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Amnesty International: Shell’s Claim Of Clean Up In Nigeria “Blatantly False”
Amnesty International: Shell’s Claim Of Clean Up In Nigeria “Blatantly False”
A new report from Amnesty International alleges that Royal Dutch Shell did not, in fact, clean up its oil spills in Nigeria despite company claims that the task was completed.
Shell is the largest oil company to operate in the Niger Delta, with over 5,000 kilometers of pipeline and investments in over 50 oil fields. Shell’s pipelines have been responsible for 1,693 oil spills since 2007, but Amnesty International says the true number is likely much higher. Moreover, the non-profit alleges that Shell’s claims that it has cleaned up the oil spills are “blatantly false.”
Amnesty International also points the finger at the Nigerian government, which has failed to properly police the oil industry in the delta. “The quality of life of people living surrounded by oil fumes, oil encrusted soil and rivers awash with crude oil is appalling, and has been for decades,” said Stevyn Obodoekwe, the Director of Programmes for the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD), which partnered with Amnesty International on the report.
Related: OPEC Infighting Reaching Critical Levels
The report concludes that four sites in the Niger Delta “remain visibly contaminated,” areas where Shell says cleanup was completed. “This is just a cover up. If you just dig down a few metres you find oil. We just excavated, then shifted the soil away, then covered it all up again,” a contractor hired by Shell told Amnesty International.
A 2011 investigation by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) documented the contamination at Shell’s sites, prompting a promise from the Anglo-Dutch oil major to follow through on cleanup.
Shell has sought to reduce its holdings of Nigerian oil assets over the past two years, part of a divestment campaign to cut costs and raise cash. The company has moved to sell off at least four oil fields, plus a major pipeline that plagued the company.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Oil and Gas Industry Publicly Supports Climate Action While Secretly Subverting Process, New Analysis Shows
A new report recently released by InfluenceMap shows a number of oil and gas companies publicly throwing their support behind climate initiatives are simultaneously obstructing those same efforts through lobbying activities.
The report, Big Oil and the Obstruction of Climate Regulations, comes on the heels of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a list of climate measures released by the CEOs of 10 major oil and gas companies including BP, Shell, Statoil and Total.
According to InfluenceMap the initiative is an attempt by leading energy companies to “improve their image in the face of longstanding criticism of their business practices ahead of UN COP21 climate talks in Paris.”
“The big European companies behind the OGCI…will come under ever greater scrutiny, as the distance between the companies’ professed positions and the realities of the lobbying actions of their trade bodies grows ever starker,” InfluenceMap stated in a press release.
The group’s analysis shows a major disconnect between climate rhetoric and action among three key policy strands: carbon tax, emissions trading and greenhouse has emissions regulations.
The findings show companies like Shell and Total publicly support carbon pricing while at the same time support trade organizations that systematically obstruct the legislation’s implementation.
Oil majors BP, Chevron and Exxon also support these lobby groups but spend less time publicly supporting a price on carbon.
Dylan Tanner, executive director of InfluenceMap, said industry is becoming more cautious of public oversight and as a result, has become subtler with its efforts to subvert climate progress.
“Companies like Shell appear to have shifted their direct opposition to climate legislation to certain key trade associations in the wake of increasing scrutiny,” Tanner said.
“Investors and engagers need to be aware that these powerful energy and chemicals-sector trade bodies are financed by, and act on the instruction of, their key members and should thus be regarded as extensions of such corporate-member activity and positions.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
With Shell’s Failure, U.S. Arctic Drilling Is Dead
With Shell’s Failure, U.S. Arctic Drilling Is Dead
Arctic Drilling in the U.S. is dead.
After more than eight years of planning and drilling, costing more than $7 billion, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it is shutting down its plans to drill for oil in the Arctic. The bombshell announcement dooms any chance of offshore oil development in the U.S. Arctic for years.
Shell said that it had completed its exploration well that it was drilling this summer, a well drilled at 6,800 feet of depth called the Burger J. Shell was focusing on the Burger prospect, located off the northwest coast of Alaska in the Chukchi Sea, which it thought could hold a massive volume of oil.
On September 28, the company announced that it had “found indications of oil and gas in the Burger J well, but these are not sufficient to warrant further exploration in the Burger prospect. The well will be sealed and abandoned in accordance with U.S. regulations.”
After the disappointing results, Shell will not try again. “Shell will now cease further exploration activity in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future.” The company cited both the poor results from its highly touted Burger J well, but also the extraordinarily high costs of Arctic drilling, as well as the “unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska.”
Shell will have to take a big write-down, with charges of at least $3 billion, plus another $1.1 billion in contracts it had with rigs and supplies.
Shell’s Arctic campaign was an utter failure. It spent $7 billion over the better part of a decade, including an initial $2.1 billion just to purchase the leases from the U.S. government back in 2008. The campaign was riddled with mishaps, equipment failures, permit violations, and stiff opposition from environmental groups, including the blockading of their icebreaker in a port in Portland, OR this past summer. The FT reports that Shell executives privately admit that the environmental protests damaged the company’s reputation and had a larger impact than they had anticipated.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Layoffs Surge As Oil Price Outlook Remains Sober
Layoffs Surge As Oil Price Outlook Remains Sober
Lately the leaders of some of the world’s biggest energy companies have been saying oil prices will remain depressed for some time – perhaps for the next five years – and now they’ve decided to cut their costs in the most painful way possible: massive job cuts.
Royal Dutch Shell announced July 30 that it expects to eliminate 6,500 positions. The announcement came the same day it reported that earnings in the second quarter were $3.4 billion, 33 percent lower than the $5.1 billion it made during the same period of 2014.
The same day, the British utility Centrica said it plans to cut fully 6,000 jobs and reduce the size of its division for producing oil and gas. The day before, Chevron Corp. of the United States expected to eliminate 1,500 positions.
Related: The Broken Payment Model That Costs The Oil Industry Millions
And as oil producers struggle to rein in spending elsewhere in their operations, the pain is being shared by the oil service companies they rely on. The Italian energy contractor Saipem, for example, says it plans to cut 8,800 jobs in two years.
“We have to be resilient in a world where oil prices remain low for some time,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in the statement. “These are challenging times for the industry, and we are responding with urgency and determination.”
It may be too early to determine whether the price of oil, which began falling a year ago, was now forcing the energy industry to go beyond cutting fat and is now gouging into the very sinew of its operations, but it’s clear that they’re convinced that other economies simply weren’t enough to keep themselves afloat.
Related: Greenpeace Going All Out To Stop Shell Drilling In The Arctic
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Greenwash: Shell May Remove “Oil” From Name as it Moves to Tap Arctic, Gulf of Mexico
Shell Oil has announced it may take a page out of the BP “Beyond Petroleum” greenwashing book, rebranding itself as something other than an oil company for its United States-based unit.
Marvin Odum, director of Shell Oil’s upstream subsidiary companies in the Americas, told Bloomberg the name Shell Oil “is a little old-fashioned, I’d say, and at one point we’ll probably do something about that” during a luncheon interview with Bloomberg News co-founder Matt Winkler (beginning at 8:22) at the recently-completed Shell-sponsored Toronto Global Forum.
“Oil,” said Odum, could at some point in the near future be removed from the name.
Odum’s comments come as Shell has moved aggressively to drill for offshore oil in the Arctic and deep offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, while also maintaining a heavy footprint in Alberta’s tar sands oil patch.
Image Credit: Bloomberg News Screenshot
Shell also recently acquired BG (British Gas) Group, a company that owns numerous assets in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, transforming the company into what Forbes hailed as a “world LNG giant.”
Winkler quipped in Toronto that due to this major asset purchase, it might be more accurate to call Shell Oil, “Shell Gas.”
In October 2011, BG Group signed a major contract with the U.S.-based LNG giant Cheniere to ship its gas product obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to the global market. That LNG will begin to flow by the end of the year.
Just a week before Odum told Winkler that Shell may take “oil” out its company name, he appeared on Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the Aspen Ideas Festival to boast about his company’s big plans — plans to drill for oil in the deep offshore Gulf of Mexico Appomattox field. At Aspen, Odum called Appomattox a “world class oil and gas project.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shell’s Renewed Arctic Drilling Campaign Faces Yet Another Setback As Key Ship Forced Back To Port
Is Shell finally “Arctic Ready” after its doomed 2012 campaign? The company is set to begin drilling in the Arctic within the week, and it’s already not looking good.
The MSV Fennica, an icebreaker vessel bound for the Chukchi Sea, had barely left its berth in Dutch Harbor, Alaska last Friday when it had to immediately turn around. The crew discovered a 39-inch long, half-inch-wide breach in the Fennica’s hull, FuelFix reports.
There is no word yet from Shell on how long the repairs are expected to take, or how the company intends to proceed in the event that the Fennica is taken out of service for a long period of time. Any significant change to Shell’s Arctic drilling plans could force a new review by the US Department of the Interior.
The Fennica was not only tasked with keeping ice from collecting around the company’s drill site, but also carrying the capping stack to be used in case of a well blowout or other emergency, in addition to the equipment for deploying it.
A Shell spokesperson told FuelFix that the incident does not “characterize the preparations we have made to operate exceptionally well.”
But that’s not going to stop comparisons to the company’s accident-prone and ultimately aborted attempt to drill in the Arctic three years ago.
“Shell’s terrible safety history around the world makes today’s news no surprise, but is nonetheless disturbing,” David Turnbull, campaigns director for Oil Change International, told DeSmog.
“For the sake of the Arctic and for our climate, the President should put a stop to Shell’s dangerous experiment today, before an even greater mishap inevitably comes.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
We May Not See Arctic Oil For Decades
We May Not See Arctic Oil For Decades
Shell’s Arctic campaign this year will be pivotal. If the company cannot find large reserves of oil, it will likely set back Arctic oil development for a generation.
The Financial Times reported that Royal Dutch Shell will not see Arctic oil come online anytime soon, even in the best of scenarios. Even Shell officials think that the oil major will not be able to see Arctic oil hit the market until sometime in the 2030s.
Related: Shell Approval May Trigger Resource Race In The Arctic
There are a few reasons for this. Finding and developing offshore oil can typically take around a decade. First there is a long lead time before any drills hit the waters – analyzing data, purchasing acreage, planning, doing seismic surveys, getting permits, moving equipment into place, and finally deploying rigs. Shell first started buying up Arctic leases in 2007. After years of preparation (and huge setbacks), Shell has done most of this pre-drilling work.
Even then, once the rigs ply the icy waters, there are many years ahead before oil begins flowing. Shell has to drill test wells, analyze data, and drill more wells.
But the Arctic also presents some unique challenges not found anywhere else. First is the short drilling season. Shell wouldn’t be able to operate year round, and could only make headway a few months out of the year during the summer. Perhaps more importantly is the remote location. Without adequate infrastructure Shell would have to do a lot of building to make Arctic oil viable. That would include pipelines, processing facilities, roads, and more. The Gulf of Mexico has all of this stuff in place, which reduces the cost and risk of drilling, but the Arctic is uncharted territory.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shell Approval May Trigger Resource Race In The Arctic
Shell Approval May Trigger Resource Race In The Arctic
In a few short months Shell will (re)enter the Chukchi Sea. The oil and gas major still awaits approval from a number of state and federal agencies, but in early May the company received the consent of the Obama administration to explore the remote Arctic sea 70 miles off the coast of Alaska.
Source: Nicolas Rapp, Fortune
If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Shell was in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas for much of 2012 – a stint that ended with more headaches than drilling. Following some high-profile failures with its Noble Discoverer and Kulluk rigs, Shell put its Arctic operations on pause in early 2013. Amid slumping profits, the group called off its 2014 plans to resume. Today, the economic indicators are not much better – Shell lost $1.1 billion in the Americas in the first quarter of 2015 – but the company is committed to moving forward.
Related: Oil Prices Will Fall: A Lesson In Gravity
One of the richest sedimentary basins in the world, the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province is estimated to hold approximately 28 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and 122 trillion cubic feet of non-associated gas spread across Alaska’s continental shelf and rift shoulder.
For Shell in particular, it expects the Arctic to be its biggest source of crude oil globally within the next 20 years. Estimates vary, but the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management calculates the hurdle, or breakeven, price to be roughly $38 in the Chukchi Sea. With a profit margin of around 39 percent – probably generous – Shell could be earning $1 billion or more in annual profits for each 100,000 barrels produced per day at prices not much higher than today’s.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Fight Over Shell’s Arctic Drilling Escalates As Polar Pioneer Arrives and #ShellNo “Paddle in Seattle” Begins
Check back often as I’ll be updating this post throughout the day with photos and updates.
Here we go. Shell’s Polar Pioneer drilling rig is making its way through Puget Sound and will arrive later this afternoon at Terminal 5 in the Port of Seattle. You can watch the journey in real time if you want to follow along.
I’ll be chasing it from the bluffs and city parks near my house and then eventually plan to hop in my kayak down near T5 to witness the “unwelcome” party hosted by kayaktivists who’ve come from around the region and the world for the “Paddle in Seattle” to challenge Shell’s Arctic drilling plans this week and beyond. Then I plan to head back up to Golden Gardens park this evening for the Celebrating and Protecting the Salish Sea event featuring speakers from the host Lummi Nation and other local tribes.
Please add questions or suggestions in the comments section below and I’ll try to answer asap. Also keep an eye on the DeSmogBlog Twitter and Facebook for updates there, as well as Meerkat which I’ve just installed to tweet live video feed at opportune moments.
Timeline of updates (most recent first):
4:18pm PST Seattle is not cool with this new addition to the skyline.
2:35pm PST Well that was an unexpected and sobering surprise… I arrived at Carkeek Park to film the Polar Pioneer. It’s as massive and jaw-dropping in person as others have told me. Just as I was beginning to film, I noticed a train coming north around the bend and thought to myself ‘wouldn’t it be oddly poetic if that’s an oil train?’ ….. yup, it was.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shell clears major hurdle for Arctic drilling
Exploration plan calls for 2 ships to drill up to 6 wells northwest of Wainwright, Alaska
Just days ahead of a planned protest of Royal Dutch Shell’s Arctic drilling program in Seattle, the company on Monday cleared a major bureaucratic hurdle to drill off Alaska’s northwestern coast.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the multi-year exploration plan in the Chukchi Sea for Shell after reviewing thousands of comments from the public, Alaska Native organizations and state and federal agencies.
“We have taken a thoughtful approach to carefully considering potential exploration in the Chukchi Sea, recognizing the significant environmental, social and ecological resources in the region and establishing high standards for the protection of this critical ecosystem, our Arctic communities, and the subsistence needs and cultural traditions of Alaska Natives,” the agency’s director, Abigail Ross Hopper, said in a statement. “As we move forward, any offshore exploratory activities will continue to be subject to rigorous safety standards.”
Before Shell can begin drilling this summer, the company must still obtain other permits from state and federal agencies, including one to drill from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and government opinions that find Shell can comply with terms and conditions of the Endangered Species Act.
Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said the approval “is an important milestone and signals the confidence regulators have in our plan. However, before operations can begin this summer, it’s imperative that the remainder of our permits be practical, and delivered in a timely manner.
“In the meantime, we will continue to test and prepare our contractors, assets and contingency plans against the high bar stakeholders and regulators expect of an Arctic operator,” Smith said in an email to The Associated Press.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Is the Fracking Lobby Setting the EU Energy Agenda?
Is the Fracking Lobby Setting the EU Energy Agenda?
A European expert panel on unconventional hydrocarbons has been almost entirely taken over by the fracking industry reveals a new investigationby Friends of the Earth (FoE) Europe and theCorporate Europe Observatory (CEO).
The advisory group, set up by the European Commission, is tasked with assessing ongoing fracking projects in Europe along with the safety and appropriateness of other unconventional technologies. Of those not employed by the Commission, over 70 percent of the panel have financial ties to the fracking industry.
The panel’s five leading chairmen include two executives from shale firms Cuadrilla and ConocoPhillips, two officials from pro-shale ministries in the UK and Poland, and a director of IFP Energies nouvelles, who is also an advisor to the Shale Gas Europe lobby group.
Less than 10 percent of those on the panel represent civil society and environmentalists. And two thirds of the academics and research organisations involved have links to the shale industry.
In-House Lobby
Shell, Total, ExxonMobil and GDF Suez are also represented on what has been dubbed “an in-house shale gas lobby” on EU energy strategy.
Graphic provided by Corporate Europe Observatory
Panel members openly recognise that the group’s intent is to prime future EU policy-making on shale gas.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
What On Earth Are We Doing Looking For Oil In The Arctic?
What On Earth Are We Doing Looking For Oil In The Arctic?
Shell is back in; Statoil is pensive, but eager; and Russia is pushing ahead. Low prices have stunted exploration, but the Arctic is still a hotbed (read: marginally warm-bed) of activity. With so much to lose in the fragile and costly environment, why are we there?
One – albeit simple – answer numbers around 90 billion or 1,670 trillion depending on your business. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the area above the Arctic Circle holds 90 billion barrels (bbl) of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas. That’s good for 13 percent of the undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas in the world. Still, it’s not easily accessible – or easy to market – with most of the hydrocarbons occurring under the inhospitable and often frozen Arctic seas.
Another – more hopeful – answer involves the belief that the Arctic offers some semblance of a path toward energy independence. More specifically, for the largest consumer of all, the United States. US Arctic production began in earnest in the mid 70s following the ’73-74 oil embargo by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, which sent prices up over 75 percent. Project Independence, as the Nixon Administration designed it, aimed to promote domestic energy independence, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. Ultimately, the efficiency and production initiatives sent oil imports tumbling more than 50 percent by 1985.
Related: Arctic Oil On Life Support
Today, US shale has revived the nation’s hope of energy independence – no matter how off base it may be. Still, the Arctic’s role in furthering this goal is yet to be determined. Its oil-to-gas ratio – approximately 3:1 in favor of gas – limits any widespread appeal. Moreover, the Obama administration has been hesitant to expand leasing opportunities, instead favoring the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Bitter economic winds hasten oil industry’s retreat from the North Sea
Bitter economic winds hasten oil industry’s retreat from the North Sea
Shell’s decision to begin dismantling operations in the famous Brent field is a striking example of the global impact of falling oil prices
For one oil industry veteran, the dismantling of the Brent oil field in the North Sea prompts mixed feelings. There is gratitude for the livelihood earned from Britain’s post-war energy boom. And relief that it means farewell to “hell on Earth”.
“Brent kept me and my family in gainful employment, so I have something to be grateful for, but these platforms are from an era long gone,” says Jake Molloy, 55, who was a production assistant on the Brent Delta platform.
Describing the structure, which Shell plans to remove from the North Sea, Molloy adds: “Putting people down platform legs [which store pumps and vessels] is really bad. You could climb down thousands of steps to the bottom with 40 pounds of breathing apparatus on your back only for the alarms to go off and you had to go all the way back again. It was the worst working environment – horrendous, hell on earth.”
Shell’s announcement that it plans to remove the platform was just one of many symbolic retreats staged by the oil industry last week. A day after the Brent proposals, Shell’s rival BP said it was taking a $4.5bn (£3bn) hit in its quarterly accounts to pay for the cost of bringing forward the closure of some unprofitable UK fields, partly due to lower oil prices.
Situated 115 miles east of the Shetland Islands, Brent is estimated to have produced 10% of all North Sea oil and gas while generating £20bn of tax revenues since it opened in 1976.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Oil Majors’ Profits Take A Beating
Oil Majors’ Profits Take A Beating
The first quarterly earnings reports since the collapse of oil prices are in and the numbers show a significant deterioration in profits for the oil majors.
Royal Dutch Shell went first on January 29, revealing a big jump from the same quarter a year ago, but down from the third quarter of 2014. In fact, Shell announced that it would cut $15 billion in spending over the next few years, an about-face from just a few months ago when it stated that it would leave capital expenditures unchanged in 2015. Shell’s CEO, concerned about the poor state of oil and gas markets, said that it may even consider withdrawing itself from significant assets held around the world, retrenching and focusing on North America.
On the same day, ConocoPhillips also reported gloomy numbers. It plans onslashing 2015 spending by an additional 15 percent, which comes after a December announcement of a 20 percent cut in expenditures for the year.
Related: Schlumberger To Retake Oil Services Crown With New Deal
Chevron followed that up on January 30, posting its worst showing in five years. The $3.5 billion in earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014 was 30 percent lower than from the previous year. The California-based oil major says that it will trim spending by 13 percent.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
