Leaving a sinking ship: Royal Dutch Shell Plc
Bichsel will undoubtedly leave shortly, joining Ollila, Rees, Brown, Brinded, Voser, Finlayson, Carne… And when everything starts to collapse, he will at least now have the satisfaction of saying “I told you so”. This is typical for a coward…
By John Donovan
Earlier today Reuterspublished commentsattributed to Royal Dutch Shell Plc Executive Director, Matthias Bichsel.
Extract
“There is always so much talk about these big LNG projects around the world, but only a small fraction of them will get built,” said Matthias Bichsel, who is also a member of Shell’s Executive Committee.
The Financial Times has this weekend pointed put “the company’s leadership is changing at a time when its financial performance has been under scrutiny from investors” and also drew attention to the recent profit warning, following a succession of dismal quarterly results.
As a consequence, we have received the following comments from our sources:
Bichsel is the oldest member of the EC, and last year promised that he would be retiring shortly (and therefore was not interested in replacing Voser).
But suggesting that gas is only marginally profitable and that big projects tend to fail to meet their targets is definitely not part of the Shell hymn sheet.
Bichsel will undoubtedly leave shortly, joining Ollila, Rees, Brown, Brinded, Voser, Finlayson, Carne… And when everything starts to collapse, he will at least now have the satisfaction of saying “I told you so”.
This is typical for a coward, just before leaving making such a statement. If it goes well (which I don’t think so) everyone will have forgotten, if it goes bad, he can claim ‘I told you so’. But the only consolation is that we were first to state that Prelude is likely to end up in a disaster…. And I trust John will be pointing this out at the appropriate time?
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Peter Voser spending more time with his family
By John Donovan
When the surprise announcement was made by Peter Voser that he would be stepping down early from his position as Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, it was claimed that his early exit was prompted by a sudden desire to spend more time with his family.
It supposedly had nothing to do with the financial meltdown that happened on his watch and resulted in a profits warning being issued as soon as he had been pushed out the door.
Voser was responsible for a number of bungled mega projects, including Arctic oil exploration.
Reuters has reported today that he has joined the board of Temasek Holdings in Singapore. He is already on the board of other companies.
The appointments seem to undermine his claim of wishing to spend more time with his family and reinforces the speculation about the real circumstances of his hasty departure laden down by a £22m package to retain his goodwill and silence. Soon followed by the equally unexpected departure of his executive committee fellow member, Peter Rees QC.
Only a fraction of big gas export projects will be built – Shell
Extracts from a Reuters article published Monday 9 June 2014
LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) – Only a fraction of the natural gas export projects being developed around the globe will become reality as high costs and weakening gas prices torpedo those that until recently promised huge returns on investment.
But high development costs and low profit margins in the gas sector mean most of the projects will fail, Royal Dutch Shell’s director of projects and technology told Reuters in an interview.
“There is always so much talk about these big LNG projects around the world, but only a small fraction of them will get built,” said Matthias Bichsel, who is also a member of Shell’s Executive Committee.
In the east Mediterranean, where Israel and Cyprus have discovered large offshore gas fields, Australia’s Woodside Petroleum last month pulled out of an agreement to take a stake worth up to $2.7 billion in Israel’s flagship Leviathan gas project.
Shell is building the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in Australia, named Prelude, which will be the biggest maritime vessel ever constructed.
Shell starts search for successor to chief
Extract from a Financila Times article by Andrew Parker and Guy Chazan published 8 June 2014
One person familiar with the situation said Mr Ollila was planning to step down because of corporate governance rules, and that the timing of his departure had nothing to do with Shell’s recent financial difficulties. Ben van Beurden became the company’s chief executive in January, when it issued the first profit warning in its history. This… followed several quarters of disappointing results.
FULL ARTICLE
Quest project attracts worldwide interest
Extract from Financial Times article by Ed Crooks published 8 June 2014
Royal Dutch Shell’s Quest project does not look much like a potential saviour of civilisation. Quest is one of the world’s most advanced projects for capturing and storing carbon dioxide, and many people believe this type of technology will have to be deployed on a vast scale to avert the threat of catastrophic global warming.
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
By John Donovan
By John Donovan 
