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Friday, May 17, 5:31 PM Venezuela reportedly will allow its state-owned energy company to form joint ventures with PetroChina (PTR) and Chevron (CVX) to manage $6B in loans designed to reverse declining oil output. Agreements have been reached on terms of a $2B credit from CVX for the Petroboscan venture and a $4B loan from China for Sinovensa. Similar deals may be in the works with Shell (RDS.A) and Repsol. 3 Comments [Energy, Global & FX]
Friday, May 17, 11:58 AM Major oil producers launch a joint program to beef up their Arctic oil spill response plan in a bid to convince the Arctic Council they are ready for large-scale development in the region. There are plenty of doubters, of course, and incidents such as BP 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill and Shell's recent problems north of Alaska with two drill ships don't help. 5 Comments [Energy]
Friday, May 17, 9:56 AM The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office says it is "urgently reviewing" whether it has the authority to investigate allegations of price fixing in the oil market, after unannounced inspections earlier this week by EU antitrust authorities of BP, Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) and Statoil (STO). The SFO believes it could be the appropriate body to investigate such allegations. 5 Comments [Energy, Global & FX]
Thursday, May 16, 3:58 PM Royal Dutch Shell's (RDS.A, RDS.B) Nigerian unit SPDC declares force majeure on gas supplies to Nigeria LNG following a reported gas leak on one of its pipelines. SPDC only lifted a previous force majeure on gas to Nigeria LNG in mid-April after a leak on a major trunkline caused by saboteurs caused a two-month disruption. Comment! [Energy, Global & FX]
Thursday, May 16, 10:58 AM Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) says it will start producing crude at Iraq’s Majnoon oil field as early as next month and plans to boost energy investments in Saudi Arabia. Output from Majnoon, one of Iraq’s largest oil fields, will start “around mid-year” and increase to 175K bbl/day by year-end; in Saudi Arabia, Shell is holding talks with officials on a project to develop natural gas from the Kidan field. Comment! [Energy, Global & FX]
Wednesday, May 15, 5:36 PM Fitch Ratings warns of massive fines along the lines of UBS' $1.5B Libor settlement if an EC probe into oil price manipulation finds any wrongdoing. While oil company balance sheets likely would absorb any fines thanks to big cash reserves, an offender "could face longer-term risks from damage to reputation," Fitch says, noting BP's exclusion from some business in the Gulf of Mexico after the Macondo spill. 4 Comments [Energy, Global & FX]
Wednesday, May 15, 10:23 AM Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) says it reaches agreement with Total (TOT) for the sale of its retail and commercial fuels activities in Egypt for an undisclosed sum. Shell is holding on to its lubricants business in the country, and emphasizes that its upstream business is not impacted. Comment! [Energy, Global & FX]
Tuesday, May 14, 12:34 PM Add BP and Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) to those whose offices are raided by European authorities as part of a probe into suspected anti-competitive agreements related to submission of prices to Platts (MHP), the world's leading oil pricing agency. Even small distortions of assessed prices may have a huge impact on prices of crude oil, refined products and biofuels, the European Commission says. (earlier) 4 Comments [Energy, Global & FX]
Friday, May 10, 8:56 AM Eni (E) says it now expects oil output from the massive Kashagan field in Kazakhstan to begin by October. The Kashagan project, which includes large oil companies such as Exxon (XOM), Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) and Total (TOT), is years behind initial schedule and has had cost overruns worth billions of dollars. 1 Comment [Energy, Global & FX]
Wednesday, May 8, 11:38 AM The 5% yield barrier on junk bonds (HYG, JNK) is broken for the first time ever, the Barclays U.S. High Yield Index sliding to 4.97% (prior to Jan., the yield had never fallen below 6%). Spreads to Treasurys remain at a not-unreasonable 406 bps, far wider than the record-tight 223 points reached just as the gates of financial heck were about to open in 2007. In the meantime, the equity of highly non-wobbly companies like RDS.A, VOD, and GSK yields in the area of 5%. "We don't want to question the market," writes the FT's David Keohane, "but: what the (heck)?" 7 Comments
Wednesday, May 8, 10:03 AM Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A +1.7%) decides to move forward with development of its Stones project in the Gulf of Mexico, which it says will host the deepest production facility in the world. Shell aims to exploit the field’s estimated 250M boe in recoverable resources using an initial two subsea production wells tied back to an FPSO vessel, with six more wells to be added later. Comment! [Energy, On the Move]
Thursday, May 2, 6:23 PM Shell (RDS.A) may have taken the lead - at least in the rumor mill - as the bidder most likely to succeed in winning a share of InterOil’s (IOC) LNG project in Papua New Guinea, Platts reports. Shell’s perceived advantage over Exxon (XOM) and Total (TOT) centers on its existing relationship with the PNG government, strengthened by its ownership of emerging floating LNG technology. 11 Comments [Energy]
Thursday, May 2, 5:17 PM Shell (RDS.A) "is in much better shape than it was when he started," seems to be the general reaction to Peter Voser's retirement news. But not everyone is enamored with Voser's work, as Shell plans a $120B-$130B capex program for 2012-15, including $33B this year. Perhaps the most interesting part of the news is that Shell will consider external replacement candidates. 4 Comments [Energy]
Thursday, May 2, 2:58 PM Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B) declares $0.90/share quarterly dividend, 4.6% increase from prior dividend of $0.86. Forward yield 5.11%. For shareholders of record May 17. Payable June 27. Ex-div date May 15. (PR) Comment! [Dividends]
Thursday, May 2, 7:40 AM More on Shell's (RDS.A, RDS.B) Q1 results: Attention is on the retirement of CEO Peter Voser, but adjusted net profit rose 3% Y/Y to $7.52B, well above analyst consensus of ~$6.5B. Revenues were $112.8B vs. $119.9B a year ago. Total oil and gas production was 3.559M boe/day, flat Y/Y and in-line with expectations. Shares +1.8% premarket. (PR) Comment! [Energy, Earnings, On the Move]
Thursday, May 2, 2:09 AM Peter Voser, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A), will retire in 2014, the WSJ reports. Comment! [Energy, Breaking News]

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Royal Dutch Shell plc