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Prelude FLNG Project

China LNG imports set to hit record in Nov, push up prices

With Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating LNG project in Western Australia and Ichthys, a massive project led by Japan’s Inpex in the north of Australia, about to be completed, Australia’s export capacity could hit 85 million tonnes next year, topping that of current leader Qatar.

* China monthly LNG imports set to breach 4 mln T for first time

* That comes as millions of households switch to gas from coal 

* Domestic China LNG prices hit record

* Asian spot LNG prices at 3-year high of almost $10/mmBtu

* Rising Australia exports should ensure mkt remains well supplied

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE, Nov 29 (Reuters) – China’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are set to hit record levels in November, with demand due to peak over the cold winter months as millions of households shift from burning coal for heating to using gas, driving up prices for the fuel. read more

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Shell Says Yes To Free Cash Flow, No To Debt

Callum Turcan: Nov 15, 2017

Summary

  • Royal Dutch Shell generates free cash flow in Q3.
  • Outlook for Q4, even in light of impending capex increase, looks bright due to Brent rallying.
  • Over $10 billion in net debt reduction since the end of Q3 2016.
  • Overview of Q3 results and what to expect going forward.

Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has come a long way since it bottomed out in early-2016. Its latest earnings report reinforced the notion that when Brent is trading in the $50s, Shell’s cash flow position becomes balanced. Cash flow neutrality is the key breakeven point for the industry in the current environment, as oil & gas giants need to show that they can cover capital expenditures and large dividends through organic means at realistic prices. Let’s check out how Royal Dutch Shell did in a low $50s Brent world, with an eye on organic cash inflows and outflows. read more

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Shell Prelude FLNG named as FieldComm Group 2017 Plant of the Year

06 November 2017

The Shell Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) plant/ship of Royal Dutch Shell, which will be located in the Timor Sea off the North West coast of Australia, has been named as the FieldComm Group 2017 Plant of the Year.

This annual award is presented by FieldComm Group to recognise the people, companies and plant sites around the globe that are using the advanced capabilities of FOUNDATION FieldbusHART and WirelessHART technology in real-time applications for improved operations, maintenance, and asset productivity. This is the second award presented to a Shell facility, with the first being awarded in 2011 to Shell Scotford in Alberta, Canada.

Having recently completed the journey to its final destination, 200-km off the Australian mainland, it will be connected to Deepwater gas wells and is scheduled to begin regular operations in 2018. The 488m x 71m vessel’s 14 production facilities, rising eight stories above the deck will extract and process around 3.6 million tonnes per year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) during its 25-year lifespan. “FieldComm Group technologies are used in every phase of the Shell Prelude FLNG project and form the backbone of the intelligent predictive maintenance system,” said Kyle Dickson, control and automation engineer for Shell Prelude FLNG. “The use of device templates is delivering conformity and quality assurance throughout the commissioning process. This has enabled a small team to achieve impressive loop check rates while maintaining high levels of quality assurance. Once commissioned, equipment and unit modules will use the diagnostics and alerts provided by both HART and FOUNDATION Fieldbus technologies to great effect, specifically avoiding numerous plant trips and enabling unprecedented levels of remote support and deep-level diagnostics.” Rong Gul, senior automation engineer and subject matter expert (SME) for smart instrumentation and instrument asset management with Shell Global Solutions, reports that Prelude’s process applications employ more than 8,000 FOUNDATION Fieldbus devices, including 2,500 valve positioners, located on all control and monitoring devices, and connected only to the DCS; more than 4,500 HART devices connected to the DCS and PLCs via HART multiplexers, and used predominantly on devices connected to safety instrumented systems (SIS) and fire and gas (F&G) systems. WirelessHART is used on some specific applications. Use of the advanced diagnostics and rationalised device alerts has enabled predictive and targeted maintenance execution. Prelude is dependent on having a fully realised remote monitoring group of engineers advising on device issues. Commonly it has been possible to identify issues, specifically pertaining to control valves before a fault escalates and results in a plant upset or outage. While still in a start-up phase, Prelude is operating vast amounts of utility and marine systems, and the benefits of an intelligent instrument management system are already being realised.

At the peak of its recent commissioning efforts Prelude’s staff was performing more than 500 loop checks per week, and checking multiple streams of complex functions. The vessel’s utilities plant was also running 24/7, which made maintenance challenging. Thanks to using templates for its parameters, Prelude’s staff and contractors achieved total time-savings of 80% for device commissioning and loop checking across all devices using device templates; time savings for the valve positioner loop check procedure was more than 80% for the full loop test; tested all device types during the FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) in less than three days, compared to previous test using traditional methods, which took more than two days to test just three device types; and human error during FAT was quickly identified allowing for fast correction. read more

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Chevron starts LNG output at Australia’s Wheatstone, first cargo expected in weeks

OCTOBER 9, 2017

* Wheatstone had been due to start shipping in mid-2017

* First cargo expected in “coming weeks”

* Wheatstone LNG will produce 8.9 million tpy at full capacity (Adds trader, Woodside comments, chart, factbox in related content section)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Chevron Corp said on Monday it has started producing liquefied natural gas (LNG) at its Wheatstone project in Australia, slightly later than expected, and plans to ship its first cargo soon. read more

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Australia closing in on Qatar as world’s top LNG exporter

* Australia LNG exports tipped to rise to 74 mt in 2018-19

* Australia’s share of Japan, Korea LNG imports seen growing

* Iron ore price forecast raised to $64 for 2017

SYDNEY, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Australia expects to increase exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 16 percent from mid-2018 as $180 billion in new projects hit their stride, nearly catching up with Qatar, the world’s top supplier.

Rising LNG exports coupled with higher prices for steel-making commodities and thermal coal should see Australia’s overall resource and energy export earnings increase 2 percent in the year to end-June 2018, to a record A$211 billion ($165 billion), the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said on Friday. read more

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Shell’s Floating LNG Endeavor Is About To Begin

 Oct. 2, 2017 5:45 AM ET

Summary

  • Shell’s floating liquefied natural gas project, the Prelude FLNG venture, will come online within a year.
  • Cash flow generation expected to begin in 2018, two years later than initially planned.
  • Going over the details of Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude FLNG development.

Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) is getting closer and closer to finally completing its Prelude FLNG project off the northwestern coast of Australia. FLNG stands for floating liquefied natural gas, a marine vessel that can commercialize gas finds that are too small to justify building a new onshore LNG facility to develop. Let’s dig in.

FLNG overview

The purpose of turning gaseous methane into liquid form is that LNG takes up 1/600th of the space as a liquid, making exports economically viable. By cooling the natural gas down to negative 260oF, Shell can economically supply gas to consumers all over the world. The real genius of FLNG vessels is the ability to fit a processing plant on a ship in a fraction of the space that conventional processing facilities take up, along with Shell’s Dual Mixed Refrigerant unit that can cool the gas down. read more

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Australia’s $180 bln LNG megaproject boom enters final stretch

Australia’s $180 bln LNG megaproject boom enters final stretch

* Shell, Inpex race to tap gas in adjacent fields

* Ichthys LNG targets first output by March 2018

* Prelude FLNG seen starting between April and July

* Australia on course to 88 mln T/yr LNG export capacity

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE, Aug 14 (Reuters) – The last massive component of Australia’s $180 billion liquefied natural gas construction boom arrived on Monday, stepping up a race between Anglo-Dutch giant Shell and Japan’s Inpex to start chilling gas for export in 2018.

Company reputations are at stake, as well as first access to overlapping gas fields and Australia leapfrogging Qatar as the world’s largest exporter of LNG.

The Ichthys Venturer, a floating production, storage and offloading facility, travelled 5,600 km (3,500 miles) from a South Korean shipyard and will be moored 220 km off Western Australia to handle condensate from the Ichthys field. read more

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Report: Gas could be sidelined by renewables in parts of Australia

Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, announced its Prelude vessel, a first-of-a-kind ship designed to process LNG off the coast of Western Australia, arrived at its destination after leaving a South Korean shipyard in June. With LNG emerging in market share because of its diverse deliverability options, Shell said the Prelude floating LNG vessel opens up new export opportunities.

By Daniel J. Graeber: 26 July 2017

July 26 (UPI) — With Australia monitoring natural gas demand, a consultant group found gas-fired power could get squeezed out in parts of the country as renewables get cheaper.

A research project from Wood Mackenzie, in coordination with GTM Research, found that wind, solar and battery costs might decline enough to the point that, by 2025, they’re competitive with gas-powered plants. For batteries in particular, whose costs are expected to decline by as much as 50 percent over the next decade, the researchers found storage capacity will be enough to meet the region’s peak residual demand. read more

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In Australia, Shell signals new era for LNG

In Australia, Shell signals new era for LNG

By Daniel J. Graeber: July 25, 2017

July 25 (UPI) — The arrival of a floating liquefied natural gas facility off the coast of Australia signals a milestone for the region as an energy hub, Royal Dutch Shell said.

The company’s Prelude vessel, its first-ever floating platform for LNG, arrived off the coast of Western Australia, after leaving its South Korean shipyard in late June.

Large for a floating facility, it’s one-quarter the size of an equivalent inland plant. With LNG emerging in market share because of its diverse deliverability options, Shell said the Prelude FLNG vessel opens up new doors in new countries. read more

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Prelude

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Qatar signals LNG price war for market share in Asia

U.S. and European oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have invested huge sums over the last decade – often more than they have spent on oil – in an attempt to dominate the LNG market, especially through mega-projects in Australia such as Chevron’s Gorgon or Shell’s Prelude.

By Henning Gloystein and Mark Tay | SINGAPORE

Qatar’s plan to boost liquefied natural gas (LNG) output by 30 percent is the opening shot in a price war for customers in Asia pitting the Gulf state against competitors from the United States, Russia and Australia.

Qatar, facing regional isolation in a diplomatic dispute with its Gulf neighbors, took energy markets by surprise on Tuesday when it said it would raise its LNG production to 100 million tonnes per year – equivalent to a third of current global supplies – within the next five to seven years. read more

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Jaw-dropping numbers behind the Shell Prelude, as the world’s biggest boat sails towards WA

Staff on board the Prelude.Picture: Shell Australia

Peter Milne: Sunday, 2 July 2017

Containing as much steel as 36 Eiffel Towers and spanning three times the length of the oval at Perth Stadium, Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility will cut an imposing figure even in the vastness of the open seas between Asia and Australia.

The world’s biggest vessel was last night continuing on it journey from South Korea to its new home, 475km north-east of Broome.

It’s jaw-dropping scale presented more than a few headaches for engineers but the main difficulty was not accommodating the vessel’s girth, it was dealing with how close its crew would be to the millions of tonnes of gas that Prelude would process. read more

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Shell’s floating LNG facility sets sail from South Korea for Australia

Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) ship has left a shipyard in South Korea for its destination offshore northwest Australia, the company said on Thursday.

Shell’s $12.6 billion Prelude project is expected to start operating next year, the company said, after long delays since the oil major first decided to go ahead with the project in 2011.

Once the facility arrives in Australia, it will be secured to the seabed by mooring chains before it can be connected to the gas field and start operating, Shell said. read more

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Shell finally sets the Prelude, largest floating gas facility ever built, on course to waters off WA coast

By Babs McHugh: 30 June 2017

The largest floating natural gas facility ever built has left Korea bound for waters off the north west of Western Australia.

The Prelude is the first floating liquified natural gas (FLNG) facility commissioned by Royal Dutch Shell, and it means the company will not have to pipe gas onshore for processing.

All extraction, refining, production and offloading of the LNG will be undertaken on the vessel, which will be moored over the Browse Basin, 475 kilometres off the coast of Broome. read more

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Shell’s Floating LNG Facility Sets Sail From South Korea for Australia

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) ship has left a shipyard in South Korea for its destination offshore northwest Australia, the company said on Thursday.

Shell’s $12.6 billion (9.72 billion pounds) Prelude project is expected to start operating next year, the company said, after long delays since the oil major first decided to go ahead with the project in 2011.

Once the facility arrives in Australia, it will be secured to the seabed by mooring chains before it can be connected to the gas field and start operating, Shell said. read more

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Shell’s Prelude LNG vessel sets sail

The world’s biggest vessel – Shell’s Prelude floating LNG platform – has left the South Korean port where it was built, bound for waters off the North West.

Tug boats began towing the 488m Prelude out to sea early this morning from Samsung Heavy Industry’s Geoje shipyard, according to a website monitoring vessel movements.

Prelude was being towed by Terasea Hawk, Tereasea Falcon and Terasea Osprey, the MarineTraffic website showed.

The facility will be deployed off the North West coast to extract and process gas from the Prelude and Concerto gas fields. read more

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China pumps cash into African floating LNG projects in strategic push

The $12.6 billion Prelude project, which is due to start operating off Australia in 2018, is typical of those conceived during the era of high energy prices.

By Oleg Vukmanovic and Colin Leopold | LONDON

China plans to pour almost $7 billion into floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) projects in Africa, betting on a largely untested technology in the hope that energy markets will recover by the time they start production in the early 2020s.

Western banks are wary due to the depressed state of the shipping and gas markets, as well as the technical difficulties of pumping gas extracted from below the ocean floor, chilling it into liquid form on a floating platform and transferring it into tankers for export. read more

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Shell keeps exploration and production focus in Australia

John Culbertson: May 31, 2017

May 31 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it was keeping its exploration and production portfolio in place in Australia, but stepping back from its aviation business.

Shell’s aviation subsidiary in Australia sold to independent Viva Energy Australia for $250 million in line with the Dutch supermajor’s efforts to streamline its portfolio. Shell keeps its brand name visible in the aviation refueling sector as Viva Energy remains the licensee of its fuels.

“Shell’s upstream operations in Australia, which include exploration, production and gas commercialization, are not impacted by this announcement,” the company stated. read more

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Fibre, wi-fi keep most Shell Prelude staff onshore

By Ry Crozier Apr 24, 2017

Implementing a subsea fibre optic link to underpin automation and remote monitoring aboard Shell Australia’s forthcoming Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform means it will only need to fly people out to the plant “by exception”.

The Prelude project is being closely watched by the LNG sector as a potential model for future gas extraction from increasingly remote offshore fields.

Prelude’s operations will be monitored remotely from Shell Australia’s collaborative work environment (CWE) in Perth, which acts as the company’s main operations centre. read more

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Prelude FLNG project relegated to the backburner

FLNG projects – mega tankers fitted with gas extraction and liquefaction facilities – allow producers to tap offshore gas wells and ship LNG without having to build costly pipelines to onshore plants. Owners can move the vessels to new fields when production at an old one ends, slashing asset end-of-life costs.

By Mark Tay: Reuters 6 March 2017

SINGAPORE: Once considered the future of gas production, floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) projects have been firmly relegated to the backburner as global gas producers seek cheaper ways to compete with a surge in U.S. shale supplies and slumping prices. read more

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On board Shell’s Prelude barge, the world’s biggest vessel

PAUL GARVEY: Resources reporter, Perth: 4 March 2017

The biggest vessel the world has ever seen is in the final stages of preparation ahead of its maiden voyage to its permanent home off Australia’s northwest coast.

Royal Dutch Shell’s revolutionary Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facility — 50 per cent longer and six times the weight of the world’s largest aircraft carrier — is deep into the commissioning process at a shipyard in Korea, with the 120 Australians who will man the vessel already on board to familiarise themselves with the monster. read more

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Shell playing long game with Prelude FLNG

Shell playing long game with Prelude FLNG

2017-2018 startup date will coincide with LNG glut

By Sally Bogle
3 February 2017

Analysts say the Prelude FLNG facility will be used to boost Shell’s global LNG sales portfolio, rather than to target specific Asian customers, and that it will reap long-term gains for the company despite its 2017-2018 startup date coinciding with a glut of LNG supply.

One of Australia’s last remaining sanctioned greenfield LNG projects yet to be commissioned, Prelude will add to Shell’s stakes in other Australian projects – the North West Shelf, Gorgon, QCLNG and the planned Browse project – and become a strategic resource with which to exploit remote gas fields around the world. read more

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Shell Prelude LNG over-promise and under-delivery

Extracts from a Reuters/Nasdaq article Australia’s Ichthys LNG dealt blow as major contractor pulls plug”  dated 25 Jan 2017.

Australia’s$200 billion LNG production ramp-up is one of the biggest increases in supply the industry has ever seen, and it will lift Australia over Qatar as the world’s biggest exporter of the fuel.

Even so, most of Australia’s LNG projects currently under construction, including Chevron’s huge Gorgon facility and Royal Dutch Shell’s floating Prelude production vessel, are having trouble keeping within budget and sticking to schedules, and more delays are expected. read more

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Shell to sell Australian aviation fuels unit to Viva Energy

Shell to sell Australian aviation fuels unit to Viva Energy

by Angela Macdonald-Smith: 19 December 2016

Royal Dutch Shell has struck a $US250 million ($343 million) deal to sell its local aviation fuels division to Viva Energy in a further slimming down of its downstream operations in Australia.

The sale follows the oil giant’s $2.9 billion divestment of its other refining and fuels activities to Viva in 2014 and comes amid heightened speculation that Shell is getting set to offload its remaining stake in Woodside Petroleum.

The deal, expected to formally close by md-2017, will see the Shell brand still used for the aviation refuelling business under a licensing deal similar to the arrangement Viva has to use the logo for its petrol retailing business. Regulatory approvals still need to be secured. read more

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Shell awards JGC contract for completion of Prelude LNG vessel

Written by Mark Lammey – 09/12/2016 3:58 pm

Japanese engineering firm JGC Corporation has won a contracted to support the completion of Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility.

JGC said the construction work on the giant vessel − which is 1,600 ft long, 240ft wide and weighs in at 600,000 tonnes − was in its final stages in South Korea.

Once commissioned, it will produce 3.6million tonnes of LNG per year from the Prelude and Concerto gas fields, in the Browse Basin, off Australia. read more

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Shipping to become ‘major new sector’ for LNG: Shell

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by Angela Macdonald-Smith: 2 November 2016

Demand for LNG as a ship fuel has emerged as a much needed new source of growth in the oversupplied market, with oil giant Royal Dutch Shell giving a bullish assessment of the impact of tighter international rules on maritime emissions.

Shell’s head of integrated gas Maarten Wetselaar told investors in London that between shipping and trucking, the transport sector had become “a major new sector” for the LNG market.

The shipping market and the heavy trucking market together represent about 750 million tonnes of potential LNG demand, about three times the current global LNG supply, Mr Wetselaar said. He signalled that last week’s announcement of new rules on emissions from shipping had made Shell more positive on demand from the sector, noting it was an area where the competition was oil rather than cheap coal. read more

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Lament for Royal Dutch Shell

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Kashagan AKA “Cash All Gone”

Forgot the initial cost estimate, probably around $8-10 billion. Now 10+ years too late and ballooned to $50 billionMost normal companies would have gone bust long ago.

Shell inherited some beauties from the boys of the roaring 90s. I hope someone will write a book one day on this era. 

Reserve crisis, Pearl, Sakhalin, Kashagan, Alaska, tarsands, and I must have forgotten a few. Repeated over-promise and under-delivery. All many billions over budget, extreme overruns in startup, loss in AAA status, removal of operational and technical expertise. I find the silence on Prelude ominous. Probably goes the same way as the others. read more

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Australian Government unconvinced about FLNG safety claims

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By Bill Campbell (Retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International)

Comment on: Shell Australia’s giant Prelude floating LNG project likely to come on stream in 2017

(refer to 295-page Report by Economics and Industry Steering Committee issued 7 May 2015)

Much has been written on this website about FLNG, the Prelude specifically raising doubts about the validity of claims by Shell that FLNG risks are as safe as if not more so than conventional offshore installations. The Government report raised considerable concerns in relation to the safety of FLNG facilities. In particular, concerns were raised about the compact nature of the working environment offshore relative to the space afforded to an onshore LNG processing plant and that the facilities will remain manned during cyclonic storms. read more

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Shell Australia’s giant Prelude floating LNG project likely to come on stream in 2017

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20 September 2016

Royal Dutch Shell is building the world’s largest floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project, which has the potential to transform the way natural gas resources are developed. It is designed to recover resources offshore that would otherwise be too costly or difficult to develop without the need to lay pipelines and build processing plants on land. In this article, Hazardex takes a look at the latest developments in this ground-breaking project.

The Prelude natural gas field was discovered by Shell in the Browse Basin off north Western Australia in 2007 with an additional field, Concerto, discovered nearby in 2009. Combined, these gas fields have around 3 trillion cubic feet of liquids-rich gas. The Australian Government gave the Prelude FLNG project environmental approval on November 12, 2010, and Shell took the final investment decision (FID) on May 20, 2011. read more

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Shell Australia attacks Victoria’s ban on fracking, gas moratorium

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John Dagge, Herald Sun: August 30, 2016 

SHELL Australia has blasted the Victorian government’s move to permanently ban fracking and extend a moratorium on conventional onshore gas development, saying it will result in higher energy bills.

Chairman Andrew Smith has also warned the decision will cost the state investment dollars and jobs and make it more difficult for manufacturers, already under pressure, to stay in business.

“Every Victorian household and business will now pay higher energy prices moving forward,” Mr Smith said. read more

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Royal Dutch Shell: Huge Dividend And Long-Term Growth Ahead

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Wayne Duggan: 20 July 2016

A number of British stocks have been hit hard since the referendum vote to leave the EU, but Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) is not one of them. Shares are now up 0.3% since the Brexit vote after initially falling more than 8% during the knee-jerk market sell-off.

With the possibility that the Brexit could severely impact British GDP growth in coming years, RDS.B offers a unique opportunity to invest in a company within a sector that is in a global upswing, a company that has significant international exposure and a company that is committed to maintaining the single largest dividend payment in the MSCI World Index. read more

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JOHN DONOVAN SAR APPLICATION LETTER TO SHELL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

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LINK TO ARTICLE

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 10.23.39JOHN DONOVAN SAR APPLICATION LETTER TO SHELL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

19 July 2016

Mr. Gary Thomson SI-LSC/K
Shell International Limited
40 Bank Street
London E14 5NR

Dear Mr Thomson

Data Protection Act 1998 – Subject Access Request (SAR)

Thank you for your email dated 19 July 2016.

Please find enclosed completed application forms together with a postal order for £10 made out to Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

I obtained it before finding out that the fee can now instead be paid to a charity.

As you are aware, I operate royaldutchshellplc.com – a website focussed on the activities of Shell. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell chair Andrew Smith vows to rein in costs as downturn bites

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ANDREW BURRELL: July 15, 2016

Shell Australia chairman Andrew Smith says the downturn in the oil and gas industry has strengthened his resolve to rein in costs as he seeks to integrate the company — the nation’s biggest foreign investor — with the Queensland assets of BG Group.

“You have to treat every dollar like it’s your own,” Smith tells The Deal, published in The Australian today, as he reflects on his 30-year career and the massive changes that have hit Shell and the petroleum industry. His mantra even extends, Smith’s colleagues reveal, to their boss’s insistence a few years ago that newspaper subscriptions be pared back in the company’s Melbourne office. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Small fire at Prelude LNG construction site in South Korea -Shell

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SYDNEY/SEOUL, July 8 (Reuters) – Shell said a small fire occurred at the construction site in South Korea for its huge floating Prelude liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, with work resuming immediately and an investigation underway.

The incident would not have an impact on the delivery schedule, according to a source in South Korea.

Shell has declined to reveal the timetable or the budget for Prelude, based on a giant processing vessel being built in Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard that will be towed to a gas field off the west Australia coast. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell sees slower roll-out of floating LNG

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Mr Henry said Prelude “remains on track to deliver some material cash flow in 2018,” signalling the venture still has some way until start-up.

Angela Macdonald-Smith: Energy Reporter:May 5, 2016

Royal Dutch Shell acknowledges the roll-out of its floating LNG technology will occur much more slowly than anticipated a few years ago, leaving its ground-breaking Prelude venture in WA as potentially its sole FLNG venture for several years.

Shell had targeted a conveyor belt of huge FLNG vessels running of the production line in South Korea, being deployed at remote gas fields worldwide, with several in waters around Asia.

But three projects that could have used five new FLNG vessels have been halted in their tracks, leaving the $US12 billion Prelude venture Shell’s only one for the forseeable future. FLNG ventures planned by other companies in Australia have also fallen foul to cost and price issues. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Samsung Heavy loses $4.6-billion FLNG order from Shell on oil drop

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Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 13.50.03By KYUNGHEE PARK on 4/28/2016

SUNGNAM, South Korea (Bloomberg) — Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world’s third-largest shipbuilder, said an order to build three floating LNG production facilities was canceled after the energy development project was scrapped amid a plunge in oil prices.

The contract, valued at 5.27 trillion won ($4.6 billion), from Royal Dutch Shell was voided because of the current difficult market conditions, the Sungnam, South Korea-based company said in a regulatory filing Thursday. The shipbuilder won the deal in June on the condition that the project will start only after the client is ready to proceed. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell cancels huge $4.6bn FLNG order at Samsung

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ACCESS TO FULL STORY SUBJECT TO SUBSCRIPTION

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell to axe jobs as cost-cuts hit home

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Shell last week informed local staff that it was starting a round of job cuts, with a large portion of workers within the company asked to re-apply for their current positions.

While no fixed target has been set, it is estimated that about 250 jobs around Australia are likely to go as a result of the changes.

The round of job cuts follows Shell’s recent takeover last year of BG Group. The redundancies will remove many of the overlapping roles inherited through the takeover.

Shell had already flagged that it would axe about 2800 jobs worldwide as a result of the BG takeover, as well as a further 7000 around the globe as part of its response to the plunge in oil and gas prices. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Project Prelude – A case study in the generation of real material debt

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Comment By Bill Campbell (Retired HSE Group Auditor Royal Dutch Shell International) on the article published in The Australian: “Shell chief Ben van Beurden backs FLNG program

Interesting use of terminology by BvB, real material cash, what other type is there rather than funny money.

Prelude dumped from super star gamechanger status to important tool, an aspirin rather than a panacea for all ills, has certainly generated, and it appears will continue to generate, something of a debt mountain for RDS. $15 billion and counting has been allocated to finance the venture outflowing since at least 2007/8 at commencement of conceptual and then detailed design. I may be wrong, but I thought the production start date was given at the time when the first metal was cut in the yards in 2010, as 2016 – now it will be a least 10 years till 2018 before the project will start generating revenue. Our esteemed contributor London Lad, who knows a thing or three about project economics, will confirm, if he feels so inclined, that the breakeven point in any project is determined by how quickly capital spending is halted and operational revenue creation is started. The viability of the project per se, as to whether it will ever add value or be a financial millstone, is determined when production eventually starts by the rate of return of the capital invested, and here BvB hopes for real material cash, and lots of it, and hopefully by 2018 the cash will start to flow. Anybody guess how long it will take for this Project to breakeven? read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Buhari urged to stop work on Egina FPSO

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A Lawyer, John Owubokiri, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to order contractors handling the construction of the Total’s Egina floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to stop work on the platform until all the legal issues are resolved.

Owubokiri, who is a principal partner, Owubokiri & Co, said Buhari recognises the rule of law and due process, therefore, flagrant disrespect of the law by the owners of the Egina project should be dealt with to deter future occurrence. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Musings about the OPL 245 Shell/ENI corruption scandal and the sinking confidence in Prelude

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I would have thought that Simon Henry’s position as CFO should now be untenable, in view of the apparent lack of effective financial governance in Nigeria while he was CFO. 

By John Donovan

A large number of press articles have appeared recently mentioning Ben van Beurden. 

Since these articles are presumably fed to the press by Shell’s PR team, and Shell is not a one-man company, I checked to see whether other Shell directors have appeared recently in press releases.

The results are somewhat curious. For example, searching for Matthias Bichsel on Google News shows that articles were published about him at least weekly until October last year, but the articles then stopped abruptly. References to Simon Henry seem to have dried up a few weeks ago – until mid-March there were articles on Henry on an almost daily basis, but recently there has been nothing. Harry Brekelmans seems to have had a low profile since his appointment, so it is harder to see whether any change has occurred. Andy Brown has almost as many press articles as Ben van Beurden.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Enthusiasm cools for Prelude FLNG

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Chief executive Ben van Beurden said Prelude, Shell’s first attempt at FLNG, should generate “real material cash” in 2018.

But he steered clear of disclosing the construction progress and when the floater would leave its South Korean shipyard for the Browse Basin.

The gas world is watching Prelude’s progress, not least the Woodside Petroleum-led Browse joint venture (which includes Shell) which wants to use FLNG as the development option but is pondering technological advances beyond what Prelude is designed to achieve. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell chief Ben van Beurden backs FLNG program

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  • THE AUSTRALIAN
  • APRIL 13, 2016 12:00AM

Matt ChambersResources reporter: Melbourne

Paul GarveyResources reporter: Perth

Shell chief Ben van Beurden has defended the company’s floating LNG program after the shelving of the Browse LNG project in ­Western Australia and calls from joint-venture partner Woodside Petroleum for Shell to use more advanced FLNG technology to ­reduce costs at the giant gasfields.

Shell is pioneering the use of floating LNG (FLNG) through the $US15 billion ($19.6bn) Prelude project, where the world’s largest vessel is being built to process gas from the Prelude field in the Browse basin. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Delays slow Prelude’s sail-away

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Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 10.34.57Peter Klinger – The West Australian on April 12, 2016

Royal Dutch Shell’s floating LNG prototype is thought to be two years behind its original schedule, demonstrating the complexity of a new processing module the energy sector hopes will deliver the next generation of liquefaction production.

Prelude’s progress will be a topic of discussion at the LNG18 conference, which kicks off in Perth today and includes sector heavyweights such as Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden.

Shell has never revealed the timetable or budget for Prelude, based on a giant processing vessel built in South Korea to be towed to its namesake gas field off the Kimberley. The latest guidance from Shell is for “material cash in 2018” though that timetable could be challenged. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

GE starts production on Shell’s Prelude risers, must withstand a 1-in-10,000-year cyclonic event

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Screen Shot 2016-02-17 at 08.47.47Written by Rita Brown – 11/04/2016 7:38 am

GE Oil & Gas today confirmed it had started production on four high pressure, high temperature dynamic flexible risers destined for Shell’s Prelude, the world’s largest offshore floating facility.

The firm is building them to survive a 1-in-10,000-year cyclonic event, according to the contract spec.

GE will complete the work at its facility in Newcastle, UK, where it has invested more than $21million to expand its production carousel capacity to accommodate the giant kit. They must also be able to withstand high pressures, high operating temperatures, the potential for cold shut-downs and rapid depressurisation. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s GameChanger Program: Turning Frogs into Princes

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Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 10.34.57by Nicholas Newman: Rigzone Contributor: Monday, March 28, 2016

Royal Dutch Shell plc established its reputation for ground-breaking innovation with the design and construction of the world’s first commercial liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Algeria in 1964. Today, the need to be ever more innovative is crucial, given the crash in oil and gas prices, which is forcing extreme cuts throughout the industry value chain. In addition, the fossil fuel industry is coming under pressure from the adoption of policies aimed at combating climate change making long-term investments commercially much more difficult to justify.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Floating LNG hopes are deflated by Browse, Abadi decisions

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Angela Macdonald-Smith: 28 March 2016

Questions are being asked about whether floating LNG technology will live up to its hype after last week’s decision by Woodside Petroleum’s Browse gas venture to freeze work was followed by the axing of a floating design for the Abadi gas field in Indonesia.

The decisions are seen as major setbacks for the innovative technology that was expected to revolutionise the industry by allowing remote offshore gas fields to be developed more cheaply and with less environmental impact. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

ABB wins five-year Shell contract for Prelude FLNG

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Stuart McKinnon – The West Australian on March 24, 2016

The Malaga factory of Swiss multinational engineering giant ABB will be the focal point for a five-year contract to provide services and equipment to Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility off the Kimberley coast.

The Shell order includes the delivery of motors, generators, variable speed drives and low-voltage switchgear and guarantees service and lifecycle management of the electrical equipment as well as service and support for motors from third-party vendors. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Australian Energy Giant Woodside Delays Large Offshore L.N.G. Project

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By STANLEY REED: A version of this article appears in print on March 24, 2016, on page B2 of the New York edition

Woodside Petroleum and its partners, including the energy giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP, have decided to delay indefinitely the development of a huge liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia, the company said on Wednesday.

The decision to postpone the project, called Browse, comes as L.N.G. prices in Asia have fallen by around two-thirds since 2014. The slump is attributed to a supply glut set off largely by a building boom and by lower-than-expected demand from major customers like China. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Where does the cancellation of Browse and Masela leave Prelude?

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Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 12.53.14From a Regular Contributor

Cancellation of both the Browse and Masela FLNG developments on the same day suggests that the issues about which Bill Campbell has warned may finally have won the day. 

If so, this is a huge climbdown for Shell, with several billion dollars in probable write-offs. 

It’s perhaps not surprising, given the plethora of warnings from technical sources that there were serious risks involved. 

Could Prelude be next to be axed? Parking a multi-billion dollar vessel in cyclone alley for 20 years never seemed like the most appropriate use of the pension funds invested in Shell… read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.