Another departing Shell leader seeking redemption?

By John Donovan

Departing Shell Plc CEO Ben van Beurden seems to be seeking redemption in his closing period with the energy giant.

THE GRONINGEN SCANDAL

BvB now admits that Shell should have pulled out of the controversial earthquake-blighted Groningen project operated by NAM – a Shell-Exxon joint venture company.

According to Reuters: “A damning report in 2015 from the independent Dutch Safety Board had accused the government and the field’s operators of ignoring the threat of earthquakes linked to the field for years.” 

As regular visitors to this website know, we have been drawing attention to the Groningen scandal for many years. Thousands of properties have been damaged. As a consequence, Dutch prosecutors are pursuing litigation against NAM. Tens of thousands of Groningen residents are eligible for compensation for earthquake damage. read more

ACCESS TO MORE INFORMATION THAN ANYWHERE ELSE ON THE PLANET ABOUT THE ROYAL DUTCH SHELL RESERVES SCANDAL / FRAUD

By John Donovan

Royal Dutch Shell Group Chairman Sir Philip Watts, was forced to resign as a result of the fraudulent over-statement of claimed hydrocarbon reserves.

Sir Philip subsequently became a very rich vicar, after a payoff package from Shell worth nearly $20 million to buy his silence.

Link to a John Donovan file containing extensive news coverage.

RELATED COURT DOCS

FOR THE FIRST TIME MOST OF THE INFORMATION WE HAVE ON THIS SUBJECT IS PUBLISHED ON A SINGLE WEBPAGE read more

By John Donovan

Royal Dutch Shell Group Chairman Sir Philip Watts, was forced to resign as a result of the fraudulent over-statement of claimed hydrocarbon reserves.

Sir Philip subsequently became a very rich vicar, after a payoff package from Shell worth nearly $20 million to buy his silence.

Link to a John Donovan file containing extensive news coverage.

RELATED COURT DOCS

EXTRACTS FROM AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF AN ARTICLE AUTHORED BY INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS BAS VAN BEEK, ALEXANDER BEUNDER, JILLES MAST AND MEREL DE BUCK.

This article is part of the Shell Papers, a joint research project conducted by Platform Authentieke Journalistiek and Follow the Money, into the ties between the Dutch government and the oil giant. In April 2019, we filed a total of 17 FOIA requests, demanding copies of all Shell-related documents from nine ministries, three provinces and five municipalities. As of March 2020, the FOIA procedures are still ongoing. You can track their progress here: read more

GRAPHIC-Shell’s oil and gas reserve life drops for sixth year in a row

* Shell’s reserve life drops below 8 years

* Investors have shifted focus away from reserves to profits

By Ron Bousso

LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The number of years of production left in Royal Dutch Shell’s oil and gas reserves fell for the sixth year in a row in 2019 to below eight.

But there was little reaction from investors to the steady decline in what was once considered a key metric for gauging the strength of the world’s major oil and gas companies.

There is a growing perception the world holds enough oil and gas to meet demand many times over, especially against the backdrop of a gradual shift away from fossil fuels because of concerns about climate change. https://reut.rs/2GBtBvC read more

From An old EP hand.

Despite the many mistakes and poor management in Shell in the mid 90s leading up to the reserves scandal in 2004,  a truly dark period in the leadership of Shell, we are still proud of some huge projects as shown in the clips.

Perhaps of use for your site. And as you so often point out, the majority of the Shell staff are decent hardworking people doing a good job. The fact that management went off the rails starting with Herkstroter and culminating in the reserves scandal which was an inevitable conclusion of the Phil Watts regime does not diminish the efforts of the engineering by the staff. Even Shell got it sometimes wrong to appoint the right leaders! read more

From: John Donovan <johndonovan
Subject: Justin Welby
Date: 20 September 2018 at 11:50:12 BST
To: liddellh@parliament.uk

Email sent to Prominent Members of the House of Lords 

SUBJECT: Justin Welby, Archbishop of Cant, with a touch of Frank Spencer

Justin Welby is in hot water again. He has criticised another controversial company, last time Wonga and this time the tax-shy Amazon. Both later embarrassingly revealed to be businesses in which the Church of England is an investor.  He is currently the main target of Rod Liddle in his outspoken Sunday Times column, described as the Archbishop of Cant, with a touch of Frank Spencer. 

BBC Newsnight aired a related package on Friday 14 Sept drawing attention to the subject and the Church of England’s numerous questionable investments. In particular, its holdings in BP and Shell, both described as being “toxic”. Bearing in mind the history set out below, particularly the Nazi aspect and the antisemitism, how could the Church of England invest in such a toxic business, as Shell?

Shell has targeted perceived enemies, such as Greenpeace and The Body Shop, with undercover activity using Hakluyt & Co, the commercial offshoot of MI6 set up partly by Shell and BP.   read more

EMAIL BEING SENT THIS WEEKEND TO EVERY UK MP. 

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Hypocrisy

Justin Welby is in hot water again. He has criticised another controversial company, last time Wonga and this time the tax-shy Amazon. Both later embarrassingly revealed to be businesses in which the Church of England is an investor. 

BBC Newsnight aired a package on Friday 14 Sept drawing attention to the subject and the Church of England’s numerous questionable investments. In particular, its holdings in BP and Shell, both described as being toxic. 

I can speak with some authority in relation to the toxicity of Shell. read more

John Donovan 1984

By John Donovan

My company Don Marketing supplied the spectacularly successful Shell Make Money game that ran on Shell forecourts during 1984/5 in a number of countries, including the UK. 

Years later, Shell deliberately ignored the signed confirmation of agreement below while surreptitiously producing a subsequent flawed Shell Make Money without our knowledge or consent. 

Shell executives blatantly lied about what was going on but was forced to settle the matter after Don Marketing issued a High Court Writ. read more

UPDATED: UNDATED

Comment on Bill Campbell *article by “Concerned employee” (Confidential contact information supplied)

I share your sentiments wholeheartedly Bill. The company has been caught with its pants down, with senior staff most likely involved in kickbacks. How could this have got through the numerous assurance including Integrity teams, Auditors etc who all form part of the checks and balances to ensure this is easily picked up (particularly in Nigeria). Either the company is full of incompetence, or there has been a blind eye turned to such corruption. I say (a lot of) both. The amounts of money involved is not loose change. I say this problem is endemic in many of the hardship countries we do business in. Shell is dark, corrupt and dirty and I am beginning to question if I am working for a far more sinister company than I originally thought. And this is playing on my mind.

*Stunned and outraged by Shell’s denouncement of Peter Robinson 

RESPONSE FROM BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

Concerned employee

Thank you for your comments. One of the observable symptoms of a corrupt and unethical organisation or individual is when it or they are critical of others whilst ignoring their own faults. Ben van Beurden may be, by all accounts, a nice man and perhaps the most competent chief executive RDS has had since the reserves crisis, but he exhibits a common failing that of shear hypocrisy. Remember, way back in those heady days of 1999, the first year coincidentally that the Company posted a negative reserves ratio, a younger Ben was one of a few aides de camp, protecting and assisting Phil Watts and masking this information at the time from shareholders, investors et al. read more

Email Sent To Prakken d’Oliveira by John Donovan, Sunday 10 December 2017

Be Warned: Your Law Firm is Almost Certainly Under Surveillance Again!

As Prakken d’Oliveira is aware, for more than two decades I have operated websites focussed on the *global misdeeds of Royal Dutch Shell. In more recent years, mainly via my websites royaldutchshellplc.com and royaldutchshellgroup.com. I make the above warning based on my own experience during a long drawn out acrimonious relationship with Shell.

Perceived as an arch-enemy, I have been the target of multiple spying operations carried out over many years at the behest of Shell senior management. I have irrefutable proof in the form of letters of admission by Shell and confidential Shell internal communications obtained in response to SAR applications under the Data Protection Act. UK police have carried out  investigations covering burglaries, threats of violence and repeated cyber attacks. read more

By John Donovan

Published below are the final pages – 113 to 138 – inclusive, from the Writ served on multiple companies within the Royal Dutch Shell Group on 28 June 2017 on behalf of Esther Kiobel. These pages provide supporting information about the claim, including a List of Exhibits. The formatting is not 100% accurate, but the content is correct.

Extract begins

CLAIM

The claimants request the court to enter judgement, provisionally enforceable as far as possible:

1. to rule that the defendants acted unlawfully towards the claimants and are jointly and severally liable to them for the damage that they have suffered and will suffer in the future as a result of the defendants’ unlawful actions, which damage is to be assessed during separate follow-up proceedings and settled according to the law, all this plus the statutory interest up to the date of settlement in full;
2. to order the defendants within 21 days of the judgment to compel the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, in any case the CEO of SPDC, to make a public apology for the role that Shell played in the events leading to the death of the claimants’ spouses and to publish the text of this statement clearly visible on its website, subject to a penalty of €20,000 per day (or a sum to be determined by the court in accordance with the proper administration of justice) that they fail to comply with this order;
3. to order the defendants jointly and severally to pay the extrajudicial costs;
4. to order the defendants, jointly and severally, to pay the costs of these proceedings, including the subsequent costs.

The cost of this: €80.42 read more

For years, Shell encouraged the Nigerian regime to take (more) effective measures designed to ensure Shell’s return to Ogoniland. Shell did this despite the fact that it had meanwhile learned from experience that in its actions, the regime frequently violated human rights and many people were killed.

By John Donovan

Earlier today we published an article about the latest legal moves on behalf on Esther Kiobel in the US courts against a Shell law firm. We now return to the publication of information about her legal action against Shell in the Netherlands. The numbered paragraphs below are extracted from the 138 page Writ served on multiple Royal Dutch Shell companies on 28 June 2017. As can be seen in the footnotes, the allegations are supported by voluminous evidence.

Extracts begin

8.8 Shell Nigeria Shell operated as a single entity

8.8.1 Introduction read more

Shell itself took action to provide the police force with arms. In the period in which the setting up of OPAPCO and the expansion of Shell’s police force were under discussion SPDC’s security adviser Victor Oteri asked the regime for consent to import more than half a million dollars of arms. The order included: – 130 SMG Beretta 9 mm Calibre; – 200,000 Rounds of 9 mm bullets/ammunitions; – 40 Berretta Pistols (to replace unserviceable ones); – Pump Action Shotgun 12 GA, 6 shots including slings – 50,000 rounds cartridges for Pump Action Shot Guns – 20,000 rounds Shotgun rubber bullets; – 500 Smoke Hand Grenades

Shell and the Abacha regime operated in tandem

By John Donovan

The numbered paragraphs below are extracted from the 138 page Esther Kiobel Writ served on multiple Royal Dutch Shell companies on 28 June 2017. More information about the latest litigation, this time in the Dutch Courts, is provided after the extracts.

Extracts Begin

8.4.2 Shell provided vehicles and facilities

258. It was characteristic of the relationship between Shell and the regime that “for relationship rapport” Shell regularly honoured all kinds of requests from the police and the security service, ranging from the payment of boat repairs to the purchase of air conditioning and office furniture.343 Shell even offered logistical support of its own volition.344 It also regularly paid field allowances for MOPOL345 and – as previously discussed in section 8.2.3 – vehicles and buildings were made available. Shell not only arranged the transport for MOPOL, but it was also common to take care of transport in the situations in which Shell asked the regime for “assistance”, as in the examples referred to sections 8.2.3 and 8.2.4.346 The Nigerian police also remained present in Ogoniland, which by then was already a no-go area for Shell, after 1993, with the aim of protecting Shell property.347 Among other things Shell paid the salaries and the meals of these officers.348 On request Shell provided operational maps to the Nigerian army, displaying all Shell’s activities.349 read more

Shell paid and maintained part of the Nigerian police force; Shell was prepared to purchase arms for the regime; Shell had puppets in place up to the highest level of the Nigerian government as a result of its revolving door policy, under which former employees of Shell work for the regime and vice versa; Shell maintained a network of informants in Ogoniland in conjunction with the regime. Shell was itself… a direct and active part of (all ranks of) the government apparatus that had to maintain ‘order’ in Ogoniland and to this end violated human rights on a wide scale. Shell’s police force in 1994 numbered more than 1,200 officers… Shell also had 41 marines and 128 MOPOL members… … in total the Shell-operated joint venture employed around 2,470 security staff…

By John Donovan

The numbered paragraphs below are extracted from the 138 page Esther Kiobel Writ served on multiple Royal Dutch Shell companies on 28 June 2017. More information about the latest litigation, this time in the Dutch Courts, is provided after the extracts.

Extracts Begin

8.4 Shell and the regime operated in tandem

246. Not only did Shell stand at the cradle of the aforementioned excesses by requesting the intervention of MOPOL or the RSISTF again and again, it also factually enabled the regime to do this by providing it with arms, personnel and money. As such, Shell facilitated the excessive actions by the regime, but also fulfilled typical government tasks itself.247. The strong entanglement of Shell and the regime is evident inter alia from the following facts and circumstances, some of which have previously been discussed above: read more

In the village of Korokoro the visit by Shell and the troops on 25 October 1993 led to a violent confrontation with the local population.

By John Donovan

The numbered paragraphs below are extracted from the 138 page Esther Kiobel Writ served on multiple Royal Dutch Shell companies on 28 June 2017. More information about the latest litigation, this time in the Dutch Courts, is provided after the extracts.

EXTRACTS FROM ESTHER KIOBEL JUNE 2017 WRIT 

8.2.6 Shell rewarded Okuntimo following excess of violence at Korokoro

209. At the beginning of October 1993 the Rivers State authorities started peace negotiations between the Ogoni and Andoni. Shell and MOSOP were also invited to them, even though Shell was not a party to the agreement.264 Others present were “OMPADEC, the Military, the S.S.S. (State Security Service), the warring parties and Police representatives”.265 To the surprise of Owens Wiwa, who was present on behalf of MOSOP, Paul Okuntimo also joined the talks: read more