Shell has sold its remaining stake in the Corrib gas field, formally marking its exit after nearly two decades of involvement.

The UK company, one of the largest oil and gas firms in the world, announced yesterday that it had completed a deal to offload a 45 per cent interest in the gas field to a unit of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The deal, which was agreed in July last year, will include a cash payment of $958 million (€846 million), interest of $54 million and additional payments of $285 million, subject to gas prices and production from Corrib. The transaction could therefore be worth $1.3 billion (€1.1 billion). read more

By Pat McGrath

Western Correspondent

The oil company Royal Dutch Shell has completed the sale of its shares in the Corrib gas field off the north Mayo coast.

The deal means Shell no longer has any involvement in the operation of the project.

Last year, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) agreed a deal to purchase all Shell interests on the Corrib venture, for €1.08 billion.

Gas was first detected off the north west coast in the late 1990s but the project to bring it ashore was mired in controversy and subject to several challenges. read more

BY DAVE DENTINGERNOVEMBER 29, 2018 12:41PM@BlackburnSarnia

An alert was issued by Shell Canada about an upset at its Corunna plant Thursday morning.

The Aamjiwnaang Notification System says a cat cracker unit trip is causing high flaring and noise.

A Chemical Valley Emergency Coordinating Organization notice was issued.

Imperial says elevated flaring and noise is expected to continue for several more days at the Sarnia refinery while equipment repairs are made.

Company spokesperson Kristina Zimmer said Wednesday afternoon that construction of scaffolding was complete, and a repair plan had been finalized that includes replacement of a line. read more

Shell has not paid any profit tax in the Netherlands for years, despite earning billions of euros in the country every year, newspaper Trouw reports based on “well informed” sources and a confidential internal document from the Ministry of Finance. 

Over the past decade Shell made profits ranging from 2 billion to 55 billion euros per year all over the world. Most of this was earned abroad, and the company was taxed in the country were the profits were made. In the Netherlands Shell derives income from its head office’s activities, service stations, the chemical plants in Moerdijk, and the refinery in Pernis. All in all Shell made 1.3 billion euros in profit on those activities last year.

According to Trouw’s sources, Shell has two main ways to brush away the profits made in the Netherlands, so as not to pay tax, using legal deductions. Firstly, the company can deduct interest in the Netherlands for loans that are used to invest abroad. And secondly, Shell charges losses suffered from, for example, the search for oil abroad, against the profit made in the Netherlands. Profits made by foreign oil extraction are not taxed in the Netherlands, but the losses made with that oil extraction may be deducted from Dutch profits. read more

David Hone, chief climate advisor for Shell International

Scott Condon: November 12, 2018

A key figure in Shell Oil Co.’s surprising emergence as a world leader in demonstrating how to reduce fossil fuel use and prevent global warming from reaching catastrophic levels will outline his company’s work in Aspen this week.

David Hone, Shell International’s chief climate adviser, is attending a workshop on industrial de-carbonization at the Aspen Global Change Institute and will give a public presentation Tuesday night at the Limelight Hotel in Aspen. It’s titled, “How Society Can Meet the Goals of the Paris Agreement.” read more

Shell is facing a civil suit in Netherland over its alleged complicity in the killing of Mr Saro-Wiwa and the eight other Ogoni activists. The suit was filed on June 28, 2017, by four of the widows of the Ogoni Nine, led by Esther Kiobel.

Cletus Ukpong: 10 November 2018

It is exactly 23 years today since Ken Saro-Wiwa, a playwright, environmental activist and Ogoni leader was brutally executed.

He was executed on November 10, 1995, by the Nigerian government under the leadership of the then military dictator, Sani Abacha.

Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight of his kinsmen, who became popularly known as the Ogoni Nine, were sentenced to death by a special military tribunal set up by Mr Abacha who later died in June 1998 inside the presidential villa under mysterious circumstances. read more

October 19, 2018 Oladeinde Olawoyin

The trial of officials of oil giants Eni and Shell over the controversial Malabu scandal will resume Wednesday at the Milan Palace of Justice in Italy, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

The Milan court’s decision came after Simon Taylor, a founding director of anti-corruption group, Global Witness, appeared before it as witness on Wednesday.

Mr Taylor’s Global Witness, together with PREMIUM TIMES and its London partner, Finance Uncovered, have for years done extensive investigations into the long-running controversial oil deal. read more

David Sanderson, Arts Correspondent: October 20, 2018

Another oil company has pulled out of a sponsorship deal with a British cultural institution after years of protests.

Shell’s withdrawal from a deal with the National Gallery follows that of BP from Tate and other organisations.

Shell said that its decision to end the 12-year agreement, thought to have been worth about £500,000 over that period, would allow it to focus on work to “inspire the next generation of engineers” through science, technology, engineering and mathematics programmes. read more

Shell staff emailed the National Gallery to confirm it was not renewing its corporate membership, believed to be worth in the region of £20,000-£35,000 a year. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Adam Vaughan: @adamvaughan_uk: Fri 19 Oct 2018

Shell has ended its 12-year sponsorship of the National Gallery, to the delight of campaigners who have fought to keep fossil fuel financing out of the arts. The partnership with the Anglo-Dutch firm has made the London art gallery the target of protests over the years, including Greenpeace dropping a banner off the building’s roof and activists gatecrashing the launch of a flagship Rembrandt exhibition. FULL ARTICLE read more

Published by Will Owen, Editorial Assistant
LNG Industry, Monday, 15 October 2018 09:44

A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Maarten Wetselaar, Member of the Executive Committee of Royal Dutch Shell, was recently held in St. Petersburg.

The parties discussed relevant issues related to bilateral cooperation, including the Baltic LNG project. Emphasis was placed on the priority measures aimed at developing a joint design concept (pre-FEED). read more

SOURCE

Corruption trial in Nigeria may last several months, says Shell

Royal Dutch Shell has said the corruption trial over a Nigerian oil deal may last several months, warning staff of continued critical media coverage in the $1.3 billion case.

An internal memo sighted by Reuters indicates that Shell’s Legal Director, Donny Ching, encouraged employees to study an internal web page that the Anglo-Dutch oil giant had set up for the case before responding to questions from relatives and friends.

Shell and its Italian peer, Eni are defendants in a Milan bribery trial, now in its early stages, focusing on the 2011 purchase of Nigeria’s $1.3 billion OPL 245 offshore oilfield. read more

NO, IT’S NOT MALCOLM BRINDED. HIS BRIBERY & CORRUPTION TRIAL (RE OPL 245) ALSO RELATING TO NIGERIA, IS STILL IN PROGRESS. 

Those sentenced alongside the SPDC managing director are Shell’s Secretary and Head of legal and the Deputy Country Head of Legal/Managing Counsel Global litigation sub-Sahara Africa.The judge directed the Nigerian Police Force and other law enforcement to effect immediate arrest of the aforementioned Shell officials who were absent in court and send them to prison.

By Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt: OCTOBER 10, 2018

A Port Harcourt High Court yesterday sentenced the Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor, and two others to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour for disobeying court order.

But reacting to the court judgment, the SPDC’s spokesman, Bamidele Odugbesan, said the oil giant did not accept the judgment and had appealed it. 

“We do not accept that SPDC has disobeyed any lawful order of court and have accordingly appealed this judgement.  read more

Jennifer Thompson: 7 October 2018

Shell’s largest UK pension fund is under pressure from a member who says it is failing to disclose how it deals with climate risk, in what is regarded as a test case for other UK pension funds. The £16bn Shell Contributory Pension Fund was contacted last week by Christoph Harwood and ClientEarth, the legal environmental campaign group. They requested proof of how it is dealing with the issue of climate change…

FULL FT ARTICLE

By Reuters• last updated: 02/10/2018

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden in Moscow this week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday.

Ushakov said Putin and the Shell boss will discuss the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project on Russia’s Pacific coast, where Shell is a minority shareholder, and a plan to build an LNG plant on Russia’s Baltic coast. Shell and Russian gas giant Gazprom last year signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on the plant. read more

Greenwashing is a phrase used in advertising to describe initiatives taken by organisations to preserve the environment; this they do to improve their public image.

Greenwashing is a phrase used in advertising to describe initiatives taken by organisations to preserve the environment; this they do to improve their public image. The term ‘greenwashing’ is in use since the 1960s, but became famous in the 1990s when environmental awareness became a movement across the world. Organisations struggle to get public attention and customers’ mind share; pretending to be environment-friendly is one such attention-seeking measure.

One of the huge corporations, Royal Dutch Shell, has been frequently accused and penalised for its greenwashing campaigns. Its most famous ad campaign—“Don’t throw anything away; there is no away”—highlights the claim of growing flora and fauna out of carbon dioxide emissions, but it was found to be misleading and heavily criticised. In January 2017, a UK High Court ruled out a claim against Dutch Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary’s oil spill, in which two Niger Delta communities were shattered completely. The Court’s order clearly showcased robbing of justice and allowing the UK multinational to commit abuses overseas with impunity. Law is, indeed, blind. read more

Royal Dutch Shell opts to sit on the sidelines while BP shovels money into opposing Initiative 1631.

By Hal Bernton: Seattle Times staff reporter: September 30, 2018 

In speeches, reports and online posts, BP and Royal Dutch Shell leaders proclaim support for government rules that put a price on greenhouse-gas pollution resulting from the combustion of oil, natural gas and coal.

But as Washington voters head toward a November vote on an initiative to impose a carbon fee on fossil fuels, the two oil giants have gone their separate ways.

Shell, which operates the state’s second largest refinery, in Anacortes, has opted to sit on the sidelines of what has emerged as one of the most expensive initiative battles in Washington history. If approved, Initiative 1631 could serve as a model for other states. read more

Italian prosecutors allege that a year after its agreement with the U.S., Shell and Eni SpA, its partner in Nigeria, paid more than $1 billion to win offshore licenses, which mostly went to bribes.

As the company moves away from oil, it can’t shake its years operating in the pollution- and graft-ridden nation.

A leaking, out-of-service Shell oil well head catches fire in Nigeria in 2006. PHOTOGRAPHER: ED KASHI/VII

By Kelly Gilblom

Perched in a helicopter sweeping over the mangrove forests of the Niger Delta, a photographer named Casey is looking for trouble. And she finds it, down among a cluster of tree trunks stained with crude. A faint disturbance in a jungle clearing turns out to be a group of men pawing at a pipeline, a tiny slice of a 1,200-mile web that feeds Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s bustling export hub on Bonny Island. Some of the men flee as the chopper closes in, but most redouble their efforts as Casey aims her camera. “I’ve seen things get better,” she said before takeoff. “Then they go back to getting worse.” read more

Harder: 26 Sept 2018

Royal Dutch Shell is sitting out a multi-million dollar fight over a carbon fee proposal in Washington state even as nearly all other oil companies with operations there rally to oppose it.

Why it matters: It’s a sign of the oil industry’s uneven, years-long evolution toward supporting policies that put a price on carbon emissions. And whether Washington State voters support the initiative, which is on the state-wide ballot this Election Day, will be a bellwether for other attempts at big climate policy. read more

In Nigeria, Shell finds there’s no easy way out

25 Sept 2018

Royal Dutch Shell wants to shift its operations in Nigeria to focus on oil and gas fields far offshore, away from the theft, spills, corruption and unrest that have plagued the West African country’s onshore industry for decades.

SOURCE

By Lauren Berg

Law360 (September 24, 2018, 5:05 PM EDT) — The Golden State Water Co. has accused the Dow Chemical Co., Shell Oil Co. and others of product liability violations for contaminating drinking water with unsafe amounts of TCP, a toxic chemical…

SOURCE

An overview of the Niger delta where signs of oil spills can be seen in the water in Port Harcourt, Nigeria August 1, 2018. Picture taken August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Ron Bousso

Ron Bousso

BODO, Nigeria (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell wants to reweight its footprint in Nigeria to focus on oil and gas fields far offshore, away from the theft, spills, corruption and unrest that have plagued the West African country’s onshore industry for decades.

But for the company that pioneered Nigeria’s oil industry in the 1950s, the Niger Delta remains as important — and problematic — as ever.

While Shell has cut onshore oil production and sold some onshore assets, it continues to invest in others. In fact, onshore production has risen in recent years as a share of Shell’s output in Nigeria, an analysis of company data over the past decade shows. read more

Newly found documents from the 1980s show that fossil fuel companies privately predicted the global damage that would be caused by their products.

The documents make for frightening reading. And the effect is all the more chilling in view of the oil giants’ refusal to warn the public about the damage that their own researchers predicted. Shell’s report, marked “confidential,” was first disclosed by a Dutch news organization earlier this year. Exxon’s study was not intended for external distribution, either; it was leaked in 2015.

Nor did the companies ever take responsibility for their products. In Shell’s study, the firm argued that the “main burden” of addressing climate change rests not with the energy industry, but with governments and consumers. That argument might have made sense if oil executives, including those from Exxon and Shell, had not later lied about climate change and actively prevented governments from enacting clean-energy policies. read more

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 / 11:39 PM

HOUSTON (Reuters) – LyondellBasell Industries 263,776 barrel per day (bpd) Houston refinery was flaring on Monday afternoon due to a malfunction at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s nearby Deer Park, Texas chemical plant, according to Gulf Coast market sources.

The Shell chemical plant takes fuel gas supplied by pipeline from the Lyondell refinery, the sources said. Compressors that transport the fuel gas from the pipeline into the chemical plant were said to be malfunctioning on Monday afternoon. read more

The Canadian Press:

VANCOUVER — Shell Canada Ltd. has given up its offshore exploration rights, clearing the way for the creation of Canada’s first protected marine area under the Canada Wildlife Act.

The company voluntarily released permits for about 50,000 square kilometres in an area off British Columbia’s coast to allow for the creation of the Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area.

The company’s rights cover an area more than one-and-a-half times the size of Vancouver Island, which is hard to value, said Shell Canada president Michael Crothers, at a news conference on Thursday. read more

By Michael Ruffolo in News | September 13th 2018

The Canadian affiliate of one of the world’s largest oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell, is releasing 50,000 square kilometres of offshore exploration permits off the coast of British Columbia and promoting conservation.

Shell Canada president Michael Crothers made the announcement in Vancouver on Thursday alongside Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, who said the area would become part of the new Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area. read more

Royal Dutch Shell should apologise for antisemitic conduct and Nazi support

By John Donovan

I strongly believe that Royal Dutch Shell should be held accountable for its outrageous antisemitic actions against its own employees, which cost some of them their lives. The same applies to Shell’s huge financial support for Nazi Germany that contributed to the deaths of some 50 million victims in WW2 including those poor souls who perished in the Holocaust. Shell’s leader, Sir Henri Deterding, was an ardent Nazi feted by Adolf Hitler. Shell has never apologised or expressed any remorse.  read more

‘A museum dedicated to science education should not be helping promote any company that is actively exacerbating this planetary emergency until they show a serious proactive drive to switch to renewables’

• Josh Gabbatiss Science Correspondent
• @josh_gabbatiss

Tens of thousands of people have urged the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry to drop Shell as a sponsor from an upcoming event.

The announcement that the museum’s new exhibition, “Electricity: the spark of life”, would be supported by the oil giant sparked controversy among local groups.

Specifically, they have highlighted the role that fossil fuels play in driving global climate change and the role that oil companies have played in the phenomenon.

A petition with over 57,000 signatures has been handed to the museum as the Manchester Science Festival, which includes the new exhibition. read more

Science and industry museum accused of hypocrisy for taking money from oil company read more

MARTIN BAILEY: 29th August 2018 09:59 GMT

Two of the major Dutch museums have just ended their collaboration with Shell, at a time of mounting protests over sponsorship by fossil fuel companies. Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum and the Mauritshuis in The Hague both terminated arrangements with the country’s largest oil and gas firm this summer.

A Mauritshuis spokesman says that it had a six-year partnership contract with Shell, which was due to end in July and was not renewed. Surprisingly, however, the latest annual report of the Mauritshuis states that support from Shell Nederland and two other partners is “crucial for the long-term future of the museum”. Shell has also been supporting technical research on paintings by Jan Steen, but this work is almost complete and is due to be published by the end of the year. read more

..reacting to the allegation of intimidation, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, Media Relations Manager of Shell, denied use of force to compel the company’s host communities to sign the JIV report.

27 August 2018

The Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta and oil major, Shell on Monday denied allegations of coercing the leadership of Aghoro 1 community in Bayelsa to sign a disputed report on oil spillage.

A disagreement in the areas impacted by an oil leak on the Trans Ramos Pipeline within Shell’s oilfield at Aghoro communities in Bayelsa has stalled the release of a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) report of the oil spill.

Community leaders, who participated in the JIV to determine the cause of the spill reportedly refused to sign the report. read more

By Elizabeth Burden and Thomas Biesheuvel
15 August 2018, 08:54 BST

*Methodist fund developing system analyzing company ethics
*Top mining and oil companies will be graded by end of 2018

Divestment may be too blunt an instrument to encourage the world’s biggest oil and mining companies to behave ethically: the Methodist Church is prepared to back those committed to mending their ways.

While the precise workings of its new “traffic light system” are still being debated, the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church plans to determine by the end of the year whether BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and Equinor ASA have the ethical credentials to merit continued investor support. Those preferences will be denoted by red, amber and green categories, which will reflect a firm’s efforts and commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, its asset mix, capital expenditure, climate strategy and governance. read more

Financial Times

Shell chief says he’s under threat

By James Boxell in London

16 December 2004

Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Royal Dutch/Shell, has admitted that his “head is on the block” unless the company gets to grips by the end of the year with the way in which it books its oil and gas reserves.

In a private speech delivered to Shell’s 100 most senior executives in the Hague on Wednesday, Mr Van der Veer said the position of Malcolm Brinded, head of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant’s exploration and production division, was similarly under threat.  read more