Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Outspoken Articles

Shell, climate change and a question of reality

Screen Shot 2015-05-18 at 09.56.22By John Donovan

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden is said to have lambasted fossil fuel critics at the Shell AGM yesterday, accusing them of ignoring reality.

Two days earlier, Terry Macalister of The Guardian, who has always been scrupulously fair in his comments and reporting in relation to Shell, seemed to suggest that it is Mr Van Beurden who is having a problem in relation to the reality of climate change. 

Extract from his excellent article “The real story behind Shell’s climate change rhetoric” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Sultan of Oman Spying On Shell

Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 13.34.05By John Donovan

Interesting to read the allegations that the Sultan of Oman’s intelligence services are spying on Shell.

More specifically, the local operations of Shell involving the JV company, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

This information is unsurprising given the content of leaked secret cables from the US Embassy in Muscat published by WikiLeaks in December 2010, suggesting a degree of hostility or unease towards Shell. 

The Sultan was at that time considering taking gas fields away from PDO  (34% owned by Shell) and awarding them to BG Group, or BP. 

The growing hostility towards Shell from within PDO Oman was the subject of an email I sent in 2011 to Mr Michiel Brandjes, the Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

SPOOKY AFFAIR INVOLVING SHELL AND THE U.S. GOVERNMENT?

Screen Shot 2013-03-04 at 20.44.48Disclaimer: We encourage a diversity of opinion and comment. The opinions/information expressed/provided by “Washington Observer” in this article are not necessarily endorsed or condoned by this website. For legal reasons we have removed the name of a well known U.S. company that was identified in the article. Shell did not take up our invitation to comment on the content of a related article published by us in 2010 (see below).

At that time, following our email correspondence with a high level U.S. intelligence source, the source was authorized by U.S. Dept. of Defense government attorneys to confirm to us that an investigation directed at Shell in the USA had been initiated by the US Department of the Navy, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The whole strange affair may apparently still be rumbling on, perhaps towards a conclusion that will make any Shell return to the Arctic even less likely.
read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Signs of failure of the Royal Dutch Shell Empire?

Screen Shot 2013-02-07 at 19.02.31The problem is when the corruption stems from the boardroom as witnessed by the lead up to the Shell reserves crisis and the protracted cover-up of the Shell Touch F*** All scandal, all is lost.  You only have to look at recent history of how organisations fail due to internal corruption of essential controls by the men in suits in the Boardroom.  Enron, the banking system on both sides of the pond, the current crisis in the NHS are just a few examples. 

COMMENT BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

The myth of governance

Many pages exist explaining the need for the Shell organisation to have effective governance over its worldwide operations if it hopes to meet its stated objectives across the business.  The governance process is owned by the Board, executive and non executive.  By having essential management controls in place is the fundamental safeguard to meeting objectives including compliance with the applicable laws in the regions in which Shell operate.

The problem is when the corruption stems from the boardroom as witnessed by the lead up to the Shell reserves crisis and the protracted cover-up of the Shell Touch F*** All scandal, all is lost.  You only have to look at recent history of how organisations fail due to internal corruption of essential controls by the men in suits in the Boardroom.  Enron, the banking system on both sides of the pond, the current crisis in the NHS are just a few examples.   read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

9/11 Terror Attack and the Shell Reserves Scandal

[embedplusvideo height=”365″ width=”450″ standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Beh4D5vwGVI?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=Beh4D5vwGVI&width=450&height=365&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=0&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep4239″ /]

By John Donovan

On Friday we published an article revealing Shell internal email correspondence, which provided proof that three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the USA, Shell executives were considering how Shell could exploit the horrific event for commercial reasons. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

SHELL ARCTIC MELTDOWN: What a f****** mess Shell have got themselves into…

SHELL ARCTIC MELTDOWN: What a f****** mess Shell have got themselves into…

COMMENT RECEIVED FROM A SHELL SENIOR MANAGEMENT RETIREE

Just read that Shell broke some air quality rules from the EPA. There must be a whole team coordinating all the replies to the press and authorities and making sure they all say the same thing. I can only say: what a f****** mess they have got themselves in. The mess there in Alaska is worse than one can imagine and in my view a direct result of incompetence and penny pinching.

Experts claiming reputational damage many times greater than other damage…

This is what happens if you remove skills and replace those with processes and boxes that must get ticked off. Brinded was a great believer in process, he thought that the rest were too stupid to think for themselves.

Related article by Loren Steffy published Jan 11 by The Houston Chronicle

Shell had a lot riding on Arctic’s rigs snapped tow lines

For years, Shell Oil Co. claimed that a byzantine regulatory process was impeding its progress in the Arctic. Now, if it gets frozen out of the region, it has no one to blame but itself.

The company had a lot riding on the tow ropes pulling its conical drilling rig across the stormy seas near the Alaskan coast on New Year’s Eve. Shell itself had seven years and almost $5 billion invested in the project, and as the first company allowed to drill in Arctic waters, it carried the burden of not botching the effort for other companies also awaiting permits. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Deterding orders-Hitler acts

News reports from long ago are emerging on the Internet as newspapers create digital searchable online archives. This is a disastrous development for  companies such as Royal Dutch Shell that have been around for a long time and have a toxic history to hide.

By John Donovan

News reports from long ago are emerging on the Internet as newspapers create digital searchable online archives. This is a disastrous development for  companies such as Royal Dutch Shell that have been around for a long time and have a toxic history to hide.

An article published on 3 April 1933 by the Border Cities Star, a Canadian daily newspaper, reported allegations made in Pravda, the official political publication of the Soviet Communist Party in Russia. They accused Sir Henri Deterding, the tyrannical head of Royal Dutch Shell, of funding Hitler and described the Nazis as “obedient agents of their benefactors,” claiming: Deterding orders-Hitler acts.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Noble Drilling hit by another set back after fire on Shell Nobel Discoverer

Just what is needed in pristine Arctic waters: An accident prone Drilling Company employed by a reckless greedy oil giant with a notorious “Touch F*** All” offshore safety culture and a track record of unconscionable, untreated environmental devastation e.g. Nigeria.

By John Donovan

Last month the Noble Discoverer drilling ship involved in Shell’s hapless inaugural season of Arctic oil exploration caught fire in Dutch Harbor, an international port in Alaska. This followed an earlier mishap in July when it slipped its anchor in Dutch Harbor and appeared to have gone aground, though this was denied by Shell despite the visual evidence above to the contrary. 

Now an oil rig at a ship yard in Singapore – the Nobel Regina Allen – also owned by Noble Drilling has partly collapsed, injuring 89 peopleSee photographs below. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

SHELL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES – GENUINE OR CON TRICK?

By John Donovan

Shell has for many years supposedly operated within an ethical code which, according to its current shell.com webpage on the subject, was first published in 1976.

This does not tally with the relevant pages in “A HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL, Volume 3,” about the history of the code – known in the 1990’s as the Shell Statement of General Business Principles.

Apparently they were first drafted in 1962, restated and first published in 1976, made freely available to the public from 1981 and reformulated in 1997, for the first time including human rights. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Royal Dutch Shell and Racism

Shell has admitted past discrimination against Jewish employees, which cost at least 20 of them their lives.  It supported racist regimes in Nazi Germany and more recently, Apartheid South Africa.

By John Donovan

Shell employees who have accused Shell of being a racist company will be interested in a comparison set out in “A HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL, Volume 3” between Shell’s much trumpeted business principles and those of its main competitor, ExxonMobil, in regard to equal employment opportunity.

Shell has admitted past discrimination against Jewish employees, which cost at least 20 of them their lives. It supported racist regimes in Nazi Germany and more recently, Apartheid South Africa. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Neptune Strategy: Shell Propped up Apartheid in South Africa

By John Donovan

In 1987, Shell Oil Co implemented a secret 265 page plan devised by a Washington based firm, Pagan International.

The devious plan was designed to undermine support for critics of Shell’s policy of propping up the despised racist apartheid regime in South Africa, just as Shell and its Nazi leader, Sir Henri Deterding,  propped up Nazi Germany before WW2. 

The objective of Shell’s secret campaign was to neutralize boycott groups, including church and civil rights groups, unions and academics. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell propped up racist apartheid regime in South Africa

Within 48 hours, subject to legal intervention by Shell, we will publish an article about how Royal Dutch Shell propped up and profited from the repressive apartheid regime in South Africa.

By John Donovan

Update Monday 26 November: Within 48 hours, subject to legal intervention by Shell, we will publish an article about how Royal Dutch Shell propped up and profited from the repressive apartheid regime in South Africa. It is another astonishing story of informers, spying, deception, and misinformation directed by Shell at parties who opposed its support for the racist regime, once led by B. J. Vorster. Shell’s disgraceful conduct led to The Church of England accusing the company of dishonesty and outright deception. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

SUPERBUCKET motivational message from Shell CEO Peter Voser

THIS IS NOT A SPOOF, BUT A GENUINE LEAKED MOTIVATIONAL MESSAGE FROM SHELL CEO PETER VOSER, DESCRIBED BY ONE RECIPIENT AS “BULLSHIT OF OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS”

By John Donovan

Printed below is a motivational message sent to Shell staff yesterday by Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Peter Voser.

It was supplied by a thoroughly disillusioned Shell insider along with these forthright comments from someone who has seen it all before at Shell:

John

Shell appears to be again in the hands of consultants who are laughing their balls off. I imagine these consultants are the sons of the ones that made the Shell management pass marbles and other spheres or forced them to perform kindergarten games. Nearly all of them participated since standing up and telling what everyone knew ‘This is bullshit, I am going home’ was a step too far for most! read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s alleged crimes against humanity

COMMENT FROM A FORMER SHELL EMPLOYEE ON THE KIOBEL v SHELL CASE

I would like to remind your readers that the United States held its own version of the Nuremberg trials in the American Zone of what was once West Germany. The trials held at Nuremberg ended in 1946 but the US decided to continue prosecuting those whom were deemed by the US government to be (suspected) ‘war criminals’. The trials in the US Zone ended in 1949. (see the attached link w/ PDF file). None of the other major powers conducted their own versions of the Nuremberg trials.

These articles have a very interesting discussion of the history of the Nuremberg trials and the establishment of recognized international legal standards for ‘crimes against humanity’, etc. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Gripe Sites: Sue or Stew?

Extract from “Gripe Sites: Sue or Stew”

By William G. Pecau

Gripe sites can be more than forums for criticism. Because some are run by or receive contributions from former employees or anonymous current dissatisfied employees, some gripe sites have access to and post non- public information about a company or its employees. Some of this information is false, some of it might be embarrassing, and some of it might be very harmful to a company.

One gripe site www.royaldutchshellplc. com, run by a former employee of Shell, credits itself with costing Shell billions of dollars. It claims to have disclosed environmental violations by a joint venture in Russia’s Sakhalin Islands that allowed Vladimir Putin’s government significant concessions from the Shell joint venture. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Arctic Drilling: Blame game question

Article by a Guest Author, a Regular Contributor

We all know that Shell cannot possibly deal with a significant release of oil from any of the well it will (may) be drilling in the Arctic this summer. That is now well known and a given, no matter what Shell claims. Even the Coast Guard admits it could not deal with such a situation.

In spite of this problem Shell has gotten virtually all the permits it needs to go ahead and drill this summer, i.e., the US government has approved Shell’s woefully inadequate plan and means of dealing with any sort of significant oil spill, should one occur. The US Government knows a major ‘event’ cannot be dealt with, by either Shell or the Coast Guard. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.