Shell resumes LNG shipments from world’s largest floating structure
News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Group
Shell resumes LNG shipments from world’s largest floating structure
Workers removed from North Sea platform after colleague tests positive for Covid-19
More than a dozen workers have been removed from a North Sea platform after a colleague tested positive for Covid-19.
Energy giant Shell confirmed that a crew member, who was demobilised from the Nelson platform on Friday, subsequently tested positive for the virus.
Contact tracing then found another 14 people had come into close contact with the individual, who were all removed from the installation on Sunday as a precaution.
Shell says Pennsylvania ethane cracker about 70% complete
By Reuters Staff: October 9, 2020
Oct 9 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Friday its multibillion-dollar petrochemical complex near Pittsburgh was about 70% complete and remains on track to enter service in the early 2020s.
After temporarily suspending construction activities on the ethane cracker in March to limit the spread of coronavirus, Shell said it has been re-introducing workers at a measured pace – bringing the total number of workers on site to about 6,500.
Shell to change-up FIFO roster at Australian operations
Paul Hunt: Senior Journalist: Oil & Gas, Policy. 07 August 2020
SHELL is urging its staff to move to a new fly-in, fly-out, roster, a move that has been described by unions as “unsafe.”Currently FIFO staff work three weeks on, four weeks off, then three weeks on and five weeks off but under the new proposed agreement, employees would simply do a four week on, four week off roster.
In a power-point presentation leaked to Energy News this week, Shell Australia said a new roster was needed due to interstate travel restrictions, and the combined impact of a 14-day quarantine requirement for FIFO staff.
12-Mar-2020
Royal Dutch Shell plc published its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended December 31, 2019. The 2019 Annual Report and Accounts can be downloaded from www.shell.com/annualreport.
In compliance with 9.6.1 of the Listing Rules, on March 12, 2020, a copy of the 2019 Annual Report and Accounts was submitted to the National Storage Mechanism. This document will shortly be available for inspection at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.
Printed copies of the 2019 Annual Report and Accounts will be available from April 16, 2020, and can be requested, free of charge, at www.shell.com/annualreport.
Jackdaw will be tied back to the Shearwater platform, pictured.
The project, commissioned by Shell last year, asked Survitec to to increase lifeboat capacity on Shearwater by more than 22%.
The replacement of three 49-person capacity lifeboats increased total capacity from 147 to 180.
Andrew Sinclair, Shell project manager said: “This project was a priority for the Shearwater Asset allowing for a ramp up in project and maintenance activity to help unlock the platforms potential and secure a bright future for the facility.”
by David McPhee and James Wyllie: 26 July 2019
Oil giant Shell has confirmed all decommissioning work on the Curlew floating production vessel (FPSO) has been suspended due to an “incident” involving a worker.
The occurrence is understood to have been a “confined space incident” during tank cleaning work two weeks ago.
It has been claimed that the situation resulted in a male worker running out of oxygen while in the tank.
Shell said no one was injured.
Augean North Sea Services is carrying out cleaning and waste disposal on the FPSO at the Port of Dundee.
JUNE 17, 2019 / 2:17 PM
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch court on Monday ordered Royal Dutch Shell to pay a 2.5 million euro ($2.8 million) fine for failing to prevent an explosion at its Moerdijk facility in 2014 and for breaching emissions limits at the plant.
The district court in Den Bosch said Shell had not done enough to prevent an incident on June 3, 2014 which resulted in a series of explosions and a large fire at the Moerdijk chemical plant.
“The factory, employees, the surroundings and the environment were subject to great danger that day”, the court said. “This justifies a significant punishment.”
Emergency crews responded to an explosion and fire at Shell’s Scotford refinery in Alberta on Monday, a company spokeswoman said. There were no reported injuries.
The Scotford facility houses a 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery and a 255,000 bpd oil sands upgrader.
Local media reported flames and a large plume of black smoke coming from the refinery.
Shell spokeswoman Tara Lemay said the fire broke out around 8:45 a.m. local time and employees were being moved away from the incident as a safety precaution. Roadblocks have been set up at the entrances to the Scotford site and on roads nearby.
Published by John Williams, Digital Assistant Editor
LNG Industry,
Royal Dutch Shell violations against contract workers in Nigeria came under scrutiny at the 40th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
Royal Dutch Shell violations against contract workers in Nigeria came under scrutiny today at the 40th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
In a joint statement to the General Assembly of the Human Rights Council, IndustriALL Global Union and Swiss organisation, Europe-Third World Center (CETIM), said:
The Shell Oil Company has agreed to pay $165,000 as part of an agreement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District regarding air quality violations at their refinery in Martinez in 2015 and 2016, according to air district officials.
The settlement, which the district announced today, addresses 16 violations over two years including sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide emissions, a shelter-in-place order, a cargo vessel tank that was overdue for emissions inspections and broken seals on a liquid storage tank.
July: Prelude arrives from Korea
May: Tow line to tug fails, mooring lines fail
June: LNG loaded onto Prelude, gas leak, flood detection not working
July: Hydrogen sulfide leak, flooded machinery room, fire dampers did not close
August: No power to fire-fighting foam
September: Smouldering insulation
October: Small fire
December: 750-bed accommodation vessel for additional workers leaves, wells opened and gas flows to Prelude.
February: Preparing for first export of condensate
RELATED
The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.
Crux has long been considered a likely second phase to Shell’s $16.6-billion (Aus.) Prelude development that has recently been brought on stream via the world’s largest FLNG vessel permanently moored in the field.
Initially the hook-up was not envisioned for many years, as a back-fill when production of gas from Prelude began to decline late next decade. A development plan recently submitted to Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety & Management Authority (NOPSEMA), however, outlines the start of front-end engineering and design work for Crux later this year leading to a final investment decision in 2020.
Shell’s Prelude floating LNG project has taken longer than expected to start up. Shell Australia
By Angela Macdonald-Smith: 01 Feb 2019
Energy giant Shell has brushed off persistent talk about technical problems dogging the start-up of the huge Prelude floating LNG project off Australia’s far north-west coast but has signalled the first LNG cargo from the closely watched venture may still be several weeks away.
The multinational announced the beginning of production from the offshore Prelude gas field in late December but is still in the process of commissioning the complex LNG processing systems on board what is the world’s largest floating structure.
Shell’s Pulau Bukom industrial site in western Singapore. (Photo: AFP)
(Updated: )
SINGAPORE: Oil giant Shell has been fined S$400,000 for a fire which broke out at a petroleum refinery on Pulau Bukom in 2015, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Tuesday (Jan 8).
The fire left six workers injured, including two with critical injuries after they suffered 50 per cent and 70 per cent burns.
On Aug 21, 2015, two groups of workers were simultaneously conducting maintenance and project works on a crude distillation unit at the refinery, said the ministry.
Ben van Beurden Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg
Written by David McPhee –
Chief executive, Ben van Beurden, raised a call to redouble the firm’s focus on safety last year after a number of serious incidents in 2017.
An overturned tanker spill and explosion in Pakistan caused the tragic death of 200 people, while there were also fatalities in Canada and Nigeria.
Mr van Beurden added he is also focusing on restoring trust in the oil firm.
He said: “I’m still unhappy with our safety performance.
Singapore — Shell will load the first condensate cargo from Australia’s Prelude FLNG project at end January, according to shipping reports and sources Thursday.
The condensate will be loaded in a 80,000 mt clip over January 31 to February 2, shipping reports showed.
A vessel has not been fixed for the cargo, and shipbrokers said Shell began looking for an Aframax tanker to load the cargo Thursday.
Shell did not immediately respond to an email query seeking comment.
The destination of the cargo is unclear, though trade sources have said that the oil major will likely use the cargo within its own network of splitters and refineries.
Shell’s giant Prelude floating LNG vessel is edging closer to production as the accommodation vessel that housed up to 750 workers over the year moves away to allow the final stages of start-up to occur.
The Posh Arcadia accommodation vessel sailed to a station about 6km north of Prelude on Thursday morning, according to vessel tracking website MarineTraffic.
A Shell spokeswoman said the company continued to prepare Prelude for operations. “We expect to see production around the end of the year,” she said.
14 December 2018
About 180 jobs are at risk after energy giant Shell announced the closure of two fire-damaged chemical units within an oil refinery in Cheshire.
The positions at Stanlow in Ellesmere Port are in question following a blaze at the site in August, which damaged the units.
Shell said the cost of fixing the damage was “not economically viable”,
The two chemical plants at the site are owed by Shell but are run under a management agreement by Essar Oil UK.
Essar Oil UK employs over 900 staff, and a further 500 contractors also operate at the refinery.
Shell’s Brent Charlie, which is 185km (115 miles) North East of Lerwick, Shetland, contacted HM Coastguard just before 5pm on November 27 reporting that they had lost power and were running on backup batteries.
“The Brent Charlie platform was shut down for maintenance and although the 184 crew were safe and well the platform had limited power, meaning no lighting, heating or water,” said a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
“With severe incoming weather HM Coastguard and Shell made the decision to ensure the safety of the crew and to declare an emergency situation and evacuate 135 non-essential crew.
22 November 2018
The energy giant Shell is to increase the amount of gas processed at a Norfolk terminal by 16% – securing its future for “decades to come”.
The firm has spent £300m updating the plant at Bacton to allow 400 million cubic feet (11,300 litres) of gas to be processed.
“This means we can use the facilities more and reduce operating costs,” Anne O’Halloran, from Shell, said.
This firm is also drilling more wells in the Southern North Sea gas field.
Energy Voice interviewed Shell UK upstream vice president Steve Phimister aboard the Shearwater platform.
Written by Jeremy Cresswell –
A characteristic throughout has been a quest to lead.
Driving Shell forward is VP Upstream President Steve Phimister who, by coincidence, was born the same year as Shell’s UKCS odyssey began 50 years ago.
The super-major has lived through boom times followed by harsh periods when commodity prices were in the basement and, from the late 1990s, speculation grew as to whether such companies had a future in the North Sea.
REUTERS STAFF: AUGUST 12, 2018 / 11:12 PM
HOUSTON (Reuters) – The heavy oil hydrocracking unit (HCU) at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSa.AS) 209,787 barrel per day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery was shut after a fire early on Sunday, sources familiar with plant operations said.
The fire broke out on the 45,000 bpd HCU, call the H-Oil Unit, at about 1:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Sunday, the sources said.
A Shell spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
No injuries were reported due to the blaze, the sources said.
Written by Allister Thomas and Chris Jaffray –
The incident in November 2014 took place on the Brent Delta installation when a gas cylinder unexpectedly discharged, causing projectiles to strike a worker.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard today that technicians were required to replace a gas cylinder within a system used to extinguish fires on November 9, 2014.
One technician rolled what he thought was an empty cylinder and took off a protective cap, however the cylinder was in fact fully charged which caused an uncontrolled release of gas and a loud bang – resulting in the technician dropping the cylinder which caused the valve to shear, with projectiles severely injuring a second technician.
Lorna Siggins Western Correspondent: Wed, Aug 1, 2018
An investigation by the State’s energy regulator into the release of non-odourised gas from the Corrib gas refinery in north Mayo last year says it was caused by the upgrading of an information technology (IT) system.
“Deficiencies” in Shell E&P Ireland’s (SEPIL) operating procedures led to the incident last September, but there were no safety consequences for staff at the Corrib gas refinery or members of the public “in the immediate vicinity”, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has found.
Shell’s giant floating liquefied natural gas plant (FLNG), the Prelude, moved closer to production last week when she received a cool-down cargo from the LNG carrier Gallina.
The 70,000 dwt Gallina transferred a load of LNG to the Prelude on Wednesday and Thursday as the plant prepares for commissioning. It was the first time that Prelude has had an LNG carrier alongside to test the plant’s sophisticated loading arms.
Prelude is now testing its systems in preparation for first gas from Shell’s Prelude field, which holds an estimated three trillion cubic feet of natural gas (in combination with the adjacent Concerto field). Royal Dutch Shell hopes to begin generating revenue from the multi-billion-dollar project sometime this year.
The boss of Royal Dutch Shell has suffered a bruising shareholder revolt after more than a quarter of its investors voted against his multi-million euro payout for last year.
Ben Van Beurden pocketed €8.9m (£7.8m) for 2017 after trebling the company’s profits to $12.1bn (£9bn) as the oil giant staged an impressive recovery from a crash in prices.
But shareholders took against the FTSE 100 boss after an accident in Pakistan last year claimed the lives of more than 200 people in an explosion of a fuel tanker operated by one of the energy giant’s subsidiaries.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc will face difficult questions at its annual general meeting next week after an investor-advisory group urged shareholders to challenge executive pay and the company’s response to a fatal accident in Pakistan.
Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., an influential adviser on corporate governance, has recommended investors reject Shell’s pay report at its AGM on May 22, saying it was initially “silent” on the Pakistan incident. ISS also said it could only offer “qualified support” to the re-election of the independent director looking after corporate social responsibility.
The boss of oil giant Shell is facing the threat of a revolt over his £7.8million pay packet.
Institutional Shareholders Services, a leading investor advisory group, is recommending that Ben van Beurden’s pay is voted down at the annual general meeting later this month.
ISS said it also wants more information about how the 60-year-old’s bonus was affected by an incident in Pakistan in 2016, when a fuel tanker operated by a Shell Pakistan contractor exploded, killing more than 200 people.
The Health and Safety Executive has written to all oil and gas operators expressing concern about the number of gas releases in the industry.
The regulator said some had come “perilously close to disaster” and that more needed to be done to tackle them.
The HSE said a “lack of leadership” was often to blame for leaks, and called for firms to review their processes.
Operators have until July to respond with a summary of their planned improvements.
The HSE has written to operators ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster. The platform exploded in July 1988, leaving 167 men dead.
The company has published the findings in a report to accommodate UK regulations requiring transparency on government payments.
It includes payments in 29 countries where Shell operates and does not include details related to refining, natural gas liquefaction, or gas-to-liquids activities which are not in the scope of UK regulations.
Shell made the largest contribution to Nigeria, paying over £3billion last year, while the smallest sum went to Bulgaria at £109million.
The funds for Nigeria include the government’s production entitlement, covering more than £2.1billion.
Written by Mark Lammey –
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Shell has failed to “prevent the uncontrolled release of flammable or explosive substances”.
Its inspector accused the oil major of failing to ensure valves on the rig were kept in “efficient working order and in good repair”.
Shell has been given until March 8 to comply with the improvement notice.
A spokesman for Shell UK said: “Shell UK can confirm that we were issued with an HSE improvement notice on 8th December 2017 in relation to a small hydrocarbon release on our Brent Bravo platform in the North Sea.
Written by Mark Lammey –
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.
Shell has launched an investigation after a lifeboat accidentally “descended” from the aging Brent Alpha platform during maintenance.
A Shell spokesperson said that on Saturday morning, a mechanical failure occurred during routine maintenance, “allowing [the lifeboat] to descend into the sea.” The BBC reports that the lifeboat davit’s clutch slipped during work on the boat. No injuries were reported, and the boat was recovered the following day.
REUTERS STAFF: 18 DECEMBER 2017
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Three offshore oil workers filed a lawsuit against units of Royal Dutch Shell and Enbridge, seeking $1 million in damages for injuries they allegedly received during a Nov. 8 fire on a U.S. Gulf of Mexico production platform.
The suit, filed in Galveston County court in Texas on Dec. 5, claims safety lapses on Shell’s Enchilada platform caused severe injuries to the three. The complaint seeks more than $1 million in damages from Shell International Exploration and Production, Shell Offshore, and Garden Banks Gas Pipeline Co, a unit of Enbridge, which owns a gas pipeline connected to the platform.
Shell’s Enchilada platform, sitting atop Garden Banks Block 128 in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast, caught fire early Wednesday (Nov. 8), injuring two workers. This map shows the location, outlined in yellow.
Updated Posted
Three workers injured in a November fire on Shell’s Enchilada platform in the Gulf of Mexico are suing the oil and gas company in a Texas county court. The suit claims Shell, its Gulf of Mexico subsidiary and a pipeline operator “acted with flagrant and malicious disregard” for the health and safety of the workers leading up to the incident.
By Dow Jones Newswires
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said on Tuesday it has suspended production on two offshore oil and gas platforms following the shutdown of a major European oil transport node.
The British-Dutch oil giant confirmed that it has halted the flow of oil and gas from its Shearwater and Nelson platforms in the central North Sea as a result of the shutdown of the Forties Pipeline System owned by Ineos, a refining and chemicals company.
REUTERS STAFF: DECEMBER 11, 2017
SINGAPORE, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said a fire at its Singapore refinery-petrochemical site was extinguished on Sunday and no one was hurt in the incident.
The fire occurred at one of its manufacturing units on Bukom Island at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) and was extinguished shortly after by the site’s firefighters, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement.
Shell was investigating the cause of the incident and did not expect any impact on its customers, she said.
CATHERINE GRIWKOWSKY: 15 November 2017
One person was injured and the Shell Scotford site was evacuated for several hours after a heavy oil mixture leak on Wednesday afternoon.
The “hydrocarbon release” happened around 12:30 p.m. inside a processing unit at the Scotford Facility near Fort Saskatchewan, according to a statement sent by Tara Lemay on behalf of Shell. The all-clear was sounded at 6:30 p.m.
One person reported a minor injury and all non-essential personnel were moved off-site as a precaution, the statement said. All personnel were accounted for.
Emergency crews were called to respond to a hydrocarbon release at a Shell Canada’s Scotford upgrader facility northeast of Fort Saskatchewan on Wednesday afternoon. Craig Ryan/ Global News
Emergency crews were called to respond to a hydrocarbon release at a Shell Canada facility northeast of Fort Saskatchewan on Wednesday afternoon.
The company said the incident unfolded at its Scotford upgrader facility which processes crude bitumen. Late Wednesday afternoon, Shell confirmed an alarm was sounded and personnel were “relocated away from the incident as a safety precaution.”
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) released a statement today about the impact on its operations resulting from a fire at the Shell Enchilada platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell advised in a statement on Nov. 12 that a plan for repairing the damaged portions of the asset is being developed. All production coming into the Garden Banks Gas Pipeline system also remains shut in until further notice.
Hess production is shut in at its Baldpate, Conger and Penn State Fields. Production is also shut in at the Shell-operated Llano Field (Hess 50 percent interest). Hess production at these fields is approximately 30 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Two people were injured Wednesday morning (Nov. 8) in a fire on a Shell oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said. The remaining 46 workers were safely evacuated.
A Shell spokesman said the fire happened at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday on its Enchilada platform at Garden Banks 128. Shell said it had identified the source of the fire and was “actively responding to the situation.”
Written by Alan Shields –
The uncontrolled release took place on the Barque PB, a normally unmanned platform, on July 19.
Around 138kg of flammable hydrocarbon gas was released from pipework connected to the vessel V2000, according to the Health and Safety Executive.
A subsequent probe found that flammable gas had been used to leak test the pipework instead of inert nitrogen gas – which was available.
Failings were found in the arrangements for the effective planning, organising and control for the reinstatement of the pipework.
Royal Dutch Shell reported a leak and emissions Tuesday at its Deer Park, Texas refinery and chemical plant.
“A leak was found on the bottom of debutanizer distillation column. The cause of the leak is still under investigation,” the refinery said in a statement to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It added that it was “reducing feed rate to unit to minimize emissions.”
Deer Park is located along the Houston Ship Channel, 20 miles east of downtown Houston. The facility includes a 326,000-barrel-a-day refinery.
By Greg Fischer Editor-in-chief: Sep 26, 2017
Around 8 p.m. on Tuesday night a huge flash could be seen in the sky in the direction of the St. James Motiva plant on Highway 44 and Highway 70.
Many people shared sightings of the explosion on social media. The St. James Parish Sheriff’s Office has stated that a transformer exploded, causing an electrical fire at an Entergy substation near the plant.
The substation is the main electrical source for the plant, commonly called Motiva. Entergy has reached out to clarify that the transformer is owned by the Shell Convent Refinery.
NEWS FROM JULY 2, 2015 RELEVANT TO RECENT EVENTS
Oil giant Shell was today fined over £6,000 after a diesel leak on board the same North Sea platform where two workers died 12 years ago.
Sean McCue, 22, and Keith Moncrieff, 45, lost their lives when they were overcome by gas while working on the energy firm’s Brent Bravo rig in 2003.
The oil company was previously fined nearly one million pounds admitting safety breaches which led to their deaths.
Yesterday Shell UK bosses returned to the court after approximately 13 to 15 tonnes of diesel spilled into the North Sea despite warnings over the transfer system going back over a decade.
AUGUST 30, 2017 / 6:16 PM
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) staff have returned to a major oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico in preparation to restart production one week after its shutdown due to Hurricane Harvey, industry sources said on Wednesday.
A small team was airlifted to the Perdido platform and is currently assessing conditions to understand when production can be resumed, the sources said.
Perdido, operated by Shell, was shut down on Aug. 23 ahead of Hurricane Harvey’s arrival. The hub, the second deepest in the Gulf of Mexico, normally produces around 100,000 barrels per day of oil and gas.