Jun 23rd, 2022
by John Donovan.
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Bloomberg UK
Shell Permits Probed Over Loss of $200 Million in Nigeria
Motion argues state lost revenue through 30-year licenses
Investigation targets joint venture operated by Shell
By William Clowes: 23 June 2022, 13:04 BST
Nigeria’s Senate will investigate Shell Plc’s historic license renewals in the West African state to determine whether they were extended unlawfully and cost the government up to $200 million.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan formed a committee on Wednesday to probe the oil major’s permits that expired in 1989 and 2019, according to a statement emailed by his spokesman. The decision followed a motion submitted by Senator George Sekibo who said the duration of the licenses should have been 20 years rather than 30 years under Nigerian law.
A spokesman for Shell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.read more
Feb 20th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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REUTERS
U.N. pact may restrict plastic production. Big Oil aims to stop it
By John Geddie, Valerie Volcovici and Joe Brock: Fri., February 18, 2022
A global explosion of disposable plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is increasing carbon emissions, despoiling the world’s oceans, harming wildlife and contaminating the food chain. More than 50 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, are calling for the pact to include measures targeting plastic production.
That’s a problem for big oil and chemical companies. The industry is projected to double plastic output worldwide within two decades.read more
Milieudefensie, the Dutch chapter of Friends of the Earth activists who won a landmark climate case against Shell in 2021, now urge more than two dozen other multinationals, including BP, Exxon, Vitol, and LyondellBasell, to implement plans to slash emissions by at least 45 percent by 2030 from 2019 levels.
In a letter sent on Thursday to 29 “big polluters”, including Shell, BP, Exxon, Vitol, LyondellBasell, RWE, Unilever, Uniper, Stellantis, Schiphol, ABN AMRO, and others, Milieudefensie asks the companies to respond how they plan to cut their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by at least 45 percent by 2030.read more
Oct 24th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Reuters
Big Oil to attend U.S. House climate disinformation hearing
October 22, 20214:21 PM BST
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Top executives from Exxon Mobil Corp, BP America, Chevron Corp and Shell Oil will testify on Oct. 28 at a congressional hearing examining whether the fossil fuel industry led an effort to mislead the public and prevent action to curb climate change warming, a House panel said on Friday.
Reporting Valerie Volcovici, Timothy Gardner and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bill Berkrotread more
Sep 15th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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The Washington Post:
Vermont sues 4 oil companies, alleges false info on climate
By Wilson Ring | AP: 14 Sept 2021 at 2:22 p.m. EDT
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Vermont on Tuesday became the latest state to sue some of the country’s top fossil fuel companies by alleging they misled the public about the impact their products have on climate change.
The suit names ExxonMobil Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Sunoco LP, CITGO Petroleum Corporation and other corporations.
“They have known for decades that the Earth’s climate has been changing because of emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and that the fossil fuels they sell are the primary source of those emissions,” the lawsuit said.read more
The devastating effects of unchecked global warming were laid bare by this week’s landmark report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
UN secretary-general António Guterres described the report’s findings as “a code red for humanity”.
The world’s major energy companies were already on the front line of the climate change battle, but following this week’s report public scrutiny of the industry can only intensify.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
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oil and gas producers in U.S. Gulf of Mexico have consolidated at a faster rate during the pandemic, new government data shows, as crashing prices squeezed out smaller drillers who had been seen as the industry’s future.
The top 10 producers – led by Royal Dutch Shell, BP Plc and Chevron – this year pumped 86% of the region’s 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), up about 11 percentage points since 2017, data from regulator Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) shows.read more
Some of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies have lobbied the UK government to support a gas “compromise” ahead of the COP26 UN conference, Channel 4 News can reveal.
Last year, representatives from ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, Equinor and BP met with the then UK trade minister for a private dinner in Texas where natural gas was championed as a “vital part of the solution” to tackling climate change, according to a freedom of information request obtained by Greenpeace UK’s investigations unit Unearthed and shared exclusively with this programme.read more
Jul 2nd, 2021
by John Donovan.
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REUTERS
Chevron, partners go ahead with $4 bln project at Gorgon LNG
MELBOURNE, July 2 (Reuters) – Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and its partners in the Gorgon LNG project off Western Australia have agreed to go ahead with a $4 billion project to improve gas recovery from offshore wells and keep the huge liquefied natural gas plant filled for 40 years.
The ‘day of reckoning’ for Big Oil, when events at boardrooms and courtrooms issued last month the starkest warning to oil majors’ license to operate yet, was hailed as a huge victory for climate activists. But the climate celebration may be a bit premature.
Rebel shareholder votes at Exxon and Chevron and a court ruling against Shell delivered a blow to Big Oil in a single day, and environmentalists are ecstatic.read more
Jun 16th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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CBS SF
Supreme Court Allows San Francisco, Oakland Lawsuits Against Big Oil Companies To Proceed
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Two more ambitious lawsuits would be hard to image: in 2017 the cities of Oakland and San Francisco filed separate public nuisance lawsuits against five of the world’s biggest energy companies, seeking to hold them responsible for the local effects of sea level rise.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to throw the suits out of court, although the cases still face many daunting obstacles ahead.read more
Just last week, some of the world’s largest integrated energy companies faced the wrath of furious investors and climate activism. Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) lost three board seats to Engine No. 1, an activist hedge fund, in a stunning proxy campaign, while a good 61% of Chevron (NYSE:CVX) shareholders voted to further cut emissions at the company’s annual investor meeting a week ago.
Engine No. 1 has told the Financial Times that Exxon will need to cut fossil fuel production for the company to position itself for long-term success, “What we’re saying is, plan for a world where maybe the world doesn’t need your barrels,” Engine No.1 leader Charlie Penner has told FT.
Meanwhile, a Dutch court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) to cut its greenhouse gas emissions harder and faster than it had previously planned.
Whereas climate change issues are the presumptive reasons behind the latest wave of investor revolts at the oil and gas giants, lurking beneath the surface is a growing sense of apprehension about Big Oil’s strategy and failure to generate adequate returns for shareholders in recent decades.read more
Jun 1st, 2021
by John Donovan.
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REUTERS
OPEC, Russia seen gaining more power with Shell Dutch ruling
Dmitry Zhdannikov: June 1, 2021
Climate activists who scored big against Western majors last week had some unlikely cheerleaders in the oil capitals of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Russia.
Defeats in the courtroom and boardroom mean Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), ExxonMobil (XOM.N) and Chevron (CVX.N) are all under pressure to cut carbon emissions faster. That’s good news for the likes of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Saudi Aramco…read more
May 31st, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Seeking Alpha
Big Oil’s Very Bad Wednesday
May 30, 2021 11:55 PM ETBNO, CVX, DBE…MV Financial
Summary
Those paying attention to the market chatter this week may have heard the phrase “Black Wednesday” pass the lips of pundits who study the fossil fuels industry, though the events didn’t result in any kind of immediate panic-selling by investors of energy shares.
At the annual shareholder meeting of Exxon Mobil, the company ceded at least two seats on its board of directors to a climate activist group called Engine No. 1.
At Chevron’s general meeting, shareholders voted on a measure to set strict emissions targets from the products it sells.
A Dutch court in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that Royal Dutch Shell must reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030 against its 2019 levels – on an absolute basis, which is stricter than the carbon intensity targets that the company prefers to use as its benchmarks. Black Tuesday 1929 turned out to be a big deal.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of BP PLC, Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and other energy companies contesting a lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore seeking monetary damages from them due to costs caused by global climate change.
The 7-1 ruling, authored by conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, came on a technical legal issue that could help the companies in their effort to have the case heard in federal court, as they would prefer, instead of state court, which the city favors as it is seen as a more amenable venue.read more
May 5th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Cheniere and Shell deliver carbon-neutral U.S. LNG to Europe
Sabrina Valle:
U.S. liquefied natural gas company Cheniere Energy Inc (LNG.A)said Tuesday it supplied a carbon neutral cargo to Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) as part of a long-term agreement, joining a list of sellers neutralizing emissions as more buyers commit to environmental targets.
“I think offering climate solutions to our customers is going to be a bigger and bigger portion of our business,” Cheniere Chief Executive Jack Fusco said during the company’s first quarter earnings call.read more
“We’re sending carbon back where it came from,” Norway’s energy giant Equinor says, describing its efforts to make carbon capture and storage (CCS) commercially viable in a future decarbonized energy system. Equinor is a joint venture partner with two other oil majors, Shell and Total, in developing the Northern Lights project in Norway, which is planned to deliver carbon storage as a service to help third-party industries to reduce emissions.read more
Some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies have used advertising to “greenwash” their ongoing contribution to the climate crisis, according to files published by the environmental lawyers ClientEarth. They describe the practice as “a great deception”.
The files compare the adverts produced by ExxonMobil, Aramco, Chevron, Shell, Equinor and others with the companies’ operations and products, overall climate impact and progress toward climate-safe business models.read more
Has peak oil demand already come and gone? That’s an exceptionally hard question to answer. There are some experts that say unequivocally, yes. They claim that peak oil is already upon us, thanks to the crushing blow that the Covid-19 pandemic dealt to global oil demand as well as the ever-escalating worldwide transition toward clean energy. But there are just as many who say that the world’s thirst for oil still has a long way to go before we hear its swan song.read more
Big oil has a big problem. It’s running out of oil.
Years of under-investment in exploration and a decline in project development has blown a hole in the reserves of the major international oil companies (IOCs), a group that includes ExxonMobil, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell.
Since 2015 the average reserves of the oil majors has fallen by 25% to now stand at less than 10 years of annual production.
Reserves in the ground is a critical measure of an oil company with a decline seen as a negative by investors.read more
Apr 1st, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Oil Giants Win Climate Suit as Judges Push For Political Fix
Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips were also sued in the case.
Bloomberg News: Chris Dolmetsch and Erik Larson: Publishing date: Apr 01, 2021(Bloomberg) — New York City failed to persuade a federal appeals court to reinstate a climate-change lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc and three other oil companies, with the judges saying the problem demands political rather than legal solutions.
The Friday ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York is a setback for those trying to use the courts to hold the industry responsible for costs associated with rising seas and other consequences of a warming planet.
Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips were also sued in the case.
The court said global warming “is a uniquely international concern” that requires the federal government to step in rather than judges. Only the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate domestic greenhouse gas emissions, the unanimous three-judge panel held.read more
HOUSTON, March 26 (Reuters) – Chevron Corp has emerged as a leading contender to buy a Royal Dutch Shell Plc refinery in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, three people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Shell has been trying to sell its 145,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Puget Sound refinery in Anacortes, Washington, for at least a year. Reuters reported in January 2020 that the refinery was for sale.read more
Executives from major oil companies clashed over the prospects of oil and gas for the future at the first virtual edition of the CERAWeek conference in Houston.
While BP’s Bernard Looney and Shell’s Ben van Beurden boasted about their shift away from their core business and into renewable energy, Baker Hughes, Hess Corp., and Spain’s Repsol were among those believing that fossil fuels have yet to leave the scene for good, the Houston Chronicle’s Paul Takahashi reports.read more
Feb 8th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Hedge funds bet on oil’s ‘big comeback’ after pandemic hobbles producers
FILE PHOTO: A combination of file photos shows the logos of five of the largest publicly traded oil companies; BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and Total. REUTERS/File Photo
TORONTO (Reuters) – Hedge funds are turning bullish on oil once again, betting the pandemic and investors’ environmental focus has severely damaged companies’ ability to ramp up production.read more
Feb 6th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Oil giant Shell follows rivals into huge loss
“2020 was an extraordinary year,” said Chief Executive Ben van Beurden. “We have taken tough but decisive actions,” he said, with Shell having already announced plans to axe up to 9,000 jobs, or more than 10 percent of its global workforce.
Published on: Friday, February 05, 2021: By AFP
LONDON: Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday became the latest oil major to reveal huge annual losses as the coronavirus pandemic slashed energy demand and prices in 2020.
Shell dived into a net loss of $21.7 billion (18.1 billion euros) last year as factories shut and planes were grounded.read more
Feb 4th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Oil major Shell reports sharp drop in full-year profit, raises dividend
Sam Meredith@SMEREDITH19: PUBLISHED THU, FEB 4 20212:31 AM EST UPDATED THU, FEB 4 20213:18 AM EST
KEY POINTS
Shell reported adjusted earnings of $4.85 billion for the full-year 2020. That compared with a profit of $16.5 billion for the full-year 2019.
The company said it would raise its first-quarter dividend to $0.1735 per share, reflecting an increase of 4% from the previous quarter.
The results come as energy giants seek to reassure investors about their future profitability, following a dreadful year for the global oil and gas industry by virtually every measure.
LONDON — Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported a sharp drop in full-year profit as the coronavirus pandemic took a heavy toll on the global oil and gas industry.
Shell reported adjusted earnings of $4.85 billion for the full-year 2020. That compared with a profit of $16.5 billion for the full-year 2019, reflecting a drop of 71%. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected full-year 2020 net profit to come in $5.15 billion.read more
Rating agency S&P has warned 13 oil and gas companies, including the some of the world’s biggest, that it may downgrade them within weeks because of increasing competition from renewable energy. On notice of a possible downgrade are Australia’s Woodside Petroleum as well as multinationals Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Imperial Oil, Royal Dutch Shell, Shell Energy North America, Canadian Natural Resources, ConocoPhillips and French group Total.read more
Jan 21st, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Barrett hears climate case against her father’s ex-employer Shell
BY RACHEL FRAZIN AND JOHN KRUZEL – 01/19/21 03:50 PM ESTAmy Coney Barrett was among the justices who presided over a dispute Tuesday that pitted the city of Baltimore against some of the fossil fuel industry’s biggest players, despite her father’s longstanding ties to Shell Oil Company, one of the defendants in the case.
Barrett participated in the case even though as a lower court judge she recused herself from hearing cases involving Shell, her father’s former employer, in an apparent effort to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
Although the case heard Tuesday turned on the narrow question of whether the dispute properly belongs in state or federal court, how that issue is resolved could have an enormous bearing on potential corporate liability for environmental degradation.read more
Dec 27th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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2020 Was One of the Worst-Ever Years for Oil Write-Downs
Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating facility has struggled to deliver income. PHOTO: ROYAL DUTCH SHELL AUSTRALIA/REUTERS
By Collin Eaton and Sarah McFarlane: Dec. 27, 2020 9:00 am ET
The pandemic has triggered the largest revision to the value of the oil industry’s assets in at least a decade, as companies sour on costly projects amid the prospect of low prices for years.
Oil-and-gas companies in North America and Europe wrote down roughly $145 billion combined in the first three quarters of 2020, the most for that nine-month period since at least 2010, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. That total significantly surpassed write-downs taken over the same periods in 2015 and 2016, during the last oil bust, and is equivalent to roughly 10% of the companies’ collective market value.read more
The Empire State’s pension fund is the largest to dump fossil fuel investments ― ever, in the entire world.
New York state announced plans on Wednesday to eject oil and gas stocks from its $226 billion financial portfolio, becoming the first U.S. state and the biggest pension fund anywhere to divest from fossil fuels.
By 2025, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which disburses some $1 billion in benefits to retirees each year, will sell off its “riskiest” oil and gas stocks, following a review. The state aims to completely eliminate carbon polluters from its portfolio by 2040.read more
Dec 2nd, 2020
by John Donovan.
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Oil majors wipe $80 billion off books as epidemic, energy transition bite
By Ron Bousso:
By Ron Bousso
LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s top energy companies have slashed the value of their oil and gas assets by around $80 billion (60.05 billion pounds) in recent months after revising lower the long-term outlook for fuel prices in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic and the energy transition.
Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. oil company, announced on Monday it would write down the value of natural gas properties by $17 billion to $20 billion, its biggest ever impairment following the sharp drop in energy prices this year.read more
Nov 16th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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“Fossil fuel companies, like tobacco companies before them, have allowed governments to pay for the harms caused by their products“…
5 legal tactics environmentalists are using to fight climate change
Activists are increasingly using litigation as a tool to influence climate action worldwide. Here’s a look at some of the main tactics they’re wielding to force change on fossil fuel firms and weak government policies.
More than 700 climate lawsuits have been filed around the world since 2015, according to the Climate Change Litigation Databases. That’s a huge increase, considering there have only been about 1,700 of these types of cases since the late 1980s, most of them in the US.read more
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has repaid most of the arrears it owes to international oil companies for joint venture operating expenses, recently repaying US$3 billion to Exxon and Shell, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing a statement from the Nigerian state oil firm.
NNPC works in joint ventures with the major international oil producers in Nigeria, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, Total, and Eni. However, the stretched finances of the Nigerian company has led to arrears in its payments for contributions to the operating expenses of those joint ventures.read more
Oct 2nd, 2020
by John Donovan.
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Big Oil’s $110 billion asset sale target could prove big ask
By Ron Bousso: October 1, 2020
LONDON (Reuters) – Leading energy companies are hoping to sell dozens of oil and gas fields and refineries worth more than $110 billion to curb both their ballooning debt and their carbon footprints.
But with the outlook for oil and gas prices uncertain because of the coronavirus pandemic and a shift to cleaner energy, finding buyers and striking deals might prove tricky.
“This is not a very good time to sell assets,” Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said while presenting the French giant’s strategy to switch to renewables on Wednesday.read more
Sydney — Australia has cut forecasts for the country’s LNG exports for 2020-2021 (July-June) by some 6% to 75.6 million mt, citing the expected impacts of both the COVID-19 pandemic and domestic technical issues.
If realized, the forecast for the current fiscal would see volumes fall by 3.7 million mt year on year. They are expected to recover in 2021-2022 to 80.1 million mt, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources said Sept. 28 in a report.read more
HOUSTON — As oil prices plunge and concerns about climate change grow, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other European energy companies are selling off oil fields, planning a sharp reduction in emissions and investing billions in renewable energy.
The American oil giants Chevron and Exxon Mobil are going in a far different direction. They are doubling down on oil and natural gas and investing what amounts to pocket change in innovative climate-oriented efforts like small nuclear power plants and devices that suck carbon out of the air.read more
Sep 3rd, 2020
by John Donovan.
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A Glut of Refineries Is the Oil Industry’s Next Problem
New capacity in the developing world is making European plants that turn oil into gasoline and other products obsolete
By Rochelle Toplensky: Sept. 3, 2020 5:03 am ET
This year’s oil glut is already receding. It is a shame that can’t be said of the global glut of oil refineries, which is only getting worse.
Europe in particular has long had too many oil refineries, but the pandemic-induced fall in energy demand has ramped up pressure to resolve the problem. For the region’s big oil producers—already reeling after a flood of excess oil pushed some prices below zero in April—a few aging assets are likely in line for a makeover. Others could be destined for the scrap heap.read more
Aug 18th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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INSIGHT- In the run-up to U.S. election, drilling lobby promotes natural gas as “clean”
By Valerie Volcovici, Andrew R.C. Marshall and Matthew Green: AUGUST 18, 2020
WASHINGTON/LONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) – America’s biggest oil and gas lobby group is ramping up its advertising spending ahead of the November election to persuade voters that natural gas is a climate-friendly fuel, according to ad buying data.
The campaign by the American Petroleum Institute (API), targeted at younger voters and some tight congressional races, is part of a global battle by the drilling industry to assuage growing fears over the role of natural gas in driving climate change.read more
Aug 12th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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LNG revenues smashed on price slump
Angela Macdonald-Smith, Senior resources writer:12 Aug 2020
Australia’s revenues from LNG exports slumped a massive 52 per cent in July compared with a year earlier as export prices followed crude oil prices into the basement, cementing prospects for a big dip in export earnings from the commodity this financial year.
LNG export revenues for the country were likely about $1.98 billion last month, sinking from north of $4 billion a year earlier, according to an analysis released on Wednesday by consultancy EnergyQuest.read more
It’s been a rough year for oil, to say that least. And the worst isn’t over yet. Even though oil demand, and therefore oil prices, have been slowly recovering, that upward trajectory is now running out of steam and we’re headed toward a slump amidst what will almost certainly be a yearslong recession in the wake of the economic fallout from the devastating spread of the novel coronavirus.read more
Royal Dutch Shell said that it could cut the value of its oil and gas assets by as much as $22 billion, as it takes a dim view of the state of the oil market. The move adds more evidence to the notion that a huge slice of oil reserves will wind up as stranded assets. Shell cut its Brent oil prices forecast from $60 per barrel to $35 for this year, and lowered its 2021 and 2022 forecasts to $40 and $50 per barrel, respectively, down from $60 previously. The lower outlook reflects the expected damage to the oil market due to the coronavirus and the negative impacts on the global economy, Shell said.read more
Jun 4th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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A massive Pennsylvania plastics project, owned by Shell, that President Donald Trump touted during a visit last year faces risks of oversupply and a low price outlook, an energy industry report said on Thursday.
Pandemic exposes cracks in oil majors’ bet on plastic
Joe Brock: JUNE 4, 2020
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The energy industry’s bet that a petrochemicals boom would support decades of oil and gas sales growth is on shaky ground as an already saturated plastic market is hit by a coronavirus demand shock.
While soaring demand for personal protective equipment and takeaway food containers has boosted sales of some plastics, it is likely to be only a temporary spike, say analysts.read more
Bloomberg) — Oil and gas companies worldwide have raised $171 billion of debt from the loan and bond markets since March after the coronavirus pandemic hit demand for fuel.
The $171 billion tally is equivalent to the volume of bonds sold for the industry in the whole year of 2019. The debt pile is set to grow further with almost $120 billion of borrowings due by the end of the year that will need to be either repaid or refinanced. Of that amount, $43 billion is in bonds and $76 billion in loans.read more
Oil majors including Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Total SA are scrambling to cope with coronavirus outbreaks among their workers that could threaten the profitability of some of their largest projects.
It has been an interesting week. On the morning of May 6, I held a press conference in West Block before the weekly in-person session of Parliament opened. I spoke about how virtual Parliament is working, and Green recommendations to make it work better.
When we got to questions, the first one was CBC’s Julie Van Dusen. She asked about a possible bailout to Big Oil. And I explained that the evidence was coming in thick and fast that oil’s day was done. And she zeroed in on: “Are you saying oil is dead?”read more
Exxon posted its first quarterly loss in more than 30 years. But even as debt mounts and questions arise about peak oil demand, the oil supermajor nevertheless vowed to protect its dividend while also aiming to grow indefinitely into the future. Exxon lost $610 million in the first quarter, down from a profit of $2.4 billion a year earlier. Worse, the period only included a few weeks of oil prices at catastrophically low levels. As a result, the second quarter is bound to lead dramatically worse numbers.read more
After months of a deep and harrowing slide, fuel demand across the world is finally starting to sputter back to life. Traffic data, pipeline flows, and sales at gas stations in the Texas City of San Antonio, Beijing, and Barcelona all suggest that the oil demand slump may have already bottomed out. But don’t rush to pop the champagne corks just yet. Indications so far are that the road to full recovery is going to be harder than climbing out of a subterranean pit, with many oil traders predicting that it might be a year or more before demand returns to pre-crisis levels.read more
(Bloomberg) — Negative oil prices, ships dawdling at sea with unwanted cargoes, and traders getting creative about where to stash oil. The next chapter in the oil crisis is now inevitable: great swathes of the petroleum industry are about to start shutting down.
The economic impact of the coronavirus has ripped through the oil industry in dramatic phases. First it destroyed demand as lockdowns shut factories and kept drivers at home. Then storage started filling up and traders resorted to ocean-going tankers to store crude in the hope of better prices ahead.read more
The parliamentary pension fund for MPs is still investing in fossil fuels despite parliament declaring a climate emergency, new figures show.
The fund is still heavily invested in Shell (£8m) and BP (£4.4m) despite over 350 current and former MPs backing a campaign to set a good example by diverting cash elsewhere.
MPs have however welcomed news in the fund’s latest filings that it is increasingly shifting its cash towards renewable energy – with five per cent of investments going to the green sector for the first time.read more
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
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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?
Bloomberg UK
REUTERS
The Washington Post:
REUTERS
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Bloomberg News:
By 
By 
By 
Shares in Shell and BP still part of the scheme
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
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.
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
