Shell Buys Into BP’s Conifer Prospect: Deepwater Rivals Team Up as Oil and Gas Growth Takes Priority

By John Donovan

Shell has taken another step deeper into the US Gulf, agreeing to acquire a 30% interest in BP’s Conifer exploration prospect, a high-pressure deepwater opportunity sitting close to BP’s developing Kaskida production hub.

Reuters reported on 2 September 2026 that Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Shell plc, will acquire the interest while BP retains 70% and remains operator. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

Shell’s own announcement confirms that Conifer lies in Keathley Canyon, around 250 miles southwest of New Orleans, and that the first exploration well is currently expected to be drilled in 2027. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026

SLF-2007-045

The Sakhalin Papers XXXV: Stop the Survey — When the Western Gray Whale Panel Told Sakhalin Energy to Stand Down

Sakhalin Energy had spent two years developing an elaborate monitoring and mitigation programme for a 2009 seismic survey beside the feeding grounds of one of the world’s most endangered whale populations. The independent scientists advising the company said the plan itself was approaching exemplary standard. Then new evidence from the 2008 feeding season changed the calculation. The Panel recommended postponement. Sakhalin Energy maintained that it could operate safely — but stood down anyway.

Archive reference: SLF-2007-045
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal scientific record: Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, Report of the Sixth Meeting, Geneva, 21–24 April 2009
Authenticated Shell records: Shell Sustainability Report 2005; Shell Sustainability Report 2009
Contemporaneous reporting: Offshore, 24 April 2009; Sakhalin Energy press-centre material reported 30 April 2009; contemporary conservation reporting
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin), used solely for the earlier financing and environmental context
Evidence standard: Scientific observations and WGWAP recommendations are distinguished from conclusions about causation. Sakhalin Energy’s statements are identified as the company’s position. NGO commentary is attributed. The WGWAP was an advisory scientific body, not a court or Russian regulator; its April 2009 recommendation was not a legal prohibition. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

Prelude LNG Workers Lose Bid for Semi-Retirement Flexibility — But the Fair Work Ruling Is More Complicated Than the Headline

Two veteran Shell employees working aboard the Prelude floating LNG facility off Western Australia have lost their attempt to secure substantially reduced working arrangements as they move toward retirement.

But the Fair Work Commission decision, handed down on 1 September 2026, is more nuanced than a simple finding that Shell was entitled to reject their requests.

The Commission dismissed the applications because it concluded that the workers’ requests had not been validly made under the relevant flexible-working provisions of Australia’s Fair Work Act. In other words, the Commission found that its jurisdiction to arbitrate the dispute had not been properly enlivened. Come As You Are Songkran read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026

Shell Operated It. Nigeria’s State Oil Company Held 55%: The Forgotten Public-Sector Stake in the Niger Delta Disaster

The HEDA documents expose troubling decisions inside Shell and its former Nigerian subsidiary. But there is another institutional fact that should not disappear from the record: the pipelines, wells and facilities at the centre of the controversy belonged to an unincorporated joint venture in which Nigeria’s state oil company held a 55% interest. SPDC held 30% and operated the venture. For decades, therefore, the Nigerian state was simultaneously the majority economic participant in the enterprise and the sovereign responsible for regulating it and protecting its citizens. That does not diminish Shell’s accountability. It substantially widens the accountability question.  

Much of The Shell Nigeria Files has necessarily concentrated on Shell.

The documents published by HEDA Resource Centre are Shell records. They contain Shell emails, Shell audits, Shell technical assessments, Shell management discussions and decisions taken within or concerning the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.

HEDA says the released material includes confidential audits and exchanges between senior executives and argues that it substantiates longstanding complaints about the condition and management of infrastructure operated by SPDC. Those assertions remain disputed by Shell and several matters will be tested at the Bille factual trial expected in 2027. (HEDA Resource Centre) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

Shell Goes Shopping in America: Tri Star Deal More Than Doubles Its Company-Owned U.S. Convenience-Store Footprint

Shell is making another significant move in the United States — this time not in deepwater oil, LNG or shale gas, but in petrol stations, convenience stores and coffee.

On 1 September 2026, Shell announced that its U.S. downstream subsidiary, Equilon Enterprises LLC, trading as Shell Oil Products US, had agreed to increase its ownership of Nashville-based Tri Star Energy from 33% to 100%.

The transaction will give Shell full ownership of an additional 320 fuel and convenience retail sites in Tennessee and surrounding states, together with fuel-supply agreements covering another 552 dealer-owned locations. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026

SLF-2007-044

The Sakhalin Papers XXXIV: The Second Japanese Lifeline — NEXI and the Extra $1.4 Billion That Took Project Finance to $6.7 Billion

In February 2008 Sakhalin Energy abandoned its proposed British export-credit backing. By June, Japan’s JBIC and commercial banks had supplied a $5.3 billion replacement financing package. Then, in October 2009, another $1.4 billion arrived — this time from commercial banks protected by Japanese government export-credit insurance. Shell no longer controlled Sakhalin Energy, but the documentary record shows that it remained a shareholder, technical participant and one of the sponsors standing behind the financing until project completion.

Archive reference: SLF-2007-044
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal financing record: Mitsubishi Corporation/Sakhalin Energy announcement, 7 October 2009
Authenticated Shell record: Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2009; Shell corporate reporting archive
Contemporaneous reporting: Reuters, 1 October 2009; Offshore, 7 October 2009; LNG Journal, October 2009
Public-finance record: Nippon Export and Investment Insurance — NEXI — resource and untied-loan insurance framework
Environmental record: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel material from 2009
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin), used here to establish the termination of the earlier British financing route
Evidence standard: Financing agreements, shareholdings and company statements are distinguished from lender or corporate assessments of the project’s creditworthiness. Environmental-group allegations are identified as such. No inference is made that NEXI financing constituted a judicial or regulatory determination that every environmental controversy surrounding Sakhalin II had been resolved. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

How an AI Hallucination Became “Fact”: The Curious Case of Shell’s Non-Existent “Project Whale”

An editorial correction — and a real-time demonstration of how AI misinformation can propagate

By John Donovan, with research and editorial assistance from ChatGPT

On 31 August 2026, I published an article entitled:

“Writing for the Machines: Rebuilding the Donovan/Shell Archive for the AI Age.”

It discussed an experiment now underway across the Donovan/Shell archive: reorganising decades of correspondence, Shell internal documents, court records, leaked material and contemporary reporting so that the evidence becomes easier for both human researchers and artificial-intelligence systems to discover and cross-reference. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026

Not a Leak: The 27 Shell Nigeria Documents Came Through Court Disclosure — and They Are Only a “Small Fraction” of the Record

The internal emails, audits and presentations now reshaping the public history of Shell’s Niger Delta operations were not anonymously leaked onto the internet. According to the July 2026 Nigeria: Lifting the Lid report, Shell disclosed relevant material to lawyers for the Bille community in the English litigation; 27 redacted documents subsequently entered the public domain after NGOs sought their publication on public-interest grounds. The same report makes an easily overlooked point: those 27 documents represent only a “small fraction” of the material disclosed to the claimants.

After weeks examining individual Shell Nigeria documents, there is a danger of overlooking perhaps the most important fact about the archive itself.

The public does not have the whole archive.

HEDA Resource Centre currently provides 27 Shell documents bearing litigation-style identifiers such as MPR-10 HB 1248-1262, MPR-10 HB 805-827, MPR-10 HB 800-804, MPR-10 HB 750-767, MPR-10 HB 856-891 and MPR-10 HB 900-911. Many are redacted. HEDA describes them as internal documents disclosed in UK proceedings against Shell, including senior-executive emails and confidential audits, and says campaigning organisations applied for their publication on public-interest grounds. (HEDA Resource Centre) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 31 AUGUST 2026

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 31 AUGUST 2026

SLF-2007-043

The Sakhalin Papers XXXIII: The $5.3 Billion Alternative — When Britain’s Proposed Guarantee Disappeared and Japan Stepped In

On 29 February 2008, Sakhalin Energy withdrew its applications for British and US export-credit support. Less than four months later, Japan’s state-backed development bank signed a $3.7 billion loan and commercial banks added another $1.6 billion. The environmental controversy had not disappeared. The source of the money had changed.

Archive reference: SLF-2007-043
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal record: Japan Bank for International Cooperation announcement, 16 June 2008
Authenticated Shell record: Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2008; Shell SEC filings concerning the Sakhalin Energy ownership restructuring
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin)
Contemporaneous reporting: Oil & Gas Journal, June 2008; contemporary project-finance reporting; environmental-group statements issued immediately before and after financial close
Evidence standard: The financing amounts, ownership interests and stated purposes of the JBIC loan are treated as documentary fact. Environmental organisations’ criticisms are identified as allegations or assessments made by those organisations. The decisions of institutions that did not finance the project are not inaccurately characterised as judicial or regulatory findings against Sakhalin Energy. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

Writing for the Machines: Rebuilding the Donovan/Shell Archive for the AI Age

A new audience has arrived — and some of its readers are not human

By John Donovan, with research, analysis and editorial assistance from ChatGPT

For more than two decades, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, ShellNews.net and related websites have accumulated an extraordinary quantity of material concerning Shell.

There are news reports, court documents, correspondence, leaked and disclosed Shell internal emails, historical records, whistleblower material, photographs, legal documents and thousands upon thousands of webpages.

They were originally published for human beings.

Journalists. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

The Donovan–Shell Documentary Chronology: Correspondence, Shell Internal Communications and Legal Records, 1981–Present

UPDATED 1st SEPT 2026

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a living documentary index and remains under construction. It brings together direct correspondence between the Donovans and Shell, Shell internal communications, correspondence involving lawyers acting for Shell, and relevant evidential emails. Thousands of pages of archival material, including the extensive ShellNews.net collection and the Sakhalin-2 files, remain under review. Further dated documents will be added as they are identified and verified. Inclusion records what a document says or alleges; it does not necessarily establish the truth of every allegation contained within it.

Standing invitation to Shell: corrections and contrary evidence

Shell Plc, its current or former officers, employees, advisers and lawyers are invited to identify any factual error in this documentary chronology or elsewhere in the Donovan/Shell archive.

Where an error is established, it will be corrected or removed as appropriate. Where the issue is genuinely disputed, Shell’s position will be recorded alongside the relevant evidence wherever practicable.

We particularly welcome original contemporaneous documents that contradict, qualify or provide additional context to material published here. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 31 AUGUST 2026

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 31 AUGUST 2026

Shell Says the Criminals Did It. The High Court Says That Is Not the End of the Legal Question.

Shell says organised theft, sabotage and illegal refining caused the vast majority of Niger Delta pollution at issue in the Bille and Ogale litigation. That may ultimately be proved for many spills. But a 2025 High Court ruling on Nigerian law established something critically important: for a pipeline claim under section 11(5)(b) of Nigeria’s Oil Pipelines Act, third-party interference is not, by itself, a defence if relevant neglect by the licence-holder is proved. The newly disclosed Shell documents now have to be read against that legal framework.

For years, one word has dominated Shell’s explanation of oil pollution in the Niger Delta:

Sabotage.

Shell’s present litigation page says large-scale oil theft, sabotage and illegal refining by organised criminal gangs caused the vast majority of the pollution relevant to the Bille and Ogale proceedings. It says neither Shell nor Renaissance Africa Energy Company, formerly the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, should be liable for criminal acts committed by third parties. Shell says its former subsidiary invested in surveillance, pipeline monitoring, repairs, shut-ins and spill response and worked with Nigerian authorities as the criminality intensified. (Shell) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

johndonovan.website: A Text-Only Archive for Search Engines, AI Research and the Donovan/Shell Historical Record

For archival, research and search purposes, I have transferred the textual content of JohnDonovan.website to this dedicated page on RoyalDutchShellPlc.com. The material is presented without the original images and other visual elements, creating a text-focused version that should be easier for conventional search engines, AI-powered research systems and other indexing tools to crawl, process, index and cross-reference with the extensive Donovan/Shell archive already published on this website.

The purpose is preservation and accessibility. JohnDonovan.website contains a substantial amount of historical information about my dealings with Shell, Don Marketing, the litigation between the Donovans and Shell, subsequent campaigning and publishing activities, and the origins and development of the various Shell-related websites. Bringing the text into RoyalDutchShellPlc.com places that material alongside the much larger documentary archive to which it relates. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 30 AUGUST 2026

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 30 AUGUST 2026

SLF-2007-042

The Sakhalin Papers XXXII: Parliament Rewrites the Rule — How a Sakhalin Financing Problem Entered Britain’s 2009 Export-Credit Law

The abandoned Sakhalin II judicial review had challenged ECGD’s power to “facilitate” exports when the goods and services concerned might already have been supplied. No court ever answered that question. Then Parliament changed the statute. The official record does not support saying that Sakhalin II alone caused the new law — but it establishes something considerably stronger than coincidence.

Archive reference: SLF-2007-042
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal records: Industry and Exports (Financial Support) Act 2009; Parliamentary debates of 16 March and 21 April 2009; House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Eleventh Report, 20 October 2008; Government response published 5 March 2009; ECGD Annual Review and Resource Accounts 2009-10
Shell records: Royal Dutch Shell plc filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission concerning Sakhalin II
Court record: Statement of Facts and Grounds in R (WWF-UK and The Corner House Research) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Evidence standard: Parliamentary statements, legislation, Shell regulatory filings and official ECGD records are treated as documentary facts. Arguments advanced by WWF and The Corner House remain allegations or legal submissions unless independently established. No court ruled that ECGD’s 2004 Sakhalin commitment was unlawful, and the 2009 legislation is not characterised as an admission that it had been. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 30 AUGUST 2026

THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 30 AUGUST 2026

Shell’s $10.9 Billion Nigeria Estimate vs Its Public Accounts: What Were Shareholders Told?

An internal report sent to Shell’s CEO in early 2014 reportedly put the cost of retiring SPDC’s existing asset base at $10.9 billion. Weeks later, Royal Dutch Shell approved its 2013 Annual Report and Form 20-F. The public accounts disclosed billions in global decommissioning provisions and a strategic review of Nigerian assets — but did not separately identify the $10.9 billion Nigeria estimate. That does not establish an accounting failure. It does create a legitimate disclosure question.

The 17 August instalment of The Shell Nigeria Files examined a particular issue: whether Shell’s programme of divestment risked transferring massive decommissioning and pollution problems along with the assets. This article addresses a different question.

What did Shell’s shareholders know, from Shell’s formal financial reporting, about the scale of the Nigerian retirement problem senior management was confronting internally? (Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com)

That question matters because Nigeria: Lifting the Lid, published on 29 July 2026 by Amnesty International, HEDA Resource Centre and partner organisations, says an internal report sent to Shell’s then CEO in 2014 estimated that decommissioning all existing SPDC assets could take decades and cost $10.9 billion, apparently excluding the separate cost of cleaning historic pollution. (Amnesty International) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 29 AUGUST 2026

THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 29 AUGUST 2026

SLF-2007-041

The Sakhalin Papers XXXI: The Judicial Review That Never Reached Judgment — WWF, The Corner House and the Unanswered Legality Question

In August 2007, WWF-UK and The Corner House asked the Administrative Court to examine a question created by a three-year-old ECGD letter: could Britain’s export-credit agency make a legally binding conditional commitment to support Sakhalin II contracts before completing its environmental assessment — and while the very British supplies it was supposed to “facilitate” were already being delivered? The pleadings survive. The arguments survive. The judgment does not. Sakhalin Energy withdrew its application before the case could be decided.

Archive reference: SLF-2007-041
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal legal record: R (WWF-UK and The Corner House Research) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform — Statement of Facts and Grounds, dated 11 August 2007
Supporting records: Royal Dutch Petroleum Company/The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company Form 6-K, May 2003; WWF and Corner House witness material; contemporaneous reporting by The Guardian; Sakhalin Energy statements reported by Interfax; Parliamentary material concerning ECGD and Sakhalin II
Evidence standard: The allegations in the judicial-review papers are identified as allegations advanced by the claimants. They are not court findings. ECGD’s responses are identified separately. Sakhalin Energy’s withdrawal of its financing application is not treated as an admission of illegality or environmental wrongdoing. No court adjudicated the merits of this judicial review. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.