Shell boss looking forward to high profits

international | environment | news report

Thursday January 24, 2008 18:34

by sHell watcher

meeting with Nigerian President tomorrow

In Davos today, Shell's Chief Executive has said energy demand growth this year would be higher than last.

"I look at the energy industry, and of course we look at the total economic climate, but we don't see any reason for panic," Jeroen van der Veer told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Is that water from Carrowmore Lake?

The President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar'Adua is scheduled to meet Mr. van der Veer tomorrow to discuss the Anglo-Dutch company's operations in his country. Nigeria is seeking to change the terms under which oil and gas companies operate there.

Nigeria is renegotiating exploration deals signed in the 1990s with companies such as Shell. The contracts, up for renewal, were signed when oil traded at about $20 per barrel. Crude-oil futures were trading at just under $90 per barrel earlier this week in New York.

Yar'Adua is also expected to raise the subject of gas flaring and other environmental degradation issues. Shell undertook to end flaring by 2008, but last November the company claimed that this target could not be met. Flaring, though widespread, is illegal in Nigeria.

The Nigerian President has also insisted that international companies like Shell should enter joint ventures with the national oil company.

The system with regard to profits and partnership with the Nigerain State is in stark contrast to the situation in Ireland, where gas and oil reserves are simply handed over to the big energy companies, with no percentage for the country, and no state company to partner schemes.

The Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell and Houston-based Marathon Oil Corporation are scheduled to report annual profits figures next week. There will be a protest on Friday February 1st against Shell at the Bellanaboy refinery site and at other locations around the country.

The company's refusal to spend some of its profits to ensure the Corrib gas could be refined safely offshore has led to widespread disquiet, while the lack of any long-term benefit for the people of Ireland from their oil and gas resources has brought criticism for the FF/Green Party/PD government.

The Irish government has claimed that it will find it very difficult to meet requirements to cut carbon emissions.

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Comments (4 of 4)

Shell profits "obscene"

by 27.6

Fri Feb 01, 2008 20:04

Shell's $27,600,000,000 profit announcement was branded as obscene by the general secretary of the biggest union in Britain, who called for the company to pay more tax. No one in Ireland made any statement even remotely like this, except some very cold protesters standing outside a building site in Mayo at dawn. Minister Eamon Ryan announced some cosmetic changes to the tax regime last year, but even these don't apply to the massive Corrib field.

From The Telegraph:

- While investors fretted about whether the $27.6bn profits based on the current cost of supply masked deep problems facing the world's second largest non-government oil company, Shell received a barrage of complaints that its earnings were "obscene".

The annual profits, which were up 9pc, are a record for a European listed company and were driven by last year's soaring oil price, which averaged $90 a barrel for the last three months of 2007.

The company's chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, said the figures were "satisfactory", but the Unite union and the AA motoring organisation said the government should skim off some of the oil giant's profits.

Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley called the profits "obscene", adding: "Greedy oil companies should be asked to contribute for the common good."

rest of the article here:

Forecast profits of $26.6 billion

by gu.com

Mon Jan 28, 2008 15:01

Shell set to stir petrol storm with record profits of £13.6bn

Oil group to post highest earnings by a British firm
by David Teather
The Guardian,
Monday January 28 2008

full stroy here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jan/28/royaldut...l.oil

Shell will be at the centre of a political storm this week when it posts profits of almost $27bn (£13.6bn), the highest earnings ever made by a British company.

City analysts are forecasting that Shell, due to announce its results on Thursday, will have made around $26.6bn in 2007. The Anglo-Dutch company reported profits of $25.4bn during 2006. By comparison, Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, made £2.7bn last year.

The oil price hovered at $90 a barrel in the last three months of 2007. After spiking this month and briefly breaking through the $100 level, it is trading at about $90.66.

A Shell spokesman declined to comment ahead of the results. But the company has previously defended its profits, arguing that the lion's share is re-invested - capital expenditure in 2007 was forecast to be in the range of $22bn-$23bn.

Jeroen van der Veer, Shell's chief executive, warned last week that by 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas would no longer keep up with demand. Governments are also demanding higher cuts from new oil fields.

Shell predicts energy shortage by 2015

by Jeroen

Sat Jan 26, 2008 12:28

Shell predicts energy shortage by 2015
Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, January 26, 2008

Royal Dutch Shell PLC forecasts that global demand for oil and gas will outstrip supply within seven years, chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a letter to Shell employees.

"We are experiencing a step-change in the growth rate of energy demand due to population growth and economic development, and Shell estimates that after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand," van der Veer said in the letter dated Jan. 22.

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusines...c89bc

So resources are getting more scarce. But there's one place where you can still get them for free.

Nigerias Oil

by paul o toole

Thu Jan 24, 2008 20:14

Kofi Annan brokered a deal on behalf of Amoco and Chevron with the Nigerian government for the remaining 15% of its oil and gas resources. He sent in 15,000 UN 'peacekeepers' to sweeten the deal. Reported in The Village magazine.
This all happened without a resolution from the UNSC, and, on the day the World Cup kicked off while the press was wall to wall about idiot Wayne Rooney's metatarsal bone in his foot.
Nigeria is the sixth largest exporter of oil to the west and its people are some of the poorest people on the plannet and Geldof never mentions the rip off to us and rat out his friends, sad considering he called himself a rat at one point in his life when he stood for something before he mingled with the incrowd and became part of the problem.
He admitted on mtv with blair that Sudan and Nigeria supply 19% of the oil for the rich of the world. Forgive me, I should have addressed him properly and said 'Sir Bob'.

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Shell boss looking forward to high profits

Comments (4 of 4)