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Shell’s ambitious plans to finally return to the Arctic face yet another hurdle, one that could delay drilling once again. Shell is using the port of Seattle as its base for some of its vessels that it will use in the Arctic. Seattle has been a launching point for Shell in the past (and has hosted Alaskan drilling equipment for decades), but a new greener municipal government is taking a harder look at Shell’s operations. Spurred on by Shell’s error-ridden 2012 campaign in the Arctic that culminated in the grounding of the Kulluk, environmental groups have mustered up some political...

How can Shell possibly finance the purchase of BG? Royal Dutch Shell is set to report its first quarter earnings, and by all accounts, it will be a doozy. Analysts predict a 60 percent decline in earnings from a year earlier, including a massive 7 percent fall in production. But the price tag for BG will be $70 billion, a colossal sum in a period of low oil prices. Shell has already said that it would undertake a major divestment campaign to rid itself of assets it does not see as integral to its future. Purchasing BG is a sign...

The latest example is Royal Dutch Shell's bid for BG Group, a British firm with a stockpile of prized oil fields off the coast of Brazil, and lucrative natural gas holdings in Australia. The companies announced the £47 billion ($70 billion) deal early Wednesday. It's the biggest in the sector since Exxon bought Mobil in 1998, according to Dealogic. Shell will pay a 50% premium to BG's closing share price of £9.10 ($13.56) on Tuesday. If completed, the purchase will add 25% to Shell's oil and gas reserves and 20% to production. Shell also expects "synergies" of around $2.5 billion,...

The world's two biggest oil firms, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell, may withstand the oil price collapse better than their rivals because they are closer to finishing expensive investment projects while others must keep spending. The near halving of oil prices since June is likely to send all the biggest listed oil companies into negative cash flow this year, and has sparked a rush to cut costs across the sector as a result. But depending on where they are in their spending cycles, some companies are finding those cuts easier to make than others. "Both (Exxon and Shell)...

Royal Dutch Shell warned Gov. Tom Wolf that policies which hurt gas production could affect the company's decision on whether to build a multibillion-dollar plant in Beaver County to turn ethane into plastics, the head of a gas industry group said Wednesday. “I sat in a meeting with Gov. Wolf in August, where leadership from Shell looked the now-governor directly in the eye and said, ‘If you jeopardize the ethane supply, we likely don't invest here,' ” Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Spigelmyer told Tribune-Review editors and reporters. “That's a big deal. We need to make sure we have opportunities...

The largest U.S. refinery strike in 35 years entered its fourth week as workers at 12 refineries accounting for one-fifth of national production capacity were walking picket lines as of 12 a.m. CST on Sunday, according to union officials. A total of 6,550 members of the United Steelworkers union at 15 plants, including the 12 refineries, are involved in the work stoppage that began on Feb. 1 when talks for a new three-year contract between the USW and lead oil company negotiator Shell Oil Co stopped.... After the latest breakdown between the two sides, Steelworkers leaders targeted Shell, which is...

When a massive truck slams on the brakes to avoid a crash, it takes awhile for it to get back up to highway speed again. That, in essence, is the problem oil companies will face when they want to increase production if supplies start to fall short. The selloff in crude oil has put drilling on hold. Unless more drilling resumes soon, a surplus of 1 million barrels a day will be exhausted. John Hofmeister, a former president at Royal Dutch Shell , predicts that will happen by the summer and will send prices up to $80 a barrel. "When that cost correction...

It's every parent's nightmare, but true: Major U.S. corporations are funding a campaign of sophisticated, psychologically intrusive "gay" indoctrination programs targeting very young children in elementary schools across America. It’s part of a very well-planned and well-funded effort to reach children as young as possible without their parents’ intervention. The national program, called “Welcoming Schools”, skillfully works on the minds of young children in three ways: (1) Introducing the concept of homosexuality to children. (2) Telling them that homosexuality is normal and natural. (3) Telling them that their parents or friends who portray homosexuality in a less than positive way...

Royal Dutch Shell is ending investments in a gas development project in Saudi Arabia. The emergence of the shale gas industry has opened up more lucrative opportunities for energy companies elsewhere. Shell has decided to end further investment in the Kidan area of the Empty Quarter, the sea of sand dunes that cover south-east Saudi Arabia. Italy's ENI, Spain's Repsol and France's Total - have already abandoned the search for commercially viable gas deposits in that part of Saudi Arabia. Kidan, rich in sour gas...

Royal Dutch Shell’s new CEO Ben Van Beurden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, signaling Ukraine tension has not affected investment in Russia, and that energy contracts won't be derailed by international politics. Chief executive Van Beurden met with the president at his residence outside of Moscow and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to develop Russia’s only liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with Gazprom. "We also know that this is going to be a project that will need strong support to succeed. So one of my purposes of meeting with you, Mr. President, is to also secure support for...

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is taking the road less traveled by supporting strong cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. Shell signed a non-binding document, called the Trillion Tonne Communique, along with 70 other companies like Adidas and Unilever, which calls for ambitious timelines to bring global greenhouse gas emissions to "net zero" by the end of the century. "We recognize that over the long term, net global emissions must trend towards zero. Both of our New Lens Scenarios show that this objective can be realized by the end of this century, but not without action by governments to stimulate changes...

As the U.S. Senate took up a bill to provide financial aid to Ukraine, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rose to object to an IMF bailout Majority Leader Harry Reid attached to the legislation. In the process he blasted Reid for repeatedly demonizing the billionaire Koch brothers - Reid tried to blame the Koch brothers for halting progress on the Ukraine bill. "I'm beginning to think [the Koch brothers] are a character almost out of Dr. Seuss in the majority leader's mind, they are the grinch who stole Christmas in his telling," Cruz said. Cruz accused Reid of "using his...

Pioneer Flourishes in U.S. Shale Fields Where Shell Floundered By Joe Carroll Mar 10, 2014 7:00 AM ET Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD), the top energy stock in the S&P 500 last year, is tripling drilling in shale fields as international energy explorers five times its size recoil from losses on the U.S. oil renaissance.Pioneer is expanding its fleet of drilling rigs in the northern part of Texas’ Spraberry field to 16 from five this quarter after striking reservoirs so rich that some wells are expected to pump as much as 1 million barrels of crude during their lifespans. Pioneer’s...

Why Independent Producers Are Vastly Outpacing Big Oil by David Smith, The Motley Fool Feb 8th 2014 2:00PMUpdated Feb 8th 2014 2:02PM Energy investors have effectively reached an earnings season tipping point, with the majors having told us about their fourth-quarter and full-year results and most of the independents still preparing to do so. While I obviously can't predict with absolute certainty the impending announcements from the likes of and Whiting Petroleum , they're likely to outstrip those that we've already received from ExxonMobil, Chevron , and Royal Dutch Shell .As for the weaknesses displayed by the majors during...

<p>Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it has completed building the hull of the world's largest floating facility, which has been constructed to process natural gas off the coast of western Australia.</p> <p>Shell said Tuesday that the 488-meter (1,600 foot) hull of the structure, known as "Prelude," was floated out of the dry dock in Geoje, South Korea where it is being built.</p>

The rights to explore Brazil's biggest oilfield have been won at an auction by a consortium led by Brazil's state-run Petrobras, backed by Total, Shell and Chinese firms. The group made the only bid in the auction, offering the minimum share of the surplus production. The Rio de Janeiro beachfront hotel, where the auction took place, was guarded by 1,100 security personnel. Earlier, striking oil workers opposed to the contest clashed with police. Eleven companies had expressed interest in the Libra oilfield, but the Spanish Repsol pulled out on Monday, leaving the five winners as the only ones to present...

Cats and dogs. Oil and water. Name any cliche about polar opposites and they have probably been used to compare the oil industry and electric vehicles. So, it seems almost impossible that an oil company would make the claim that electric vehicles will be the predominant transportation fuel, but Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A ) is making that very claim. Is Shell contemplating going into a new business? Are they playing some kind of Jedi mind trick on us? Let's take a look at some of the things that Shell is saying and see if it is making a compelling...

A decision this week by Shell to shutter its oil shale operation in Colorado to pursue other ventures in Jordan and Canada highlights the difficulties faced by developers in the state as they wrestle with uncertain rules under the Obama administration. Royal Dutch Shell was one of the most successful companies in the state in its efforts to develop a cost-efficient technique to extract oil from shale rock. But the final act of Ken Salazar as Interior secretary earlier this year to rewrite industry rules left companies in limbo with undeterminable royalty rates, and blocked them from obtaining leases for...

Noble Corp. in January announced plans to move one of its deep-water drilling rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico amid a spill-related slowdown in activity. This week, the Swiss-based driller made good on its promise. It loaded the Noble Clyde Boudreaux, an ultra-deepwater semisubmersible, on a ship in Pascagoula, Miss., that will carry the rig 5,000 miles to Brazil, where it has a contract with Shell. That new contract, starting in April, will last for a year and is $290,000 per day less than the previous Gulf lease, Noble said. Noble, Diamond Offshore and other offshore drilling contractors have...

The IDF fired warning shots into Syrian territory on Sunday after a mortar shell fired from Syria hit an IDF outpost in the Golan Heights. The incident follows a similar spillover from Syria on Thursday, when a shell from Syria exploded in Moshav Alonei Habashan. "Further attacks [from Syria] will illicit a vigorous response," the IDF Spokesman's Office stated. The military also sent a letter to the United Nations warning Syrian forces to be careful in avoiding fire into the Golan. Just hours earlier, Defense Minister Ehud Barak threatened that Israel would respond should stray Syrian ordnance continue to strike...