A Dutch court may decide on Wednesday if Shell was complicit in the Nigerian government’s execution of the Ogoni Nine, environmental activists who were trying to fight the petroleum company’s exploitation of their oil-rich homeland.

The widows of four of the activists accuse Shell of instigating a brutal crackdown against peaceful protesters that led to the deaths of the Ogoni Nine in 1995.

Two of the widows will be in court to hear the ruling, in their most recent attempt to get justice for their husbands, who were falsely accused of murder and hanged in secret under Sani Abacha’s military regime after what is widely acknowledged to have been a discredited trial. read more

By Dulue Mbachu and Sherry Su: 30 April 2019, 10:38 BST Updated on 30 April 2019

Shell, Total declare force majeure on some crude oil grades

Idled Chevron well suffers fire after third-party incident

A spate of disruptions and security concerns, including kidnappings, are threatening to hinder surging Nigerian oil exports.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA declared force majeure on some of their Nigerian exports over the past week, a measure that allows companies to skip supply obligations. Chevron Corp.’s Nigerian unit said an idled well was interfered with.

While the precise cause of the Total force majeure remains unclear, the Shell and Chevron incidents involved third parties. The disruption comes just a few years after militants caused Nigeria’s oil production to plunge by attacking pipelines and other pieces of energy infrastructure. read more

Esther Kiobel and John Donovan: Colchester UK: 28 April 2019

By John Donovan

I was delighted to welcome Esther Kiobel to my families Colchester home yesterday.

Esther and I have each been engaged for decades in our respective much-publicised epic litigation battles with Shell.

For over 22 years, Esther has been seeking justice for the alleged complicity by Shell in the murder of her beloved husband Dr Barinem Kiobel, executed with eight other Nigerian Ogoni rights campaigners, including Ken Saro-Wiwa – collectively known as the “Ogoni Nine“. read more

A Dutch court will this week (Wednesday 1 May) rule on an historic case against Shell, in which the oil giant stands accused of instigating a raft of horrifying human rights violations committed by the Nigerian government against the Ogoni people.

Esther Kiobel, Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula are suing Shell over what they say is its role in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian military, following a brutal crackdown on Ogoni protests against Shell’s devastating pollution of the region in the 1990s. read more

A Dutch court will rule this week on whether Royal Dutch Shell was complicit in the death of nine Nigerian anti-oil protesters in the 1990s.

The wives of four of the “Ogoni Nine” executed by Nigeria’s military regime are demanding compensation and a public apology from the oil major over allegations that it was instrumental in the arrests. One of the victims was Ken Saro-Wiwa, the prominent writer and activist. They were hanged in 1995.

A district court in the Hague is expected to rule on Wednesday. Shell has paid the families of protesters $15.5 million, but has never admitted wrongdoing and insists that it pleaded for clemency for the Ogoni Nine. read more

Climate change could wipe up to $4 trillion off the value of fossil fuel assets, the governor of the Bank of England has said: ALAMY

Several big fund managers believe that oil companies should shut themselves down because soon they will become impossible to invest in as the world switches to renewable energy.

A survey of 39 fund managers with $10.2 trillion under management found that 24 per cent wanted the oil industry “to wind down their businesses and return cash to shareholders”. All but two of the funds said that oil stocks would not be attractive investments within ten years if they failed to respond to climate risks. read more

A Shell spokesperson in The Hague reiterated on Saturday evening that the group is supporting the police in investigating the kidnapping case. He also abstained from further explanation.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FT, Financieele Dagblad.

Two Shell employees abducted in Nigeria

Van onze redacteur

Two Shell employees were abducted in Nigeria on Thursday. Two Nigerian agents who accompanied them died in the process.

The raid took place in the Delta region, the Nigerian police announced on Friday evening. The employees and their assistants returned from a business trip and were attacked by armed men on a road in the state of Rivers. The supervisors were killed, after which the Shell employees were taken away.

Nothing was disclosed about the identity and nationality of the two Shell employees. read more

27 April 2019

Two senior employees of the oil company Shell have been kidnapped and their police escorts killed in Nigeria’s restive Delta region, police said.

The attack took place as the workers were returning from a business trip on Thursday on a road in Rivers state.

Gunmen killed the guards, one of whom was driving the vehicle, and seized the two workers, officials said.

A police spokesman said efforts were under way to rescue the Shell employees.

Their names and nationalities have not been released. read more

by Rosemary Nwisi, Port Harcourt: April 26, 2019

Two oil workers of Shell Nigeria have been kidnapped in Rivers State.

Two police escorts were also killed during the kidnap, The Nation understand.

It was gathered that the incident happened on Thursday evening along the Ahoada-Ndele-Rumuji-Emohua axis of the East-West road, Rivers Staten.

The two kidnapped senior staff members of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) were said to be returning from an official trip from the neighbouring Bayelsa state when they were attacked by the gunmen, killing their security escorts. read more

By Ivana Kottasová and Michelle Toh, CNN Business

Updated 1514 GMT (2314 HKT) April 26, 2019

London (CNN Business)Royal Dutch Shell’s stand on LGBT rights has come under scrutiny following the introduction of laws that punish gay sex with death in Brunei.

The Anglo-Dutch oil giant is the largest foreign business operating in the small southeast Asian kingdom, which brought in laws earlier this month that make gay sex and adultery punishable by stoning. read more

Anna Gross and Owen Walker in London: 25 April 2019

Eumedion, a Dutch corporate governance group backed by 60 institutional investors, will push Shell to use what influence it has with the Brunei government to press for the improvement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

Eumedion counts large Shell shareholders including BlackRock, Standard Life Aberdeen and Capital Group among its members.

Talks with Shell could take place as early as next week… read more

By Mark Dummett, Amnesty International Business and Human Rights Researcher

On 1 May, a court in The Hague, the oil multinational’s home town, will deliver a ruling on whether a case brought by Esther and three other Nigerian women over Shell’s role in their husband’s deaths can proceed.

The four widows accuse Shell of instigating a brutal crackdown by the-then military regime against peaceful protesters in Ogoniland, in Africa’s most valuable oil-producing region, the Niger Delta, in the 1990s. The protests were over pollution, the chronic lack of development, and the unfair distribution of oil wealth. read more

April 25, 2019: An analysis by oil consultancy firm, Resources for Development, says oil giants Shell/Eni’s deal for the controversial OPL 245 included “unprecedented terms” which funded an alleged bribery scheme.

The analysis was commissioned by four non-governmental groups — Global Witness, HEDA, Re:Common and The Corner House — based on publicly available documents.

This included Shell and Eni’s valuations of the oil block, according to a statement released by the NGOs on Thursday. read more

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Saudi Arabia’s state oil group has agreed to pay almost £500 million to Royal Dutch Shell to buy it out of an oil refinery joint venture on the Gulf.

Saudi Aramco will buy Shell’s 50 per cent stake in the plant, ending a 30-year joint venture, as it expands its refining and petrochemical operations in a drive to become the world’s largest energy company.

Saudi Aramco is the world’s biggest oil company, pumping more than 10 million barrels per day last year. The acquisition, for $631 million, is due to complete later this year. read more

The oversupplied gas market provides the logic for the company’s move downstream

NICK BUTLER

Since Maarten Wetselaar, Royal Dutch Shell’s director of gas and new energies, suggested a few weeks ago that Shell could be “by far the biggest power company in the world” by 2035 as it moves into electricity, oil and gas rivals have been asking if they should be doing the same. Existing power suppliers have begun to worry about whether their business models are secure.

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