Dec 11th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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The Sunday Times Business Person of the Year 2022: The shortlist
The Sunday Times
In a year buffeted by war, falling markets and government upheaval, we present the shortlist for the business person who has stood out above the rest
Ben van Beurden, Shell
The Dutchman will call time on a 40-year career at Shell in 2023, having spent nine years in the hot seat. He gambled early in his tenure on the £36 billion takeover of gas giant BG Group, relocated Shell’s head office to London, and cut its dividend when the oil price tanked during Covid. But the company has surged this year on the back of higher oil prices stoked by the Ukraine war. Van Beurden, 64, leaves Shell in a fitter state and with plans to embrace green energy —read more
Sir Winston Churchill once admonished leaders to never let a good crisis go to waste, and Big Oil has rarely failed to heed the advice. Under normal circumstances, energy downturns have created perfect opportunities for deep-pocketed oil and gas heavyweights to land prime assets on the cheap. A good case in point: the last oil bust of 2016 was followed by a sizable number of huge M&A deals in the sector including the $60B tie-up between Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) and BG Group, Canadian Oil Sands and Suncor EnergyEnergy, as well as a handful that fell through including the proposed merger between Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Baker Hughes (NYSE:BKR).read more
Nov 11th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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Shell: Regaining Dividend Respectability And Shifting Toward Green Hydrogen
The Daily Drilling Report: 10 November 2020
Summary
Shell is taking a healthy approach toward energy transition and balancing capital projects in terms of energy source.
It’s also forging a leadership position in two key fuels that have been identified as being crucial to meeting Paris Climate goals – natural gas and hydrogen.
Shell is back in our good grades with its recent dividend raise and strong earnings prospects going forward.
At its recent price in the mid-$20s it represents a nice risk reward profile.
The question is, is the dividend safe? The answer here is yes, as it has just been raised. It seems Uncle Ben has heard the hue and cry of outraged shareholders, and is restoring some of what he took away just last quarter.
Ben Van Beurden, CEO Shell:
So we are announcing an increase of 4% in our dividends this quarter. But we’re also announcing a target milestone for our net debt of $65 billion for the near term. And once we have achieved this milestone, we target to further increase shareholder distribution. So we are not offering the promise of future growth, but also increasing shareholder distributions for the near term.read more
Jun 9th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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Shell boss ‘bothered’ by depiction of firm as ‘unwelcome player’ in energy transition
Royal Dutch Shell Plc had been turning out about 2.7 million barrels of oil each day until the novel coronavirus took hold of the world.
By Bloomberg: 09/06/2020
Demand for oil, the company’s core product, dropped almost a third in April, and the price of West Texas Intermediate briefly dipped into negative numbers for the first time.
It’s not easy to run an oil major when people suddenly stop needing oil.
Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden responded by slashing spending and cutting Shell’s dividend for the first time since World War II.read more
Nov 2nd, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Shell appoints new head of downstream business
By Ron Bousso: Reuters: November 1, 2019
* Downstream business seen as key to Shell’s energy transition
* Vigeveno previously led Shell’s global commercial business
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has appointed Huibert Vigeveno to head its downstream businesss, the refining, trading and marketing operations that are to become a key pillar for the oil and gas company as it transitions to cleaner energy.
Vigeveno, 50, previously led Shell’s global commercial business and rose to prominence when he oversaw the integration of smaller rival BG Group after its $53 billion acquisition in 2016.read more
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) -3% pre-market and trades nearly 4% lower in London despite beating Q3 earnings estimates, as the company warns global economic conditions could slow the timetable for its $25B share buyback program.
“Prevailing weak macroeconomic conditions and challenging outlook inevitably create uncertainty about the pace of reducing gearing to 25% and completing the share buyback program within the 2020 time frame,” CEO Ben van Beurden says.
Gearing – the ratio between debt and market cap – rose in the quarter to 27.9% from 23.1% a year earlier.read more
Sep 27th, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Anjli Raval, Senior Energy Correspondent: 27 Sept 2019
The preceding three years offered plenty to talk about. Oil prices had collapsed; Shell had embarked on a complex $53bn takeover of natural gas giant BG Group and the company’s offices had been raided over a controversial Nigerian deal. Shell’s top brass were wrestling with a dilemma that has since beset every major oil and gas company. How should a company that generates most of its profits by meeting the world’s still-robust demand for oil and gas navigate the future as the political tide turns increasingly against fossil fuels.read more
Sep 4th, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Sept 4, 2019
LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers, has asked U.S. regulators to extend the time by which it should complete an LNG export project in Louisiana by five years to 2025, regulatory filings showed.
The project, a 50-50 venture with U.S. midstream company Energy Transfer, envisaged converting an existing import and regasification facility in Lake Charles into a multi-train, 16.45 million tonnes per year (mtpa) facility.read more
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Aug. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Dutch Shell plc (the ‘company’) (NYSE: RDS A) (NYSE: RDS B) today announces the commencement of trading in the next tranche of its share buyback programme previously announced on July 26, 2018. In the next tranche, the company has entered into an irrevocable, non-discretionary arrangement with a broker to enable the purchase of A ordinary shares and/or B ordinary shares for a period up to and including October 28, 2019. The aggregate maximum consideration for the purchase of A ordinary shares and/or B ordinary shares under the next tranche is $2.75 billion. The company’s intention is to buy back at least $25 billion of its shares by the end of 2020, subject to further progress with debt reduction and oil price conditions.read more
Jun 4th, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Shell plans to boost returns and become a force in power
Ron Bousso: JUNE 4, 2019LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell outlined plans on Tuesday to boost shareholder returns after 2020, while also increasing spending on oil, gas and power, as it capitalizes on years of cost cutting to prepare for a lower carbon future.
In a strategy update, the Anglo-Dutch energy company said it was on track to deliver on its commitment to sharply increase cash generation and carry out one of the world’s largest share buyback programs of $25 billion by the end of next year.
It then plans to increase payouts to investors through dividends and share buybacks to $125 billion between 2021 and 2025, roughly half of its current market value. That compares with payouts of around $90 billion between 2016 and 2020.
While offering sweeteners to investors, Shell also outlined plans to increase spending in the next decade to grow its gas, oil, renewables and power output.read more
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) is moving to sell its stake in Indonesia’s $15B Abadi liquefied natural gas project, Reuters reports, part of its ongoing asset disposal program to raise cash to help pay for its $54B purchase of BG Group in 2015.
Shell hopes to raise ~$1B from the sale of its 35% stake in the Abadi project, according to the report.
Project construction was due to start in 2018 but was delayed in 2016 until at least 2020 after Indonesian authorities instructed a switch from an offshore to an onshore facility.read more
Jan 31st, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Shell sticking with spending discipline as 2018 profits soar
Ron Bousso: January 31, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said to would stick to spending discipline this year after 2018 profits jumped by more than a third to $21.4 billion, their highest since 2014.
The Anglo-Dutch oil company also reported a sharp rise in cash generation, in a further sign that cost savings since the 2014 oil market downturn are filtering into its operations.
Its shares were up by more than 4 percent at 1120 GMT.
A strong performance in the fourth quarter was driven by higher oil and gas prices, year-on-year, as well as a stronger contribution from crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading.read more
Jan 17th, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Ron Bousso: January 17, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has appointed Wael Sawan to head its oil and gas production division, replacing Andy Brown who will step down after 35 years at the Anglo-Dutch company.Sawan, 44, a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin, currently heads Shell’s deepwater operations, one of the company’s cash growth engines in recent years. He joined Shell in 1997.
Brown, 56, will remain a member of Shell’s executive committee until his departure on Sept. 30, Shell said in a statement.read more
Dec 18th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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China signaled its openness for business with a raft of deals that’ll give oil majors including Royal Dutch Shell Plc new opportunities to develop fields in partnership with the nation’s biggest offshore explorer.
China National Offshore Oil Corp. said in Beijing on Tuesday that it had inked oil and gas accords with nine firms. The signing ceremony followed President Xi Jinping’s address to party cadres marking 40 years of reform and broadly underlining the nation’s commitment to global trade.
The agreements cover 64,000 square kilometers in the Pearl River basin, to a depth of up to 3,000 meters. In addition to the Netherlands-based Shell, France’s Total SA and U.S.-based Chevron Corp. were also awarded parcels. All three majors hold existing production sharing contracts with CNOOC. The other firms involved are: ConocoPhillips, Equinor ASA, Husky Energy Inc., Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co., Roc Oil Co., and SK Innovation Co.read more
Oil is trading well below its price of a decade ago, but you’d have no idea looking at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s giant pile of cash.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major generated the most cash from operations in 10 years last quarter — almost $15 billion. The last time Shell pumped out that much money was the year crude soared to $140 a barrel, compared with about $75 today.
As a result, the company is showing greater confidence. It increased the pace of a $25 billion buyback program, rewarding shareholders who stuck with it through crude’s collapse. The cash surge is a feather in the cap of Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden, who splashed more than $50 billion on buying BG Group Plc in 2016 during the depths of the downturn.read more
‘We’re not an oil company,” says Ben van Beurden from across the table. It is an affable, but pointed intervention typical of the man leading the FTSE 100’s highest-valued business.
“I don’t want to be facetious or pedantic,” he continues good-naturedly. “But we are a much broader and more sophisticated company than one that produces oil. We produce much more gas than we do oil, for a start.”
For the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, the distinction is one that rings at the heart of a personal mission to transform a company which for over a hundred years has fuelled the development of the modern world.read more
Sep 17th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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By Sarah Kent: Sept. 16, 2018 7:01 p.m. ET
LONDON— Royal Dutch ShellRDS.A -0.37% PLC said it will announce plans to lay out targets to manage its emissions of the greenhouse gas methane Monday, joining a handful of major oil companies that have made similar pledges this year.
Shell has been outspoken about the value of natural gas as a “bridging” fuel—a cleaner-burning fossil fuel that can help bolster renewables like solar and wind energy when, for instance, the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
The company’s long-term strategy is wedded to gas. In 2016, it spent roughly $50 billion to buy smaller rival BG Group, an acquisition that cemented Shell’s position as one of the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas players.read more
Since the early days of the oil and gas industry, a group of Western companies has dominated the industry. These companies have been named ‘Big Oil’ due to the size of their global footprint. Despite their technological superiority and significant access to capital, these organizations are now facing difficulties in maintaining market share and profitability. Changing requirements concerning fuel types as well as an increasing focus on environmental impacts have transformed the global energy market. Inevitably, these companies have been forced to change their strategy to remain relevant to customers.read more
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) oil traders in the Caribbean island of Barbados are getting ready for a tough gig – they’re being moved to the Bahamas next month.
The relocation of the oil and gas company’s trading hub for Latin America will make travel to customers in the key region easier for its employees, a company spokeswoman said.
Royal Dutch Shell has triggered the start of a long-awaited £19bn ($25bn) share buyback scheme that will reward patient investors over the next two years.
The oil major will kick off the payday by distributing $2bn over the next three months for those shareholders who accepted shares rather than dividends during a downturn in the oil price two years ago.
As the crude market has recovered, Shell has prioritised paying down debt and selling off $30bn in assets over repurchasing the dividend scrips.read more
June 20 (UPI) — Supermajor Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it sold off its entire stake in two fields in production off the Norwegian coast for $556 million.
Shell’s subsidiary in Norway sold its entire 44.56 percent interest in the Draugen field and its 12 percent in the Gjøa to Norwegian energy company OKEA.
OKEA CEO Erik Haugane in a statement on the deal said the agreement with Shell was a “high-quality acquisition.”
His company estimates it will become the 19th largest producer offshore Norway with the deal. The Shell acquisition gives it a boost in net production of about 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent.read more
May 26th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Tanzanian MP Wants Shell-BG U.S.$500 Million Transaction Investigated
By Alawi Masare; 25 May 2018
Dodoma — Momba MP Mr David Silinde (Chadema) has asked the Parliament to form a special committee to investigate the transaction between Shell and BG over Tanzania’s gas blocks alleging that Shell did not pay capital gain tax.
Debating the budget of the Ministry of Energy on Friday, Mr Silinde said the company should pay the tax estimated at $500 million.
“There is a possibility that the transaction involved corruption. Hence, denies the country the revenue which could address different challenges in the energy sector,” said Mr Silinde.read more
Royal Dutch Shell on Monday outlined a scenario in which, by 2070, we would be using far less of the company’s own product — oil — as cars become electric, a massive carbon storage industry develops, and transportation begins a shift toward a reliance on hydrogen as an energy carrier.
The company’s Sky scenario was designed to imagine a world that complies with the goals of the Paris climate agreement, managing to hold the planet’s warming to “well below” a rise of 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. Shell has said that it supports the Paris agreement.read more
Mar 19th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Management thinks the things it has done in recent years will set it up to deliver huge returns for shareholders.
Tyler Crowe (TMFDirtyBird) Mar 19, 2018
It’s hard for a $250-billion-plus business to change its stripes, but Royal Dutch Shell’s(NYSE:RDS-A)(NYSE:RDS-B) has done a rather incredible job over the past few years transforming the company into one of the most compelling investments in the integrated oil and gas industry.Now that Shell has weathered the storm of low oil prices and is back to generating returns, management has plans both within and without the oil industry to preserve what it calls a “world-class investment case.” Here are several quotes from the company’s most recent earnings conference call that highlight some of the efforts Shell is taking to both grow the business and make the stock a better investment.
Diversifying the business away from oil
One thing that is becoming a larger fixture of every investor conference call for Shell and other big oil companies is touting one’s alternative energy strategy. Shell is around the middle of the pack when it comes to shifting away from oil and gas, but CEO Ben van Beurden was quick to point out some of the investments the company made recently as well as the framework for its alternative investment strategy.
So we expect our capital investment in New Energies to be $1 billion to $2 billion on average per year until the end of the decade. But as it is dependent on both organic and inorganic investment opportunities, this might be a little bit more or a little bit less depending on the year. But that’s, of course, without changing the overall group capital investment budget for that year.read more
Mar 19th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Summary
Shell declared an income of $13.4 billion compared to $4.8 billion in 2016.
Merger with BG was a game-changer for Shell.
Shell has now positioned itself as an energy company that is ready to embrace new challenges.
Headquartered in the Hague, Netherlands, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) has established itself as one of the most prominent oil and gas companies in the world. Although the last few years have been tough for the energy giant, Royal Dutch Shell has now started making the right moves, which will reap benefits in near future.
In its recently published Annual report for 2017, Shell declared an income of $13.4 billion compared to $4.8 billion in 2016. Although it must be noted that high oil and natural gas prices contributed to this yearly gain, a year-on-year increase of 279% is commendable.read more
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) is focused on increasing its U.S. shale operation’s oil production while slowing investment in lower-margin natural gas, an executive said on Thursday.
The Anglo-Dutch company aims to boost its overall shale production by 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) to 500,000 boe/d between 2017 and 2020, mostly in the United States with some production in Argentina.
Although the shale business has yet to generate a profit, it is expected to do so next year, Greg Guidry, who heads Shell’s shale operations, told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.
Shell, like Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N), aims to make shale production a driver of growth in the next decade. But today most of its output is natural gas, where profit margins are lower.
As a result, around 85 percent of Shell’s shale budget for at least the next two years will go toward new oil resources, particularly in the Permian oilfield of West Texas and Canada’s Duvernay Basin, Guidry said.read more
Mar 8th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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By Mark Kleinman, City Editor
Shell, the FTSE 100 oil behemoth, is plotting a $10bn (£7.3bn) joint takeover bid for the American shale division of BHP, the world’s biggest miner.
Sky News has learnt that Shell and Blackstone, the private equity firm, have agreed to work together on an offer for the assets, which were put up for sale last summer by BHP amid pressure from an activist investor.
A joint offer from Shell and Blackstone would be only one of several credible proposals that BHP is expecting to receive for the US shale operations, according to banking sources.read more
Shell’s oil and gas reserve life – the number of years it can sustain production at its current levels – has steadily declined in recent years despite the acquisition of BG Group
LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – The gasps in the audience were clearly audible at the auction of Mexico’s oil blocks a month ago as Royal Dutch Shell’s hefty bids were announced one by one.
The size of Shell’s cash payments – $343 million out of the total of $525 million that Mexico earned in the sale – far outstripped its competitors’ offers, guaranteeing that the company swept up nine of the 19 offshore blocks.
The Anglo-Dutch major knew something no one else did.
Six months earlier, its drilling rig had struck a giant oil reservoir, the Whale well, in the U.S. side of the Gulf of Mexico – just across the border from many of the Mexican blocks, which share a similar Paleogene-age geology.
Calculating that this significantly increased the chances of the Mexican blocks also containing treasure, Shell delayed the announcement of the discovery until the day of the auction, after bids had been submitted.read more
Feb 20th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Ron Bousso, Dmitry Zhdannikov: FEBRUARY 20,2018
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) will expand deepwater output and turn a profit from its shale production in coming years as both together will help the oil major cope with a world of low crude prices, the head of its oil and gas production said on Tuesday.
Shell’s deepwater production in Brazil, Nigeria, the Gulf of Mexico is much bigger and more profitable, but the firm sees the nimble, fast-returns U.S. onshore shale as an engine for growth.
“We can see strong (shale) production growth, strong cash surpluses that gives us a balance in our portfolio where you can ramp investment up and down, you can moderate that, very unlike deepwater which is quite chunky,” Andy Brown told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the IP Week conference.read more
“The LNG glut — conspicuously absent isn’t it?” Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben Van Beurden said last week, in a rare display of public self-satisfaction from a modern energy major head. He had good reason to allow himself a moment’s celebration. Shell’s decision to buy BG Group in 2015 was, at least in part, a major bet on the future of LNG. It looks now like it should pay out far sooner than many in the industry anticipated.
Feb 1st, 2018
by John Donovan.
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By James Sillars, Business Reporter:1 FEB 2018
Royal Dutch Shell has reported a surge in annual profits to £8.5bn – a leap of 242% on the previous year.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major credited the performance on a recovery in oil and gas prices during a “year of transformation” within the business.
Underlying earnings – which reflect day-to-day operations and strip out one-off costs – more than doubled to £11.2bn and were aided by a £3bn contribution during the final three months of the year.
The company said: “Full-year earnings benefited mainly from higher realised oil, gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices, improved refining performance and higher production from new fields, which offset the impact of field declines and divestments.”read more
Royal Dutch Shell has doubled its profits following the oil major’s worst financial year in over a decade as the oil market recovery takes hold.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant said the “transformation” following its 2016 mega-merger with BG Group and $30bn portfolio overhaul has reopened flows of cash back into the business as oil prices soared to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at its lowest point in early 2016.
Shell’s earnings on a ‘current cost of supply’ (CCS) basis, which is a standard oil industry measure, more than doubled from the previous year to reach $15.8bn (£11bn) for 2017.read more
Feb 1st, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Ron Bousso: 1 FEB 2018
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell could usurp its largest rival Exxon Mobil as the energy sector’s biggest cash generator after higher oil and gas prices combined with an improved performance lifted its 2017 revenue.Chief Executive Ben van Beurden has made no secret of his desire to challenge the dominance of the world’s largest listed oil company after its $54 billion purchase of BG Group in 2016 catapulted Shell into second place in terms of production.
The Anglo-Dutch company on Thursday reported a more than doubling of profit in 2017 to $16 billion, the highest since the start of the 2014 downturn as the effect of years of costs cuts and the integration of BG Group filtered through.
“We enter 2018 with continued discipline and confidence, committed to the delivery of strong returns and cash,” van Beurden said in a statement.
Shell’s shares were 1.1 percent lower at 0842 GMT, compared with a slightly positive open for the FTSE 100 index.read more
Feb 1st, 2018
by John Donovan.
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The oil-price rally worked both ways for Royal Dutch Shell Plc as improved exploration and production lifted profit to a three-year high while refining and trading fell short of expectations as margins shrank.
Crude’s surge raised adjusted profit at Europe’s largest energy company to $4.3 billion last quarter, the highest since 2014. While the bottom line was better than expected — and Shell is making as much money with oil at $60 a barrel as when it was $100 — cash flow was the weakest since 2016.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is set to unveil its highest earnings since the oil market collapse this week, just one year after the oil major’s lowest profits in more than a decade.
The Anglo-Dutch oil group’s efforts to overhaul its portfolio during the depths of the oil market rout are expected to be turbo-charged by the recovery in oil prices to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at their lowest point in early 2016.
Analysts predict the group’s earnings on a “current cost of supply” basis will be more than $15.7bn (£11bn) for 2017 from just $3.5bn (£2.5bn) the year before. The final quarter of last year is expected to generate higher earnings than the whole of 2016 at $4.2bn (£3bn), according to analyst consensus forecasts.read more
Jan 25th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Even in the dynamic world of business, some things always hold true: the Big Mac outsells the Whopper, Google gets more searches than Bing, and Exxon Mobil Corp. is the world’s biggest public oil company. Or perhaps not.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is the closest it’s ever been to attaining the long-coveted prize of overtaking its American rival. While the Anglo-Dutch oil major still has some work left to snatch Exxon’s crown, Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden has made getting to the top his restless mission.
“At the moment we are number two and we are closing in on number one,” he said this month. “We almost have the tiger by the tail.”
That van Beurden thinks his goal is even in sight shows the risk he took in doing the industry’s biggest deal in decades is starting to pay off. Meanwhile, the strategy charted by Exxon’s former CEO Rex Tillerson has left the American major slightly adrift, according to investors.
“Ben doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk now,” Richard Hulf, co-manager in Artemis Global Energy Fund, part of a London investment management group that owns both Exxon and Shell shares. “Shell’s got a bit better and Exxon is at a weak point in its cycle.”
The narrowing gap is likely to show through when both companies post earnings next week. Analysts estimate Shell will report $16 billion of profit in 2017 helped by the acquisition of BG Group Plc. Exxon is forecast to report $15.7 billion of earnings, dropping behind its European rival for the first time in at least two decades. Shell is also likely to have churned out more cash from operations than Exxon last year.
It’s the $53 billion BG deal that’s really made a difference. When oil’s crash started in the middle of 2014, just months into Van Beurden’s tenure as Shell’s boss, he saw an opportunity. BG’s oil projects in Brazil and gas in Australia were just starting up, easing uncertainty on future growth. Rumored for years to be a suitor, van Beurden finally made the move for the British company.
The deal immediately put Shell in an exclusive club with Exxon, placing it on a plane above its European rivals Total SA and BP Plc. Some use the phrase ultra-major to differentiate the industry’s big two from the pack – at least until Saudi Aramco’s giant IPO, slated for the end of this year.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. As oil prices continued to slide in 2014, many analysts thought the price tag was excessive, forcing Shell to borrow too much. Van Beurden was staking his reputation on the deal and he pressed on, seeking to create what he often calls a “world-class investment case.” The company was forced to cut costs, sell assets and rein in spending to keep borrowing under control.
Still, in the two years since the BG deal closed, Shell’s B shares in London, the most widely traded, have returned more than five times Exxon’s, reversing the performance of the previous two years and providing superior returns for shareholders.
“Strategically BG was the right deal,” said Iain Pyle, the investment director for U.K. equities at the investment unit of Standard Life Aberdeen Plc, among the largest Shell shareholders. “The only question about it at the time was the price they paid and the stress they put on the balance sheet to do the deal.”
In the start of 2015, before Shell announced the BG deal, Exxon’s market value was about $180 billion more than Shell’s and it had just reported an annual profit $10 billion higher.
Since then, Exxon has struggled to keep the business growing. Exxon’s production in the third quarter was 1.8 percent lower than a year ago while Shell’s rose 1.7 percent. The American company’s oil and gas reserves have also dropped (though this may change this year as it books reserves from a giant discovery off the coast of Guyana in South America.) The gap in the two companies’ market value has more than halved to about $73 billion.
Shell’s record takeover fueled speculation Exxon would snap up a big rival to maintain its world-leader status, but it’s recent deal history hasn’t been a resounding success.
The $35-billion purchase of American shale gas company XTO in 2010 came shortly before gas prices plummeted. It also struck a deal with Rosneft PJSC to explore and develop giant offshore fields in Russia in 2011, right before they became locked behind a wall of U.S. sanctions. These left its “upstream portfolio disadvantaged,” Credit Suisse said.read more
Energy giant Shell has been ordered to improve its safety procedures at the St Fergus plant near Peterhead.
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the company had failed to made “adequate arrangements” to ensure that “emergency shutdown and emergency depressurisation valve actuators” were maintained in an “efficient state and effective working order”.
HSE initially gave Shell until December 21 to comply with the improvement notice, but the deadline has now been extended to February 28.
A spokeswoman for Shell said: “We can confirm that we have been issued with an improvement notice on 23rd November 2017 in relation to the maintenance of emergency shutdown valves at our St Fergus plant in North East Scotland.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has signalled the end of the three-year oil market downturn by restarting its all-cash shareholder payouts as its cash flow begins to boom.
The oil major began paying out dividends in the form of shares in 2015, in the wake of the oil price crash and its $50bn takeover of BG Group.
But chief executive Ben van Beurden said the Anglo-Dutch group was now confident that it could call an end its scrip dividend as its cost-cutting and divestment programme pays off.read more
Nov 28th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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FILE PHOTO: Ben van Beurden, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, speaks during a news conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 15, 2016. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes /File Photo
Ron Bousso: NOVEMBER 18, 2017
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) will return to paying pure cash dividends and step up its investment in cleaner energy as it turns a corner after more than two years of cost cuts and disposals prompted by weak oil prices.
Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden sought to strike a balance between reassuring investors it can increase returns in its core fossil fuel business during an “era of volatility” in oil prices while preparing to step up investments in renewables.read more
Nov 27th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Royal Dutch Shell Malikai superlift at a deep-water project in Malaysia. The global business is in a healthier financial state than it has been recently and intends to resume cash dividends
Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: November 27, 2017
Royal Dutch Shell is expected to signal its return to paying its entire dividend in cash this week, in the latest evidence of renewed confidence in the oil industry. The Anglo-Dutch group, the biggest listed oil company in Europe, makes a proportion of its payments to investors in the form of new shares rather than cash.read more
Nov 13th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Trade in the $90 billion market for the superchilled gas is poised to double by 2040: Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Total SA’s billion-dollar deal to buy liquefied natural gas assets from Engie SA shows how much size matters in the industry.
After Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s takeover of BG Group Plc last year, industry consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. says the latest accord is evidence that the biggest energy companies with access to large volumes of diverse supplies will continue to dominate, even as commodity traders from Glencore Plc to Trafigura Group Pte are expanding. read more
Shell is enjoying a remarkably successful corporate resurgence.
Legacy BG Group opex and capex has been absorbed entirely without a loss of combined hydrocarbon volumes.
Cash is king.
Debt is trending down. The dividend is well-covered. Returns are solid, and improving.
I remain constructive on RDS stock.
I’ve been pounding my fist on the table for Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) (RDS.B) for a couple of years now. It’s been that one, “fat pitch” worth waiting upon; these don’t come along very often. Since the end of 2015, ADR shares offered investors ~54% total return, or an 80% gain since the stock bottomed in January 2016.
The 3Q report included the hallmarks of recent previous quarters: linked-quarter revenue growth, continued strong cash flow, improving return-on-capital, reduced gearing, steady production, and ample dividend coverage. Details are found here.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has reported nearly 50% increase in profits following improvement in energy prices which fueled a turnaround of its upstream division.
In the first three quarters of 2017, Royal Dutch Shell generated $15.42 billion of free cash flows (ex. working cap. changes), surpassing even the industry’s cash flow king Exxon Mobil.
Oil prices have climbed to almost $61 a barrel and could stay at this level in the future, which could give a major boost to Shell’s earnings and cash flows.
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) is a well-oiled cash flow machine. In fact, it generates more free cash flows than any other oil majors, and this was evident from the latest quarterly results. The Anglo-Dutch oil giant could get even better in 2018 on the back of improvement in oil prices. The company’s shares will likely move higher while its valuation might also improve.
Latest Earnings
Royal Dutch Shell has recently released blowout quarterly results in which it posted significantly higher profits following a strong performance from its upstream, downstream and integrated gas divisions. The company reported an adjusted net profit (attributable to shareholders on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis) of $4.1 billion, up 47% from the same quarter last year. That blew past the company-provided analysts’ estimate of $3.6 billion. The profits at the upstream segment ballooned from just $4 million a year earlier to $562 million. The profits at the downstream and integrated gas segments rose 28.4% and 37.7% to $2.67 billion and $1.28 billion respectively.read more
Nov 2nd, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Royal Dutch Shell has taken Exxon Mobil’s cashflow crown, a year after completing the biggest deal in its history.
Europe’s largest energy company vaulted ahead on this closely watched indicator of financial health in the first nine months of 2017 as assets acquired from BG Group from Brazil to Australia churned out cash. For the year as a whole, Shell is on course to surpass its larger US rival on the measure for the first time in about two decades.
Shell generated $28.38 billion (€24.34bn) of cashflow from operations in the first nine months of the year, compared with $23.52 billion (€20.18bn) from Exxon. Chief executive Ben Van Beurden has already spelled out that his main long-term goal was overtaking Exxon to become the best-performing oil major.read more
Royal Dutch Shell became the latest major oil company to deliver better than expected earnings in recent months as the market recovery begins to gain traction.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant reported $4.1bn (£3bn) in earnings for the last quarter on a current cost of supply basis, its standard measure of profitability. The sum comes in well above analyst forecasts that the group would make $3.6bn for the latest quarter.
Shell’s quarterly earnings are almost 50pc higher than in the same quarter last year, when they reached $2.8bn.read more
Nov 2nd, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Ron Bousso
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) reported an 18 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Tuesday, lowering next year’s capital spending to the bottom of the expected range as it grapples with persistently low oil prices and weak refining margins.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major, whose acquisition of BG Group transformed it into the world’s top liquefied natural gas producer, has been under pressure from shareholders to cut annual spending to ensure it can maintain its dividend given the slow recovery in the oil prices LCOc1.read more
Oct 16th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Ben Van Beurden, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, sees a future dominated by gas and renewables, with gas the clear winner. Photo: Bloomberg
By Ben Marlow:
If there is one subject that divides energy producers it’s the question of when oil demand will peak.
Indeed, it is such a controversial topic that some senior figures like Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Khalid al-Falih, prefer not to discuss it at all.
He claims talk of peak demand is dangerous. It threatens to reduce vital investment, “compromising” energy security, al-Falih said earlier this year.
John Watson, boss of American oil giant Chevron, recently dismissed the idea of peak demand as “wishful thinking”.read more
Oct. 4 (UPI) — While defending a robust spending program, Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it was canceling an agreement to sell off a stake of its assets in Thailand.
Subsidiaries of Shell and the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. said they mutually agreed to cancel the multilmillion dollar sale of shares in Shell Integrated Gas Thailand Pte. Ltd., known also as SIGT, and Thai Energy Co Limited, or TEC.
Shell said the latter two would continue to support Thai partners in development of the Bongkot field.read more
Oct 1st, 2017
by John Donovan.
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by Andrew Ward, Energy Editor: 1 Oct 2017
Mr van Beurden, chief executive of Shell, allows himself only the briefest self-congratulation. “All the milestones, we are either ahead or on track,” he tells the Financial Times, referring to targets set at the time of the takeover. “But you are never done in this industry because everything is always in continuous decline.” The Dutchman is talking about the relentless pressure to find new resources…FULL ARTICLE
OVER 500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR SHELL WEBSITES
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission websiteetc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
JOHN DONOVAN, THE OWNER OF THIS AND SEVERAL OTHER SHELL FOCUSSED WEBSITES
SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER
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 above, 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.
The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name - Pioneering Spirit.
GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE: FEBRUARY 2010
MORE INFORMATION: Contact details for over 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell reached John Donovan and some environmental and human rights groups, ostensibly from disaffected Shell staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company. The database, from Shell’s internal directory, contained names and telephone numbers for all the company’s work force worldwide, including some home numbers. It was supplied with a 170 page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm done by the company’s operations in Nigeria. John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.
This is not a Shell website. That fact should be abundantly plain from the overall content of this home page and our sister Shell focussed websites, including shellnazihistory.com. Click on the Disclaimer link at top of this page for more information. You Can Be Sure Shell does not endorse or approve of this website. There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations. It is an entirely free to use website drawing attention to the negative side of Shell while also publishing positive news about the company. The Shell logo image with the white text used on this website, as per the above example, is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous. It can be found on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Our shellenergy.websitepublishes Shell Energy customer complaints posted on Trustpilot where there is an ample supply. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
Shell Breaking News
Shell CEO's first changes combine upstream and LNG operationsJanuary 30, 2023 09:20ReutersFILE PHOTO: The Royal Dutch Shell logo is seen at a Shell petrol station in London, January 31, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo/File Photo
Changes could result in some job cuts, Shell says
Upstream boss to oversee expanded unit
Executive …
Shell CEO in first changes combines LNG, upstream operationsJanuary 30, 2023 07:28ReutersFILE PHOTO: The Royal Dutch Shell logo is seen at a Shell petrol station in London, January 31, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo/File Photo
New CEO took office Jan. 1
Upstream boss to oversee expanded unit
Executive committee to shrink to …
Shell gets $165 mln dividend payment from Russian LNG projectJuly 28, 2022 14:47ReutersThe logo of Royal Dutch Shell is pictured during a launch event for a hydrogen electrolysis plant at Shell's Rhineland refinery in Wesseling near Cologne, Germany, July 2, 2021. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen/File Photo
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EXCLUSIVE Shell wants to share more of its blockbuster profits, CEO saysJuly 14, 2022 13:59ReutersChief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Ben van Beurden attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia June 7, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
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Europe faces tough winter, may need to ration energy, Shell CEO saysJuly 14, 2022 12:20ReutersBen van Beurden, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, speaks during the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
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OXFORD, Britain, July 14 ( …
SHELL’S ROLE IN NIGERIAN OPL 245 BRIBERY SCANDAL
Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders. (JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER) For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell": WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed. NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer. We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party". MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]
SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY
EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS:
THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
ENDS
(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)
SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004
Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits. Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.
Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
SHELL CONTROVERSIES
selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.
WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.
Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?