Interior takes step toward resuming Arctic exploration
Extract from an article by Laura Barron-Lopez published 27 May 2014 by THE HILL
Royal Dutch Shell may be able to resume Arctic oil and gas exploration if the Interior Department sticks to the timeline it filed to the U.S. District Court of Alaska. In a fling made Friday, Interior set a timeline for conducting a new environmental analysis for the exploration leases in the Arctic waters off Alaska. The timeline calls for the publication of a draft report by October and a final decision in spring of 2015, putting Interior on track to allow companies, like Shell, to resume exploration.
US BOEM aims for revised Chukchi Sea analysis in spring
Extracts from a Platts article published 27 May 2014
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management told a US District Court in Alaska on Friday it will have a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the 2008 Chukchi Sea lease sale prepared by August and publication of a Final EIS by February. Under the schedule the final action, publication of the record of decision, would occur in March. Whether Shell would have time to mobilize for a 2015 summer drilling season in the Arctic is uncertain, however.
FULL ARTICLE
Shell proposes project at its Martinez refinery to help decrease global warming while enhancing efficiency
Extract from an article by Tom Lochner published by the Contra Costa Times on 27 May 2014
MARTINEZ — The Shell Martinez petroleum refinery, saying it wants to strike a blow against global warming while improving efficiency, seeks approval to process a lighter mix of crude oils and permanently shut down one of two coker units. Starting in 2015, and continuing in phases over several years, Shell would construct a variety of processing equipment, including new heat exchangers to reduce energy use, and thus emit less pollution and greenhouse gases, according to a land use permit application on file with Contra Costa County.
Insiders Perspective on Shell VP Arjen Dorland
Royal Dutch Shell VP Arjen Dorland
One of few respected IT-illuminati, shortly before he retired, suggested that Dorland was a bit of an animal if not held on a tight leash…
From a Shell Source
Amusing to see Arjen Dorland extolling the virtues of technological enablement of exploration within Shell especially given his limited engagement with and knowledge of this part of the business. One suggests that there is an ulterior motive here and one worth going through in detail. It’s been noted on here previously how Arjen Dorland first rose without trace at the start of the millennium in the battered Shell IT organisation, having originally been identified as a JG 1-2 maximum level employee (the Shell system, as we all know, sets CEP levels for all its staff and this system is rigorously enforced by the myriad HR managers that Shell homes and encourages). He remains to this day intensely bitter about that initial positioning and it explains his character and motivation to a ‘T’.
Anyway, he was responsible at this time, albeit somewhat in copycat mode, for the European IT/SAP implementations in Downstream. Some of these were quite laughable: for instance the system that SDO (Shell in Germany) adopted after they acquired DEA in 2002 was actually a retrograde version of the system that DEA had been running for some years. Nonetheless, the march to paper the world with SAP outputs continued apace, driven mainly by Alan Matula, then just the IT Director for Chemicals and a bystander in the IT hierarchy. The main player in the background here was in fact Accenture, who were trying to penetrate Shell and get large scale implementation contracts going.
Of course, around this time the reserves scandal hit and we all know what that did to the C-Level suite in Shell as Watts et al. departed. In comes Jeroen van der Veer and lo and behold, Dorland is suddenly made up to a senior role as CIO for the Global Functions area: this was in effect all the bits of the business that no-one wanted to support (e.g. Finance, HR and the rest). Why…? One can only surmise the fact that Dorland was the IT manager at Pernis when van der Veer was the Refinery Manager had something to do with it, plus formation of a little Dutch mafia (never seen one of those before!) in this area as the Dutch were squeezed out of senior positions by British and Americans. There was in fact a far better and more able Dutch guy in the Gas and Power set-up at that time – in the days when Linda Cook was plausible and G&P was a separate business – but he was made to report to Dorland. That was never going to work out or add value as it just made Dorland look dumb.
Anyway, Dorland was desperate to make an impression and prove his earlier manager wrong so tried to kick off a raft of SAP-like implementations to match those that Matula, now in place as the CIO for Downstream and Dorland’s former boss, was rolling out under the GSAP master plan (and see where that ended up!). Dorland was limited – and those who know him will understand that limited applies in several senses, not least his interpersonal skills – by the mixed bag portfolio he had to hand and the only way he could get any credit was to do G-SAP copy for Finance as the HR system, bloated and wasteful though it was, was already almost done and dusted, way over budget.
This wondrous idea was called S-ERP (Services ERP) and was really again the brainchild of Accenture with Dorland being the tail that was being wagged by the Accenture dog. Several reviews suggested that this project was a nonsense and that the emerging pattern of failing large SAP implementations – HR, G-SAP and the parallel EP version – meant that doing one for the complex and disparate Finance organisation was nonsense. Doug Groves was brought in from Downstream as technical lead from the business and a Dutch HR-SAP manager was bumped to letter grade to programme manage the fiasco. No surprise again, Dorland has never worked outside of Holland in 25 plus years at Shell.
Nonetheless off this project went… and of course it rapidly crashed and burned when it became apparent that the need was not there and that certain parts of the ‘One Shell’ that van der Veer tried to create were in fact light years ahead of the rest of the organisation. For example, the US tax systems were already doing what Europe could only dream about but Dorland and his crew refused to even countenance that the system they saw as their ticket to the stars was already out there.
Probably the clearest indication of this can be seen where people ended up. Dorland never got the CIO job that Matula has nailed down for the last ten years after they booted Mike Rose out, despite the fact that the subsequent CEO, Peter Voser, had even been his primary client when he was CFO! Dorland was instead palmed off with the Downstream CIO role but with the G-SAP fiasco on his plate and less able to rely on his Accenture ‘support’ that did not end well. He’s approaching retirement now and largely out to grass: one guesses that this appearance in the press is actually his was of announcing that he is available for hire when he hits sixty next year. Given that Doug Groves has been with Accenture now for years – yes, what a surprise! – it will be interesting to see whether they are as keen to take Dorland on when his supposed access to the top floor at Shell is finally removed. One of few respected IT-illuminati, shortly before he retired, suggested that Dorland was a bit of an animal if not held on a tight leash and one doubts Accenture would risk that in the current market.
RELATED
Traci Alford of Shell confesses ‘not everyone likes us…’
By John Donovan
Interesting Marketing magazine interview published today with Traci Alford, the global head of Shell’s fuels branding located at Shell’s new regional HQ in Singapore.
Traci confesses that “not everyone likes us…” How perceptive.
Talks about Shell’s painful experience online.
Claims that Shell wants a online dialogue with consumers.
Perhaps she is unaware that Shell once launched an online platform for free and open discussion with consumers called “Tell Shell”. Initially Shell attached great importance to the innovation, which had the enthusiastic support of John Hofmeister. Shell even tried to seize a related domain name for a competing online forum we had set up – “TellShell.org” - but lost the case.
However, when the online discussion became critical of Shell’s activities, Shell first secretly censored unwelcome comments, then closed down “Tell Shell” altogether.
That was Shell’s first attempt at an online dialogue. An utter disaster.
The Internet is a bottomless well of information, but wells are vulnerable.
Extracts from a Marketing Magazine interview with Traci Alford, head of fuels branding for Shell. Published 28 May 2014
First, despite the company’s fairly painful experience online, digital is where she hopes to take the brand. In terms of media spend, it only takes up 10% of the budget. But she believes the brand needs to increasingly be part of a dialogue with consumers.
“For a business like Shell, it is difficult, not everybody likes us for various reasons. We have to be selective; we take incremental steps instead of running out there. Not all digital mediums are for all businesses, not all of them drive value,” she says.
Shell launched its bold brand positioning with its global brand campaign, “Let’s Go”, intending to showcase how Shell is behind multiple energy sources and cleaner fossil fuels. This ran without a hitch until 2012 when Greenpeace activists led a fake counter campaign mocking Shell.
Earlier this year, Alaska’s eccentric tax environment forced us to temporarily defloat our 28,000 ton rig near the island of Kodiak, endangering our plan to develop the Arctic’s rich oil belt in 2013. It’s not the first time onerous regulations have given us trouble– and surely it won’t be the last! –but with your help, we can get the “Classic” Kulluk repaired and ready to once again conquer the frozen North. Some regulators and environmentalists are letting emotions stand in the way of America’s energy destiny, but we refuse to be victimized. By donating to Shell’s #RepairingFreedom campaign, individuals who truly believe in our Arctic mission can help bring the Kulluk back to her former glory.
RELATED: Was Greenpeace’s Shell Hoax Brilliant Or ‘Villainous’?One Of The Guys Behind It All Speaks.
Ogonis charge Nigerian Federal Government and Shell on UNEP report
Extract from a Daily Post article by Victor Azubuike published 28 May 2014
The people of Ogoni are calling on the Federal Government to set up a structure to help facilitate the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, report following a new revelation by Shell. “Following last week’s surprise announcement by Shell’s new CEO, Ben Van Beurden that the $1billion dollar take off fund for Ogoni clean up was waiting in a dedicated account, Social Action and other British and Nigeria NGOs have demanded that Shell stop playing games with the pains and misery of Ogoni people who are dying in their thousands because of non implementation of UNEP Report.
Oil giant says profits are assured
Extracts from an article published by Eco-Business 28 May 2014
Shell, the world’s largest oil company, believes that governments will not damage its business by taking rapid action on climate change, and says all its oil reserves will be needed and sold at a profit.
In a robust reply to a recent report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, Shell explains the company reasoning for investing in tar sands and other high cost and difficult-to-extract oil reserves. It says that an ever-expanding global economy, fuelled by population growth and great prosperity, will need more and more oil and gas at least until 2050. This will support high prices.
The Carbon Tracker Initiative report, and subsequent research by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, says that many of Shell’s long-term, high-carbon projects in the pipeline will become highly vulnerable to losses or will simply be left in the ground when international law starts to constrain the burning of fossil fuels to limit temperature rises.
Extract from an article by Tom Lochner published by the Contra Costa Times on 27 May 2014
MARTINEZ — The Shell Martinez petroleum refinery, saying it wants to strike a blow against global warming while improving efficiency, seeks approval to process a lighter mix of crude oils and permanently shut down one of two coker units. Starting in 2015, and continuing in phases over several years, Shell would construct a variety of processing equipment, including new heat exchangers to reduce energy use, and thus emit less pollution and greenhouse gases, according to a land use permit application on file with Contra Costa County.
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
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