For your free newsletter click here 23 May 2013

 

Article archive for Royal Dutch Shell plc

Nigeria LNG declares force majeure after Shell pipeline leak (21 May 2013)
Nigeria LNG, Africa’s largest liquefied natural gas export terminal, said it had declared force majeure on exports following a leak in a supply pipeline owned by Shell Petroleum Development Company. Force majeure, a legal step that protects a company from liability when it cannot fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control, was declared on May 15. read more...

New Shell report forecasts possible societal and energy trends over next 50 years (08 May 2013)
With the world’s population headed toward 9 billion at mid-century and millions of people climbing out of poverty, global energy demand could increase by as much as 80% by 2050, according to a new report from Shell. The report, New Lens Scenarios, looks much further into the future than most similar reports. read more...

Shell avoids early involvement in UK shale gas (07 May 2013)
In a blow to Government attempts to attract investment to the industry, Shell has said that nobody knows whether shale will succeed in the UK and it has no desire to be the company that tries to find out. Simon Henry, Shell’s chief financial officer, said it had already allocated more than $6bn (£3.8bn) to shale globally and was not going to exceed that sum. read more...

US Supreme Court rejects Shell torture case in Nigeria (19 April 2013)
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court has said US courts cannot hear lawsuits about human rights abuses abroad. The nine justices unanimously said that a court in the state of New York could not hear a case against oil major Shell over alleged abuses in Nigeria. The case was filed by 12 Nigerians who say the firm was complicit in a campaign against protesters from 1992-95. read more...

Shell abandons 2013 Arctic drilling programme (28 February 2013)
Royal Dutch Shell said on February 27 it had suspended its 2013 drilling season in the Arctic waters off Alaska but added it remained committed to drilling at a later time, probably in the summer 2014 season. This announcement follows a series of mishaps and mechanical failures in 2012 which has led to a high-level US Government review. read more...

Shell Arctic drilling programme in doubt because of need for rig repairs (19 February 2013)
Shell has said its Arctic drilling campaign this summer is in the balance because of problems with the two drillships involved in the project. The Kulluk drilling rig went aground off Alaska on New Year’s Eve and was battered by storms for several days before it could be towed off, and there have also been issues with its second drillship, the Noble Discoverer. read more...

Shell and Kinder Morgan to export LNG from USA (06 February 2013)
Shell US Gas & Power and Southern Liquefaction Company, an EPB Kinder Morgan subsidiary, have announced plans to develop a natural gas liquefaction plant in two phases at Southern LNG’s existing Elba Island LNG terminal, near Savannah, Georgia. read more...

Dutch court acquits Shell of most charges in Nigeria oil spill case (01 February 2013)
Four Nigerian individuals and campaign group Friends of the Earth brought the case against Shell in The Hague, seeking compensation as they claimed spills were caused by poor maintenance. In a ruling on January 30, the court agreed with Shell that the spills were in fact caused by sabotage and dismissed four cases against the Anglo-Dutch parent company. read more...

US Government launches probe into Shell's Arctic oil programme (11 January 2013)
The US Interior Department has launched a high-level review of Shell’s troubled 2012 Arctic drilling campaign, which could place the company’s plans to explore for oil in the region into doubt. A string of equipment failures affected the company’s 2012 Arctic season, culminating in the grounding of its Kulluk rig off Alaska on New Year’s Eve. read more...

Shell drilling rig refloated and towed to sheltered anchorage (08 January 2013)
The US Coast Guard (USCG) said on January 7 that Royal Dutch Shell's Kulluk rig, which went aground off a remote Alaskan island on New Year’s Eve, has been refloated and towed 30 miles to shelter at Kiliuda Bay on Kodiak Island. read more...

Shell drilling rig goes aground off Alaska (02 January 2013)
An oil rig owned by Royal Dutch Shell that ran aground off Alaska on the night of December 31, is still being battered by winds and high seas. The Kulluk, operated by Noble Drilling, was being towed south for repairs at a shipyard in Washington State in advance of the 2013 drilling season, when crews ran into trouble during a winter storm on December 27.  read more...

Shell Director attacks perverse effects of European energy policy (06 November 2012)
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Andrew Brown, Shell’s Upstream International Director, attacked the “ridiculous” impact of European energy policy, warning that European governments are erasing the environmental benefits from expensive renewables by allowing coal use to increase and replace gas in power generation. read more...

Nigerian farmers sue Shell in the Netherlands (11 October 2012)
Four Nigerian farmers from Ogoniland have started proceedings against Shell in a Dutch court, accusing the oil giant of destroying their livelihoods in a case that could set a precedent for global environmental action. The civil suit, backed by lobby group Friends of the Earth, alleges that oil spills dating back to 2005 by the Anglo-Dutch company made fishing and farming impossible. read more...

BP sells stake in Draugen field (14 September 2012)
BP announced on September 13 that it has agreed to sell its 18.36% non-operated interest in the Draugen field in the Norwegian Sea to AS Norske Shell for $240 million in cash. In a press release, the group said this agreement was a further example of the active management of its portfolio in the North Sea, focusing investment on high value assets with long term growth potential, while realising the value of non-core assets.  read more...

Shell announces go-ahead of Canada oil sands carbon capture project (10 September 2012)
On September 5 Shell announced that it will go ahead with the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project for an oil sands operation in Canada. The Quest project will be built on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture owners (Shell, Chevron and Marathon Oil) and with support from the Governments of Canada and Alberta. read more...

Shell to shut Australian Clyde oil refinery on September 30 (09 July 2012)
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell will close its 79,000 barrels-per-day Clyde refinery in Paramatta near Sydney on September 30 and convert the facility into a fuel terminal. The refinery has been struggling with poor industry margins and intense competition from mega-refineries in Asia, Shell said in a statement. read more...

Coryton likely to end up as storage facility (19 June 2012)
Administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said on June 18 around 180 staff would be laid off at the Coryton refinery east of London next week. Workers were told about the layoffs at a meeting at which it was also announced there would be further redundancies at the end of July, a union source told Reuters. This would mean the vast majority of the 850 jobs on site would be lost, according to the news agency. read more...

Total still evaluating possible action plan for North Sea gas leak (29 March 2012)
A spokesman for Total in Paris said a solution to plugging the gas and condensate leak from the Elgin-Franklin field in the North Sea was still being evaluated, according to Reuters. The spokesman said the company had not precisely identified the cause of the incident, and that a decision was some days away. read more...

US refinery union to focus on safety in 2012 (09 March 2012)
The United Steelworkers (USW) union reached a tentative agreement with refinery owners on a new three-year staff agreement on 31 January, and said it had made safety the focus of this year's contracts after a spate of accidents at various refineries. read more...

Spill from Shell Clyde refinery in Sydney (09 February 2012)
Fire and Rescue New South Wales crews are trying to contain a spill from Shell's Clyde refinery in Sydney's west. Nine fire trucks were at the scene on February 9. read more...

Gannet leak under control (24 August 2011)
Shell divers have recently closed the relief valve from which oil had been seeping, and no oil has been released since that point. Continuous monitoring is being carried out to ensure the closure of the valve has been fully successful. read more...

Oil giants see plunge in profits (30 July 2009)
In 2008 global crude prices hit a record $147 a barrel. However, as a consequence of the worldwide recession being experienced, US light crude is currently approximately $64. Due to this sharp decline in oil prices Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest energy company and Exxon Mobil have both reported a big fall in quarterly profits. Second quarter profits at Anglo-Dutch group Shell slumped 70% from a year earlier to $2.3bn. Exxon's profits for the same period declined 66% to $3.95bn. read more...

Shell fined over £300,000 for fire safety breaches (05 June 2009)
Shell International was fined over £300,000 on 1st June over problems in fire safety at one of it’s main offices in central London, London Fire Brigade (LFB) said. The company was also ordered to pay £45,000 in costs. Shell pleaded guilty at Inner London crown court to three breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This is the largest fine ever imposed under the measure. read more...

Building the world’s largest gas to liquids plant (17 February 2009)
The drive is on to make tomorrow's transport fuels and lubricants on a large scale from clean-burning natural gas. Construction of the world's largest gas to liquids (GTL) plant, Pearl GTL in Qatar, is a major step towards meeting the world’s growing demand for cleaner energy. read more...

Low carbon dioxide power plant (09 December 2008)
Essent Business Development (Essent) and Shell Gas & Power Developments (Shell) have agreed to study the feasibility of a 1,000-megawatt, low-CO₂ power plant. Most of the CO₂ produced by the plant would be captured and stored underground. Essent and Shell signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the feasibility study. read more...

Qatar will supply LNG to Dubai by 2010 (01 June 2008)
Dubai could soon start receiving gas shipments from North Africa and the Far East but at higher prices than its current imports. Royal Dutch Shell has signed a 15year deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the emirate in the peak summer period, starting in 2010. Some of the gas will come from nearby Qatar, The agreement also covers imports from other countries where the company is active, such as Egypt and Malaysia. read more...

Gas deal supplies China’s growing energy market (01 June 2008)
Qatargas, Shell and PetroChina have signed sales and purchase agreements to supply LNG from the state of Qatar to the rapidly growing Chinese market. read more...

Shell concern over Nigerian operation (01 February 2008)
The failure of the Nigerian government to properly fund its majority share in Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) could harm the future of one of Royal Dutch Shell’s most important businesses. The company is responsible for Shell’s onshore business throughout Nigeria and the funding problem is posing a big risk to its existence, according to a memo from Basil Omiyi, Shell’s country chair person. read more...