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August 5th, 2007:

ShellNews.net: The moral debasement of Royal Dutch Shell

By John Donovan

In its apparent desperation to increase production and rebuild reserves after the 2004 securities fraud and the further loss of reserves arising from the Sakhalin-2 debacle, Shell management seems to have completely lost its moral compass (if it ever had one). We first became aware of this over a decade ago.

Duplicity in Nigeria

Shell has admitted that it has a corrupt commercial relationship with militant leaders involved in attacking Shell employees and pipelines.  What is the motive for the illicit payments made by Shell to the militants? Does Shell pay off the gangsters (a dangerous unethical policy guaranteed to encourage more attacks and kidnappings) in the hope of keeping the oil flowing? Or are the militants paid to impede production on a regular basis to drive up global oil prices, thereby generating billions in windfall profits (as has been reported to us by a high level Shell insider source)? Shell has also admitted in a leaked internal report that its activities have fuelled the corruption and violence in Nigeria. read more

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.

From ‘Employee Spotlight’: Hugh Mitchell, Royal Dutch Shell Group HR Director

Hugh Mitchell Royal Dutch Shell Group HR Director

Employee Spotlight: Hugh Mitchell, Royal Dutch Shell Group HR Director

This section features a pen portrait of one of our colleagues in each issue.

In this issue we will take a closer look at Hugh Mitchell – Shell HR Director.

Tell us a little bit about your career

Since joining Shell in 1979 my career has principally been within Human Resources. My experience is evenly split between the upstream and downstream with assignments in E&P in Aberdeen and Brunei as well as within downstream refineries in the UK.  From 1995 – 1997 I led HR for Shell’s newly created Global Trading and Shipping business and from 1997 – 2003 I was Human Resources Director for Shell’s global Oil Products business. More recently (2003-2005) I held the position of Director, International Directorate.  As one of the Groups Corporate Directors, I led a small, specialist team providing regional and country advice, international Government relations co-ordination, and cross business integration.In March 2005 I became HR Director. read more

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.

The Sunday Telegraph: Cold war breaks out as Russia freezes out rivals in Arctic

By Liam Halligan, Economics Editor, Sunday Telegraph
5 August 2007

Almost precisely seven years ago, a Russian nuclear submarine – K-141 Kursk – became stranded on the floor of the icy Barents Sea.
  
One of the first vessels to be launched after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kursk was the largest attack submarine ever built. But, back then, Russia was so cash-strapped, and the post-Soviet Navy so dysfunctional, that the entire fleet was often denied routine maintenance.

After two massive on-board explosions, Kursk sank beyond the reach of the British and Norwegian rescue teams who arrived with the TV cameras in tow. All 118 hands were lost. Barely three months into his job, President Putin was badly rattled. This bruising episode spoke volumes about Russia’s decline as a world power. read more

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.

The Sunday Times: Iran gives Taliban hi-tech weapons to fight British (*Yet Shell still intends to do business with Iran despite the threat of U.S. sanctions)

August 5, 2007
Tim Albone, Islam Qala, Herat province

British troops in Helmand province fighting the Taliban face a new danger as sophisticated Iranian weapons and explosives are being smuggled into Afghanistan.

In the dusty frontier town of Islam Qala, near Herat, on the Afghan side of the border with Iran, weapons and explosives such as armour-piercing roadside bombs are being trafficked to the insurgents.

The news that Taliban rebels are being armed with Iranian-supplied weapons poses an added threat to the 5,000 British troops battling insurgents in southern Afghanistan. “I have to tell the truth. It is clear to everyone that Iran is supporting the enemy of Afghanistan, the Taliban,” Colonel Rahmatullah Safi, head of border police for western Afghanistan, told The Sunday Times. read more

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.

The Sunday Times: Russia goes for Pole at ice station Putin

August 5, 2007
Tony Allen Mills, New York

The world’s great shipbuilders are poring over designs for ice-breaking supertankers. Canada is spending billions on gunboats. Last week Russia planted its flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole.

The next cold war has already started and this one will be frozen. The battle for the mineral treasures of the Arctic will not only last for decades, it will be fought in temperatures below -40C, amid bone-chilling blizzards and unrelieved winter darkness.

The submarine stunt by Russian explorers intent on staking Moscow’s Arctic claim has provided a jolt of urgency to international efforts to protect and administer what one American admiral described as “the last great unexplored bastion on earth”. read more

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.

MALCOLM BRINDED Presentation to Credit Suisse Oil and Gas conference

To view MALCOLM BRINDED Presentation to Credit Suisse Oil and Gas conference
on 5 JUNE 2007 click here:
Malcolm Brinded June 2007 presentation.pdf

(Malcolm Brinded is Executive Director Of Royal Dutch Shell Exploration & Production)

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.

Bloomberg: South African Oil Companies Improved Pay Offer, Union Says

By Carli Lourens

Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) — BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and other oil refiners in South Africa improved their wage offer to local workers in a bid to end a strike that has led to fuel shortages in Africa’s largest economy.

“We can’t say yet what the improvement is,” Welile Nolingo, secretary-general of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU) said by phone from Johannesburg today. “We’re still negotiating.” read more

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.

ameinfo.com: IPIC, Shell eye Turkmenistan

Sunday 5 August 2007

United Arab Emirates:

The UAE’s International Petroleum Investment Company and Royal Dutch Shell are weighing up possible joint oil and gas exploration projects in Turkmenistan, reported Reuters citing the WAM news agency. The firms are also planning a $500m urea plant with a capacity of 1m tonnes per annum. The IPIC told Reuters last month that it was targeting oil and gas deals in the Caspian region.

http://www.ameinfo.com/128334.html

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.

AAP News (Australasia): Fed: Vaile won’t rule out enforcing ethanol target compliance

CANBERRA, Aug 4 AAP – Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile says he hopes it will not be necessary to enforce measures so that oil companies reach the federal government’s ethanol retail target, but has not ruled it out.

Shortly after opening Shell Australia’s 200th converted E10 (10 per cent ethanol) service station at Manuka in Canberra, Mr Vaile said the government was serious about reaching its target of a retail volume of 350 million litres of E10 fuel each year by 2010.

He said there was a range of enforcement options available to the government. “We have deliberately not gone down the mandate path because we’ve always believed that by supporting the rollout – and we’ve got programs that are helping in the production, programs that help fund the retail sector to convert service stations – to be able to accommodate the availability of a third line of fuel in those service station sites,” Mr Vaile said. “But there are the targets that the oil companies have agreed to meet each year on the pathway to 2010. “It is possible to put some compliance around those annual targets to make sure it’s not all back loaded, but it needs to be said we’re not going soft on this issue.” read more

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.