Julia Finch
Thursday March 29, 2007
Jeroen van der Veer deserves the chance to continue much of the good work he has put in at Shell since taking over from Sir Philip Watts in 2004.
Memories of the reserves scandal will stay with many investors for a long time but the oil major has seen its reputation hugely enhanced since its humiliation at the hands of the US regulator.
Mr van der Veer can take much of the credit for that, although the restructuring of the dual-company structure that has also helped modernise the group, was the result of a wider board decision.
The worthy Dutchman has also been blessed with a good head wind from a rocketing oil price which has brought record profits. But he can take full credit for bringing more internal cohesion through his cooperative – if not exactly charismatic – working approach.
The one big area where he has fallen down is safety. This month Shell admitted that 37 employees and contractors had died on company business last year.
That was more than five times higher than BP which had its own annus horribilis with the Texas City fire in 2005. Shell’s record is a blot on an industry which always claims that safety comes before everything. Many of the deaths were in road accidents and most involved contractors, but the setting up of a new safety czar is clearly overdue. There were 36 fatalities in 2005 and while the company boasts of spending $1bn on renewing its ageing North Sea platforms, that looks like a late reaction to poor earlier decisions.
As the Guardian revealed a few weeks ago, Shell has continued to receive warnings from the Health and Safety Executive that it is acting illegally with regard to safety in the North Sea. Mr van der Veer needs to bring a halt to this, and so does exploration and production boss Malcolm Brinded if he wants to stand any chance of taking over the top job.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2044985,00.html
Related Guardian article: Shell safety record in North Sea takes a hammering
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2026737,00.html
For further information about the Shell Brent Bravo Scandal go to…
http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=46640&searchresults=1
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
