News and information on Shell Plc
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.
BP and Shell could be takeover targets if Exxon and Chevron snatch opportunity for ‘industry arbitrage’ – Citi
BP PLC (LSE:BP.) and Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) may find themselves at the negotiating table as American peers Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) or Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) could come calling, that’s the view of analysts at Citigroup.
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.
OILPRICE.COM
Netherlands To Shut Down Europe’s Largest Gas Field
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.”
cnbc
Shell to take $2 billion fourth-quarter tax hit after new EU, UK levies
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.
Dutch prosecutors to pursue pollution case against Shell-Exxon gas venture
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.
REUTERS
Shell should have quit Groningen gas project in Netherlands earlier -CEO
“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.
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
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.”
The Guardian
Criticism intensifies after big oil admits ‘gaslighting’ public over green aims
Fury as ‘explosive’ files reveal largest oil companies contradicted public statements and wished bedbugs upon critical activists
“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”.
NL TIMES
Dutch state earned €363.7 billion through Groningen gas extraction
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.
NL TIMES
Tens of thousands to get compensation for Groningen earthquakes
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.
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.
Reuters
Exxon, Shell sell California oil assets for $4 billion to IKAV
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.
The Guardian
Fears of new quakes in Dutch gas field as energy crisis bites
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.
yahoo!finance
Shell to Take Part in Qatar’s LNG Expansion Project
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.
REUTERS
Exxon, Shell May Pursue Part of $1.8 Billion Nigerian Award–US Appeals Court
By Reuters
By Jonathan Stempel
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.
SOURCE MSN/Independent
I worked at Shell for 33 years – the government is wrong on North Sea oil
: 27 May 2022We 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.
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