Tue Feb 7, 2012 6:27pm GMT

HOUSTON Feb 7 (Reuters) – Motiva Enterprises’ 285,000 barrel per day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery was hit by a brief power interruption on Tuesday morning, according to sources familiar with refinery operations.

Among the units affected by the power interruption was the refinery’s gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit, the sources said.

The Motiva Port Arthur refinery is a 50-50 joint venture between Saudi Refining and Shell Oil Co, Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s U.S. unit. read more

JANUARY 12, 2012

HOUSTON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA, RDSA.LN) is confident it will be able to drill for oil and natural gas in Alaska’s arctic region this summer as it hopes to overcome its remaining legal challenges.

“We still have a few not insignificant hurdles to get past, but it looks that we will be drilling,” Marvin Odum, president of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. unit of the Anglo-Dutch giant, said in prepared remarks delivered at a conference in Houston. read more

Royal Dutch Shell evasion of royalties: Plaintiffs win $66 million from Shell Oil after making the mistake of relying on Shell’s “honesty and integrity”:

“Shell told us [in 1995] that if we didn’t want to accept a nuisance value settlement, they would drag the case out and my clients would be dead before they ever got the money,” said Calvert. “They ended up being partly right.”

Sat May 17, 2008

NEWSOK.COM: Shell weighs appeal in royalty case

By Jack Money

Shell Oil Co. is weighing an appeal of a $66 million verdict this month by a Stephens County jury in a royalties payment case, company officials said Friday.

The verdict stems from a case where five women claimed they were owed royalties that had not been paid since the early 1970s.

Background to case

The royalties involved a well on a 20-acre lease in a 640-acre unit between Ardmore and Duncan. The area is one of old production, in which more than 100 wells have been drilled. read more

“It would indeed be ironic if the resources of one investigative arm of the U.S. government has been used by Shell in an attempt to impede the Shell/Gale Norton corruption investigation being carried out by another investigative arm of the U.S. government.”

By John Donovan

In December 2009, following an analysis of Shell internal communications and documents supplied to us by Shell in response to a SAR application under the Data Protection Act, it became clear that Shell had once again resorted to cloak and dagger activity directed against us.

Reuters revealed that Royal Dutch Shell had asked an anti-fraud agency “NCFTA”, to target our website – royaldutchshellplc.com – on the basis  that “There will be no attempt to do anything visible to Donovan”.  The article said that NCFTA, the US National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance in Pittsburgh, did not respond to emails or telephone calls from Reuters on the subject. read more

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court will use a case involving Shell Oil Co. to determine how much leverage oil companies have to change their leases with tens of thousands of independent service station owners.

Motiva, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Shell, in March announced the project's completion would be delayed by two years to 2012, leading to speculation it would be canceled altogether as the recession continues to crush U.S. demand for motor fuels.

Voting 8-1, the justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that Shell and the railroads could be held liable for almost the full cost of the cleanup even though their roles in the soil and groundwater contamination had been relatively minor.

Shell Oil Co. has agreed to pay millions of dollars to resolve a lawsuit by two environmental groups over pollution at its Deer Park refinery.

"This agreement positions Suncor well to continue to provide quality fuels to our marketers and consumers under the Shell brand, the No. 1-selling gasoline brand in America."

This morning at Shell stations across the U.S., consumers received a free fill-up with Shell Nitrogen Enriched Gasolines, a new fuel containing a unique, patented cleaning system designed to seek and destroy engine "gunk" (carbon deposits) in all three grades of gasoline.

Manufacturers of hazardous substances should not be liable for contamination that occurs after a product is sold, attorneys for Shell Oil Co. told the Supreme Court today in a case addressing two critical liability issues for toxic-waste cleanups.

Leery of Shell Oil’s recent filing for substantial water rights on the Yampa River, the Yampa Town Board voted unanimously Wednesday night to join any official opposition to the plan to pull water from the waterway whose name the town shares.

Among them are about 150 volunteers from Hope Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization, and 500 holiday workers from Shell Oil Co. and its Motiva Enterprises subsidiary who will sort and pack groceries at Houston Food Bank, tutor a children’s literacy program and plant dozens of trees.

A Shell spokeswoman said Friday that while her company was no longer shipping oil to the refinery, other oil suppliers were free to use the pipeline. In addition, the refinery draws crude from another pipeline not owned by Shell, said spokeswoman Alison Chassin. Flying J owes Shell money for crude already delivered to the plant, an amount she said was in the "tens of millions" of dollars.

Shell Oil Co. is putting the squeeze on a financially troubled Bakersfield refinery it sold in 2005 to Big West Oil, which could lead to the closing of the operation and potentially higher gasoline prices for California motorists, according to consumer activists and a union representing plant workers.

Shell has yet to decide how much water it will need for oil shale development, and Boyd emphasized the company has yet to decide to seek commercial production. Company officials have said that decision is years away.

...absent any successful appeal, Shell and the MMS will need to find or conduct more studies that satisfy the scientific judgments of the judges. If the company and agency cannot do so, the Beaufort Sea lease agreement they entered won't be worth more than the paper on which it's printed. That would be an unfortunate result for the company and Alaska.

Dominion and Shell WindEnergy Inc. announced today the completion of the NedPower Mount Storm LLC wind energy project in which they each own a 50% interest. Sited along the high ridges of West Virginia, the project is now fully operational, generating up to 264 megawatts of electricity from a renewable energy source for the mid-Atlantic power grid.

It took awhile, but state environmental regulators and Shell Oil finally came to meeting of the minds about a slew of pollution violations committed at the Deer Park refinery. Upshot: Shell will pay a $345,744 penalty for 35 emissions events and record-keeping violations that occurred from 2004 to 2006.

"There is $26 million sitting in J.P. Morgan bank, gathering dust," he said. "All of it is earmarked for the Limestone residents." That amount is separate from another $20 million from Shell for construction of water lines to provide Aqua Illinois service to residents where underground water has been contaminated by chemicals from the gasoline spill in 1988.

The Salvation Army, one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States, and three major oil brands - Pennzoil(R), Quaker State(R) and Shell Rotella(R) T - are providing consumers an opportunity to help raise important funds for the charity through the "Change is Good, Giving is Better" promotion.

SEATTLE -- Shell Oil Co. has entered an agreement with the state Department of Ecology to clean up contamination at 83 current and former gas stations in Western Washington.

HOUSTON — Shell Oil Products US and Motiva Enterprises LLC have introduced three new initiatives designed to strengthen the Shell brand in the United States.

The new programs—a branded debit/loyalty card, a new gasoline, and a support program to help wholesalers and retailers meet new payment card standards, should make its operators more competitive and reduce operating costs, the companies said.

At the 2008 Shell National Conference and Trade Show last week, Shell and Motiva unveiled the Shell $aver Card, a payment method that will be linked to an existing checking account, offer a discount to the consumer, reduce merchant service fees and help increase consumer loyalty. Shell will be the first major gasoline retailer to nationally offer this type of payment option, the companies said. read more

Shell has supported the United Way for 60 years, and in the last 20, contributed more than $111 million.

Coweta County and the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority joined in filing suit today in Fulton County State Court against Shell Oil Company and others for negligence, breach of contract, product liability, fraud, and violations of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act over the misrepresentation, marketing and sale of Blu-Max pipe, which uses a polybutylene resin manufactured by Shell.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced an agreement with Shell Oil Products US and its joint venture, Motiva Enterprises LLC, in which Shell will implement new procedures designed to reduce cigarette sales to minors at more than 13,000 independent retail outlets.

Ron Andrews, former Manager Rhine Supply for Shell's European downstream business, has been named President of Houston- based Shell Trading (US) Company and Vice President, Operations for Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited.

The increasingly treacherous waters off the Horn of Africa are regularly used by Shell Oil, as well as by aid agencies shipping food.

Shell Oil Products U.S., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, agreed with the attorneys general of 46 states and the District of Columbia to help curb sales of tobacco products to minors at about 13,000 gas stations.

Shell Oil, the U.S. subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, began notifying employees of the data breach on Friday, via a written notice that was posted on the Houston-based company's Web site.

Shell has taken steps to notify current and former US employees of a misuse of some employee data.

Shell Oil Co. and the railroads — the Burlington, Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. and the Union Pacific Railroad Co. — say they are being unfairly tagged with an inordinate portion of the cost of cleaning up the site.

Shell sold Brown & Bryant chemicals that leaked into the ground, threatening water supplies. In its appeal, Shell said the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals imposed liability ``for the mere sale of a commercially useful product.''

Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said his panel is investigating the role of Chevron Corp.,Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Hess Corp. and Gary-Williams Energy Corp. "in giving improper gifts to one-third of MMS officials in the Denver office."

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – Royal Dutch Shell’s U.S. subsidiary Shell Oil received a $338.4 million contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for aviation fuel, the Pentagon said late Wednesday.

Shell Oil said half of the Shell-branded stations in Houston and Galveston were without fuel Friday; other oil companies also reported stations out of gas before Ike's arrival.

Shell says Houston-Houma pipeline shut

NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Shell Oil said on Friday it shut its Houston-to-Houma crude oil pipeline due to the effects of Hurricane Ike, and added its Capline crude oil pipeline remained up at reduced rates.

The company said it expected to ramp flows through the lines quickly after Ike passes.

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RELATED BLOG POSTS

Shell says still fixing damaged Nigeria oil pipeline read more

U.S. Interior Department employees who oversaw oil drilling on federal lands had sex and used illegal drugs with workers at energy companies where they were conducting official business, an internal government report said on Wednesday.

The oil companies named in the report were Chevron Corp, Shell Oil, Hess Corp and Gary Williams Energy Corp.

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, delayed deploying most staff back to offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico because of an approaching hurricane.

NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Shell Oil said on Tuesday it was hoping to ramp up production soon at its Gulf Coast refineries in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, but at least one of them needs power and repairs before it can restart.

It is the story of an Americanized oil company that enjoyed near autonomy in business decisions from its U.K./European parent syndicate, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group.

Everyone these days, from T. Boone Pickens to me, seems to have an energy plan, and Hofmeister is no different. His, though, has executive suite cred. He doesn't have an interest in any particular fuel source, as Pickens does, and, as he's quick to point out, he's not running for office.

The $362 million bill was based on a search of state records that indicated Shell has dredged 22,000 acres of wetlands for placement or maintenance of pipeline canals and other oil and gas production facilities since 1983. Such dredging has contributed to erosion of the coast, leaving the region more vulnerable to hurricanes.

Jobbers across the country received the bi-annual letter on June 30, warning that those who do not meet minimal requirements could face an uncertain future.

Shell Oil Co pulled an additional 200 workers from the eastern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday due to the threat from Tropical Storm Fay, the company said in a statement.

State inspectors say the refinery was not following the equipment readiness program in its legally required oil spill preparedness plan. They also wrote that the refinery lacked maintenance records for response equipment, nor could operators verify the location and condition of some of that gear.

HOUSTON -- In a effort to promote free Shell fuel giveaways, interactive racing games, and high-performing vehicles, Shell today launched new interactive features on its Web site.

WASHINGTON D.C. – The National Association of Shell Marketers is coming out strong against the "lost profits" provision in the incentive agreements designed by Shell Oil Co.

NEW YORK, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Shell Oil (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Monday it would begin evacuating 40 workers from oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico as a precaution due to the effects of Tropical Storm Edouard.