Clean Energy: Royal Dutch Shell Plans to Spend $1 Billion a Year on Clean Energy by 2020 - Rakteem Katakey

Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to spend as much as $1 billion a year on its New Energies division as the transition toward renewable power and electric cars accelerates.

“In some parts of the world we are beginning to see battery electric cars starting to gain consumer acceptance” while wind and solar costs are falling fast, Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden said in a speech in Istanbul on Monday. “All of this is good news for the world and must accelerate,” while still offering opportunities for producers of fossil fuels.

Shell sees opportunities in hydrogen fuel-cells, liquefied natural gas and next-generation biofuels for air travel, shipping and heavy freight -- areas of transport for which batteries aren’t adequate. The intermittent nature of wind and solar energy means power plants fired by natural gas will have a long-term role, Van Beurden said.

Van Beurden was addressing the World Petroleum Congress -- a gathering of ministers and CEOs from some of the largest oil producers -- at a time when the accelerating shift to clean energy is raising questions about their long-term business models. While Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Saudi Arabian Oil Co. boss Amin Nasser said oil and gas will be dominant for decades to come, Van Beurden highlighted the potential for some of the fastest-growing nations to leapfrog straight to a cleaner energy mix.

“When you consider the areas of the world where energy demand is still to expand, like Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, there is a huge opportunity,” Van Beurden said. “These are areas that are not, on the whole, locked in to a coal-driven system. There is the potential for them to shift more directly onto a less energy-intensive pathway to development.”

There is often too much focus on energy-transition policies in Europe and North America instead of the fast-growing developing world, Van Beurden said. “What happens in England is important, but what happens in Ethiopia is at least as important. From Denmark to the DRC, from the U.S. to Uganda, to India, to China, there is a lot of work to do.”

Read more: Shell Plans to Spend $1 Billion a Year on Clean Energy by 2020 - Bloomberg

Energy: The fossil fuel industry’s Jekyll-and-Hyde trick: Back climate reforms while quietly financing lobby to kill them - by Lee Fang

Several fossil fuel interests are here at the United Nations climate negotiations, putting on their best public face in support of reducing carbon emissions. Despite the lofty rhetoric, with some pledging to lead the way in reducing carbon pollution, the same corporate actors are also fueling efforts to block any substantive reforms.

It’s been called the “Jekyll and Hyde Approach to Climate Change.” In other words, businesses are boosting their brand by appearing to support climate reforms, while working to block policies to achieve these goals at very same time.

Republic Report talked to several corporate lobbyists and business representatives at the summit this week about their ties to pressure groups working to block action on carbon reduction in the United States.

The Edison Electric Institute, a lobbying group that represents utility companies, many of which rely on coal-based power plants, is indicative of this approach. The group claims that it is “committed to addressing the challenge of climate change” and says its member companies, including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, Xcel Energy, and others, “have undertaken a wide range of initiatives over the last 30 years to reduce, avoid or sequester GHG emissions.”

But EEI doesn’t just support both sides of the aisle, they support both sides of the moral spectrum on climate change. Brian Wolff, the executive vice president of the group, told us that his organization is a dues-paying member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that recently released a slew of anti-environmental template legislation to express support for abolishing the EPA, delaying greenhouse gas-related regulations, and undercut the federal government’s ability to enforce climate change rules, including on power plants.

“There are benefits of having stakeholder engagement,” Wolff contends. “We’re involved with many Republican, Democrat organizations,” said Wolff at an event in Lima sponsored by the European Union pavilion. Wolff told us that he sent a staffer to a recent ALEC conference to see “what is going on there and the action coming up,” but said he could not recall if his representative voted to approve ALEC’s new bills focused on climate change.

Shell Oil plays from a similar script. Shell, also a member of ALEC, was revealed recently in a Bloomberg News investigation to be a donor to a campaign in California to attack the state’s landmark climate law, AB32.

Read more: The fossil fuel industry’s Jekyll-and-Hyde trick: Back climate reforms while quietly financing lobby to kill them - Salon.com

Netherlands: Energy Supplies: Gazprom, Shell ink Arctic cooperation deal in Amsterdam

Russia’s export monopoly Gazprom and the Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell have signed a tentative deal to develop hydrocarbons in the Russian Arctic, Russian and Dutch media reported.

The deal was signed on Monday (8 April) in Amsterdam by Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller and Jorma Ollila, chairman of Royal Dutch Shell. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin were also present.

The deal is a framework agreement for cooperation in the Arctic and does not refer to any specific hydrocarbon deposits, Russian media reported.

Under existing rules, only Russian companies with more than 50% state ownership and no less than five years’ experience working in marine exploration are allowed to develop the Russian continental shelf, the website RIA Novosti said.

Only Rosneft and Gazprom meet these requirements and can involve other companies in joint ventures.

Royal Dutch Shell also signed a memorandum with Gazprom Neft, Gazprom’s oil arm, on cooperation in exploring and producing shale oil in Russia.

Read more: Gazprom, Shell ink Arctic cooperation deal | EurActiv

NETHERLANDS: Groningen hit by earthquake

Gas-Rich Groningen Province in the Netherlands was hit again by an Earthquake.

The Dutch province of Groningen, which sits on the large and lucrative Slochteren gas deposit, was hit by another earthquake as pressure grows on Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. to cut output amid forecasts of heavier temblors as the natural gas is removed.

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Oil Industry Fraud: Royal Dutch Shell and other Oil giants face South Africa price-fixing charges

Subsidiaries of global oil giants Chevron, Shell, Total and BP were referred to South Africa's top anti-trust body Wednesday over accusations they have been colluding to rig consumer prices since the 1980s, with a recommendation that the companies face massive fines.

Following "wide-ranging investigations" since 2009, the Competition Commission said it had uncovered "collusive conduct" that stretched back decades, and had referred the case to the Competition Tribunal for judgement.

The commission recommended that each company be fined 10 percent of total turnover from their South African business for the last financial year. "The investigation revealed collusive conduct through extensive exchanges of commercially sensitive information by the respondent oil companies," it said.

The information was said to include detailed monthly sales figures and collusion to influence the regulatory environment.

Read more: more: Oil giants face South Africa price-fixing charges | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Turkey: Shell assessing Black Sea oil exploration with Turkey’s TPAO

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is assessing oil exploration and production opportunities in the Black Sea with Turkish state-owned oil firm TPAO, Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said on Tuesday.

Voser was speaking at a news conference in Ankara with Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. Voser was also set to meet Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Last November, TPAO signed an accord with Shell for hydrocarbon exploration and production in the Mediterranean and southeastern Turkey.

That agreement included plans for shale gas exploration near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir and Yildiz said Shell had started exploration at the Saribugday 1 field there last week.

TPAO said previously it would take a 70 percent share of production at Diyarbakir, with Shell taking 30 percent.

Read more: Shell assessing Black Sea oil exploration with Turkey’s TPAO

Shell increases oil trade with Iran – despite sanctions

Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant, paid the state-owned Iranian oil company at least $1.5bn (£0.94bn) for crude oil this summer, increasing its business with Tehran as the international community implemented some of the toughest sanctions yet aimed at constricting the Islamic republic's economy and its lifeline oil business.

Sensitive trading documents seen by the Guardian show the UK-registered company stepped up its orders of Iranian oil at a time when other major buyers, including BP and Reliance Industries, India's largest conglomerate, halted orders amid impending trade sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran's perceived desire to acquire nuclear weapons.

Shell is not accused of acting illegally because the sanctions – enforced by the US, UN and EU – stopped short of banning the import of Iranian oil. But its trades with the state-owned oil company, a major contributor to the finances of a government which has made its nuclear programme a priority, are likely to expose Shell to growing political pressure.

For more: Shell increases oil trade with Iran – despite sanctions | World news | The Guardian

Nigeria News - Royal Dutch Shell to go on trial in New York over complicity in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others

For the complete report from Nigeria News click on this link

Royal Dutch Shell to go on trial in New York over complicity in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others

Multi-National Royal Dutch Shell is to go on trial in New York today. Shell has been accused of complicity in the execution of aKen Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian activist who led criticism of exploitation by oil companies in Ogoni, his homeland. He was executed on November 10, 1995. Two lawsuits accused Shell and Brian Anderson, the former managing director of Shell Nigeria of complicity in the decision by the military government to hang the men. The son of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr said "In a sense we already have a victory, because one of the things my father said was that Shell would one day have its day in court.

The case is being seen as a test to determine if transnational companies owned or operating in the US can be held responsible for human rights abuses committed overseas.