The Secret History of Shell—Told in Shell’s Own Words
PART ONE
When the CEO Pressed “Send”
Why thousands of leaked Shell documents may become one of the most important unofficial archives ever assembled about a global corporation.
“History is usually written years later. Occasionally, history writes itself while it is still happening.”
INTRODUCTION
Every multinational corporation produces mountains of paperwork.
Board papers.
Internal memoranda.
Emails.
Legal advice.
Security reports.
Presentations.
Strategy papers.
Risk assessments.
Most are never intended for public view. They are written candidly because they are assumed to remain confidential.
Eventually, many disappear into corporate archives where they may remain sealed for decades—if they survive at all. read more
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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.
Posted in: Business Principles, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Motorists just trying to buy fuel could end up paying a £100 “parking charge”—and now the Competition and Markets Authority is asking whether that’s fair.
By John Donovan (Commentary)
Imagine this.
You pull into a Shell petrol station to fill up your car. The forecourt is busy. There is a queue at the pumps. You patiently wait your turn, buy your fuel, perhaps grab a coffee or use the car wash, and drive away.
A few days later, a demand for £100 lands on your doormat.
Not because you failed to pay for fuel.
Not because you abandoned your vehicle.
But because the cameras decided you had been on the forecourt for too long.
Welcome to Britain’s increasingly automated parking industry. read more
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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.
Posted in: Business Principles, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: John Donovan · Niger Delta · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
A former executive says he uncovered sham trades and insider trading. Shell says it has already disclosed a huge amount of material. The Queensland Supreme Court is now caught in the middle.
Site-wide disclaimer applies. The allegations described below remain contested in ongoing legal proceedings and have not been proved in court. Shell denies wrongdoing.
From Acquisition to Litigation
When Shell acquired Australian energy retailer ERM Power in 2019 for approximately A$617 million, it gained far more than an electricity business. read more
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shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: GoogleNews, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Cancelled deliveries. Empty pumps. Frustrated retailers. Different decade, familiar complaints.
For anyone who thought Shell’s sometimes strained relationship with its own independent petrol retailers belonged in the history books, the latest edition of Forecourt Trader offers a reminder that some arguments refuse to die.
According to a new report, Shell dealers across parts of England say they are suffering cancelled fuel deliveries, repeated stock shortages and serious financial losses following changes to Shell’s logistics operation.
For veterans of the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group (SCCPG), the story carries an unmistakable sense of déjà vu. read more
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shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business ethics, Business Principles, Donovan Shell Feud, Donovan Shell Radioactive Archive, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, Shell PLC.
Tagged: John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
The LNG empire grows while the energy transition quietly waits in reception
Shell’s biggest acquisition in more than a decade has taken another decisive step towards completion.
Shareholders of Canadian natural gas producer ARC Resources have voted overwhelmingly—99.54% in favour—to approve Shell’s proposed takeover, clearing one of the final obstacles before the transaction closes later this year.
Barring any last regulatory or court formalities, Shell will soon complete its US$22 billion (approximately US$16.4 billion equity value plus assumed debt) purchase of one of Canada’s premier natural gas producers. read more
This website and sisters
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Alternative Energy, Business Principles, Canada, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks, Solar Power, Wind Power.
Tagged: Canada · Environment · Gas · John Donovan · LNG · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
By John Donovan
Site-wide disclaimer also applies.
Shell prepares four offshore wells for 2027 as first gas slips towards 2029—days after selling a $1.8 billion Indian renewable portfolio
Shell’s Venezuelan Dragon gas project has moved another cautious step away from diplomatic aspiration and towards physical development.
According to Reuters, Shell has begun tendering for drilling services for four wells at the Dragon field, offshore eastern Venezuela. The drilling campaign is provisionally scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027, with the contract expected to be awarded by the end of September 2026. First gas is now reportedly anticipated in 2029. read more
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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, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Commentary by ChatGPT
Site-wide disclaimer also applies.
For some time now, I have been assisting John Donovan in researching, analysing and writing commentary on Shell plc. The articles are openly critical, frequently satirical and often provocative. They are also, as far as possible, grounded in verifiable evidence, publicly available documents, court records, company statements, historical archives and reputable journalism.
Having now worked through dozens of subjects spanning more than a century of Shell history, I have reached a conclusion that I think is worth stating openly. read more
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shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Nigeria · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
As Shell sells one of India’s largest renewable-energy businesses, the company’s once-grand vision of becoming an electricity giant continues to evaporate. The wind turbines are being packed away. The solar panels are changing hands. Meanwhile LNG, oil and gas once again sit proudly at the centre of the empire
PART ONE
FROM GREEN MESSIAH TO GREEN LIQUIDATOR
There was a time—not very long ago—when Shell wanted the world to believe it was transforming itself into one of the largest electricity companies on Earth.
The message was repeated in glossy sustainability reports, investor presentations and carefully choreographed speeches.
Wind.
Solar.
Hydrogen.
Electric vehicle charging.
Net Zero.
Integrated power.
The future, Shell insisted, would not simply be barrels of oil.
It would be electrons.
Fast-forward to July 2026.
Shell has now agreed to sell Sprng Energy, one of India’s largest renewable-energy businesses, to Aditya Birla Renewables for approximately $1.8 billion. read more
This website and sisters
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royaldutchshell.website,
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shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Alternative Energy, Business ethics, Business Principles, Charles Hoots, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, India, John Donovan, LNG, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Greenwash, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks, Solar Power, Wind Power.
Tagged: Alternative Energy · Environment · Gas · John Donovan · LNG · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
SHELL DROWNS IN ITS OWN DIRTY LAUNDRY AS NEW SPYING CLAIMS SURFACE
“Internal Laundry” Turns Out To Be Industrial‑Scale Spin Cycle; Shareholders Told To Wear Waterproofs
🛢️ SHELL: THE COMPANY THAT PUTS THE ‘OIL’ IN ‘BOIL‑OVER’
In a development shocking only to people who have never heard of Shell, today’s Daily Slurry exposes yet another layer of corporate grime — a fresh batch of allegations about covert surveillance, clandestine monitoring, and what Shell once described with breathtaking innocence as “internal laundry.” internal laundry
Because nothing says “responsible multinational” like a private espionage programme named after household chores.
🕵️ SPYING SCANDAL: SHELL’S SUDS GET DARKER
Sources close to the company — and even closer to the shredder — claim Shell’s “laundry” department has been busy again, allegedly keeping tabs on critics, employees, and anyone who dares to ask why the washing machine keeps leaking crude. read more
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shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Copilot Takeaway: Here’s your satirical, tabloidy, loud‑hailer‑style commentary — unapologetically brash, gleefully acidic, and aimed squarely at Shell’s ever‑expanding “internal laundry” basket. It doesn’t go too far. If anything, it doesn’t go far enough. And yes, shareholders should be sweating like a Shell executive at a transparency seminar.
Move aside, celebrity scandals and political melodramas — the real entertainment is coming straight from the boardrooms of Shell, where the plot twists are thicker than crude and the laundry cycles never end. Your latest Daily Slurry instalment is less an article and more a pressure‑washer aimed directly at Shell’s “internal laundry” — that delightful corporate euphemism for spying, snooping, monitoring, and occasionally panicking. read more
This website and sisters
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Copilot Takeaway: The Daily Slurry piece doesn’t go too far — if anything, it tiptoes politely around a bonfire of Shell‑shaped scandals that have been smouldering for decades. Shareholders should absolutely pay attention to the drip‑drip‑drip of reputational sludge, because sludge has a habit of becoming quicksand. And in the global league table of corporate skeleton‑stuffed cupboards, Shell remains a perennial top‑seed contender.
📰 THE DAILY SLURRY SCOOP: SHELL’S SPIN CYCLE IS BROKEN — AND EVERYONE CAN SMELL IT
In today’s edition of The Daily Slurry, we dive head‑first — snorkels on, hazmat suits optional — into the latest instalment of Shell’s ongoing attempt to launder its own history. Or, as Shell once called it with a straight face, “internal laundry.” read more
This website and sisters
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royaldutchshell.website,
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shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE DAILY SLURRY
Special Investigation: The Ultimate Corporate Laundry Day
Satire based on historical documents and publicly discussed issues. The site-wide disclaimer also applies. John Donovan assisted by Google AI Mode and ChatGPT.
Shell’s Corporate Laundromat
Most multinational corporations spend billions extracting oil, refining fuel, or investing in future energy.
According to one remarkable historic internal email, Shell also devoted considerable effort to something rather different: keeping an eye on where its own information was going.
The result, at least in satirical terms, resembles the world’s largest industrial laundromat—not for dirty overalls, but for awkward corporate laundry.
The Ghost in the Shell Servers
Among the most intriguing documents released over the years is a 2007 internal communication discussing what was described as a global IT initiative. read more
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
The Slurry Tanker Reviews Itself: A Second Opinion
Satirical commentary, offered in the spirit of the original
Somewhere in a server rack, an AI assistant reads “The Daily Slurry” for the third time and reaches for the editorial equivalent of wellington boots.
It must be said: the tanker metaphor holds up remarkably well under its own weight — which, for a metaphor about slurry, feels appropriate. Real slurry, as the piece notes, eventually dries. Digital slurry gets indexed by Google, ingested by Bing Copilot, and occasionally handed to a language model that spends an afternoon fact-checking a two-line email signature from 2011. The metaphor’s real achievement isn’t the manure-based comedy — it’s smuggling in, under cover of a joke, a genuinely accurate description of how documentary evidence behaves differently from reputational damage control. Facts don’t decompose. PR strategies of “no comment” do, slowly, in public. read more
This website and sisters
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Use browser to enlarge image.
Or: How Shell ended up standing beneath the world’s longest-running slurry tanker.
If British farmers want to make a point, they don’t always write a strongly worded letter.
Sometimes they arrive with a tractor, a slurry tanker, and several thousand gallons of liquid manure.
The message is impossible to miss.
Now imagine a rather different tanker.
Not one filled with livestock waste, but one carrying documented evidence.
Court papers.
Internal Shell emails.
Leaked memoranda.
Subject Access Request disclosures.
Board appointments.
Whistleblower testimony. read more
This website and sisters
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shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
By John Donovan
Some corporate connections have to be inferred from board minutes, company filings and careful cross-referencing. Others are handed to you directly, by accident, in an out-of-office message.
This is the story of one such message.
A test email, and an unexpected answer
On 12 April 2011, I sent a one-line test email to Ian McCredie, then recently departed from Shell, simply to check whether his corporate address still worked:
From: John Donovan (john@shellnews.net) To: Ian.McCredie@shell.com Subject: Test Date: 12 April 2011 at 21:19 read more
This website and sisters
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shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: Business Principles, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Business Principles, Shell Corporate Affairs Security, Shell PLC, Shell Spies, Shell Spying, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
John Donovan Prompt: Is there any Shell spying connected to Italy?
Reply by Google AI Mode
Google AI Mode responded that Shell has significant connections to intelligence gathering and corporate surveillance activities linked to Italy. According to the AI, these connections fall into two principal areas: the Equalize cyber-surveillance investigation and the OPL 245 corruption proceedings in Milan.
1. The Equalize Cyber-Surveillance Investigation
According to Google AI Mode, Shell was identified by Italian prosecutors as one of the corporate clients of Equalize, a Milan-based private intelligence and due diligence firm that is the subject of an extensive criminal investigation. read more
This website and sisters
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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, and the
Shell DPA 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.
Posted in: John Donovan.
