News and information on Shell PLC
12:53 – 05 November 2007
Interested in a job at Shell? The super-major currently has graduate starting positions in London, Aberdeen, Chester and Manchester, as well as vacancies for 300 graduates across Europe. These roles cover a range of technical and commercial disciplines: a range of engineering opportunities as well as commercial positions in finance, IT, HR and sales and marketing for graduates and early career professionals. Starting salary is £28,500, plus benefits.
12:53 – 05 November 2007
Shell Ep Offshore Ventures and Frontier Drillships have signed a joint venture designed to lead to the construction of a new drillship concept known as the Bully rig. The Bully is said to set a new standard by offering a flexible, smaller but highly capable vessel suited to deepwater and Arctic drilling while reducing the construction and operational costs compared with current new-build drilling rigs of similar capability.
The Shell/Frontier joint venture expects to deliver the first Bully rig to the Gulf of Mexico by early-2010, and it will be operated by Frontier on behalf of the JV under a separate management services contract.
12:53 – 05 November 2007
Many of today’s North Sea leaders cut their teeth during the cost-reduction drives of the mid to late-1990s under the CRINE and CRINE Network issues. This was a period where there was ruthless emphasis on slashing capital costs, with scant regard for long-term operational efficiency of installations.
The culture engendered by these initiatives was very alive in 2000 and echoes even today. The industry is paying the price of CRINE, as far as Whewell is concerned.
12:53 – 05 November 2007
Shell UK chairman James Smith will be in Aberdeen to deliver a lunchtime lecture at the University of Aberdeen/The Robert Gordon University Chemistry Week 2007 celebration.
Chemistry Week is a national event organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). Held every two years, the aim is to promote a positive image of chemistry and increase public understanding of the importance of chemical science in our everyday lives.
This year’s theme has been chosen to support the RSC’s energy and transport campaign, Fuelling the Future, with a particular emphasis on how chemistry offers positive solutions to the energy challenges that travel (and transport) are facing today.
Aberdeen Press and Journal
12:53 – 05 November 2007
Clearly out to force through changes, Whewell says “I would certainly characterise it (North Sea safety) as not where it should be.”
Equally, he believes he will get the co-operation that is being sought, the industry having acknowledged that it had not lived up to either expectation or past pledges.
“There is growing acceptance by the industry that it took its eye off the ball at the end of the 1990s when oil prices were low.”
Aberdeen Press and Journal
12:53 – 05 November 2007
As we mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the UK oil & gas industry’s Step Change in Safety initiative, I feel it is timely to reflect on the past 10 years and ask ourselves some difficult and searching questions.
What have we actually achieved? What challenges have we overcome, what challenges lie ahead? Are we taking our safety responsibility seriously enough or are we merely hiding behind glib cliches about safety being our number-one priority?
Kerri-Ann Hobbs
Thursday 08 November 2007
UP to 300 maintenance jobs at Shell’s Geelong refinery are in doubt after the company last week told staff it was bringing in a single contractor next year.
About 20 Geelong specialist companies contract to the oil refinery but staff are worried many will not be rehired by the yet-to-be-named contractor, sources said.
Yet Shell denied mass lay-offs, saying it expected the new specialist staffing company to rehire those currently working at the refinery.
Nov 7 2007 4:13PM
MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) – Russian technical standards watchdog Rostekhnadzor identified 22 violations during an inspection of the oil pipeline being built as part of the Sakhalin-2 project, the head of the agency’s division for the Far East District Alexander Poleshchuk told journalists.
The violations will require minor changes in the project documentation, Poleshchuk said. Work on the pipeline will not be suspended, he said.
“Yes, we uncovered violations, issued warnings to remedy them, but the violations are not critical,” Poleshchuk said.
Shell confidential discovery documents added on 7 November 2007
Confidential Shell EP Presentation to Financial Analysts by Tim Warren in New York and Rijswijk, April 8-9, 1999 (20 pages)
http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/426.pdf
Angola Block 18 Development Project Shell Management of bp Operations 9-13 October 2000: Every page marked “CONFIDENTIAL” (11 pages)
http://www.shellnews.net/classactiondocs/426_2.pdf
September 2000 Shell internal email correspondence involving Robert Inglis and G Parry EPC Study to Support Reserves Booking: “The Group has been doing very badly at replacing reserves and everyone needs to pull out all the stops”: Every page marked “CONFIDENTIAL” (6 pages)
By Mark Shenk
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose above $98 a barrel in New York for the first time on speculation U.S. stockpiles fell for a third week and as the dollar fell to a record low.
Crude-oil inventories declined 1.5 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 2, according to a Bloomberg News survey. A falling dollar increases the appeal of commodities as a hedge against inflation. BP Plc and ConocoPhillips plan to curb output in the North Sea starting tonight before storms batter the area.
By Greg Walters
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprombank, the banking arm of Russia’s state-owned natural-gas producer OAO Gazprom, bid for as much as 25 percent of Imperial Energy Plc’s shares.
Gazprombank offered to buy new Imperial stock at a discount to the share price on Nov. 1, the London-based oil explorer said today in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service. The Russian company, in an e-mailed response to questions, said the investment would be “financial” and it didn’t seek control.
Published: November 7 2007 09:26 | Last updated: November 7 2007 11:16
In recent years, Europe’s two biggest oil companies by market capitalisation have embodied different bets on the oil price. With a much smaller refining base than its supermajor peers, and shunning costly, unconventional fuel sources like oil sands, BP has been counting on prices falling. Lord Browne, chief executive until this summer, was banking on $40 a barrel in the medium term, slackening to $25 or $30 further out. Shell, meanwhile, implicitly believes in prices being stronger for longer. Since late 2004 it has gone out on a limb, developing big, long-life upstream projects, complemented by a solid downstream business able to process complex fuels.
Nigeria to launch probe into graft claims
By Upstream staff
Nigeria will investigate senior government officials implicated by Jason Steph, a former Wilbros executive who has pleaded guilty to bribery, Justice Minister Michael Aondoakaa said today.
Steph pleaded guilty to paying $6 million in bribes in 2003 to an unnamed senior member of the executive branch of the Nigerian government, the ruling People’s Democratic Party and officials of the state oil company.
Steph also pleaded guilty to paying $1.8 million in bribes to Nigerian government officials in 2005 and agreed to co-operate with the US Justice Department investigation.
By Upstream staff
Helicopters are evacuating hundreds of offshore workers from the Ekofisk and Valhall complexes today, ahead of an Arctic storm which is due to hit the region tomorrow.
BP plans to shut its 80,000 barrels per day Valhall oilfield from tomorrow night, while ConocoPhillips said it may be forced to shut down five of 16 oil platforms at the Ekofisk oil and gas field complex, seen producing 236,000 bpd.
The Norwegian shelf’s biggest operator, StatoilHydro, said it has no plans to shut production, and Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) said it did not expect the storm to affect other fields.
Wed Nov 7, 2007 8:55 AM GMT
MOSCOW, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile , Research) wants to expand its presence in Russia by entering “a huge-scale long-term liquid gas and oil project” with local companies on the Yamal peninsula, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
“It is not like building a house, it is like building a city. It will take a very long time. And of course we will work with Russian companies,” Jeroen van der Veer told Reuters in Moscow.
By Angela Henshall, Nicholas Heath, David Elliott and Reza Amanat
Dow Jones Newswires
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
LONDON, Nov 6, 2007 (Dow Jones Newswires): Major oil companies operating in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea are bracing themselves for gale force weather in the coming days, with some preparing to evacuate staff.
BP PLC (BP.LN) confirmed it is evacuating 200 staff from the Valhall oil and gas field as a precautionary response to forecasts of severe weather.
“We have started sending people to shore because severe weather is expected Friday morning. It is a precaution to demobilize people on Valhall field,” Olav Fjellsa said.
Production from 80,000 barrels of oil a day Valhall would be shut down until the severe weather has passed, Fjellsa added.
By John Donovan
Today I received an email from the secretary to The President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Kiel, Germany, seeking an address for Mr. Jorma Ollila, the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
The Institute wishes to send Mr. Ollila an official invitation to the Global Economic Symposium being held in Sept. 2008 but has been unable to find his contact details.
We were of course pleased to oblige as part of our free secretarial/PR services to Shell.
A couple of months ago I did write to Michiel Brandjes, the Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc drawing to his attention that people seem to find it difficult to make contact with Shell via its own website, but nothing has changed and Shell appears happy to let us field enquiries on its behalf including Job Applications and Business Proposals.
Ecological problems of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project will be resolved next year, company management told Russian resources officials on October 27.
The two sides met after the (Gazprom-led) [project operator, Sakhalin Energy, came under fire from the Russian government for continued ecological violations.
“I am pleased with your timetable to clear the problems next year and I think it’s positive Gazprom plays such a central role in your management,” Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev told Sakhalin Energy’s CEO Ian Craig at a meeting in Moscow.
Individuals’ Projects
Range From Electricity
To Clean Irrigation
By JEREMY WAGSTAFF
SPECIAL TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 7, 2007
Innovation isn’t always as glamorous as it sounds. Just ask Dean Cameron, who has spent the past few years digging around sludge to find a new way of treating waste, or Donald E. Morgan, whose research into helmets has taken him to the scene of gruesome accidents, or Iqbal Quadir, who found in cow dung a way to boost the fortunes of Bangladesh villages.
Nov 7 01:58 AM US/Eastern
By GILLIAN WONG
Associated Press Writer
SINGAPORE (AP) – Oil prices jumped to a trading record above $98 a barrel Wednesday amid expectations of declining U.S. supplies and following news of an attack on a Yemeni oil pipeline.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose as high as $98.03 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract Tuesday hit a high of $97.10 before closing at $96.70 a barrel, a record settlement.
“The oil market sentiment remains bullish … there is an overall upward trend toward the $100 level,” said Victor Shum, energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “Meanwhile, we can expect extreme volatility where on the one hand some traders will take profit while others will buy back positions.”
A line for diesel fuel at a gas station in Hangzhou, China. High oil prices have led to long lines and diesel and gas rationing.
By MARK LANDLER
Published: November 7, 2007
As the price of oil surges toward a symbolic milestone of $100 a barrel — hitting $96.70 yesterday — it is creating new winners and losers across the globe.
In southern China, high oil prices forced Wang Pui, a trucker, to wait in line 90 minutes the other day to fill up, just to be told he could pump only 25 gallons, as China faced spot shortages of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Analysts say that if speculators flee the market en masse, prices could drop even more quickly than they’ve risen
By Moira Herbst
Oil prices are soaring. Having jumped 40% since August, crude prices hit another historic high on Nov. 6, rising to $96.70 a barrel. The factors sparking the $2.72 rally this time: bad weather in the North Sea that could force production cuts, the dollar’s continued fall, more violence in the Middle East, and fears that U.S. crude supplies are low. The Energy Dept.’s Energy Information Administration will provide its weekly inventory report on Nov. 7.
November 7, 2007
PARIS (Reuters) – French oil giant Total
Adjusted net profit — stripping out gains from changes in the value of fuel inventories and one-off items — fell to 3.004 billion euros ($4.37 billion) due to lower gas prices and refining margins and a weaker dollar.
Total, the world’s fourth biggest non-government controlled oil and gas group by market capitalization, said adjusted net profit was up 4 percent in dollar terms.
Wed Nov 7, 2007 12:49am GMT
By Andrew Hough
LONDON (Reuters) – An advertisement by Royal Dutch Shell promoting its waste recycling record broke British advertising rules, the industry’s watchdog ruled on Wednesday.
The oil company’s charges that carbon dioxide (CO2) was used to grow flowers and waste sulphur was an ingredient in super-strong concrete were found to be “misleading”, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said.
The offending advert included a picture of an oil refinery, with chimneys producing flowers and a headline that read “Don’t throw anything away — there is no away”.
Rachel Williams The Guardian
Wednesday November 7 2007
A Shell advert featuring a drawing of flower heads emerging from refinery chimneys, implying the oil company used its waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers, broke industry rules, a watchdog ruled today.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint that the press advert, which featured the drawing misleadingly implied all CO2 emissions helped produce flowers and decided it breached industry code clauses on truthfulness and environmental claims.
Shell ad: claimed that the company used waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers
Chris Tryhorn Guardian Unlimited
Wednesday November 7 2007
Oil giant Shell has been censured by the advertising watchdog over an press ad that showed refinery chimneys emitting flowers.
Environmental lobby group Friends of the Earth was among those who complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the press ad, which ran with the slogan, “Don’t throw anything anyway. There is no away.”
Friends of the Earth said the ad’s central image – of refinery chimneys spewing out flowers – misrepresented the environmental impact of Shell’s activities.
Pioneer pays $150 million for natural gas leases and wells
10:17 PM CST on Tuesday, November 6, 2007
By ELIZABETH SOUDER / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]
Royal Dutch Shell PLC officially exited the Barnett Shale on Tuesday, selling its leases and wells in the most active natural gas field in North America to Pioneer Natural Resources Co. for $150 million.
Shell just couldn’t crack the North Texas field.
The major oil company was never aggressive enough to outbid smaller rivals for leases or acquisitions, so Shell wasn’t able to grow big enough to make the investment worthwhile.
By Javier Blas in London
Published: November 7 2007 07:57 | Last updated: November 7 2007 07:57
Crude oil and gold prices surged to fresh highs on Wednesday amid renewed dollar weakness as investors sought refuge from a second wave of credit turmoil.
The closure of several North Sea oil production platforms because of bad weather was underpinning the market, traders said. ConocoPhillips and BP were expected to reduce production in the area ahead of a powerful storm.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped in after hours trading another $1 to a record of $98.03 a barrel, extending the previous day almost $3 rise to $97.07 a barrel. Oil prices have risen about 60 per cent so far this year.
By Ricardo Hausmann
Published: November 7 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 7 2007 02:00
Peering into the future seldom produces a clear picture. But this is not the case with bioenergy. Its long-term impacts on the global economy appear to be pretty clear, making many long-term predictions quite compelling, including the demise of the price-setting power of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the end of agricultural protectionism.
First, technology is bound to deliver a biofuel that will be competitive with fossil energy at something like current prices. It probably already has. Brazil has been exporting ethanol to the US at an average delivery price of $1.45 for an amount with the energy equivalence of a gallon of petrol. It is doing so profitably and in increasing amounts, in spite of a 54 cents a gallon tariff to protect American maize-based ethanol producers. Many countries are following suit.
By Ed Crooks in London
Published: November 7 2007 03:29 | Last updated: November 7 2007 03:29
Royal Dutch Shell hopes to have a “second generation” biofuel, which can be produced from plant waste rather than food crops, on the market in five years, the company said on Tuesday.
Graeme Sweeney, the head of fuels development, set the objective as he announced an expansion of Shell’s collaboration with Codexis, a California-based biotechnology company, to work on enzymes for extracting fuel from plant matter.
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
LONDON: Britain’s advertising watchdog criticized a newspaper ad by Royal Dutch Shell that portrays the outline of an oil refinery with flowers sprouting from its chimneys, saying that two of its environmental claims were likely to mislead readers.
The Advertising Standards Authority, which issued the ruling Tuesday, only has the authority to remove ads from Britain’s media, which the oil producer has already done.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it accepted the decision but found it disappointing.
This is not a Shell website. That fact should be abundantly plain from the overall content of this home page and our sister Shell-focussed websites, including shellnazihistory.com. Click on the Disclaimer link at top of this page for more information. You Can Be Sure Shell does not endorse or approve of this website. There are no subscription charges nor do we solicit or accept donations. It is an entirely free to use website drawing attention to the negative side of Shell while also publishing positive news about the company. The Shell logo image with the white text used on this website, as per the above example, is in the public domain because its copyright has expired and its author is anonymous. It can be found on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Our shellenergy.website publishes Shell Energy customer complaints posted on Trustpilot where there is an ample supply. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA – HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
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:
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. 
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
