Market Currents

• Monday, December 21, 2009

• 08:45 AM Sources say Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) plans to auction off $5B worth of oilfields in Nigeria as the country prepares to impose harsher terms on foreign operators. Shell's decision to reduce its reliance on Nigeria - once its primary growth engine - signals a huge shift. Two state-owned Chinese firms - Sinopec (SNP) and CNOOC (CEO) - are seen as frontrunners. Comment!

• Friday, December 11, 2009

• 08:23 AM Iraq hands Shell (RDS.A) and Malaysia's Petronas winning bids to develop one of the world's largest remaining untapped oilfields. The deals have the potential to raise Iraqi oil output to levels rivaling that of top oil producers Saudi Arabia and Russia - and could alter the geopolitical power balance in the Middle East. 1 Comment

• Thursday, October 29, 2009

• 04:23 AM Shell (RDS.A): Adjusted net income of $2.62B vs. consensus of $2.5B. Revenue of $75B, down from $131.6B a year ago. "Q3 results were affected by the weak global economy. Upstream and downstream profitability has been sharply reduced compared to year-ago levels. We see some indications that energy demand and pricing are improving, but the outlook remains very uncertain, and we are not expecting a quick recovery." Shares -3.5% in London. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: ABX, AEP, AET, AGN, AN, APA, AVP, AYE, AZN, BC, BCRX, BKC, BPO, CL, CLI, CME, CMS, COCO, COT, DLR, EK, EXPE, FNFG, GTI, K, KBR, MCO, MOT, MPS, MWW, MYL, NBL, NEM, NRG, ODP, OMX, PCG, PDE, PG, PPL, PTEN, RDS.A, S, SII, TSM, VTR, WMB, XEL, XOM Comment!

• Wednesday, October 21, 2009

• 11:46 AM Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the government will take a close look at a favorable deal that his predecessor granted Shell (RDS.A) just days before Bush left office. Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton now works at Shell. 7 Comments

• Friday, October 9, 2009

• 08:26 AM British fund manager Neil Woodford sold his stakes in BP (BP) and Shell (RDS.A); the positions totaled 8% of his £18B funds. It's "getting increasingly expensive to find new oil and gas reserves, and when you look at the cash-flow dynamics, you see that at the sort of oil prices we are now seeing, both Shell and BP fail to generate enough cash to cover both their capital expenditure and their dividends," he said. Comment!

• Thursday, October 8, 2009

• 15:46 PM Shell (RDS.A) plans to build the first floating liquefied-natural-gas facility off the coast of Australia, in a debut for the technology that enables direct processing of offshore reserves without first piping them to land. The vessel - much bigger than an aircraft carrier - could unlock dozens of "stranded" gas fields. Comment!

• Wednesday, October 7, 2009

• 09:45 AM Shell (RDS.A) will boost its natural-gas production in North America, saying it believes prices will recover. Shell's natgas production fell 9.5% to 1.05 bcf in 2008; co. says output "could be much more than what we're producing now," without specifying. Comment!

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009

• 15:48 PM Analysts are skeptical of reports CNOOC (CEO) is bidding for a 6B-barrel, $30B stake in Nigeria's oil fields. A direct sale by the government would be highly disruptive to the block, of which Western majors (RDS.A, CVX, XOM, COP, TOT, ENI) already own 50%. And if CNOOC is planning to turn directly to its rivals, what might they be willing to sell? Comment!

• Monday, September 14, 2009

• 08:12 AM Chevron (CVX), Exxon (XOM) and Shell (RDS.A) finally approve development of the Gorgon LNG project, targeted to earn A$300B ($258B) in gas sales to China, India and Japan in its first 20 years. Phase one will cost A$43B with the first LNG exports expected in 2014. Comment!

• Friday, September 11, 2009

• 16:21 PM The $42B Gorgon natural gas megaproject in Australia may get under way in days after spending years on the books of Chevron (CVX) and partners Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Shell (RDS.A). The oil majors have signed up $100B in potential business from Japan, China and India. 1 Comment

• Thursday, September 10, 2009

• 10:32 AM HSBC drops BP (BP -0.5%) to Neutral and Shell (RDS.A -0.3%) to Underweight, saying oil majors face weak oil prices, cheap natural gas, and narrowing margins. "As we now move out of the U.S. gasoline season, we see downward pressure on crude prices over the next two to three months," firm says. Comment!

• Wednesday, August 26, 2009

• 07:24 AM Chevron (CVX) wins Australian approval for a planned A$50B ($42B) liquefied natural gas project. The approval was one of the last steps needed to clear the way for the JV between Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) and Exxon Mobil (XOM). Comment!

• Thursday, July 30, 2009

• 06:53 AM Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A): Q2 EPS of $0.62 vs. consensus of $0.93 (may not be comparable). Revenue of $63.9B (-51%) vs. $60.5B. Shares -0.65% premarket. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open: ABC, ABX, ADP, ALU, AOC, APA, ARTG, AVP, AVY, AZN, BC, BCRX, BDX, BEN, CI, CINF, CL, CLI, CMI, CMS, CNX, COL, COV, CVC, DLR, DOW, EK, ENDP, EXPE, FAF, GT, GTI, HP, INCY, IP, IRM, K, KBR, KIM, KSU, LVLT, MA, MOT, MYL, NBL, NRG, NWL, NYX, OCR, OMX, OSK, PCZ, PH, PTEN, RDS.A, RGC, RYN, SBH, SNE, SPR, TEN, TRV, TSM, TYC, VTR, WMI, WYNN, XEL, XOM Comment!

• Thursday, July 9, 2009

• 09:47 AM Another month of falling sales for retailers (table), which was expected amid cool weather and comparisons with last June when shoppers came armed with stimulus checks. It was the first month without Wal-Mart (WMT) after the mega-discounter dropped out of the race, even as Shell (RDS.A) leapfrogged it as the world's largest company. Consumer Discretionary SPDR ETF (XLY) +0.1%. Comment!