Shell Share Discussion Threads

[sarkasm] 24/2/2019 16:56

Church of England targets fossil fuel groups after Glencore victory
After success with Glencore, the church is now prepared to file shareholder resolutions to push other companies to do more to combat climate change
16 minutes ago




The Church of England has warned that fossil fuel companies are in its sights, following its successful push to get coal miner Glencore to cap its coal production and align its business with the Paris climate accord.

Glencore, the world’s top coal exporter, last week said it would cap its production of thermal and coking coal at about 150 million tonnes a year, with further expansion of its coal business largely ruled out.

The move came after the Anglican church led investor engagement with Glencore on behalf of the Climate Action 100+, an initiative backed by investors with more than $32 trillion (€28 trillion) of assets under management.

The church has now said it is prepared to file shareholder resolutions to push other companies to do more to combat climate change.

“We will not be able to invest successfully in a world in which there is runaway damaging climate change,” said Edward Mason, head of responsible investment at the church. “We need to use more assertive techniques as shareholders to ensure better alignment of interests on this.”

The Climate 100+ group, which was set up just over two years ago, is currently targeting 161 companies, including fellow miners BHP Billiton, Anglo American, South32 as well as oil companies such as ExxonMobil. A total of 310 investors have signed on to the initiative.
Energy targets

Glencore said last week that in addition to capping coal production, it would invest in commodities required for a transition towards clean energy and electric vehicles. The Switzerland-based miner and trader also agreed to set long-term emissions targets and review its membership of trade associations to make sure they do not undermine global Paris climate change accord.

Mr Mason said Glencore’s changes are likely to be a model for other companies. “You can expect to see some of the elements of good practice that are in this statement with Glencore to be advocated with other companies,” he said

“Companies know that investors within this initiative are serious, and if companies aren’t demonstrating the kind of movement that investors are looking for then they are prepared to file shareholder proposals,” he added.

Glencore was presented with the prospect of a shareholder resolution if it did not change its stance, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr Mason said investors are increasingly concerned that lobbying by trade associations is undermining effective government policies to combat climate change.

In December 2017, BHP Billiton said it would quit the World Coal Association due to differences over climate and energy policies.

“One of the main impediments to climate change is the right policy being in place,” said Mr Mason. “Investors have woken up to this, and frankly want to put a stop to it.” Financial Times

[maywillow] 24/2/2019 07:10

Oman signs upstream agreement with Total, Shell

Print
Email

Created: Sunday, 24 February 2019 06:12

Total, the Ministry of Oil and Gas of the Sultanate of Oman (MOG), Oman Oil Company (OOC), Shell and Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) have signed an interim upstream agreement to further explore and develop gas resources of the Greater Barik area, northern part of Block 6 located onshore in the central west region of Oman

barikThe agreement is set to explore and develop in 2019 the gas resources of the Greater Barik area. (Image source: Derek Gavey/Flickr)

This agreement is the first step towards the implementation of the MoU signed between Total and MOG in May 2018 related to the development of an integrated gas project.

This integrated project includes an upstream development, in partnership with Shell and OOC, to produce the gas resources of the Greater Barik area and a downstream development by which Total and OOC will supply build and operate a one million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) LNG plant and develop an LNG bunkering hub in the port of Sohar.

Parties will continue to work diligently to finalise the definitive agreements which will guarantee the success of those integrated developments.

“We are confident that the project will help diversify the gas sector in Oman and support the economic development of the port of Sohar and its region,” commented Stephane Michel, senior vice-president for exploration-production of Total for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

With a strong exploration and production portfolio in Oman, Total’s SEC production reached at 38,000 boepd in 2018. Total holds four per cent interest in the PDO operated onshore Block 6, as well as in the Oman LNG (5.54 per cent) and Qalhat LNG (2.04 per cent) liquefaction complex located at Sur with an overall capacity of 10.5 mtpa.

[the grumpy old men] 23/2/2019 18:37

Bloomberg/London

They are slowly plowing their way across thousands of miles of ocean toward America’s Gulf of Mexico coastline. As they do, twelve empty supertankers are also revealing a few truths about today’s global oil market.
In normal times, the vessels would be filled with heavy, high sulphur Middle East oil for delivery to refineries in places like Houston or New Orleans. Not now though. They are sailing cargo-less, a practice that vessel owners normally try to avoid because ships earn money by making deliveries.
The 12 vessels are making voyages of as much as 21,000 miles direct from Asia, all the way around South Africa, holding nothing but seawater for stability because Middle East producers are restricting supplies. Still, America’s booming volumes of light crude must still be exported, and there aren’t enough supertankers in the Atlantic Ocean for the job. So they’re coming empty.
“What’s driving this is a US oil market that’s looking relatively bearish with domestic production estimates trending higher, and persistent crude oil builds we have seen for the last few weeks,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam. “At the same time, Opec cuts are supporting international grades like Brent, creating an export incentive.”
The US both exports and imports large amounts of crude because the variety it pumps – especially newer supplies from shale formations – is very different from the type that’s found in the Middle East. Opec members are likely cutting heavier grades while American exports are predominantly lighter, Patterson said.
By industry standards, American oil is considered light and low in sulphur, making it great for churning out gasoline, with the result that a glut of the automotive fuel is starting to build up. By contrast, Middle East crude often needs more processing – not a problem for Gulf of Mexico plants that were designed specifically for that task – but it can have a smaller gasoline yield.
“There is still going to be a lot of growth from US tight oil this year,” said James Davis, director of short-term global oil service at Facts Global Energy. “This will continue to push US exports up.”
Shippers are counting on the US exports to help the tanker market withstand supply restrictions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia. Industry analysts, who actually raised their estimates for what they think the ships will earn this year after the Opec+ pact was announced in December, are citing rising American shipments as a contributing factor.
There are usually three or four empty supertankers – very large crude carriers in industry jargon – that would sale empty to the US at any one time, according to shipbrokers.
The shift has produced knock-on effects around the shipping market. Daily earnings for the VLCCs, which can haul 2mn barrels of oil, on the benchmark Middle East-to-China route doubled to $29,337 in the past week, according to Baltic Exchange data.
“Following a fixing frenzy from the US Gulf Coast late last week, most available tonnage in the Atlantic basin has been soaked up,” said Espen Fjermestad, an analyst at Fearnley Securities AS in Oslo. “With ships ballasting West, rates have shifted up also in the East.”

[stewart64] 22/2/2019 15:56

Lost patience here at 24.32 today and sold out. The transmission between this and the oil price also dodgy the last week. A good trade for me starting at 22.50 and losing on my third tranche buy at 24.43. Sold two other shares as the Market was topping out a few hours ago. Risk off for the weekend
Could be difficult getting back in if the Market opens high Monday.

[fjgooner] 22/2/2019 12:28

You're welcome Waldron.

Don't forget that Shell is holding an IFRS16 update conference call on March 28th.

You have a great weekend too - I'm off down to the harbour to enjoy this fantastic spring weather. :)

[waldron] 22/2/2019 11:16

CHEERS FJG

DID READ

AWAITING NOW NEXT QUARTERLY RESULTS FOR CONFIRMATION

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND

will post your response for ifrs16 on the ACCOUNTING FOR LEASES THREAD



CHEERS

[fjgooner] 22/2/2019 10:49

Re IFRS 16.

Shell provided full guidance on how this affects reporting on page 31 of the 2018 Q4 results webcast slides.

In summary "Key metrics change, no business and value impact".

If you didn't download the webcast slides on results day, you can still pull them from here:

[maywillow] 22/2/2019 09:11

Government backs Shell over North Sea oil rigs
Catherine Early
| 22nd February 2019
The UK government has endorsed plans by oil giant Shell to leave some decommissioned North Sea oil infrastructure in place.

The government is supporting plans by Shell to leave leftover oil and chemicals in some of its installations in the North Sea, according to an investigation by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative journalism team.

Oil and gas operators in the UK are decommissioning their infrastructure as it reaches the end of its life. This has cost companies in the sector more than £1 billion each year since 2014, according to a report by government spending watchdog the National Audit Office.

But decommissioning hundreds of North Sea oil and gas rig will also cost British taxpayers at least £24 billion, due to tax reliefs granted to companies in return for decommissioning.

Infrastructure

Shell has proposed leaving portions of its Brent oilfield installations in the North Sea, including the contents of concrete storage cells containing oil and chemicals at three of the four installations – Brent Bravo, Charlie and Delta.

In a document seen by Unearthed, the Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning (OPRED), part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has given its full support to Shell’s proposal.

However, this may undermine the OSPAR Convention, an international agreement designed to protect the marine environment, Unearthed claimed.

The German government has written to environment secretary Michael Gove to express concerns that Shell has failed to properly account for long-term risks to the environment and ship traffic, according to a document seen by Unearthed.

Consultations

The investigative team understands that it is discussing whether to formally object to the UK’s proposal to allow Shell to leave the infrastructure in the sea. If three or more countries object, the government will have to undertake further consultations.

A spokesperson for Shell told Unearthed that it had met with the German government to discuss its decommissioning plans. “Our recommendations are the result of 10 years of research, involving more than 300 scientific and technical studies,” it said in a statement.

A spokesperson for BEIS said: “Decommissioning proposals are considered on a case-by-case basis and only approved following appropriate consultation with stakeholders.”

This Author

Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76.

[maywillow] 22/2/2019 08:35

Is Royal Dutch Shell Plc a value trap?
Could Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSB) (RDSB.L) deliver improving share price performance?
February 22, 2019 Robert Stephens Shell (LON:RDSB)




Royal Dutch Shell Plc
Royal Dutch Shell Plc

With the Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSB) (RDSB.L) share price having fallen by 15% over the last nine months, it appears to offer a large margin of safety at the moment in my opinion.

For instance, the oil and gas company has a P/E ratio of around 10. It is forecast to post a rise in EPS of 19% in the current financial year, which suggests to me that it could offer growth at a reasonable price.

However, at the same time, the oil price continues to have an uncertain future according to my research. While the price of Brent may have risen over recent weeks, it continues to face many of the risks that caused it to fall in the latter part of 2018. These include a slowing Chinese economy, increasing global protectionism and the potential for further US interest rate rises.

Therefore, it wouldn’t surprise me if the oil price experiences a period of heightened volatility over future months. Given Shell’s reliance on the oil price for its profitability, this could impact on its share price and cause a period of uncertainty for the business.

In spite of this, I remain optimistic about the stock’s outlook. The oil price is perennially volatile in my view, and since I started buying shares 15 years ago I have always been struck at how hard it is to accurately (and consistently) predict where the oil price will go.

Shell’s strategy appears to be sound. It is aiming to reduce debt, while also reduce the size of its non-core asset base. These changes could improve its financial performance in the long run in my view, and may mean that it has an improving EPS growth outlook.

While there could be further volatility ahead for the stock, I feel that it offers a margin of safety and may be able to generate outperformance of its peers over the long run.

[waldron] 21/2/2019 18:00

IFRS 16 set to pull £180bn onto FTSE 350 balance sheets

Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Sainsbury’s, Vodafone and International Airlines Group head the ranking of FTSE 350 companies whose balance sheets are set to be most impacted by the new IFRS 16 lease accounting standard, according to analysis by accounting software specialist LeaseAccelerator

20 Feb 2019
Pat Sweet
Pat Sweet

Reporter, Accountancy Daily, published by Croner-i Ltd
View profile and articles.

Its research suggests that collectively, the top 350 listed companies in the UK have £180bn in operating lease liabilities which will now need to be reflected in their financial reporting, with the highest concentrations in the energy, airline, retail, telecoms and financial sectors.

LeaseAccelerator’s analysis suggests oil and gas giants Royal Dutch Shell (£18.3bn) and BP (£10.9bn) have the highest operating lease obligations according to their most recent annual reports.

In third place in the rankings is Sainsbury’s (£10bn), followed by Vodafone (£8.6bn) and International Airlines Group (£6.8bn).

The new lease accounting standards change the way listed companies will report leases in their quarterly and annual financial statements. Many real estate and equipment leases, previously only disclosed in the footnotes of investor filings will now be capitalised on corporate balance sheets.

IFRS 16 takes effect from 1 January 2019 and estimates from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) suggest that almost $3 trillion of assets and liabilities will transfer onto corporate balance sheets in the coming years, impacting, key financial metrics, such as return on assets and EBITDA.

According to the report, for most companies, the monetary value of the real estate portion of the lease portfolio is higher than the equipment portion. However, corporations tend to have a far greater number of equipment assets than real estate assets, complicating administration and accounting efforts.

Heading the list, energy companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP typically lease a diverse range of assets, including offshore drilling rigs, tankers, terminals, pipelines, storage tanks, railway freight carriages, petrol, and convenience stores.

Telecommunications firms such as Vodafone Group and BT Group (6th/£6.6bn) lease a mix of real estate and equipment assets including mobile phone towers, data centre properties, fibre optic circuits, and networking equipment.

Retailers such as Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer (9th/£4.2bn), and Tesco (13th/£2.6bn) typically lease a large footprint of real estate for their stores and distribution centres as well as IT assets such as servers, storage, and data centre equipment to support their e-commerce operations.

Financial institutions such as HSBC (12th/£3bn), Barclays (15th/£2.5bn), and The Royal Bank of Scotland (17th/£2.3bn) typically lease a large footprint of real estate, including bank branches and office buildings, as well as technology assets such as servers, storage, and data centre equipment to support online banking and electronic trading operations.

Airline companies such as International Airlines Group, TUI Group (ranked 16th with £2.3bn of liabilities), and Wizz Air (19th/£2.2bn) typically lease significant space at airports for check-in, baggage checking, and departure gates. Additionally, these groups lease a significant percentage of the aircraft and components used to fly cargo and passengers to and from destinations.

Michael Keeler, CEO of LeaseAccelerator, said: ‘With the first interim statements to be reported under IFRS 16 now imminent, CFOs need to start developing strategies for communicating these balance sheet changes to their investor communities.

‘The publication of this report will help provide companies and CFOs with a perspective on the relative size and significance of their operating lease obligations compared to their industry peers.’

Report ranking the leasing obligations of the FTSE 350

Report by Pat Sweet

[waldron] 21/2/2019 17:33

FTSE 100
7,167.39 -0.85%
Dow Jones
25,895.16 -0.23%
CAC 40
5,196.11 +0.00%

Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 66.91 -0.25%
Gasoline NYMEX 1.76 -0.01%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.70 +1.09%

WTI (WTI)
- 21/02 18:10:44
56.89 USD -0.52%


Eni
15.27 +0.12%

Total
49.735 +0.21%

Engie
14.13 +0.14%

Orange
13.645 +0.00%


BP
538.9 -0.09%


Shell A
2,410 -0.74%


Shell B
2,419 -0.88%

[sogoesit] 21/2/2019 16:04

US Oil production hits 12mmbopd - EIA

[waldron] 21/2/2019 12:18

Eni SpA (ENI.MI) said Friday that earnings fell sharply in the fourth quarter, while sales and adjusted earnings rose.

The Italian oil major said quarterly net profit fell 76% to 499 million euros from EUR2.05 billion a year earlier. Eni attributed the disparity to gains of EUR2.7 billion booked in the year-earlier period on the sale of stakes in projects in Egypt and Mozambique.

Adjusted operating profit for the quarter, which strips out the effects of these one-off gains, rose to EUR2.99 billion from EUR2.00 billion, outstripping a company-compiled consensus of EUR2.88 billion. Sales rose to EUR20.04 billion from 17.55 billion, the company said.

Eni said oil-and-gas production edged down to 1.87 million barrels of oil equivalent a day from 1.89 million barrels a day, in 2017.

The company proposed raising the dividend to EUR0.83 a share--of which EUR0.42 has already been paid as an interim dividend--from EUR0.80 a year earlier.



Write to Nathan Allen at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 15, 2019 02:23 ET (07:23 GMT)

[adrian j boris] 21/2/2019 11:05

Shell Transfers to Repsol 20% of Oil and Gas Exploration Rights in Han Kubrat Offshore Bulgaria
Business | February 21, 2019, Thursday // 12:35| Views: | Comments: 0

Share
Send to Kindle

Bulgaria: Shell Transfers to Repsol 20% of Oil and Gas Exploration Rights in Han Kubrat Offshore Bulgaria

The Council of Ministers has authorized Shell International Exploitation and Development Italy S.A. to transfer 20% of oil and gas exploration rights to Block 1-14 Kubrat to Repsol Bulgaria Khan Kubrat SA. The possibility of transferring the rights and obligations under granted permit for prospecting and exploration is regulated in the Underground Natural Resources Act.

In December 2018, the Council of Ministers granted permission to transfer 30% of the rights and obligations under the granted permission from Shell International Exploitation and Development Italy S.A.A. of Woodside Energy (Bulgaria) Limited. With today's decision, the Council of Ministers authorized the Minister of Energy to conclude an additional agreement to the Oil and Gas exploration contract with the three companies. The costs of transferring the rights and obligations are at the expense of Shell International Exploitation and Development Italy S.A.

In October 2015, the Council of Ministers granted permission to Shell Exploration and Production (LIX BV) to conduct exploration of oil and natural gas in Block 1-14 Silistar, located on the Continental Shelf of Bulgaria in the Black Sea. The search and research agreement was signed on 23.02.2016.

In April 2017, the Council of Ministers agreed that the rights and obligations under the granted permission would be transferred entirely from Shell Exploitation and Precession (LIX) BV " of Shell International Exploitation and Development Italy S.A. Then the name of the survey area - Block 1-14 Khan Kubrat was changed.