ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC NEWS TUESDAY 10 SEPT 2014
Analysts hint at merger of Shell and BP
According to an article by Keith Findlay published byenergyvoice.com: “Falling fortunes at BP and Shell could force the two oil and gas giants into a “mega-merger” within a couple of years, some City analysts believe. Some of Shell’s big shareholders are said to be frustrated by the company’s spending on expensive far-flung projects that fail to yield.” MORE HERE
SEE ALSO: Shell BP Mega-Merger?: 29 May 2014
Shell accused of a Jekyll and Hyde Approach to Climate Change
A BloombergBusinessweek article reveals that “For all its vaunted language, Shell continues to fund and support several groups pursuing the opposite aim: to stymie climate policies sprouting up around the globe that the Trillion Tonne Communique applauds.”According to the article: “Shell has backed other groups opposing regional climate rules. The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, which includes a Shell executive on its 16-member board, hailed the country’s repeal in July of its carbon policy, which made Australia the first developed nation to rescind a price on carbon emissions.”
Preposterous payoffs
The London Evening Standard has published an article about“some of the gifts handed to departing big-hitters.” In the article, which cites the departure of Malcolm Brinded from Shell, “Lucy Tobin looks at the art of the preposterous payoff.” I am not sure if Brinded can be rightly described as a “big-hitter.” Some of his detractors at Shell would probably want to slightly modify the description.
Extract from the London Evening Standard article
But how about brushing away a little problem with a house sale? When Malcolm Brinded, former head of exploration at the oil giant Shell, left the firm in 2012 he wanted to move from the Netherlands, where he’d relocated for the job. But the house he’d bought for €3.4 million just wouldn’t sell. So Shell bought it for him — paying a price decided by three independent valuations, which was €2.4 million, and then compensated him €992,199 for the property’s loss in value.
From an article published in Carson, California, by the Daily Breeze
…Shell Oil Co. is being sued on behalf of thousands of current and former residents of the 50-acre neighborhood, which was doused in smelly, petroleum hydrocarbons when an oil tank farm there was destroyed to make way for homes in the 1960s.
Glasspoint Solar Inc Gets $53 Mln Financing Led by Shell and Oman
The FT reports that “In an unusual alliance of old and new energies, Royal Dutch Shell, the European oil group, and a sovereign wealth fund from Oman are leading an investment of $53m into a small solar power company that uses its renewable energy to increase crude oil production.”
Bloomberg News has covered the same story…
Extract
Glasspoint Solar Inc., a closely held producer of solar equipment used for enhanced oil recovery, received $53 million from a group of investors led by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and Oman’s largest sovereign wealth fund. The funds will be used to accelerate the deployment of Glasspoint’s solar-steam generators in Oman, the Fremont, California-based company said today in a statement. Glasspoint’s systems concentrate sunlight on tubes to create steam that’s injected to help retrieve heavy crude oil.
An article published by The Telegraph claims that “Arctic drilling is inevitable: if we don’t find oil in the ice, then Russia will”
Extracts
The technical challenges of operating in such a harsh and remote environment were highlighted last year when Royal Dutch Shell had to suspend operations off the coast of Alaska after the Kulluk drilling rig ran aground in stormy weather. Faced with legal challenges to its licences in the Chukchi Sea and the need to make multi-billion-dollar savings on capital expenditure in January, Shell’s new chief executive, Ben van Beurden, appeared to signal that the company would possibly walk away from the area. However, late last month the Anglo-Dutch company surprised the market and the wider industry when it submitted a new proposal to the Federal government to restart exploration activities offshore in the Alaskan Arctic. The Shell plan reportedly involves using two rigs in the Chukchi to reach production eventually of around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude. Shell has already spent around $5bn (£3bn) attempting to extract oil from the Alaskan Arctic and its desire to return to the Chukchi is indicative of the importance oil majors now place on the region, which could ultimately deliver 1m bpd if put into full production, according to some estimates.
By John Donovan
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