Shell Share Discussion Threads

[waldron] 27/5/2003 06:13

LONDON (AFX) - Royal Dutch/Shell Group has become embroiled in a legal case
after more than 150 boxes of sensitive documents from one of its former
subsidiaries were discovered buried in the New Mexico desert, The Times reported
without naming its sources.
The documents are being examined by experts, and if they are found to have
been buried to conceal important information from shareholders, the public or
potential buyers of the business, Shell could face a criminal investigation.
The papers were found last Friday near Hobbs, 225 miles southeast of Las
Vegas, after a former employee of the Texas-New Mexico Pipeline Company, a
former Shell subsidiary, turned 'whistleblower' when questioned by lawyers
investigating an oil spill in the area, according to the report.
Shell sold the business to Enron in 1999 but the company is now owned by the
Houston-based EOTT Energy.
Residents from Midland, Texas, are suing EOTT for environmental damage
caused by a massive oil spill allegedly from the pipeline. The residents claim
that well water was contaminated by oil from the pipeline in the early 1990s.
EOTT is counter-suing Shell, claiming that it was not responsible for the
pipeline at the time and that it had never been made aware of any potential
environmental problems in the area.
The whistleblower told EOTT's lawyers that he was present when the 157 boxes
of documents were buried in the desert in the spring of 1999 - just before the
business was sold to Enron, according to the report.
An unnamed source close to Shell was cited as saying the documents were
genuine.
And a spokesman said: "These documents could pertain to litigation between
EOTT and Shell. The litigation could have an effect on us. We have nothing
further to say on the matter."
[e-mail]
acb/slm/

[bigspenner] 23/5/2003 10:34

I am gaining convidence in shell based on their future plans and so am revising my target to 5.00 per share, I said several time that they were cheap under 4.00 and I have been proved right so far so i am confident I am still on track.

[grlz] 06/5/2003 14:18

well at least the divi's safe....

[enochthenocker] 03/5/2003 11:09

Lex: Royal Dutch/Shell
Published: May 2 2003 20:49 | Last Updated: May 2 2003 20:49


With a fair wind from high crude prices and strong refining margins, the oil majors have obliged with excellent first-quarter results. Royal Dutch/Shell and ChevronTexaco duly beat consensus forecasts on Friday, following the lead of BP and ExxonMobil earlier this week. In Shell's case, strong earnings were accompanied by strong cash generation, with $6.7bn of cash flow from operations in the quarter. But shareholders are starting to wonder how much of this cash will be passed on to them.

Shell's dividend is certainly an attraction, yielding more than a 10-year government bond and backed by an AAA credit rating. But the company has suspended its share buyback programme and, despite $4bn of cash on its balance sheet, has no immediate intention of resuming it. Shell cites the market's "variability" and says buybacks are unlikely in the first half of this year. Merrill Lynch estimates that the group will generate $5.5bn in cash flow this year, after paying dividends, which should leave plenty of scope for a large-scale repurchase programme.

This leaves the suspicion that Shell may be keeping its powder dry for more acquisitions - especially since all of the 6 per cent increase in hydrocarbon production volumes in the first quarter came from this source. Given continuing misgivings over the price it paid for recent purchases such as Enterprise, this is not a comforting thought.

Certainly isnt!

[maywillow] 02/5/2003 23:19

updating to add outlook on margins, chemicals, ROACE figures)
LONDON (AFX) - Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell Group has reported a
96 pct rise in first quarter income reflecting a surge in crude oil prices.
Net income, adjusted to reflect the current cost of supply almost doubled to
3.914 bln usd for the three months to March 31, slightly above stock market
forecasts.
According to an AFX News survey of six brokers' forecasts this figure was
seen ranging from 3.25-3.89 bln usd.
The company posted first quarter net income of 5.331 bln usd, up from 2.262
bln for the same three months a year earlier.
Brent crude oil prices averaged 31.50 usd a barrel in the first quarter
compared with 21.15 usd a barrel in 2002.
On Tuesday, BP issued Q1 results at the top end of forecasts as average
crude oil prices reached a 12-year high in the quarter. Oil prices rose sharply
on the back of supply concerns linked to war in Iraq, strikes in Venezuala and
civil unrest in Nigeria.
Royal Dutch/Shell gave an uncertain view of margins for the rest of 2003,
saying they will depend on the pace of global economic recovery and OPEC output
policy in response to the return of Iraqi exports to the oil markets.
It also said the high refining margins in the first quarter were not seen as
sustainable.
It added that the outlook for chemicals was "mixed" due to uncertainty and
volatility in feedstock costs and the economy.
The company, said its return on average capital employed (ROACE) rose to
18.3 pct for the three months to March 31, up from 15.2 pct in the first quarter
of 2002.

[maywillow] 02/5/2003 16:31

So it ends the day up at 384.50p

[eddie max] 02/5/2003 09:10

Down it goes !!!!!!!

[maywillow] 02/5/2003 07:52

LONDON (AFX) - Shares in Shell Transport & Trading were well-bid in active
morning trade on hopes of bumper first quarter results -- which are due to be
unveiled at 10.00 am this morning.
Shell's first quarter net income, adjusted to reflect the current cost of
supply, is seen rising to 3.25-3.89 bln usd from 1.993 bln usd in the previous
year.
But the real key for Shell investors will be the group's outlook for crude
oil prices and downstream margins, as well as its view of reserves. Back in only
February, when Shell released full year results, followers were extremely
disappointed by the relatively weak replacement rate of reserves at 50 pct for
2002, excluding acquisitions.
Shell shares gained 6-1/2 pence to 378-3/4.

nm/vjt/

[maywillow] 01/5/2003 06:59

LONDON (AFX) - Royal Dutch/Shell Group is losing more than 2 mln usd per day
as Nigerian criminal gangs siphon crude oil from the company's pipeline,
according to a report in the Times.
Pilfering of crude oil has reached unprecedented levels in the strife-torn
African state, the report states citing a spokeswoman for the Anglo-Dutch
company
"They are tapping into the pipelines all over the delta," she was cited as
saying. "It's a serious on-going problem."
[e-mail]
acb/shw

[maywillow] 30/4/2003 06:55

PARIS (AFX) - Royal Dutch/Shell Group plans to divest more than 600 of its
950 French service stations by end-2005, Les Echos quoted the company's local
network director Laurent Sancier as saying.
"Our aim is have no more than 345 service stations by the end of 2005,"
Sancier said.
The locations to be divested are no longer profitable, due mainly to
competition from supermarkets selling fuel at cost price, he said.
Some of the sites could be sold to other oil companies such as Agip SpA
while others could be closed, the newspaper added. No financial details were
reported.
[e-mail]

[maywillow] 29/4/2003 14:14

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia (AFX) - The Sakhalin Energy consortium will hand
out contracts totalling nearly 9 bln usd for oil infrastructure projects on
Sakhalin island in Russia's far east by the end of June, the group announced.
Sakhalin Energy, controlled by Shell Petroleum, will by 2007 build two new
oil rigs off the northeast coast of the island, gas and oil pipelines crossing
it from north to south, an oil treatment centre, a liquefied natural gas (LNG)
plant and an oil export terminal in the south.
The contracts also include improvements to the existing infrastructure and
represent more than double the annual average direct foreign investments in the
whole of Russia over the past three years.
"We are ready to take a decision," Sakhalin Energy Investment Co Ltd
technical director Engel van Spronsen told a group of journalists visiting from
Tokyo.
The three shareholders in the group -- Shell Petroleum with 55 pct and
Japanese trading companies Mitsui (25 pct) and Mitsubishi (20 pct) -- will make
their choice of contractors by the end of June, his colleagues said. The
agreements may be announced in Moscow.
The projects come under phase two of an oil and gas project called Sakhalin
2 which will lead to exports of LNG to Japan and South Korea in 2007.
Sakhalin Energy said it was one of the biggest oil and gas joint projects
ever undertaken.
The LNG plant at Prigorodnoye on the coast in the south of the island will
produce 9.6 mln tonnes of liquefied gas annually, half of which will be exported
by sea to Japan, the company said.
Sakhalin 2 will provide 15 pct of the gas arriving in Tokyo in 2007, an
official said.
The consortium foresees "significant Japanese participation" in the LNG
plant.
"We have a preference for one company and it is being evaluated. The
announcement will be made this quarter," said the group's external affairs
director Julian Barnes.
Sakhalin Energy has since 1999 been producing oil from the Molikpaq rig off
the northeast coast of the island and is still Russia's only offshore petroleum
production site.
[e-mail]
uh/bm/pav/

[waldron] 28/4/2003 18:23

LONDON (AFX) - Royal Dutch/Shell Group said its Shell Mexico unit's proposed
liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal in Baja California has been
granted an environmental permit by the Mexican authority SEMARNAT.
The permit was granted on April 8.
The new terminal, located in Costa Azul, 23 km north of the city of Ensenada
on the west coast of Mexico, will have a capacity of 7.5 mln tonnes per annum
and is expected to begin operations in 2007.
jdd/sk

[maywillow] 25/4/2003 10:42

LONDON (AFX) - The US government is to announce next week a new team of
executives to run the Iraqi oil sector along the lines of an American
corporation, The Wall Street Journal Europe reported without giving its sources.
"The US government is setting up Iraq's oil industry to run much like an
American corporation, with a chief executive and management team vetted by US
officials who would answer to a multinational board of advisers," the newspaper
said.
The advisory board would be chaired by Philip J Carroll, a former chief
executive of Royal Dutch/Shell unit Shell Oil Co, it said.
Carroll would work closely with an Iraqi vice-chairman, expected to be Fadil
Othman, who worked as an Iraqi oil executive before Saddam Hussein came to
power.
The interim management team would be composed of current and former Iraqi
oil sector officials, the newspaper said.
Newly appointed executives would answer to the advisory board which in turn
would answer to Jay Garner, the US civil administrator for Iraq.
The chief executive, who would have basically the same role as former oil
ministers and would also have a seat on the advisory board, would represent Iraq
at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Iraqi national oil company is expected to pump 3 mln barrels a day --
about the same as before the war to topple Saddam Hussein -- rivaling the size
of Mexico's Pemex, and exceeding that of Exxon Mobil Corp, which pumps about 2.5
mln barrels daily.
If Iraq eventually produces the 6 mln barrels a day that experts believe is
possible, it would rank second to Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco state oil company.
lt/lmf/jlw/jsa

[maywillow] 25/4/2003 08:29

Remuneration Packages agreed

[maywillow] 24/4/2003 16:33

LONDON (AFX) - Brent crude oil fell in midafternoon trade, after OPEC
announced its surprise intention to raise output quotas from June, analysts
said.
At 4.45 pm, benchmark Brent crude futures for June settlement were down 36
cents on the day at 23.90 usd a barrel, compared to 24.50 usd in midday trade.
In New York, reference light sweet crude contracts for June delivery fell 56
cents to 26.09 usd a barrel.
OPEC ministers decided to cut oil production by 2 mln barrels per day and
set a new production quota of 25.4 mln bpd from June, Iran's oil minister Namdar
Zanghaneh said after a meeting in Vienna today.
The move to cut production confirmed analysts' expectations, however the
decision to raise quotas from June came as a surprise, analysts said.
Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said: "The market has taken the OPEC
decision as a pretty bearish announcement."
"People expected overproduction to be cut, and the 24.5 mln barrels a day
quota to be enforced.
"But the decision to raise the quota in June has come as a surprise. So it's
something of a confusing announcement and a decision that the market will have
to digest in the coming days," he said.
[e-mail]
fw/pb

[maywillow] 21/4/2003 09:32

BEIJING (AFX-ASIA) - Oil and petrochemical multinationals Royal Dutch/Shell
Group, Exxon Mobil Corp and BASF AG said their multi-billion-dollar projects in
China are running almost normally despite significant travel restrictions
imposed in the wake of the spread of the SARS virus in China.
All three groups have several joint venture projects that are either
operational, under construction or under discussion with Chinese oil giants such
as PetroChina Ltd, China National Offshore Oil Corp and China Petroleum and
Chemical Corp (Sinopec).
"All of our projects in China are operating normally, there have been no
disruptions in our business activities," Li Lusha, a public affairs official
with Shell in Beijing said.
Du Yanhua, a marketing and communications official with Exxon Mobil in
Beijing said none of the group's China projects, including plans for more retail
joint ventures, have been affected by the outbreak of the disease which has now
killed 86 people in China and infected 1,959, according to the latest World
Health Organisation figures.
Shell and Exxon Mobil are the two main foreign partners in PetroChina Ltd's
planned 5.6 bln usd west-east pipeline which will transport natural gas 3,900 km
across China.
They are in final talks with PetroChina over commercial contracts for the
project, which mainland media have said will be signed in June.
Li said talks are going on as normal, but would not comment on when the deal
will be signed.
Shell has cancelled non-essential trips to Beijing, southern China, Hong
Kong and other destinations the World Health Organization has issued travel
warnings about.
But Li said, "I do not expect SARS will have any major negative impact on
our planned joint venture projects as we can still keep in touch with our
Chinese partners either through the internet or through teleconferencing and
videoconferencing."
Irene Gu, an official with German chemical giant BASF AG in Shanghai said
there have been no disruptions to its joint venture projects in China, including
the 2.9 bln usd petrochemical project with Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Co Ltd
which is currently under construction in Nanjing.
[e-mail]
sam/nma/rc

[maywillow] 21/4/2003 09:26

MOSCOW (AFX) - A senior US defense adviser suggested in an interview
published today in Moscow that Russia was likely to lose rights to Iraqi oil
contracts signed under the Saddam Hussein regime.
"There is a high probability that all previous deals with Russia will be
declared meaningless," Richard Perle, counselor to Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, said in an interview with the Kommersant business daily.
"Of course this is something for the new Iraqi government to decide," Perle
was quoted as saying.
"But I would be surprised if Russia wins the support of the new Iraqi
leadership -- the same support that it received from (Saddam) Hussein," he said.
Russia has vowed to defend its oil interests in Iraq, through international
courts if necessary.
Its private oil company OAO LUKoil holds a 68.5 pct share in a consortium to
develop the West Qurna-2 field with the Iraqi energy ministry and two other
Russian companies under an agreement signed in 1997.
LUKoil was to invest some 4 bln usd in the site's development by 2020 under
the deal. But the company was unable to exploit the site due to existing UN oil
embargoes on Baghdad.
Washington officials have said that Iraqi oil must be used to benefit "the
Iraqi people" but have so far failed to specify the future of Iraqi oil fields
which are now guarded by US troops.
zak/bb/jfs/shw

[maywillow] 21/4/2003 08:39

RIYADH (AFX) - ExxonMobil Corp denied Sunday that it had pulled out of the
multi-billion-dollar Saudi gas initiative, a spokesperson said.
"We continue to have discussions with the Saudi government on the natural
gas initiative," the spokesman told Agence France-Presse in a brief statement.
ExxonMobil chairman and chief executive officer Lee Raymond was quoted by
Forbes Magazine earlier last week as saying the Saudi project was not
competitive and the company has abandoned it.
"Mr Raymond's (statement) was taken out of context," added the spokesperson.
ExxonMobil has secured the lead role in two out of three projects in the
natural gas initiative requiring investments of up to 25 bln usd.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who heads a ministerial
committee conducting talks with eight foreign firms, said in January talks on
the second project, headed by ExxonMobil, have been suspended to review its
economic situation.
But Prince Saud said Riyadh has received a "positive" response from the Core
Venture 1 (CV1) consortium, headed by ExxonMobil, and including BP Amoco and
Phillips Petroleum.
Prince Saud also in January signaled that negotiations on the 5 bln usd CV3,
headed by Royal Dutch/Shell, were about to be successfully completed.
But according to unconfirmed reports, final talks have not started due to
the US-led war on Iraq.
Shell has a 40-pct interest in CV3, with the remaining 60 pct split evenly
between TotalFinaElf and Conoco Inc.
oh/dlc/mb/shw