Mar 27th, 2023
by John Donovan.
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NL TIMES
Shell: Gas field in Groningen must be completely closed this year, in light of earthquakes
SUNDAY, 26 MARCH 2023
The gas field in Groningen must be completely closed this year, said the CEO of Shell Netherlands, Marjan van Loon. Currently, the gas field is still supplying minimal amounts of gas to keep the wells usable, but she doesn’t think that’s necessary. “It can and must be done, so the field has to be closed,” Van Loon said on the TV program WNL Op Zondag.read more
A megamerger between either London-listed oil major and either of America’s largest oilers appears increasingly attractive, on valuation terms at least, according to the Wall Street bank.read more
The Dutch government plans to close the Groningen gas field this year despite Europe’s precarious supply position. Groningen is the largest gas field in Europe.
The field is dangerous, a government official from the Hague told the Financial Times, and the government has no plans to boost production from it.
“We won’t open up more because of the safety issues,” Hans Vijbrief told the FT. “It is politically totally unviable. But apart from that, I’m not going to do it because it means that you increase the chances of earthquakes, which I don’t want to be responsible for.”read more
Jan 6th, 2023
by John Donovan.
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cnbc
Shell to take $2 billion fourth-quarter tax hit after new EU, UK levies
KEY POINTS
Shell expects a fourth-quarter tax hit of $2 billion, following additional levies in the U.K. and European Union.
The company expects “significantly higher” results from its liquefied natural gas trading performance in the fourth quarter, compared with July-September.
Shell will release its final fourth-quarter results on Feb. 2.
Oil and gas major Shell said Friday it expects to take a $2 billion hit for the fourth quarter as a result of new taxes in the European Union and U.K.
“The Q4′22 earnings impact of recently announced additional taxes in the EU (the solidarity contribution) and the deferred tax impact from the increased UK Energy Profits Levy is expected to be around $2 billion,” the company said in a trading update.
The EU agreed in September that oil and gas companies will pay a levy on surplus profits made in 2022 or 2023. The “solidarity contribution” will see firms pay 33% of profits above their average taxable profits.read more
Oct 13th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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Dutch prosecutors to pursue pollution case against Shell-Exxon gas venture
By Syndicated Content Oct 12, 2022 | 7:53 AM
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch prosecutors said on Wednesday they will pursue a pollution case against NAM, a joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil that operates gas fields in the Netherlands.
The prosecutors “(suspect) NAM of injecting waste streams from natural gas extraction into the deep subsurface without a permit”, a statement from their office said.
Prosecutors say they believe the company took waste products from natural gas extraction in the North Sea, then processed and injected them into empty gas fields in the province of Groningen.
A spokesperson for NAM said the company would respond later on Wednesday.
Reuters reported last month that Shell And ExxonMobil have put their 50-50 venture up for sale, with expected proceeds of over $1 billion.
NAM started producing natural gas in 1963 following the discovery of the giant Groningen field, which was a major source of gas for the Netherlands and Europe for decades.
But extraction has been almost completely wound down in the past 10 years as tremors blamed on drilling damaged buildings and prompted protests by residents and campaigners.read more
Oct 13th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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REUTERS
Shell should have quit Groningen gas project in Netherlands earlier -CEO
AMSTERDAM, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told a Dutch parliamentary panel investigating problems relating to natural gas production at the large Groningen gas field in the Netherlands that the company should have pulled out of the project earlier.
Production at Groningen was scaled back sharply over a period of years in the 2010s after the Dutch government and producer NAM, a Shell-Exxon joint venture, realized the earthquakes it caused posed too great a threat to life and property.
“We had to continually ask what makes sense,” as production was dialled back to levels at which NAM made little to no profit, Van Beurden told lawmakers.
“What made sense for Shell was to quit. In any other country we would have stopped this operation. But in the Netherlands that was impossible because the Netherlands was dependent on Groningen gas.”
A damning report in 2015 from the independent Dutch Safety Board had accused the government and the field’s operators of ignoring the threat of earthquakes linked to the field for years. As vast amounts of gas were removed from under the province since 1963, the ground sank and settled above empty pockets, triggering quakes.read more
Sep 18th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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The Guardian
Governments urged to act after oil giants accused of misleading public
Documents suggest Shell and BP staff privately downplayed public commitments on climate crisis
Alex Lawson Energy correspondent: Fri 16 Sep 2022 16.42 BST
Campaigners have urged governments to intervene after oil companies were accused of misleading the public about their commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
Oil and gas companies including Britain’s Shell and BP were urged to “stop their deception” this week as the US House committee on oversight and reform released documents showing that oil industry executives privately downplayed their public messages on efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
The memo claimed that internal BP documents highlighted how carbon capture and storage (CCS) – a nascent technology that involves inserting CO2 emissions into underground rock formations – could “enable the full use of fossil fuels across the energy transition and beyond”.
Congressional investigators also unearthed an internal Shell email discussing carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) in which an executive said: “We want to be careful to not talk about CCUS as prolonging the life of oil, gas or fossil fuels writ large.”read more
Criticism in the US of the oil industry’s obfuscation over the climate crisis is intensifying after internal documents showed companies attempted to distance themselves from agreed climate goals, admitted “gaslighting” the public over purported efforts to go green, and even wished critical activists be infested by bedbugs.
The communications were unveiled as part of a congressional hearing held in Washington DC, where an investigation into the role of fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis produced documents obtained from the oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they wish bedbugs on you, then you win,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise. The organization accused Shell of a “legacy of violence and of ignoring the wellbeing of communities across the globe”.read more
Sep 8th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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NL TIMES
Dutch state earned €363.7 billion through Groningen gas extraction
TUESDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2022 – 08:44
After almost 60 years of gas extraction in Groningen, the involved parties finally announced how much money they made from it. Adjusted for inflation, the Groningen gas field yielded a total profit of 428 billion euros, of which the Dutch state received 363.7 billion euros, Het Financieele Dagblad reports based on calculations from shareholder Shell.
The remaining 64.7 billion euros in profit went to the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), the operator of the Groningen gas field. NAM paid the amount out as dividends to its shareholders – Shell and ExxonMobil.
Shell released the figures for the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into gas extraction in Groningen. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate confirmed the profit division to FD.
The figures show that the government received 85 percent of the profit from the Groningen field – quite a bit higher than the about 70% income paid for other concessions. Aad Correlje, associate professor and energy expert at the Delft University of Technology, called that remarkable. “We knew that the government took a large part of the profit, but not that the difference with the gas companies’ profit was that big,” he said to the newspaper.read more
Sep 8th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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NL TIMES
Tens of thousands to get compensation for Groningen earthquakes
TUESDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER 2022
Tens of thousands of Groningen residents are still eligible for compensation for earthquake damage. This is reported by the Groningen Institute for Mining Damage (IMG), which will offer a one-time fixed payment of 5,000 euros as compensation to people who, in the past, received little or no restitution. In total, the institute estimates that it will cost an additional 100 million euros more than the hundreds of millions already spent on compensation for physical damage.read more
Sep 4th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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DutchNews.nl
Groningen gas: former mining director says gas firms taken more seriously than supervisor
Sept 1, 2022
The economic affairs minister took gas companies more seriously than government safety supervisors, according to evidence at the six-week enquiry into what has gone wrong in Groningen.
This week the enquiry restarted into how decades of gas extraction caused ever more earthquakes and damage for local people, and why compensation schemes have failed so badly. It will run until October 14.read more
HOUSTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Shell Plc (SHEL.L) on Thursday confirmed the sale of their California oil joint-venture Aera to German asset manager IKAV for $4 billion, ending a 25-year-long partnership that was one of the state’s largest oil producers.
The sale reflects the two companies move out of mature energy properties at a time when high oil and gas prices favor new deals. Reuters this week reported the oil giants were in advanced talks on a sale of the San Joaquin Valley property. read more
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals. Shell faces a $300 million to $400 million impairment charge as a result of the sale, it said.
IKAV buys assets with strong cash yields and holds them to maximize returns to its funds, according to its website. Last year, it built a solar plant in Italy and took a majority stake in Metaenergia, an Italian operator of gas-fired power plants.read more
The province of Groningen is home to a vast gas field and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry into the links between gas extraction and the hundreds of earthquakes and tremors that have traumatised residents.
Groningen’s inhabitants have been affected by the giant gas field for the last few decades. About 80% of houses in villages such as Overschild are being demolished and rebuilt because of earthquake damage. More than 150,000 Groningen residents have suffered earthquake damage to their properties in the last decade, and 10,000 now face stress-related health problems.read more
Jul 8th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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yahoo!finance
Shell to Take Part in Qatar’s LNG Expansion Project
Zacks Equity Research:
Shell plc SHEL recently joined the Qatari state-owned energy company – QatarEnergy’s $29-billion North Field East expansion project to expand output at the world’s biggest natural gas field, becoming the latest international partner in this ambitious megaproject.
This development, which is considered to be the single-largest project in the history of the liquefied natural gas industry, is quite significant, considering the soaring energy demand and the supply crisis following Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.
The London-headquartered oil supermajor will hold a 6.25% interest in the expansion project, with TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil also owning a 6.25% stake each.
Per Shell, the company’s investment in this project will support the delivery of the much-needed supplies of natural gas to markets worldwide and will also be integrated with carbon capture and sequestration to cut down emissions.
SHEL’s Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, said “This agreement deepens our strategic partnership with QatarEnergy, which includes multiple international partnerships,” and he further mentioned that Shell is committed to maximizing the value of the LNG expansion for the State of Qatar and becoming a trusted, dependable and long-term partner in Qatar’s continued progress.
The gulf state discovered one of the world’s largest gas reserves in the North Field in 1971. The development, however, is anticipated to augment Qatar’s output from the current 77 million tons a year to 110 million tons by 2027.read more
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday said Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc affiliates may try to enforce part of a $1.8 billion arbitration award against Nigeria’s state-run oil company, in a dispute concerning oil extraction near the African country’s coastline.
It said the judge should have determined which parts of the award had been deemed enforceable by a Nigerian appeals court. Lawyers for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.read more
May 28th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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SOURCE MSN/Independent
I worked at Shell for 33 years – the government is wrong on North Sea oil
By Grahame Buss: 27 May 2022
I was a principal scientist for the oil company Shell, for which I worked for 33 years. I have a degree in aeronautical engineering and a PhD in fluid mechanics.
I recently read a letter from the business and energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, in which he tries to justify government plans to encourage investment in new North Sea oil and gas. He says it would “protect Britain’s energy security” and smooth the “transition to cheap, clean, home-grown energy”, as well as cutting energy bills.
But expanding North Sea oil will do none of those things, for several reasons.
We don’t own the oil and gas, which we give away to energy companies together with substantial subsidies. They sell the oil and gas to the highest bidder on international markets, keep all the revenue, and are currently making eye-watering profits on which they pay almost no tax. Almost 80 per cent of UK production of crude oil is exported and plays no part in our domestic energy security.
We don’t own the companies that exploit this oil and gas. According to one study, more than a third of the licence blocks in the North Sea now have a private or state-backed controlling interest, with fossil fuel firms from China, Russia and the Middle East playing an increasingly dominant role. As well as being unaccountable to UK shareholders, these businesses have no strategic interest in UK energy security or in keeping bills low for UK households.read more
Listen and read proof in audio and transcript form of Shell CEO Ben van Beurden’s cover-up tactics in the OPL 245 Nigerian corruption scandal. The instruction given by him in the covertly recorded call to CFO Simon Henry was at odds with Shell’s claimed core business principles. Cover-up and obstruction, instead of transparency and integrity, says Shell critic John Donovan
JOHN DONOVAN TV DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW
SHELL EXECUTIVES AT THE CENTER OF A SCHEME TO STEAL $1.3 BILLION FROM NIGERIA’S PEOPLE
SHELL ADMITS DEALING WITH NIGERIAN MONEY LAUNDERER – BBC NEWS
SHELL, ENI AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS IN OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL
INVESTIGATION OF OPL 245 NIGERIAN OIL CORRUPTION SCANDAL
DUTCH EARTHQUAKES CAUSED BY SHELL/EXXON
SHELL KILLS FOR OIL IN NIGERIA
ESTHER KIOBEL: EVIL OIL GIANT SHELL COLLUDED IN THE EXECUTION OF MY INNOCENT HUSBAND
ESTHER KIOBEL SUES SHELL FOR COMPLICITY IN HUSBANDS MURDER
SHELL LIED ABOUT CLEANING UP OIL IN NIGER DELTA
SHELL SPIES INFILTRATED NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT
LEGO DROPS SHELL OVER GREENPEACE OIL SPILL VIDEO
SHELL ARCTIC DRILLING ACCIDENTS
SHELL KNEW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DECADES AGO
ABANDONED BY SHELL: KEITH MACDONALD & FAMILY, VICTIMS OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION AT WORK
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER SIR HENRI DETERDING, NAZI FINANCIER
JOHN DONOVAN PROMOTIONAL GAMES FOR SHELL AND OTHER CLIENTS
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
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See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission websiteetc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our non-profit websites and/or our activities.
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