Protests and Sabotage Push Shell Away from Drilling Projects

by Emily Gosden / The Telegraph

Outgoing Shell chief executive Peter Voser called the fall in second quarter profits ‘disappointing’. Photo: GETTY

Royal Dutch Shell profits dropped 60pc to $2.4bn (£1.6bn) in the second quarter after drilling of its shale oil assets in North America showed they were worth $2.1bn less than it had thought. Excluding the impact of the big one-off writedown, profits still fell 20pc to $4.6bn, a result chief executive Peter Voser admitted was “clearly disappointing” and blamed in part on the deteriorating security situation in Nigeria.

Shell also continued to play down the prospects for shale gas in the UK and said recent controversy over fracking showed it was right not to get involved.

The Anglo-Dutch giant, which saw shares fall more than 4pc, said it would begin a major divestment programme, exceeding the $21bn it has sold in the last three years.

It plans to sell small US shale oil fields that it is not interested in developing, and onshore Nigerian oil assets where it is struggling to stem sabotage and theft.

77 ALEC Bills in 2013 Advance a Big Oil, Big Ag Agenda

by Brendan Fischer / PR Watch

At least 77 bills to oppose renewable energy standards, support fracking and the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, and otherwise undermine environmental laws were introduced in 34 states in 2013, according to a new analysis from the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org. In addition, nine states have been inspired by ALEC’s “Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act” to crack down on videographers documenting abuses on factory farms. 

ALEC, Fueled by Fossil Fuel Industry, Pursues Retrograde Energy Agenda

For decades, ALEC has been a favored conduit for some of the worlds largest polluters, like Koch Industries, BP, Shell, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil, and for decades has promoted less environmental regulation and more drilling and fracking. 

ALEC bills in recent years have pulled states out of regional climate initiatives, opposed carbon dioxide emission standards, created hurdles for state agencies attempting to regulate pollution, and tried to stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The legislation introduced in 2013 carries on this legacy. ALEC bills favor the fossil fuel barons and promote a retrograde energy agenda that pollutes our air and water and is slowly cooking the planet to what may soon be devastating temperatures.

New Zealand Makes Deal with Shell: Bans Protests Near Oil Rigs

by APNZ / The New Zealand Herald

Newly released documents show Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce made a “backroom deal” with oil company Shell over the ban on protesting in the exclusive economic zone, the Labour Party says.

The law change last month banned protesters from demonstrating within 500 metres of ships or oil platforms within New Zealand’s 500km exclusive economic zone.

Penalties include fines of up to $100,000 and a year in prison.

Oxford University Student Union Votes to Oppose Shell Investment

By Adam Vaughan, The Guardian

Oxford University’s Shell Geoscience Laboratory is funded with £5.9m from the oil company. 

Students and alumni of Oxford University will protest this afternoon at the opening of a new lab in its Earth sciences department that is funded with £5.9m from oil company Shell.

Campaigners say the partnership – which will see the climate and energy secretary, Ed Davey, attend the Shell Geoscience Laboratory’s official opening on Thursday – undermines the university’s credibility and conflicts with its work on climate change. Oxford alumni including environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt and solar entrepreneur Jeremy Leggett yesterday called Shell “a particularly inappropriate choice of funder” in a letter published in the Guardian.

Showdown at Shell! Extreme Energy Development vs Indigenous Peoples

Help a delegation of First Nations and Alaska Natives to attend Shell AGM in the Hague, Netherlands to stop extreme energy development on their homelands

Help send an Indigenous delegation to the Shell AGM

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has joined forces with the UK Tar Sands Network and the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign to attend the Shell Annual General Shareholder Meeting in the Hague, Netherlands this May to send a message to Shell executives and shareholders that enough is enough.

Shell’s Extreme Energy projects are the “bottom of the barrel” kind of oil and gas projects. Many of the last pristine areas on earth are within Indigenous lands. Extreme energy includes fracking, tar sands, and deep sea off-shore drilling. Indigenous Peoples bear the brunt of extreme energy development through loss of land, clean water, and clean air. Many still live sustainably off the land.

Third Major Oil Spill in a Week: Shell Pipeline Breaks in Texas

Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from a pipeline in Texas, the third accident of its kind in only a week.

Shell Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.

By Monday, Shell spokespeople said inspectors found “no evidence” of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell Consortium Gets Nod for 25-year LNG Export Licence

Cross-posted From The Canadian Press, February 25, 2013
The federal government has approved a 25-year export license for shipping liquefied natural gas from a West Coast terminal proposed by a consortium headed by Shell.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says the approval for LNG Canada Development Inc. is a milestone in British Columbia’s plans for a trillion-dollar LNG sector.

Flanked by Ellis Ross, the chief of the Haisla Nation on B.C.’s North Coast, Oliver says global energy demand is expected to increase by 35 per cent by 2035, and Canada will be poised to take advantage.

Video: Resisting Shell’s plan to frack Sacred Headwaters in British Colombia

In a remote part of northwestern British Columbia lies the Sacred Headwaters. It’s where three important wild salmon rivers originate – the Skeena, Nass and Stikine. First Nations and local communities depend on the vitality of the Headwaters for their livelihoods. And yet, this is a paradise in peril. Shell plans to frack for coalbed methane gas in the region. ForestEthics Advocacy made this digital short to highlight the community members who call this stunning corner of the world their home.

To find out more about this effort, check out ForestEthics’ solidarity campaign.

Energy Industry Crackdown, Global Protest Frackdown

Yesterday, while Shell announced suing Greenpeace International in an attempt to have the organization banned from protest within 500 meters of any Shell property in the Netherlands,  New York activist Susan Walker was sentenced to 15 days in jail after she refused to pay a fine for blocking the entrance to Inergy gas facility in New York earlier this month. 

But judges and jails aren’t enough to stop a world-wide movement against the energy empire, and today marks the “Global Frackdown” with more than 100 protests against gas fracking scheduled to take place around the world. So get out there in the streets and raise some hell…

Climate Justice Collective builds ice blockade at Shell HQ in London

Looked like a cold and slippery scene in front of Shell yesterday… Click the picture for The Guardian’s video from the action.

Environmental protesters opposed to Shell’s Arctic oil drilling plans stacked a wall of ice blocks in front of an entrance to the company’s London headquarters yesterday. Some 15 activists from the group Climate Justice Collective participated in the action against Shell, saying its drilling efforts off the coast of Alaska are both taking advantage of and contributing to the problem of receding sea ice.

Meanwhile, Democracy Now reported that more naturally occurring sea ice moving into the vicinity of Shell’s Arctic drill rig forced the company to halt its efforts Monday, just one day after it began drilling an exploratory well.