Oil giant Shell today announced that it had finished offloading shares in its New Zealand business to Austrian oil company OMV.

Written by David McPhee – 28/12/2018 7:19 am

The £456m sale includes Shell’s interest in the Maui, Pohokura, and Tank Farm assets, and operatorship of the Great South Basin venture, which was subject to a separate agreement.

Shell said the deal was part of the firm’s effort to simplify its portfolio.

The company also confirmed that employees of Shell Taranaki and Shell NZ 2011 are now part of OMV New Zealand.

Zoe Yujnovich, Shell’s vice president in Australia and New Zealand, said: “We are proud of having worked in New Zealand for more than 100 years and completion of the sale to OMV marks an important milestone in the company’s history. read more

Spreadsheet-analysing investors in control of trillion-dollar funds are forcing polluters to change

Anjli Raval and Attracta Mooney in London: 27 December 2018

When an activist shareholder group last year launched a campaign to force Royal Dutch Shell to set hard targets for cutting carbon emissions, just 6 per cent of those eligible to vote backed the plan. Yet within months Shell had announced an “ambition” to halve its carbon footprint by 2050… This December it pledged to set firm short-term emissions targets from 2020 that will be tied to executive pay. “If we don’t meet them there will be consequences to my salary and others,” said Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive. FULL FT ARTICLE read more

Jessica Jaganathan: December 26, 2018

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday it has begun output at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility in Australia, the world’s largest floating production structure and the last of a wave of eight LNG projects built in the country over the last decade.

Though the project started up later and cost more than originally estimated, it is expected to further cement Australia’s lead as the world’s biggest LNG exporter, after the country took the crown in November. read more

Eni and Shell bought the OPL 245 offshore field for about $1.3 billion in a deal that spawned one of the industry’s largest corruption scandals. It is alleged that about $1.1 billion of the total was siphoned to agents and middlemen.

By Stephanie Nebehay: Fri, 21st Dec 2018 

GENEVA, Dec 21 (Reuters) – A Geneva prosecutor is reviewing material in a suitcase seized nearly three years ago to decide what can be shared with Italian authorities in a case involving oil majors Eni and Royal Dutch Shell and corrupt payments in Nigeria, his office said on Friday.

The prosecutor received the green light after Switzerland’s top court, the Federal Tribunal, rejected an appeal by Nigerian defendant Emeka Obi to prevent his bag from being unsealed.

The Lausanne court’s Nov. 8 ruling, published online, said that the confiscated material – including documents, an external hard drive, British and African passports, and USB keys – could have “potential pertinence” in the criminal investigation and the sealing could be lifted without violating Swiss law. read more

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The conclusion that they were aware of corruption was made by a judge in a separate case in Milan that resulted in the conviction of two middlemen…

Times Article: Judge claims Shell knew of Nigerian corruption

Emily Gosden: December 18, 2018

Royal Dutch Shell and Eni were aware that their $1.3 billion deal for a Nigerian oilfield would result in corrupt payments to politicians and officials, an Italian judge has said.

The two oil majors and former executives are on trial in Milan over alleged corruption in their 2011 deal to secure control of the prized OPL 245 block off the country’s coast. Prosecutors allege that most of the proceeds of the deal went to a company linked with a convicted money launderer and ended up being paid in bribes and kickbacks. Shell and Eni have denied wrongdoing. read more

In her reasoning, judge Barbara alleged that Shell executives, including Brinded, had known that Etete would keep a part of the purchase price for himself and use the rest to “pay people”, including Nigerian politicians and public officials…

Emilio Parodi: DECEMBER 17, 2018 / 11:40 AM

* Eni, Shell knew of graft surrounding Nigeria deal – judge

* Both firms fully aware of ‘sharks’ circling the deal – judge

* Eni says judge does not have all the evidence to hand

* Shell says no basis to convict it or former Shell staff

MILAN, Dec 17 (Reuters) – An Italian judge said on Monday oil majors Eni and Royal Dutch Shell were fully aware their 2011 purchase of a Nigerian oilfield would result in corrupt payments to Nigerian politicians and officials.

Italy’s Eni and Shell bought the OPL 245 offshore field for about $1.3 billion in a deal that spawned one of the industry’s largest corruption scandals. It is alleged that about $1.1 billion of the total was siphoned to agents and middlemen.

The Milan judge made the comment in her written reasons for the September conviction of Nigerian Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo, both middlemen in the OPL 245 deal, for corruption. The pair were jailed for four years. read more

Almost a year on from raids that led to over a dozen arrests, including of several former employees of the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell, charge sheets state that around 340,000 tonnes of gasoil were stolen from the oil major’s Pulau Bukom site in Singapore. Some of the incidents date back to 2014.

Smokes rises out of chimneys from a Shell oil refinery on Pulau Bukom, five kilometres to the south of the main island of Singapore on January 13, 2015. 

Around $150 million worth of oil was stolen from Shell’s biggest global refinery over several years, Singapore court documents reviewed by Reuters show, far more than reported when police first revealed the heist earlier this year.

Almost a year on from raids that led to over a dozen arrests, including of several former employees of the local unit of Royal Dutch Shell, charge sheets state that around 340,000 tonnes of gasoil were stolen from the oil major’s Pulau Bukom site in Singapore, in incidents dating back to 2014. read more

By Kelly Gilblom: 13 December 2018, 11:16 GMT: Updated on 13 Dec 2018, 14:04 GMT

• Nigeria seeks to recoup money in oil deal it calls corrupt

• Companies facing criminal charges over same block in Milan

The government of Nigeria is suing Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni SpA and other companies for more than $1 billion over a 2011 oil deal it says was tainted by corruption.

The suit, filed Wednesday in London, alleges that money the companies paid to acquire an oil exploration license in the Gulf of Guinea was diverted to bribes and kickbacks, the Nigerian government said in a press release. The transaction is already the subject of a separate, ongoing criminal trial in Milan. read more

Nigeria files $1.1 bln London lawsuit against Shell, Eni over oil deal

* Milan trial related to same oil deal ongoing

* Nigeria also suing JPMorgan over transfers for same deal 

LONDON, Dec 13 (Reuters) – The Nigerian government said it had filed a $1.1 billion lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell and Eni in a commercial court in London on Thursday in relation to a 2011 oilfield deal.

The OPL 245 oilfield is also at the heart of an ongoing corruption trial in Milan in which former and current Shell and Eni officials are on the bench.

Milan prosecutors allege bribes totalling around $1.1 billion were paid to win the licence to explore the field which, because of disputes, has never entered into production. read more

NAM is the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions to deal with damaged residences.

PRINTED BELOW IS A TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH OF INFORMATION PUBLISHED IN DUTCH BY NAM ON 13 DECEMBER 2018

The gas year 2017-2018 ended on 1 October 2018. In this period, NAM produced 20.1 billion m3 of gas from the Groningen field. That is 1.5 billion m3 of gas less than was foreseen.
 
As a result of the quake at Zeerijp on 8 January 2018, Minister Wiebes of Economic Affairs and Climate commissioned NAM to release the intended production of 21.6 billion m3 of gas.

NAM has been asked to limit production to the extent possible within the applicable conditions. The security of supply for the Netherlands had to be taken into account.
 
This has resulted in 1.5 billion m3 less gas being produced from the Groningen gas field.
 
In addition, the last gas year was a warm year. Despite a cold period in late February – early March. ‘Groningen’ had to step in those weeks in order to meet the demand for low-calorific gas.
 
The figures on gas production in the Groningen gas field can be found on the NAM website. read more

Shell’s confirmation that it is expanding the Shearwater hub could lead to further North Sea investment, according to an analyst. The Shearwater platform will serve newly-sanctioned projects like Fram and Arran, as well as the nearby Columbus field. FULL ARTICLE

While it is true that Royal Dutch Shell gave shareholder activists on climate an early Christmas present, agreeing to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 per cent by 2035 and 50 per cent by 2050 ( FT View, December 7), a closer look reveals that the commitment is a cynical game. read more

Their hope and expectations were that Saro-Wiwa’s hanging would silence the Ogoni people and send signals to the rest of Nigeria’s Niger Delta about what awaits anyone who raises questions about the unfair and inhuman distribution of the wealth of the people of the Niger Delta.

By Fegalo Nsuke

Ogoni, the people and the land represent an oppressed nationality, a people persecuted by their own government for seeking respect for their human and environmental rights especially over their natural endowments, a people whose government have authorized its armed forces to unleash on them, unimaginable brutality with assurances that military crimes against the Ogoni people will never be questioned nor punished.

Over 4,000 Ogonis have been killed since 1993 in state-sponsored terrorism and quite regrettably, no one has been prosecuted, punished or indicted in the Ogoni saga. read more

FULL ARTICLE

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FULL ARTICLE

7 December 2018

Dow Chemical Co and Shell Oil Co have been hit with a lawsuit by the city of Arcadia, California accusing the companies of contaminating the city’s drinking water with a toxic chemical found in pesticides the companies once made.

Filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, the lawsuit said the companies knew or should have known that the chemical, known as 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP is toxic and renders drinking water unsafe.

The companies still manufactured and marketed pesticides containing the chemical for years, the lawsuit said. read more

OPL 245 & OML 42 corruption ridden Nigerian oil deals involving Shell and a former Shell Vice President, Peter Robinson, have become even murkier. See Reuters report below. No wonder Amnesty International has publicly asked the question of whether Royal Dutch Shell is a Criminal Enterprise in relation to its conduct in Nigeria? 

By Ron Bousso: 6 Dec 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has concluded that a Nigerian oilfield sale where it suspects an executive took bribes was not linked to a separate court case in which he and Shell face corruption charges over a $1.1 billion offshore acquisition.

The Anglo-Dutch company filed a criminal complaint in March against Peter Robinson, a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa, saying he took bribes in the $390 million sale of onshore Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42 to a Nigerian firm. read more