The Big Oil playbook has been straightforward for decades: Higher prices mean offshore projects that are further, deeper, more complex than ever before. It’s different this time, according to Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Deepwater projects need to break even at $40 a barrel, or preferably lower, said Harry Brekelmans, Shell’s project and technology director, in an interview Monday, That’s almost half the cost of some projects commissioned before the 2014 oil-price crash, he said. On Monday, Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose to more than $75 a barrel in London.  read more

Trade in the $90 billion market for the superchilled gas is poised to double by 2040: Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Total SA’s billion-dollar deal to buy liquefied natural gas assets from Engie SA shows how much size matters in the industry. 

After Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s takeover of BG Group Plc last year, industry consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. says the latest accord is evidence that the biggest energy companies with access to large volumes of diverse supplies will continue to dominate, even as commodity traders from Glencore Plc to Trafigura Group Pte are expanding.  read more

LONDON | BY RON BOUSSO: Thu May 5, 2016

Ten oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Chevron (CVX.N) and BP (BP.L) are working together to develop standard production equipment, a rare cooperation among rivals to save money as low oil prices put pressure on budgets.

Bespoke valves, paints and underwater equipment are among the items that could be mass-produced at a cheaper cost, Harry Brekelmans, Shell’s Projects and Technology Director told Reuters.

The companies also want to set up institutions to find future savings after the past two years’ industry downturn led to a near standstill in new project approvals. read more

Posted by Jordan Blum: Date: May 05, 2016

The oil and gas sector largely has itself to blame  for the financial hemorrhaging many energy companies now face, said Harry Brekelmans, Royal Dutch Shell’s projects and technology director.

Rather than just  low price of oil, redundancies, cost overruns and inefficiencies throughout the supply chain have made the industry far too inefficient during years of growth with $100 per barrel oil, Brekelmans said at at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. read more

I would have thought that Simon Henry’s position as CFO should now be untenable, in view of the apparent lack of effective financial governance in Nigeria while he was CFO. 

By John Donovan

A large number of press articles have appeared recently mentioning Ben van Beurden. 

Since these articles are presumably fed to the press by Shell’s PR team, and Shell is not a one-man company, I checked to see whether other Shell directors have appeared recently in press releases.

The results are somewhat curious. For example, searching for Matthias Bichsel on Google News shows that articles were published about him at least weekly until October last year, but the articles then stopped abruptly. References to Simon Henry seem to have dried up a few weeks ago – until mid-March there were articles on Henry on an almost daily basis, but recently there has been nothing. Harry Brekelmans seems to have had a low profile since his appointment, so it is harder to see whether any change has occurred. Andy Brown has almost as many press articles as Ben van Beurden.  read more

Written by Rita Brown – 09/02/2016

The industry is in the crux of its own renaissance as it grapples with job losses, low oil price and lagging efficiency, according to Shell’s project & technology director.

Speaking at GE’s annual meeting in Florence, Harry Brekelmans said: “Florence is the birthplace of the renaissance, the time of exploration of discovery and great inventions and of course the oil and gas industry is in need of its own renaissance.

“This will be how we collectively respond to the tough business environment we find ourselves in. read more

Angela Macdonald-Smith: November 4, 2015

Royal Dutch Shell remains unequivocally bullish on prospects for liquefied natural gas despite the current market glut, pointing to several options for new supply projects after its planned $US70 billion ($97 billion) takeover of BG Group and plenty of new markets opening up around the world.

“The fundamentals of this market look as robust now as in the past to us,” chief financial officer Simon Henry told investors overnight Australian time, spelling out Shell’s expectation that global LNG demand will expand at 5 per cent a year to 2030, only modestly lower than the 8 per cent annual growth seen since 2000. read more

FROM A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR 

I’m curious about the wording of Shell’s announcement of Bichsel’s departure….

The announcement focusses almost entirely on Brekelmans, and simply says that Matthias Bichsel (right) is leaving after 34 years – hardly a glowing valedictory for the person who has been number two in Shell (worldwide) for the past few years.

Surely some words of thanks for Bichsel’s years of sterling service and achievements at Shell should have been in order? Or perhaps not, as the case may be.

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