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Was Shell the First Big Oil Company to Publicly Accept the Science of Climate Change and its Consequences?
Was Shell the First Big Oil Company to Publicly Accept the Science of Climate Change and its Consequences?
The DeSmog UK epic history series investigates the divide that opened up between chief executives and shareholders who were anxious that company operations and profits could be undermined by climate change.
The heavy-handed attack from lobbyists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that arose during the 1990s presented a new risk: that the oilmen would become isolated from other leaders of industry.
As early as 1995, a deep divide began to open up between the chief executive officers and shareholders of major corporations in the United States and Britain who were anxious that their own operations and profits could be undermined by climate change.
The Delphi Group in London, a major investments advisor, published a landmark report that year, warning banks, insurers and institutional investors to immediately withdraw investments from oil and coal.
Mark Mansley, the report’s author, pointed out that “climate change presents major long-term risks to the carbon fuel industry [which] has not been adequately discounted by the financial markets.”
Major Threat
At the same time, Sven Hansen, vice-president of the Union Bank of Switzerland, spoke at a conference for finance capital: “Some of our clients are under major threat from climate change.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Shell Cuts $15 Billion of Spending as Profit Misses Expectations
Shell Cuts $15 Billion of Spending as Profit Misses Expectations
(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc will cut $15 billion of investment over the next three years as the crash in oil prices saw fourth-quarter profit miss forecasts.
Shell, the first of the world’s largest oil companies to report earnings following the slump in crude to a five-year low, will review spending on about 40 projects worldwide, Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said today in an interview.
“We see pressure on our investment program,” van Beurden said on Bloomberg TV. “It’s a game of being prudent but at the same time not overreacting.”
Profit excluding one-time items and inventory changes was $3.3 billion in the quarter, up from $2.9 billion a year earlier, Shell said today. That missed the $4.1 billion average of 13 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Shell shares dropped as much as 4.4 percent in London and traded at 2,067 pence at 10:17 a.m.
The global industry is scurrying to respond as oil below $50 a barrel guts cash flows. Statoil ASA, Tullow Oil Plc and Premier Oil Plc have delayed projects or cut exploration spending. BP Plc has frozen wages and Chevron Corp. delayed its 2015 drilling budget. By cutting spending, companies aim to protect returns to investors.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
2015: The Year We Turn Away from Tar Sands
2015: The Year We Turn Away from Tar Sands
In 2014 Naomi Klein popularized the term “blockadia” in her book This Changes Everythingusing the term as a sort of catch-all to describe the grassroots insurgency emerging across the globe in the face of extreme energy development. This past year also saw the continued desperate push by tar sands peddlers to build more pipelines, new mines and rush to dig up every last drop of tar sands crude. Thankfully, community opposition from the source to every coast (and even across the Atlantic in Europe, where protests met the arrival of the first shipment of tar sands to Europe) has risen up. As we leave 2014 and look forwards to 2015, here is a snapshot of the global movement to stop the tar sands.
The Source
Just a few short years ago the Northern Alberta tar sands were a little known unconventional oil reserve. Not anymore, thanks to the tireless efforts of activists & community leaders from Indigenous communities downstream of the tar sands. Projects like the Healing Walk, the final walk that happened this past June, have brought global awareness to one of the world’s largest and most dangerous pools of carbon.
This year saw three major tar sands projects shelved. Shell, Total and Stat-Oil all suspended projects that previously had been seen as “done deals” because of a lack of market access, financial uncertainty and rising opposition. With the falling price of oil, and the world waking up to the reality of the carbon bubble, this could be just the beginning for financial trouble in the tar sands. In 2015, new projects like Teck’s Frontier Mine – the largest open pit tar sands mine ever proposed – could become a litmus test for the future of new tar sands developments, and a turning point to stopping tar sands at the source.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
If Shell Backs Out, Arctic Oil Off the Table for Years
If Shell Backs Out, Arctic Oil Off the Table for Years.
The next several months may be pivotal for the future of oil development in the Arctic.
While Russia has proceeded with oil drilling in its Arctic territory, the U.S. has been much slower to do so. The push in the U.S. Arctic has been led by Royal Dutch Shell, a campaign that has been riddled with mistakes, mishaps, and wasted money.
Nearly $6 billion has been spent thus far on Shell’s Arctic program, with little success to date. Now, 2015 could prove to be a make or break year for the Arctic. Shell may make a decision on drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas by March 2015. If it declines to continue to pour money into the far north, it may indefinitely put Arctic oil development on ice (pun intended).
The crossroads comes at an awful time for Shell. Oil prices, hovering around $60 per barrel, are far too low to justify Arctic investments. To be sure, offshore drilling depends on long-term fundamentals – any oil from the Arctic wouldn’t begin flowing from wells until several years from now. That means that weak prices in the short-term shouldn’t affect major investment decisions.
