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.
Shell will sell its downstream businesses in Norway.
The oil giant will sell its retail, commercial fuels and supply and distribution logistics businesses in Norway. Its aviation business in Norway will become a 50-50 joint venture with ST1.
A north-east firm has been awarded a two-year contract extension for the provision of specialist contractors with Shell UK.
Aberdeen-based firm CSL has been awarded the extension of an existing onshore and offshore frame agreement with the oil giant across its Upstream International Europe region for the provision of client representation.
The contract covers provision of experienced senior client, diving, marine and engineering representatives to support subsea teams.
Egypt has signed its first contract to extract gas by fracking in a deal with Shell and Apache which includes investments of up to $40million.
The oil ministry said it was part of efforts to boost output amid tumbling oil prices.
An estimated 15,000 oil and gas workers in Iraq will be trained in how to deal with the potential hazards of hydrogen sulphide.
Oil giant Shell and Industry training standards body Opito have joined forced to ensure workers are protected.
The corrosive and hazardous gas, also known as 'sour gas', H2S occurs in the production of oil and gas fields which have a high content of it in their reservoirs.
Wessex Exploration has revealed plans regarding an application for a new drilling permit in French Guiana's deep offshore licence area.
The company already owns a share in a drilling permit in Guyane Maritime alongside oil major Shell, which owns a 45% stake, and other partners including Total, Tullow and Northern Petroleum.
In a results report Wessex Petroleum said discussions were ongoing between partners regarding application for a new drilling permit in the region.
US firm ConocoPhillips has become the latest oil major to warn of job losses in the UK North Sea, although it refused to say how many or where exactly the axe is likely to fall.
ConocoPhillips, which is poised to take over as the biggest oil producer in the region in terms of production volume by the end of this year, told the Press and Journal it had recently launched a review of its UK business.
It added: “Like other operators in the North Sea, we are focused on improving the operating efficiency and production outlook for our business.
“We have now started a consultation process with staff relating to organisational restructuring to establish a model to drive our UK business forward in an efficient and sustainable manner.
“We do anticipate some redundancies but at this stage the actual number has not yet been defined.”
ConocoPhillips is the world’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company.
It currently employs about 1,000 people directly and a further 600 contract workers in the UK.
A spokeswoman for the firm said the totals included about 700 staff and 400 contractors working out of Aberdeen.
The group’s Granite City-based UK business either operates or has stakes in assets including the Britannia field and its satellites, Judy/Joanne, Jade, Jasmine, CMS, Galleon, LOGGS, Saturn Unit, V-Fields, Victor, Viking, Calder, Darwen, Crossens, Asland, Millom, Dalton, Clair, MacCulloch and Nicol.
Onshore, the company has interests in the Rivers terminal at Barrow-in-Furness, the Teesside oil terminal at Seal Sands, Middlesbrough, and Theddlethorpe gas plant in Lincolnshire.
Its job cutting comes hot on the heels of BP launching a cost reduction exercise in the North Sea in line with rivals such as Shell and Chevron which have axed hundreds of roles as low oil prices and high overheads take their toll.
BP has declined to reveal the likely impact of its review on its 4,000-strong North Sea workforce.
The Bombay High Court yesterday ruled in favor of the Indian unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil producer, in a $1.4 billion tax dispute, bolstering sentiment among overseas investors.
Amid the growing need for skilled workers in the engineering industry, Shell has confirmed its investment in a programme aimed to inspire the next generation.
Tomorrow's Engineers, run by Engineering UK, aims to tackle the skills crisis by encouraging and inspiring more students to study, and pursue, a career in science, technology, engineering or maths.
Empresas ICA SAB’s contract to supply engineering services for Royal Dutch Shell Plc in Canada is signaling to investors that the Mexican construction company is seeking energy projects abroad to cut debt and boost profit.
Mexico’s largest construction company surged 4.6 percent in the past two sessions, the biggest back-to-back increase in more than five months, after announcing a $264 million contract with partner Fluor Corp. to build well pads for heavy-oil extraction at Shell’s Carmon Creek project in Alberta. The worst performer among Mexico’s industrial and construction stocks this year, ICA has tumbled about 10 percent, while global peers gained about 19 percent.
The contract with Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, will boost ICA’s net income and open the door for increased participation in crude projects domestically and abroad through the joint venture with Fluor, Monex Casa de Bolsa analyst Roberto Solano said.
“This type of contract is like a key that can open opportunities to similar projects in the future,” Solano said yesterday in an interview from Mexico City. “Participating in this project generates a favorable scenario for the company when considering new projects in Mexico as the energy sector opens.”
Mexico’s landmark 2013 energy law opens the country’s energy industry to private competition for the first time since 1938 to help stem declining crude production.
Oil giant Shell has invested £1million in a programme aimed at helping address the UK’s critical shortage of scientists and engineers.
The Perkins Review of Engineering Skills, published last year, called for urgent action from employers to address this shortage.
Shell’s three-year funding, which has been invested in the Tomorrow’s Engineer’s Programme, will enable the programme to expand into more than 500 new schools across the UK.
