Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalization said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters that “approximately 400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”. read more

FULL ARTICLE

REUTERS Staff: JULY 31, 2017

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has contained a leak at its Pulau Bukom refining and petrochemical complex in Singapore, and operations have not been affected, a company spokeswoman said on Monday. The small leak occurred on Friday, the spokeswoman said, without revealing further details on the affected unit. The Bukom site, Shell’s largest wholly-owned plant, has a 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery and a steam cracker that produces more than 900,000 tonnes of ethylene a year. FULL ARTICLE read more

Shell paid and maintained part of the Nigerian police force; Shell was prepared to purchase arms for the regime; Shell had puppets in place up to the highest level of the Nigerian government as a result of its revolving door policy, under which former employees of Shell work for the regime and vice versa; Shell maintained a network of informants in Ogoniland in conjunction with the regime. Shell was itself… a direct and active part of (all ranks of) the government apparatus that had to maintain ‘order’ in Ogoniland and to this end violated human rights on a wide scale. Shell’s police force in 1994 numbered more than 1,200 officers… Shell also had 41 marines and 128 MOPOL members… … in total the Shell-operated joint venture employed around 2,470 security staff…

By John Donovan

The numbered paragraphs below are extracted from the 138 page Esther Kiobel Writ served on multiple Royal Dutch Shell companies on 28 June 2017. More information about the latest litigation, this time in the Dutch Courts, is provided after the extracts.

Extracts Begin

8.4 Shell and the regime operated in tandem

246. Not only did Shell stand at the cradle of the aforementioned excesses by requesting the intervention of MOPOL or the RSISTF again and again, it also factually enabled the regime to do this by providing it with arms, personnel and money. As such, Shell facilitated the excessive actions by the regime, but also fulfilled typical government tasks itself.247. The strong entanglement of Shell and the regime is evident inter alia from the following facts and circumstances, some of which have previously been discussed above: read more

“There will be fewer one-of-a-kind highly complex mega-projects and proportionately more simple to medium complex projects… This heralds a more ‘commoditised’ world for project delivery,” said the document, which was given to royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by Shell staff, and seen by Reuters. FULL ARTICLE

By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 09:26, 31 July 2017 

By Tom Bergin

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalisation said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters that “approximately 400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”. That represents around a quarter of the roles at the department, according to the staff consultation document seen by Reuters. The group employs 92,000 worldwide. “Shell is transforming into a simpler company,” a spokesman said, adding the final number of job cuts would be subject to consultation with employees. He declined to answer detailed questions about the consultation document. FULL ARTICLE read more

Embarrassingly for Shell, as the New York Times has reported this morning, I have a leaked copy of an 88 page Shell internal document setting out proposals for Shell’s global plans generally and in particular for the Netherlands, where several hundred more jobs are going to disappear. Part of a world-wide jobs upheaval at Shell. 

A few days ago, CEO Ben van Beurden, mindful of the prospect of a falling oil price, claimed that Shell “is getting fit for the $40s.” Now we have a detailed insight about the scope of proposed transformational change at Shell deemed essential to achieving that objective. Embarrassingly for Shell, as the New York Times has reported this morning, I have a leaked copy of an 88 page Shell internal document setting out proposals for Shell’s global plans generally and in particular for the Netherlands, where several hundred more jobs are going to disappear. read more

Emily Gosden, Energy Editor: 31 July 2017

Oil investors are getting worried. Electric cars have accelerated on to the front pages. Sales are surging, carmakers are unveiling plans for all-electric models and this week Britain vowed to ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040. Yet if Big Oil believes that death is about to pull up in a Tesla, it’s doing a good job of hiding it. On Thursday, Ben van Beurden, the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, welcomed Britain’s plans and declared that his next car would be electric. And earlier in the year Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist, bluntly described the arrival of electric vehicles on the oil majors’ lawn as “not a game-changer”, adding that not even “enormous” growth in sales of such vehicles would make a big dent in global oil demand. As Big Oil evolves into Big Energy, the sight of Mr van Beurden behind the wheel of an electric vehicle might not seem so crazy, so long as he’s charging it up on a Shell forecourt. read more

The source of the huge blaze that engulfed Shell’s Pernis facility, Europe’s largest oil refinery, Saturday evening, has yet to be determined. Media reports, meanwhile, point to a short circuit as the most likely reason. The power outage that crippled the refinery as a result of the fire rendered several units out of service, prompting the Royal Dutch Shell company to completely shut all operations. “Shell is in the process of shutting down all the units at the site,” a company spokesman said, as cited by AFP. He added that the process might last for “hours, or even several days.” FULL ARTICLE read more

RON BOUSSO: JULY 30, 2017 / 8:45 PM 

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell suspended loadings of oil products from its Pernis refinery in the Netherlands following a fire at the plant, the company said in a statement to traders on Sunday. Shell shut down most of its production at Pernis, Europe’s largest refinery, after the fire at the 404,000 barrels per day plant late on Saturday caused a power outage. The outage at the Rotterdam plant was likely to boost prices of oil products such as diesel, jet fuel and gasoline in northwest Europe, where refinery profits have risen in recent weeks due to other refinery issues in the region. FULL ARTICLE read more

The Associated Press: JULY 30, 2017 8:37 AM: THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS 

Royal Dutch Shell is shutting down most units at its refinery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands after a fire at a high-voltage electricity switch station. Shell spokesman Thijs van Velzen says the fire started late Saturday and was extinguished by Sunday morning. Nobody was injured. The Pernis refinery in Rotterdam’s sprawling port is Europe’s largest. It has the capacity to refine just over 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The shutdown led to Shell burning off excess gases at the plant, a process known as flaring. The move sent large flames into the sky on Sunday.Van Velzen says the cause of the fire is under investigation. He declined comment on the financial implications of the shutdown. SOURCE read more

Julian Lee: July 30, 2017 3:00 AM EDT

You wait decades for an existential crisis, then two come along at once. At least that’s how it must feel for OPEC’s beleaguered ministers. In the short term the market for their oil is being eroded by rising production outside their control. Looking further ahead, oil demand itself is under threat from the electrification of road transport. OPEC may not yet be dead, but its days are surely numbered. The most obvious short-term threat to the group comes from the rapid rise in U.S. shale oil, but the risks have expanded to include other areas like Brazil’s prolific sub-salt discoveries and more recent finds further north along the east coast of South America. FULL ARTICLE read more

Major Fire at Shell Rotterdam Refinery Extinguished

The fire that broke out last night at Shell Pernis in Rotterdam has been extinguished.

Pernis is the largest refinery in Europe with about sixty factories.

Part of the refinery remains shut down because the electricity is cut.

The fire was caused by short-circuiting in a high voltage station.

According to a security spokesman the flames cover a wide area. This is due to the fact that the company flares out gases released by the refining of oil as part of the safety procedure.

There is no indication that harmful substances have been released. read more

Jillian Ambrose: 29 JULY 2017 • 3:31PM

Identifying a tipping point is not always easy. But when one of the world’s most powerful oil bosses says he is in the market for an electric car, there can be little doubt. Ben van Beurden, the Royal Dutch Shell boss, last week delivered the clearest indication yet that the burgeoning electric vehicle industry is already hastening the decline of global oil demand. “When that will be is not certain. But that it will happen, we are certain,” he told investors. It was not so much a foil to the group trebling second quarter profits as a statement of intent: for “Big Oil” it is time to adapt or die, and Shell intends to adapt. READ MORE read more

• SARAH KENT
• The Wall Street Journal
• 12:00AM July 29, 2017

Royal Dutch Shell has presented a pessimistic vision for the future of oil, even as the company reported success in generating cash during a prolonged energy downturn. Shell has cut costs and said it was preparing for a world in which crude prices might never regain precrash levels and petroleum demand declined. Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden said the company had a mindset that oil prices would remain “lower forever”. “We have to have projects that are resilient in a world where oil has peaked,” Mr van Beurden told reporters on a conference call discussing the company’s second-quarter financial results. “When it will happen we don’t know, but that it will happen we are certain.” READ MORE read more

And two other large global energy players with regulatory approval from the B.C. and Canadian governments say they are trying to position themselves to be ready to make a decision on building their own billions-of-dollars of mega-projects in northwest B.C. to coincide with increased demand they forecast could kick in by the middle of next decade. Those projects are LNG Canada led by Royal Dutch Shell plc and Kitimat LNG, a 50-50 venture of Chevron and Australian-based Woodside Energy. read more