Shell Share Discussion Threads

[ariane] 27/1/2017 10:18

Big Oil May Not Need To Borrow To Pay Dividends For The First Time In 5 Years
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Jan 26, 2017, 5:07 PM CST Offshore rig

The hefty cost cuts that the supermajors have made over the past two years, combined with relatively stable oil prices that are now over $50, could mean that Big Oil may not have to resort to borrowing in order to pay the sacred dividends for the first time in five years, Bloomberg reports, quoting analysts at brokerage Jefferies International.

The slashed costs – including sweeping job cuts – and the canceling and delaying of highly capital-intensive projects have helped the world’s five biggest oil companies to stop bleeding cash and return to generating cash flows.

“As a group they are at peak debt levels now,” Jason Gammel, a London-based analyst at Jefferies, told Bloomberg, referring to operating and capital efficiency at ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, Total SA, and BP.
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Since the oil prices started crashing in 2014, supermajors had amassed more and more debt. As of the middle of last year, Big Oil’s debts were rising, cash flows dropping, and capex diminishing, but dividends firmly held.

Now it looks like the tide is slowly turning, thanks to higher oil prices, leaner operations, and cost cuts.

Related: Robots Over Roughnecks: Next Drilling Boom Might Not Add Many Jobs

Jefferies has estimated that when oil prices were around US$100 per barrel in 2014, the Big Five had generated a combined US$180 billion in cash from operations. In 2016, the total cash from operations had plunged to US$83 billion. But higher oil prices are expected to help the now ‘leaner and meaner’ oil majors to generate US$142 billion from operations this year, and US$176 billion next year, according to Jefferies.

In the next two weeks, the Big Five will report fourth-quarter figures, and analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg point to Exxon, Chevron and BP booking their first annual profit rises since 2014. More specifically, Chevron is projected to return to profit; Exxon is expected to book a 5.8-percent increase in income; Shell is seen reporting increased profit for a second quarter in a row; BP is likely to post higher adjusted earnings for the first time in nine successive quarters; and Total is seen posting a 4.3-percent increase in adjusted net income.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

[jon123] 27/1/2017 09:48

well golly gosh who'd have thought it I can't believe there's a fraud in any African country

oh hang on that's rite I remember now we feed them clothe them supply fresh water because there poor and starving but somehow they've all got ak47's its amazing dunno how they manage it

its a corrupt continent there all robbing each other

[ariane] 27/1/2017 09:30

‘How Etete, Adoke, Shell defrauded Nigeria through Malabu oil deal’
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‘How Etete, Adoke, Shell defrauded Nigeria through Malabu oil deal’

Adoke

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) gave details yesterday of how some highly placed Nigerians, including ex-ministers and multinational oil companies allegedly defrauded the country of billions of dollars through the now notorious Malabu oil deal.

The commission also revealed how former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Mohammed Adoke allegedly aided the payment of $1.2b bribe to ex-Petroleum Resources Minister Dan Etete, using his position in the President Goodluck Jonathan.

The EFCC, which said it had conducted a painstaking investigation into the case both in Nigeria and offshore, stated that its probe also revealed that Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd and Shell petroleum Development Company (SPDC) secured OPL245 through a fraudulent scheme involving high scale bribery and corruption by top management of the company.

It said further investigations revealed that the Federal Government was defrauded by Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd by under paying $210m as signature bonus on the OPL 245.

The commission also shed light on how the late Gen. Sani Abacha, Etete (his Petroleum Minister) and Hassan Adamu (Nigerian Ambassador to the United States under Abacha) allegedly used their positions to influence the unlawful allocation of OPL 245 to Malabu Oil.

The EFCC revealed these in an ex-parte motion it argued yesterday before the Federal High Court, Abuja seeking, among others, an order of interim forfeiture of the oil well known as OPL 245, being managed by Shell pending the conclusion of its investigation and prosecution of all identified culprits.

After listening to EFCC’s lawyer Jonson Ojogbane, who moved the motion, Justice John Tosho granted the two interim orders of forfeiture sought by the EFCC.

Details of the EFCC’s investigation on the Malabu case was contained in a supporting affidavit it filed with the ex-parte motion.

It said: “Sometime in April 1998, Malabu Oil and Gas Limited was incorporated in Nigeria with shareholders, namely: Mohammed Sani (fronting for the late General Sani Abacha), Kwekwu Amafegha (representing Dan Etete, the then Minister of Petroleum Resources) and Hassan Hindu (on behalf of Ambassador Hassan Adamu).

“In April 1998 the company was incorporated, the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources offered the company deep water oil block prospecting licence in respect of Oil OPL 245 in line with the Federal Government’s indigenous policy in the upstream sector.

“The oil prospecting licence, against all known government regulations, was awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas even before a formal application was submitted by the company.

“In June 1998 Gen Sani Abacha died and between 1999 and 2000 the corporate status and shareholding structure were altered severally through forged resolutions, which eventually divested Mohammed Sani of their shares, while new shareholders and directors were appointed fraudulently.

[ariane] 27/1/2017 09:19

Good point FJ

Shell has and will use the spill causes as a defence in some or most cases

Not sure however as yet as to the specifics or impacts of this particular case


Nigeria it seems is well known for its corrupt system apparently

Obviously time will tell

cheers

[fjgooner] 26/1/2017 22:27

Re: "alleging that decades of oil spills have fouled the water and destroyed the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the Niger River Delta"

-------------

Were any/all of these spills caused by local issues such as parochial theft, oil pipe vandalism, terrorism, extortion, corruption, tribal dispute, political unrest?

I don't know - just asking if anyone can shed light on this issue?

Perhaps the litigation would be better suited against Nigeria and for Shell?

[sarkasm] 26/1/2017 16:01

waldron
23 Jan '17 - 16:34 - 386 of 393 0 0
moving towards a possible 2275 support



AGAIN

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/1/2017 13:20

Shell wins court ruling on Nigerian pollution claims


LONDON (AP) -- Royal Dutch Shell has won a victory before London's High Court in a case brought by Nigerian farmers and fishermen who claimed their lands were polluted by the company's actions.

Shell had argued the case should be heard in Nigeria, and the court agreed.

U.K. law firm Leigh Day promised to appeal. The lawsuits were filed by the Ogale and Bille people alleging that decades of oil spills have fouled the water and destroyed the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the Niger River Delta, where a Shell subsidiary has operated since the 1950s.

They brought their fight to Shell's home base because they say the Nigerian courts are too corrupt.

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/1/2017 10:15

GOOGLE TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH

Vallourec (VK.FR), the manufacturer of seamless tubes for the petroleum industry, announced Thursday the sale of a majority stake in its steel mill in Saint Saulve, near Valenciennes, to the producer of special steels Asco Industries.


The latter will take over 60% of the steel plant's capital in exchange for commitments to buy steel on the site alongside Vallourec, which retains 40% of the capital.


"The transaction will have no significant impact on our accounts at the close," Philippe Crouzet, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said during a conference call. Vallourec is to publish its annual results on February 22nd.


Within the framework of their partnership, Asco and Vallourec have created a new company, named Ascoval, which will hold all the assets of the steel plant and will integrate the 320 employees of the site.


The two partners have committed to a volume of purchases corresponding to a production of 275,000 tons of steel by the end of 2017, a figure that could increase in the future, said Philippe Crouzet. Vallourec's stake in Ascoval corresponds to the relative share of the purchasing commitments made by the group, the director said.




New investments in Saint Saulve




Commissioned in 1975, the Saint Saulve steelworks had a maximum production of 450,000 tons of steel per year. It was then to make products simpler and less profitable than the steels that will be produced now, explained Philippe Crouzet.


Faced with the collapse of the oil and energy markets, Vallourec had to undertake a major restructuring and had been looking for a buyer for its Saint Saulve steel plant for 18 months.


"It is a piece of the history of the group that is at stake today," Philippe Crouzet said Thursday. "For Vallourec, this is a new step in the transformation plan concerning European units in a market that remains very difficult with low volumes and very disputed prices," added the manager.


Vallourec, which has already invested 100 million euros in the last ten years to modernize the site, is still planning to invest 6 million to 7 million euros in the steel plant to adapt the product range and be able to respond Specific requests from Asco.


Ascoval will thus produce steels for new markets, such as automotive, mechanical, energy or bearings.


At the Paris Bourse, the Vallourec share gained 1.7% to 7.28 euros on Thursday in the first exchanges. The value has soared by more than 150% over one year, thanks to the restructuring measures undertaken by the group and hopes of recovery.




-Blandine Hénault, Dow Jones Newswires; 33 (0) 1 40 17 17 53; [e-mail] ed: VLV




(END) Dow Jones Newswires


January 26, 2017 03:51 ET (08:51 GMT)

[jon123] 26/1/2017 07:54

just don't buy any in Nigeria lol

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/1/2017 07:43

Sogoesit
25 Jan '17 - 06:44 - 388 of 389 0 0
Buy pipelines and NOV for Energy Trumponomics!


SO YOU GOT SOME PIPELINE COs TO BUY

[sogoesit] 25/1/2017 06:44

Buy pipelines and NOV for Energy Trumponomics!

[waldron] 24/1/2017 07:09

OIL SHELL B BACK

[waldron] 23/1/2017 16:34

moving towards a possible 2275 support

[la forge] 23/1/2017 07:11

LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC said on Sunday it has agreed to sell its 50% stake in petrochemicals joint venture SADAF in Saudi Arabia to Saudi Basic Industries Corp for USD820 million.

The joint venture incorporates six petrochemical plants, with a total output of more than 4 million metric tons per year, Shell said. The sale of the stake marks an early termination of the joint venture agreement, due to expire in 2020.

Shell said disposal will allow it to focus on its downstream activities, and make "selective investments to support the growth of its global chemicals business".

"Our partnership with SABIC, spanning more than thirty years, has been a great success story. We're proud to have established together one of the first petrochemical ventures in Saudi Arabia - it has grown substantially since the start, in 1986. We will continue to explore potential future opportunities with SABIC," said Executive Vice President of Chemicals at Shell, Graham van't Hoff in a statement.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; [e-mail]; @HanaSSAllNews

[la forge] 22/1/2017 11:25

Oil majors put money on diverging strategies

Robin Mills

January 22, 2017 Updated: January 22, 2017 02:29 PM

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After cutting billions from their budgets and thousands from workforces over the past three years, big oil companies are back on the acquisition trail. Since September, nine large deals have added up to US$20 billion of spending. But these mark sharp divergences in strategies between the super-majors.

Whose view of the future prevails is vital for shareholders and management alike.

The largest deal was the most recent – last Tuesday, ExxonMobil agreed to pay the Bass family up to $6.6bn, mostly in its own shares, for acreage in west Texas’s Permian Basin. Smaller companies have also made a string of acquisitions here, the only shale region where production has kept rising through the price slump, with attention moving from the Midland sub-basin to the less-fancied Delaware farther west.

The US super-major is also still waiting on shareholder approval for its $2.5bn buyout of Interoil, which is developing gas in Papua New Guinea.

After putting the 2010 Macondo disaster largely behind it, BP has been refilling its growth portfolio. The British company paid $2.2bn in stock for a 10 per cent stake in Abu Dhabi’s onshore Adco concession, and acquired exciting deepwater African gasfields for $916 million for part of Kosmos Energy’s discoveries in Mauritania and Senegal, and $525m for 10 per cent of Eni’s giant Zohr find in Egypt. Shortly afterwards, Russia’s Rosneft paid a proportional amount for 30 per cent of Zohr.

Total has also been active, buying stakes from Tullow in Uganda and Petrobras in Brazil. This adds to its interesting moves over the past year, notably displacing Maersk Oil from Qatar’s largest producing oilfield, Al Shaheen, in June, and signing a preliminary deal for Phase 13 of Iran’s super-giant South Pars gasfield. But it also bought an early-stage US liquefied natural gas project in December, and should soon announce another deal in Texas.

Meanwhile, Norway’s Statoil paid heavily indebted Petrobras $2.5bn for Brazil’s Carcara field in December.

By contrast, Chevron and Shell have been quiet on the acquisition front. Chevron already has a large position in the Permian and has been concentrating on developing it. Shell’s $50bn buy of smaller UK rival BG, completed in February, is the only recent mega deal. It has since focused on divestments to pay down debt; as well as downstream assets, it is looking for buyers for its historic onshore fields in Gabon, and some of its Norwegian and Iraqi fields.

This acquisition boom has three significant features. Firstly, companies now have enough confidence in commodity prices to move on medium-sized purchases. Recent metrics imply assumed oil prices around $60 to $65 per barrel, a little above current futures levels. But there is still a desire to conserve cash, with BP and, unusually, ExxonMobil paying in their own shares.

Secondly, some companies are making bold moves, while others are still managing their balance sheets, or are confident enough in their organic growth portfolio.

Thirdly, the American super-majors, like their smaller compatriots, are focused on their backyard. They are betting that drilling shale reservoirs more efficiently can keep outrunning low oil prices. The Europeans, by contrast, are active across the globe, relying on traditional super-major strengths in deepwater, integrated gas developments, frontier areas, and close relations with Middle Eastern governments.

Both approaches have dangers. The European super-majors risk being stranded with high-cost, long lead-time assets in a world of permanently depressed oil prices. The Americans are exposed to intense competition from nimbler small players, and concentration on a single country and single resource type. Carried to extremes, their abilities and asset base outside America may be eroded completely.

After years in which they all did very similar things, the big oil companies now offer very different investment propositions. This year, if the price recovery continues, we can expect each one to double down on its own strategy, providing a real test of their management team’s vision.

Robin Mills is the chief executive of Qamar Energy, and author of The Myth of the Oil Crisis.

[e-mail]

[grupo guitarlumber] 21/1/2017 14:37

OPEC To Meet In Vienna This Weekend For Oil Cut Compliance
By Damir Kaletovic - Jan 20, 2017, 6:30 PM CST Offshore platform

This weekend the representatives of OPEC and several other major oil producers outside of this group, including Russia, are meeting in Vienna for their first meeting to monitor compliance with the oil output cut agreement.

The meeting will establish a compliance mechanism to verify that producers are sticking to a deal to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day, said OPEC's Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo.

Their plan is to figure out how to confirm that all 24 signatories of this historic deal are keeping to their pledges to reduce output and keep the agreed on amount of supply off the market for six months.

OPEC is keen to demonstrate that it has shed its hard-earned reputation for cheating, and that the group is serious about tackling the supply glut and lifting oil prices.

OPEC’s agreement to reduce output in tandem with non-OPEC Russia and several other producers in December was the first such move in 15 years.

"I have no doubts in Russia's commitment to continue to participate with us and solidify this platform effectively establishing a stabilizing forum for the short, mid and long-term," Barkindo said.

International oil prices rose to an 18-month high of more than US$58 a barrel after the OPEC and several non-members agreed on December 10 to end two years of unfettered production and instead cut output. Crude has since slid back down some 5 percent as speculators are concerned that commitments will not be met.

Related: Oil Slides After Massive Rig Count Gain

In December, OPEC’s production fell by 220,900 barrels a day to 33.085 million barrels a day, with the biggest drops coming from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, according to secondary source data in the group’s monthly report published on 18 January.

The organization agreed to reduce its output to 32.5 million barrels a day, although that total included about 740,000 barrels a day of output from former member Indonesia.

Russia has pumped an average of 11.1 million barrels a day so far in January—108,000 barrels a day less than official government figures for November and December, according to initial data from the Energy Ministry, compiled by Bloomberg. Russia agreed to cut 300,000 barrels a day by April or May.

OPEC will meet in May to decide whether to propose to extend the output cutting measures together with non-OPEC countries.

By Damir Kaletovic for Oilprice.com

[waldron] 20/1/2017 14:11

DAVOS, Switzerland--The oil price recovery is boosting the mood of energy-industry leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with many expressing confidence that the market is rebalancing after a two-year price collapse.

"Everybody thinks the worst is over," said Emma Marcegaglia, chairman of Eni SpA, Italy's biggest oil company. "The mood is completely different compared with last year. The mood is better."



Write to Elena Cherney at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 20, 2017 08:46 ET (13:46 GMT)

[fjgooner] 20/1/2017 10:58

Shell’s 2016Q4 net income expected to surge 78% year-on-year to $2.8billion.

Very nice if correct.

FJ
:)

------------------------

Shell, BP to reveal Q4 income surges, analyst says

hxxps://www.energyvoice.com/marketinfo/129178/shell-bp-reveal-q4-income-surges-analyst-says/

Written by Mark Lammey - 19/01/2017 7:22 am

Oil majors Shell and BP are expected to reveal large increases in fourth quarter earnings next month, an analyst said yesterday.

Biraj Borkhataria of RBC Capital Markets estimated BP would record a net income of $1billion in Q4, up from $200million the previous year.

Mr Borkhataria said the firm’s production would edge up during the quarter due to lower seasonal turnaround and maintenance activities, though downstream margins will be under pressure.

He predicts outgoings related to the 2010 Macondo disaster will come to $1.5billion for the three months.

Shell’s net income will go up 78% year-on-year to $2.8billion for the last three months of 2016.

Mr Borkhataria said Shell will have cashed $2.7billion from asset sales in Canada, the Gulf of Mexico, Malaysia and Japan in Q4.

The company is in the midst of a $30billion divestment programme which is slated to run through 2018.

Commenting on the global oil and gas industry in general, the coming months should highlight continued cost and capex deflation, Mr Borkhataria said.

He expects capex for majors to total $123billion in 2017, 8% lower than in 2016 and 50% down on 2013, when spending peaked.

RBC also thinks investors could switch their focus to growth, against the backdrop of the oil price recovery, which could have implications for the mergers and acquisitions market.