The Washington Post

Advocacy group accuses Shell of ‘greenwashing’ and misleading investors in SEC complaint

Analysis by Maxine Joselow with research by Vanessa Montalbano

February 1, 2023 at 8:03 a.m. EST

An advocacy group is accusing the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell of misleading investors by classifying its investments in natural gas as spending on renewable energy.

In a complaint filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the group Global Witness argues that Shell’s classifications amount to “greenwashing” — the practice of portraying a business or product as more environmentally friendly than it really is. read more

8 MAY 2022

Shell Broadband Price Gouging

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.

Broadband Price Gouging

Just let me me know they’re ‘generously’ postponing a planned price increase for my broadband. Which means they plan to increase the price from the price I agreed to pay when I signed a contract with them. Apparently this is legal but I fail to see how this differs from fraud, especially as I am not allowed to cancel the contract when they increase their prices. Absolutely disgusted by Shell and will definitely be moving on at the end of my contract. Disgusting, unethical behaviour. Talk Talk didn’t even pull this sort of nonsense. read more

The Washington Post

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of a controversial plan to develop a new oil field near Scotland’s Shetland Islands, buoying environmentalists’ hopes that the project may be shelved altogether as Britain seeks to combat global warming.

Shell, which had a 30% stake in the Cambo project, said Friday that the decision was based on an assessment of what was best for the company and its shareholders.

The project has faced stiff opposition from groups such as Greenpeace, which argue Britain must stop developing new oil and gas fields if it is serious about reducing carbon emissions. U.K. authorities granted an exploration license for the project in 2001 and the government is now considering whether to authorize commercial operations. read more

The Washington Post

Shell Wants to Give Up Dual Citizenship and Stop Going Dutch

That’s another old chestnut ticked off global business’s to-do list. After General Electric Co. and Johnson & Johnson decided last week to break themselves up, oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc is also taking an obvious long-standing idea from the shelf and turning it into action. Plans to scrap its Anglo-Dutch structure to coalesce around a U.K. domicile underscore the tremendous pressure this organization is under, and point to the power of taxation to guide corporate decision-making more generally. read more

The Washington Post

Shell wants to move headquarters amid cleaner energy shift

The company, which has been incorporated in the U.K. with Dutch tax residency and dual class shares since 2005, said it wanted to move to a more conventional structure to be able to make the company more competitive as it seeks to meet the challenges of shifting toward cleaner energy.

Dutch officials said they were “unpleasantly surprised” by the move.

“The government deeply regrets that Shell wants to move its head office to the United Kingdom,” Dutch Economic Affairs and Climate Minister Stef Blok said. “We are in talks with the top of Shell about the implications of this move for jobs, critical investment decisions and sustainability.” read more

The Washington Post

Break-up calls and congressional hearings: Big Oil faces growing pressure to change

Ahead of the COP26 Summit, oil executives made a historic appearance on Capitol Hill and Shell faced a hedge funds’s call to split up its business.

On the eve of a pivotal global climate summit, the world’s oil giants have been swamped by calls from activists, investors and lawmakers to move faster to transform their businesses, cut down greenhouse gas emissions and take responsibility for their role in the climate crisis. read more

The Washington Post

Shell Oil president pressed on whether warming is ‘existential threat’

By Maxine Joselow 12:04 p.m.

Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell Oil, would not concede under questioning that climate change poses an “existential threat” to the nation and the world, even as the oil company rolled out a new pledge to cut planet-warming emissions early Thursday.

“I agree climate change is one of the biggest challenges in the world today, which is why at Shell, we’re in action,” Watkins said. read more

Why the World Worries About Russia’s Nord Stream Pipeline

U.S. sanctions… forced Swiss contractor Allseas Group SA to withdraw its pipelaying vessels

Why the World Worries About Russia’s Natural Gas Pipeline

1. What is Nord Stream 2?

It’s a 1,230-kilometer (764-mile) gas pipeline that will double the capacity of the existing undersea route from Russian fields to Europe — the original Nord Stream — which opened in 2011. Gazprom owns the joint Russian-European venture, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc and four other investors contributing half of the 9.5 billion-euro ($11.2 billion) cost. Initially expected to come online by the end of 2019, the link has been delayed by U.S. sanctions that forced Swiss contractor Allseas Group SA to withdraw its pipelaying vessels. The pipeline operator is looking for solutions to lay the remaining 6% of the pipe, which includes construction work in Denmark’s waters. read more

‘Stranded Assets’ Risk Rising With Climate Action and $40 Oil

By Laura Hurst | Bloomberg:

September 18, 2020 at 7:55 a.m. GMT+1

What had seemed like an abstract debate about leaving oil, gas and coal in the ground to fight climate change has suddenly become real. Environmental activists have long fought for lower fossil-fuel production. Now, with the pandemic crippling economies and reducing energy use and prices, drillers and miners are coming to grips with projects that are no longer viable. Some companies are even abandoning investments, leaving deposits worth billions of dollars in the ground to languish as so-called “stranded assets.” While environmentalists applaud, fund managers, banks and regulators worry that project financing could sour and collateral become worthless. read more

Big Oil’s green makeover

Every so often, corporations confront questions of life or death.

IBM did it in the 1990s, when its hulking mainframe computers faced the challenge of next generation PCs. A new chief executive successfully shifted IBM to services and software. Netflix did it — three times. It first played the role of disrupter, offering movie DVDs by mail and then mastering the business of online streaming. Then it changed again, generating its own content.

Now, BP, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, is aiming to ride the waves of disruption instead of being crushed under them. read more

Delaware joins list of states and localities suing Big Oil

Defendants in the lawsuit include Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and the American Petroleum Institute.

By Randall Chase | AP: September 10, 2020

DOVER, Del. — Delaware has joined the list of state and local governments that have sued the petroleum industry in an attempt to hold oil producers accountable for costs related to climate change.

The attorney general’s office joined forces with a California law firm that has sued the industry on behalf of other state and local governments in filing a Superior Court complaint Thursday. read more

Big Oil just isn’t as big as it once was

ExxonMobil’s expulsion from the Dow Jones industrial average is just the latest sign that major oil companies aren’t as important to the economy as they used to be

A dozen years ago, ExxonMobil was the bluest of blue-chip companies. Raking in record-breaking profit, it spent every quarter of 2008 as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.

Not anymore. The oil giant’s market value today is a third of what it was in 2008, when it was worth over $500 billion. That slide culminated last month with Exxon ending its 92-year run on the Dow Jones industrial average. read more

It may seem odd to remove one of only two oil companies in the index at a time when the shale boom has transformed America’s role in the global market. After all, the U.S. now produces more oil and more natural gas than any other country. Last year’s domestic oil production was up by 125% from levels in 2010, while gas output has increased by 60%.

But those figures only tell part of the story, and not the most important part.

It’s not the first time that there’s only been one oil and gas company in the Dow. The last time was between 2000 and 2008, when Exxon was the sole industry representative. Before that you have to go back to the 1920s. For a brief period of two weeks in 1924, there were none at all. read more

LOS ANGELES — Big Oil lost a pair of court battles Tuesday that could lead to trials in lawsuits by California cities and counties seeking damages for the impact of climate change.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by energy companies and ruled state courts are the proper forum for lawsuits alleging producers promoted petroleum as environmentally responsible when they knew it was contributing to drought, wildfires, and sea level rise associated with global warming.

The lawsuits claim Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other companies created a public nuisance and should pay for damage from climate change and help build sea walls and other infrastructure to protect against future impact — construction that could cost tens of billions of dollars. read more