“Gas extraction in Groningen was so successful and lucrative for the Dutch government, Shell and Exxon Mobil that they hardly took any notion of the long-term risks and the ever-clearer signs of the detrimental effects for the people in Groningen…” 

REUTERS

Dutch gov’t, Shell and Exxon ignored Groningen risks for years, inquiry finds

AMSTERDAM, Feb 24 (Reuters) – The Dutch government and energy companies Shell (SHEL.L) and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) ignored the risks of gas production in Groningen for years, to the detriment of people living in the province, a parliamentary inquiry concluded on Friday.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and others involved “gravely underestimated” the urgency of the problems in Groningen, said the committee set up to investigate the decades of lucrative gas extraction that caused tremors damaging thousands of houses and buildings in the region.

The massive Groningen field is operated by Shell and Exxon joint venture NAM and was one of Europe’s major suppliers of natural gas for decades.

“These are hard and painful conclusions,” Rutte told a news conference. “They make clear there is a lot to do to help the region and to hopefully restore trust.”

The government will take time provide a full response to the report, he said without indicating how long that would take.

A statement from NAM director Johan Atema said: “It is clear that we need to have a better eye for the society in which we work. It is up to us to show that we as a company have learned from this.” read more

…problems included repeated outages at its Prelude liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility off the western coast of Australia…

REUTERS

Shell CEO creates chief of staff role in management overhaul

By Ron Bousso: February 23, 2023: 4:15 PM GMT

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Shell (SHEL.L) Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan has created a senior role of chief of staff as part of a management overhaul to improve performance after technical problems and other disruption, three company sources said. read more

REUTERS

Institutional investors back Shell board lawsuit over climate risk

By Kirstin Ridley: February 9, 20231:53 AM GMT

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – A group of European institutional investors is backing a novel London lawsuit against energy giant Shell’s (SHEL.L) board over alleged climate mismanagement in a case that could have far-reaching implications for how companies tackle emissions.

ClientEarth, an environmental law charity turned activist Shell investor, said it had filed a High Court claim on Wednesday, alleging Shell’s 11 directors have failed to manage the “material and foreseeable” risks posed to the company by climate change – and that they are breaking company law. read more

REUTERS

Environmental groups plan to sue Shell’s new Pennsylvania plant over emissions

8 Feb 2023

Two environmental groups announced on Feb. 2, 2023 that they plan to sue Shell Chemical Appalachia over air pollution, just about three months after the startup of operations of Shell’s 1.6-million tonnes per year facility with capacity of polyethylene production, and related ethane cracker in Pennsylvania.

The Environmental Integrity Project said in a press release that along with another environmental group named Clean Air Council it filed “a notice of intent to sue (…) for repeated violations of air pollution limits,” it said. read more

REUTERS

Shell CEO in first changes combines LNG, upstream operations

Ron Bousso: Mon, 30 January 2023 at 7:11 am GMT

LONDON (Reuters) -Shell will combine its oil and gas production and liquefied natural gas (LNG) divisions as part of CEO Wael Sawan’s first changes since taking charge of the energy giant earlier this month.

The new division, which combines Shell’s most profitable operations, will be headed by current upstream director Zoe Yujnovich, Shell said in a statement on Monday.

Sawan took office on Jan. 1 after heading Shell’s integrated gas division, which included Shell’s LNG and renewables businesses, with a vow to simplify and improve the company’s operations.

Under the internal restructure, renewables operations will be combined with Shell’s oil refining and marketing operations led by current downstream director Huibert Vigeveno, the company said. read more

REUTERS

Shell to pay 15 mln euros in settlement over Nigerian oil spills

December 23, 20229:31 AM GM

AMSTERDAM, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Shell (SHEL.L) will pay 15 million euros ($15.9 million) to communities in Nigeria that were affected by multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta, the oil company on Friday said in a joint statement with the Dutch division of Friends of the Earth.

The compensation is the result of a Dutch court case brought by Friends of the Earth, in which Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary last year was found to be responsible for the oil spills and was ordered to pay for damages to farmers. read more

Report: Output from Shell’s Prelude FLNG Shut Again

BY Bartolomej Tomic, managing editor of Offshore Engineer.

December 22, 2022

Shell has stopped production at its Prelude floating LNG plant off Western Australia after a fire.

A Shell spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday that the fire at the giant FLNG unit “was rapidly extinguished.”

The 488-meter-long, Shell-operated, Prelude FLNG unit forms part of an offshore development that produces natural gas from the remote namesake field, located approximately 475 km north-northeast of Broome in Western Australia. The Prelude is the world’s largest FLNG unit. read more

REUTERS

Shell and Eneco win right to build large Dutch offshore windfarm

REUTERS

Shell injects $1.5 bln into UK retail power business to help it weather volatility

Reuters: Ron Bousso: Dec 08, 2022

LONDON — Shell has injected nearly $1.5 billion into its British energy retail business this year to help it weather huge volatility in power prices that caused the collapse of several rival UK power utilities, Shell Energy said in a filing on Thursday.

Britain’s power utilities have been rocked by huge fluctuations in energy prices since the end of 2021 due to a shortage in natural gas supplies, which was exacerbated after Russia sharply reduced supplies to Europe following its invasion of Ukraine in February.

Shell Energy’s operating loss rose to 102.4 million pounds in 2021 from 83.6 million pounds a year earlier, according to the company’s financial results, released on Thursday.

The loss was “principally driven by market conditions. In particular, the unprecedented rise in energy prices in the latter part of 2021 adversely impacted financial performance, including increased costs as a result of supplier failures in the market and the inability to pass on higher energy costs,” according to the results filing. read more

REUTERS

Nigeria’s top court allows Shell to appeal order holding back assets sale

12/02/2022 | 12:35pm EST

LAGOS, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Friday allowed Shell Plc’s local unit to appeal a ruling that directed the company to pay $1.8 billion compensation over an alleged spill, in a dispute that has held back the company’s sale of its onshore assets.

Shell said in June it would pause the disposal of local assets until the court ruled on an appeal brought by its subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) and partner NNPC Ltd against a lower court judgment. read more

REUTERS

Shell to ‘evaluate’ 25 bln pound British investments after windfall tax

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Shell (SHEL.L) said on Monday it will evaluate plans to spend up to 25 billion pounds in Britain over the next decade following the government’s decision to increase a windfall tax on oil and gas producers.

“We’re going to have to evaluate each project on a case by case basis,” said Shell’s UK country chair David Bunch told the Confederation of British Industry’s annual conference in Birmingham. “When you tax more you’re going to have less disposable income in your pocket, less to invest.” read more

REUTERS

Court rejects Nigeria’s compensation request against Eni, Shell

By Alfredo Faieta and Francesca Landini: November 11, 2022

MILAN, Nov 11 (Reuters) – An appeals court in Milan on Friday rejected Nigeria’s $1.092 billion compensation request against Italian energy group Eni SpA (ENI.MI) and Shell Plc (SHEL.L) in civil proceedings relating to a $1.3 billion oilfield deal.

The decision was read out in court.

In July prosecutors had dropped related criminal proceedings, clearing Eni and Shell, as well as managers including Eni Chief Executive Claudio Descalzi, in one of the oil industry’s biggest alleged corruption cases. read more

REUTERS

Nigerian widows end their case in the Netherlands against Shell

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A group of four widows who had sought to hold Shell liable for damages in the Netherlands after their anti-oil activist husbands were executed by the Nigerian government in 1995 have cancelled further legal proceedings, their lawyer said on Monday.

“Obviously this is not without disappointment and frustration,” said lawyer Channa Samkalden in statement announcing that the widows have cancelled an appeal launched after the Hague District Court rejected their case earlier this year. read more

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

REUTERS

‘Tax people in this room’ to help the poor, Shell CEO tells energy conference

Published 04 Oct 2022

European governments should tax the wealthy to help weaker parts of society weather soaring energy costs but not intervene to cap gas prices, Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said on Tuesday.

Speaking before the Energy Intelligence Forum in London, Van Beurden said that European energy prices and the huge volatility in the markets threatened broader social instability.

“You cannot have a market that behaves in such a way … that is going to damage a significant part of society.”

“One way or another there needs to be government intervention” in the face of soaring energy prices, Van Beurden said. read more

Reuters

Shell to buy African solar firm Daystar

STORY: Royal Dutch Shell will buy African solar provide Daystar Power, the two companies said on Wednesday (September 28).

That’s as the oil giant pursues a mandate of cutting its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

Shell is one of the most influential oil producers in Africa but the Daystar purchase is its first power acquisition on the continent.

Thomas Brostrom, Shell’s vice president for renewable generation, said in a statement that Shell was helping to address a “critical energy gap for many who rely on diesel generators for backup power”. read more