Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the United Steelworkers’ union will resume talks Monday on a new labor contract after ending discussions today without a resolution to the largest oil worker strike since 1980.
The two sides will meet in Houston, the union said in a statement. The discussions come amid a walkout that’s widened to 12 refineries accounting for almost 20 percent of the capacity in the US Shell is leading the negotiations with the 30,000-strong United Steelworkers on behalf of companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.
Subsea 7 has been awarded a two-year extension by Shell for two Underwater Services Contracts (USCs) worth $240million.
The company said the Life of Field contract extensions for Diving Support Vessel (DSV) and Remotely Operated Vehicle Support Vessel (ROVSV) services will both commence in 2016.
Subsea 7 will also continue to provide subsea construction, inspection, repair and maintenance and decommissioning services to Shell’s UK offshore fields and facilities.
A new maintenance support ship for Shell’s southern North Sea gas operations made its first appearance in UK waters at the weekend.
Shell said the vessel, named Kroonborg, would change the way the company and partner Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) operated more than 50 gas producing platforms.
It is expected to reduce the cost of operating smaller gas fields, which are becoming increasingly prevalent, by improving the productivity and safety of maintenance engineers.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc has withdrawn an application to develop an oil-sands bitumen mine in northern Alberta to focus on existing projects.
Shell will continue to hold the Pierre River mining leases and will reapply for regulatory approval “when the time is right,” Shell Canada President Lorraine Mitchelmore said in a statement Monday.
“The Pierre River Mine remains a very long-term opportunity for us but it’s not currently a priority,” she said in the statement.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the United Steelworkers, which represents 30,000 US oil workers, are said to be planning to restart talks this week to resolve a labor dispute as more workers joined in the nation’s biggest refinery strike since 1980.
The two sides will meet on Wednesday for the first time since negotiations broke up on Feb. 20 without a deal, according to two people familiar with the talks.
The USW, with members at more than 200 refineries, fuel terminals, pipelines and chemical plants across the US, ordered workers last week at Motiva Enterprises LLC’s Port Arthur refinery in Texas, the nation’s largest, to join a nationwide walkout, and issued notices for three other plants to go on strike.
The United Steelworkers, representing more than 30,000 US oil workers, instructed members to reject a seventh labor contract offered by Royal Dutch Shell Plc as the biggest refinery strike since 1980 dragged on.
The proposal, the first one made by Shell since February 5 on behalf of companies including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., “fails to improve safety” in an enforceable way, the USW said in a text message, instructing local units to prepare to join the strike “if called upon.”
Ray Fisher, a spokesman for The Hague, Netherlands-based Shell, said the company had no comment beyond saying the two sides met.
United Steelworkers and Royal Dutch Shell Plc will resume labor negotiations in a week amid the largest U.S. refinery strike in more than three decades.
By unveiling phase one of its plans for the Brent Delta this week, Shell has certainly propelled decommissioning into the headlines and consciousness of everyone, whether they’re directly involved with oil and gas or otherwise.
By its very nature, North Sea decommissioning is a developing business that is new to many, and misinterpreted by even more. It’s important right now to make it clear that it is not about the premature closure of the North Sea oil and gas industry.
In reality, decommissioning is a developing sector that is full of opportunity; the opportunity to win business and opportunities to problem-solve through innovation.
Oil giant Shell is set to launch a consultation on one of the most significant and complex decommissioning projects in the North Sea yet - and which is sure to stir controversy as the ten year, multi-billion pound plan progresses.
Later this month the firm will take the first step towards decommissioning the Brent Delta, one of four oil rigs on the field 115milles north-east of Shetland that has producing since 1976.
Shell will shortly be seeking final approval to begin decommissioning the Brent oil and gas field.
The energy giant is proposing to lift the 23,500-tonne top section of the Brent Delta platform in the first stage of the process.
The Brent field, north east of the Shetland Islands, has produced about 10% of all UK North Sea oil and gas since production began in 1976.
Its four platforms and their related infrastructure are the subject of a planned decommissioning programme over the coming decade.
A 30-day public consultation on Shell’s plans to start the process will begin on Monday February 16.
Royal Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden issued a plea to UK policy makers to “get on” with plans to maximise economic recovery in the North Sea yesterday.
He also called on the UK government to review its supplementary tax charge on North Sea oil producers as it has made the operation of some fields unrealistic.
Mr van Beurden said at a conference in London: “It needs to be looked at as the tax position is hindering viability.”
Environmentalists have hit out at Shell’s plans to drill in the Arctic this year.
The oil giant said it wanted to pursue Arctic oil exploration if it gets the right permits, as it announced it was cutting global spending over the next three years by almost £10 billion.
The new bid to drill in the Alaskan Arctic comes despite previous problems culminating in its drill vessel the Kulluk running aground as it was being towed across the Gulf of Alaska in 2012.
Weaker-than-expected profits from Royal Dutch Shell triggered a sell off for oil stocks and left the FTSE 100 Index sharply lower today.
The oil giant’s shares were down by more than 3% - off 77.5p to 2170.5p - despite a 12% rise in underlying profits to $3.26 billion (£2.15 billion) for the final quarter of 2014.
The company, which has been hit by a sharp fall in Brent crude prices since last summer, also said it planned to cut spending by 15 billion US dollars (£9.9 billion) over the next three years.
A taskforce formed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to deal with job losses in the North Sea will meet every month, it was announced yesterday.
Industry and public sector leaders met with taskforce chairwoman Lena Wilson in a secret meeting at Aberdeen’s Ardoe House hotel yesterday to discuss job cuts which could affect thousands of North Sea workers.
The location of the meeting was kept quiet in an effort to ensure the proceedings remained private. The Scottish Government has not revealed who the members of the task force panel are, although a list of companies including BP, Aker, Petrofac and Wood Group are said to have provided representatives.
Oil major Shell will cut its spending by $15billion over the next three years.
The move was made on the back of falling oil prices during the last six months.
Despite this, Shell had posted an increase in profits for the last three months of 2014, which jumped from $2.2billion in the same period a year earlier to $4.2billion.
Shell has signed a deal with Iraq worth $11billion to build a petrochemicals plant.
The agreement was announced by Industry Minister for the country, Nasser al-Esawi, who said the Nibras complex was expected to come on line within the next five to six years.
The southern oil hub in the Basra region would make it the largest petrochemical producer in the Middle East.
Financial results from a fourth quarter that saw the collapse of the crude market will provide a window into how the world’s biggest oil companies are adjusting to a new reality of slowing growth and low prices.
Oil that topped $115 a barrel as recently as June has been trading below $50 a barrel since the first week of the year, portending a bleak 2015 for the world’s five so-called supermajors -- Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp., Total SA and BP Plc.
The companies, whose businesses combine oil and natural gas exploration with refining and chemical manufacturing, have historically been among the most resilient players during down cycles.
This could be the oil bust that breaks that pattern.
Royal Dutch Shell will attempt to show that it is able to ride out the new era of low oil prices when it posts its full-year results on Thursday.
London-listed Shell, which employs 90,000 people in more than 70 countries, is expected to report full-year earnings up 5.4% to 17.6 billion US dollars (£11.6 billion), as it sells non-core assets and scraps projects following the oil price slump.
The moves fit in with the strategy of chief executive Ben van Beurden who took the helm a year ago this month and said he wanted the oil giant to improve operational performance and financial results.
This week's most read article on Energy Voice was the news that Shell's vice president would move onto a new role within the company.
In other news regarding Shell, the oil giant launched an investigation into a suspected gas leak in the North Sea.
An investigation has been launched after a suspected gas leak in the North Sea.
Oil major Shell, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will review the incident, which happened earlier this week close to the Curlew Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO).
Specialist divers from the Bibby Polaris Dive Support Vessel (DSV) are currently on site to close two vales which will isolate the vessel from the Fulmar pipeline.
The vice president for oil giant Shell’s Upstream business in Europe is set to move onto a new role within the company.
Glen Cayley has been in his current position since September 2010.
Mr Cayley first joined the company in 2006 as vice president of global exploration and was responsible for appraisal and resource maturation.
Qatar Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) called off plans to build a $6.5 billion petrochemical plant in the emirate, saying the project is no longer commercially feasible amid the upheaval in global energy markets.
The companies formed a partnership for the al-Karaana project in 2011 and planned to operate it as a joint venture, with state-run QP owning 80% and Shell the remaining 20%.
They decided not to proceed with it after evaluating quotations from bidders for engineering and construction work, the companies said today in a joint statement.
Oil major Shell has appointed a new managing director to lead its operations in Nigeria.
Osagie Okunbor will lead the company's subsidiary after its current head, Mutiu Sunmonu, announced his retirement.
Mr Okunbor has also been named the country chair of Shell companies in Nigeria.
Oil companies including Shell have booked supertankers to store crude at sea.
Other firms, including Vitol and Trafigura, have acquired crude tankers for up to 12 months.
According to reports, freight brokers said the increase in long-term bookings was “unusual” and could be used to store excess crude at sea until prices rebound.
The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has agreed a £55million settlement with the Bodo community.
Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary has made the payment in respect of two operational spills in 2008.
The SPDC said the compensation will provide an individual payment for those affected who agree to the settlement payment totalling £35million.
