell annual profits up 242% to £8.5bn as oil prices rise

Royal Dutch Shell has reported a surge in annual profits to £8.5bn – a leap of 242% on the previous year.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major credited the performance on a recovery in oil and gas prices during a “year of transformation” within the business.

Underlying earnings – which reflect day-to-day operations and strip out one-off costs – more than doubled to £11.2bn and were aided by a £3bn contribution during the final three months of the year.

The company said: “Full-year earnings benefited mainly from higher realised oil, gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, improved refining performance and higher production from new fields, which offset the impact of field declines and divestments.” read more

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Shell ‘transformation’ doubles profits as oil recovery takes hold

Jillian Ambrose

Royal Dutch Shell has doubled its profits following the oil major’s worst financial year in over a decade as the oil market recovery takes hold.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant said the “transformation” following its 2016 mega-merger with BG Group and $30bn portfolio overhaul has reopened flows of cash back into the business as oil prices soared to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at its lowest point in early 2016.

Shell’s earnings on a ‘current cost of supply’ (CCS) basis, which is a standard oil industry measure, more than doubled from the previous year to reach $15.8bn (£11bn) for 2017. read more

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Shell poised to dethrone Exxon in oil titans’ cash clash

Ron Bousso: 1 FEB 2018 LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell could usurp its largest rival Exxon Mobil as the energy sector’s biggest cash generator after higher oil and gas prices combined with an improved performance lifted its 2017 revenue.Chief Executive Ben van Beurden has made no secret of his desire to challenge the dominance of the world’s largest listed oil company after its $54 billion purchase of BG Group in 2016 catapulted Shell into second place in terms of production.

The Anglo-Dutch company on Thursday reported a more than doubling of profit in 2017 to $16 billion, the highest since the start of the 2014 downturn as the effect of years of costs cuts and the integration of BG Group filtered through.

“We enter 2018 with continued discipline and confidence, committed to the delivery of strong returns and cash,” van Beurden said in a statement.

Shell’s shares were 1.1 percent lower at 0842 GMT, compared with a slightly positive open for the FTSE 100 index. read more

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Shell Makes as Much Money at $60 a Barrel as When It Was $100

The oil-price rally worked both ways for Royal Dutch Shell Plc as improved exploration and production lifted profit to a three-year high while refining and trading fell short of expectations as margins shrank.

Crude’s surge raised adjusted profit at Europe’s largest energy company to $4.3 billion last quarter, the highest since 2014. While the bottom line was better than expected — and Shell is making as much money with oil at $60 a barrel as when it was $100 — cash flow was the weakest since 2016. read more

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Shell shielded from Forties fallout by ‘internationalisation’, North Sea sales

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Shell is performing “extremely well” at a time when Brent crude is at its highest price for three years, the oil giant’s upcoming fourth quarter results will show.

The Anglo-Dutch major is in its strongest position for many years in terms of its cash generation thanks to its upstream and LNG businesses, analysts said.

RBC Capital Markets anticipates Shell’s fourth-quarter adjusted net income will more than double year-on-year. The company recorded adjusted earnings of £1.3billion in Q4 2016.

Analysts said Shell, whose shares are up about 10% over the last 12 months, had been boosted by the sale of assets and disciplined spending.

The company implemented a £21billion-plus divestment plan following its £47billion mega-merger with BG Group, which was completed in 2016.

As part of that programme, Shell sold about £3billion worth of North Sea assets to Chrysaor in 2017.

RBC analysts said the company would have cashed in £1.1billion in the fourth quarter from the proceeds of UK North Sea sales alone. read more

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Shell earnings expected to hit £11bn after oil prices recover

Jillian Ambrose: 

Royal Dutch Shell is set to unveil its highest earnings since the oil market collapse this week, just one year after the oil major’s lowest profits in more than a decade.

The Anglo-Dutch oil group’s efforts to overhaul its portfolio during the depths of the oil market rout are expected to be turbo-charged by the recovery in oil prices to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at their lowest point in early 2016.

Analysts predict the group’s earnings on a “current cost of supply” basis will be more than $15.7bn (£11bn) for 2017 from just $3.5bn (£2.5bn) the year before. The final quarter of last year is expected to generate higher earnings than the whole of 2016 at $4.2bn (£3bn), according to analyst consensus forecasts. read more

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Shell Is Closing In on Exxon’s Crown

Even in the dynamic world of business, some things always hold true: the Big Mac outsells the Whopper, Google gets more searches than Bing, and Exxon Mobil Corp. is the world’s biggest public oil company. Or perhaps not.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc is the closest it’s ever been to attaining the long-coveted prize of overtaking its American rival. While the Anglo-Dutch oil major still has some work left to snatch Exxon’s crown, Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden has made getting to the top his restless mission.

“At the moment we are number two and we are closing in on number one,” he said this month. “We almost have the tiger by the tail.”

That van Beurden thinks his goal is even in sight shows the risk he took in doing the industry’s biggest deal in decades is starting to pay off. Meanwhile, the strategy charted by Exxon’s former CEO Rex Tillerson has left the American major slightly adrift, according to investors.

“Ben doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk now,” Richard Hulf, co-manager in Artemis Global Energy Fund, part of a London investment management group that owns both Exxon and Shell shares. “Shell’s got a bit better and Exxon is at a weak point in its cycle.”

The narrowing gap is likely to show through when both companies post earnings next week. Analysts estimate Shell will report $16 billion of profit in 2017 helped by the acquisition of BG Group Plc. Exxon is forecast to report $15.7 billion of earnings, dropping behind its European rival for the first time in at least two decades. Shell is also likely to have churned out more cash from operations than Exxon last year.

It’s the $53 billion BG deal that’s really made a difference. When oil’s crash started in the middle of 2014, just months into Van Beurden’s tenure as Shell’s boss, he saw an opportunity. BG’s oil projects in Brazil and gas in Australia were just starting up, easing uncertainty on future growth. Rumored for years to be a suitor, van Beurden finally made the move for the British company.

The deal immediately put Shell in an exclusive club with Exxon, placing it on a plane above its European rivals Total SA and BP Plc. Some use the phrase ultra-major to differentiate the industry’s big two from the pack – at least until Saudi Aramco’s giant IPO, slated for the end of this year.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. As oil prices continued to slide in 2014, many analysts thought the price tag was excessive, forcing Shell to borrow too much. Van Beurden was staking his reputation on the deal and he pressed on, seeking to create what he often calls a “world-class investment case.” The company was forced to cut costs, sell assets and rein in spending to keep borrowing under control.

Still, in the two years since the BG deal closed, Shell’s B shares in London, the most widely traded, have returned more than five times Exxon’s, reversing the performance of the previous two years and providing superior returns for shareholders.

“Strategically BG was the right deal,” said Iain Pyle, the investment director for U.K. equities at the investment unit of Standard Life Aberdeen Plc, among the largest Shell shareholders. “The only question about it at the time was the price they paid and the stress they put on the balance sheet to do the deal.”

In the start of 2015, before Shell announced the BG deal, Exxon’s market value was about $180 billion more than Shell’s and it had just reported an annual profit $10 billion higher.

Since then, Exxon has struggled to keep the business growing. Exxon’s production in the third quarter was 1.8 percent lower than a year ago while Shell’s rose 1.7 percent. The American company’s oil and gas reserves have also dropped (though this may change this year as it books reserves from a  giant discovery  off the coast of Guyana in South America.) The gap in the two companies’ market value has more than halved to about $73 billion.

Shell’s record takeover fueled speculation Exxon would snap up a big rival to maintain its world-leader status, but it’s recent deal history hasn’t been a resounding success.

The $35-billion purchase of American shale gas company XTO in 2010 came shortly before gas prices plummeted. It also struck a deal with Rosneft PJSC to explore and develop giant offshore fields in Russia in 2011, right before they became locked behind a wall of U.S. sanctions. These left its “upstream portfolio disadvantaged,” Credit Suisse said. read more

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Inside Oil Giant Shell’s Race to Remake Itself For a Low-Price World

“I am tasked,” says the oil major’s top futurist about the existential challenge ahead, “with making sure that shell isn’t a dodo.”-Jeremy Bentham, Shell scenarios leader Jeffrey Ball By JEFFREY BALL 6:30 AM EST

Last March, Royal Dutch Shell said it was selling most of its stake in Canada’s oil sands, a vast project that has extracted millions of barrels of sticky, gooey hydrocarbons from the ground in a process that resembles mining more than drilling. The oil and gas giant announced that it was unloading its oil-sands assets, for $7.25 billion, so that it could double down on businesses “where we have global scale and a competitive advantage.”

Left unsaid was a deeper reason for the divestiture. Months of deliberations behind closed doors at Shell headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, had led the top brass at the world’s largest non-state-owned oil company by sales to conclude that the energy industry was changing fundamentally—in a way that could turn the profitable oil-sands operation into a liability. read more

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The Royal Dutch Shell Of The 2020s – A Royally Good Investment

: Jan 23, 2018

Summary

  • Royal Dutch Shell took advantage of the market downturn to acquire BG Group. That let the company grow by 50%, something that has supported production significantly.
  • Royal Dutch Shell anticipates cash flow of $25-30 billion by 2020, and that could grow to almost $50 billion with recovering oil prices. That will result in significant reward to shareholders.
  • I think LNG will be an especially rewarding opportunity for Royal Dutch Shell going forward. That could help the company’s cash flow to grow even further.

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE: RDS.B) has been on a tear recently, growing to a $300 billion oil giant, making it the second-largest publicly traded oil company in the world. Yet the company isn’t done. A combination of the company’s integration of its more than $50 billion acquisition of BG Group, at an opportune time, combined with the company’s strong portfolio and its growth potential makes the company a royally good investment.

BG Group Combination

The company’s acquisition of BG Group, at a time when the oil markets were dropping, was viewed with various opinions. Many wanted the company to not issue shares when prices were low and preserve cash. However, the company paying for roughly 40% of the acquisition with cash minimized the dilution to shareholders. And it enabled the company to gain access to strong assets at a great time. read more

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Shell hit with HSE improvement notice at St Fergus

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Energy giant Shell has been ordered to improve its safety procedures at the St Fergus plant near Peterhead.

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the company had failed to made “adequate arrangements” to ensure that “emergency shutdown and emergency depressurisation valve actuators” were maintained in an “efficient state and effective working order”.

HSE initially gave Shell until December 21 to comply with the improvement notice, but the deadline has now been extended to February 28.

A spokeswoman for Shell said: “We can confirm that we have been issued with an improvement notice on 23rd November 2017 in relation to the maintenance of emergency shutdown valves at our St Fergus plant in North East Scotland. read more

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U.S. LNG exports reach a tipping point

Steve Hill, executive vice president of Shell Energy, discusses Shell’s growth in the liquefied natural gas industry aboard Dynagas’ Lena River LNG carrier as its docked at Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG

SABINE PASS, La. – In 2011, Cheniere Energy was a little-known company with big ambitions when it signed an $8 billion contract that would transform the United States into an exporter of liquefied natural gas after decades of relying on foreign suppliers. read more

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Integrated Gas To Drive Royal Dutch Shell’s Value Going Forward

Great Speculations: Trefis Team: DEC 7, 2017 @ 04:22 PM

With the growing inclination towards the use of cleaner and environment-friendly sources of energy, natural gas has emerged as a preferred choice of fuel worldwide. However, due to the challenges related to the transportation and storage of gas, the demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) has grown faster than the demand for natural gas over the last decade. As a result, natural gas producers, particularly in the U.S., have been expanding their LNG operations to capitalize on the booming demand for the commodity. Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) is one such integrated energy company that has been increasing its presence in the gas markets. In this note, we discuss how Shell’s integrated gas business will drive value for the company over in the long term. read more

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Shell signals an end to the oil downturn with return of all-cash payouts

Jillian Ambrose: 

Royal Dutch Shell has signalled the end of the three-year oil market downturn by restarting its all-cash shareholder payouts as its cash flow begins to boom.

The oil major began paying out dividends in the form of shares in 2015, in the wake of the oil price crash and its $50bn takeover of BG Group.

But chief executive Ben van Beurden said the Anglo-Dutch group was now confident that it could call an end its scrip dividend as its cost-cutting and divestment programme pays off. read more

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Shell Atones for Its Past Sins

: Nov 28, 2017

It’s payback time for investors in Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Shareholders in the Anglo-Dutch oil company have had to endure receiving their dividends partly in stock throughout the industry price slump. This mild austerity is now ending. Shell is signalling that when it comes to spending its cash, shareholders will get first dibs.

The move to a full cash dividend, announced on Tuesday, is only just affordable. Investors should feel lucky the dividend wasn’t cut. In the 12 months to Sept. 30, organic free cash flow of $17 billion wouldn’t have covered the full dividend bill plus interest on Shell’s $68 billion net debt. read more

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