Oil giant Shell set for further cost cuts
By GEOFF HO: Published Sunday January 25, 2015
Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden will outline how the company plans to deal with the collapse in crude oil prices when he unveils its results on Thursday.
The oil giant is expected to reveal further cost-cutting measures alongside a 4.6 per cent fall in its 2014 pre-tax profits to $35 billion (£23.4 billion).
Earlier this month, Shell dropped a $6.5 billion (£4.3 billion) project in Qatar due to the impact of falling oil and gas prices.
However, investors believe that Shell will maintain its dividend, despite the squeeze on its earnings.
The Anglo-Dutch giant is forecast to unveil a fourth-quarter dividend of $0.47 (31p) per share, which would take its total announced 2014 dividend payouts to $12 billion (£8 billion).
The price of oil has more than halved over the past six months to about $50 (£33.35) per barrel due to Opec keeping up production despite over-supply.
The oil cartel, led by Saudi Arabia, is pushing the price down in a bid to drive rival shale oil producers in the US out of business.
The fall in the price of crude is expected to also hurt oil services and equipment providers, as oil producers make cut backs.
Will Smith at New City Investment Managers said: “We’ll see investment cut back and that means the oil services companies’ growth will not be what it was.
“They had four years in clover, now it comes down to hard work.”
Outrage as it emerges world’s largest ship Pieter Schelte is named after SS Nazi war criminal
SCREENSHOTS OF ARTICLE PUBLISHED SUNDAY 25 JAN 2015 BY THE DAILY MAIL/MAIL ONLINE
Outrage as it emerges world’s largest ship Pieter Schelte is named after SS Nazi war criminal
FROM THE FRONT PAGE OF THE MAIL ONLINE
SCREENSHOT OF PART OF THE ARTICLE
FULL EXTENSIVE ARTICLE
Extract
While John Donovan, a former Shell contractor who has wrote a book on the company’s relations to the Third Reich added: ‘This public homage by Edward Heerema as the wealthy son of a Nazi war criminal is an affront to the relatives of tens of millions of souls who perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.’
Observer Newspaper: World’s biggest ship, the Pieter Schelte, sparks Nazi outrage on arrival in Rotterdam
FROM AN ARTICLE BY ED VULLIAMY PUBLISHED BY THEGUARDIAN.COM AND THE OBSERVER NEWSPAPER, SUNDAY 25 JAN 2015 UNDER THE HEADLINE:
World’s biggest ship, the Pieter Schelte, sparks Nazi outrage on arrival in Rotterdam
Extracts
Leaders of Jewish communities and Holocaust memorial groups in Britain and the Netherlands have reacted with rage and despair at the arrival in Rotterdam of the world’s biggest ship, the Pieter Schelte, named after a Dutch officer in the Waffen-SS.
The vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, said: “Naming such a ship after an SS officer who was convicted of war crimes is an insult to the millions who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis. We urge the ship’s owners to reconsider and rename the ship after someone more appropriate.”
Cidi cited a petition organised by a British-based website monitoring the affairs of Royal Dutch Shell, the energy group, which trumpeted the ship’s arrival in Rotterdam and which Allseas confirms in a press release to be among its early clients. The site, Royaldutchshellplc.com, is run by John Donovan, a former Shell contractor who is completing a book on the history of the company’s relations with the Third Reich. His petitionreads: “Please change the ship’s name so that it no longer sails under the name of a former Waffen-SS officer jailed for war crimes.”
Donovan told the Observer: “This public homage by Edward Heerema as the wealthy son of a Nazi war criminal is an affront to the relatives of tens of millions of souls who perished at the hands of Nazi Germany. The name is unacceptable.”
Donovan has unearthed an extraordinary case in the high court in London last summer, brought after Allseas fell victim to a fraud scam.
The judge, Mr Justice Peter Smith, asked a witness about Pieter Schelte Heerema: “He was in the Dutch SS, was he?” “No, he was in the German SS,” came the reply. Counsel then asked: “And then he left the SS, you say, in the middle of the war?” Whereupon the judge remarked: “I didn’t know you could leave the SS. I thought it was a job for life.”
The photograph shown above right, which is not featured in the Guardian article, is of Mr Edward Heerema, the sole owner of Allseas, wearing a safety helmet.
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World’s greatest ship, the Pieter Schelte, sparks Nazi outrage on arrival in Rotterdam: NATIONAL REVIEW: 24 Jan 2015
One of the world’s largest ships named after SS officer: Times of Israel: 25 Jan 2015
Jewish leaders outraged over Dutch ship named after SS officer: HAARETZ: 24 Jan 2015
Outrage as it emerges world’s largest ship Pieter Schelte is named after SS Nazi war criminal: DAILY MAIL – MAILOnline: 25 Jan 2015
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
UPI ARTICLE BY AMY R. CONNOLLY PUBLISHED 24 JAN 2015
