News and information on Shell PLC
JULY 2004 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL NEWS
Thursday 1 July, 2004
Planet Ark: Shell world record wells pump gas from 2 miles deep
The Daily Telegraph: Movers and shakers: “Peter Voser”
The Times: BP heads for SEC clash over reserves
The Times: Time to clean up oil accounting: “SHELL’s nightmare”
Shell case is a rare example of the FSA applying American-style rapid justice – but why the transatlantic gulf in size of fines?
Edmond Warner
Saturday July 31, 2004
It is not just burgers, buildings and election advertising budgets that are bigger in the United States, it seems. The same is true of fines meted out by financial regulators, and regulatory justice gets administered much more swiftly, too. Those on the receiving end of these fast-track punishment beatings can console themselves that their wounds will be more superficial and swifter to heal than in Britain’s tortuously slow system.
Ian Wylie
Saturday July 31, 2004
Many students try to makes themselves more attractive to employers by gaining work experience as well as a good degree. But oil giant Shell claims to offer two programmes that go beyond the average work placement.
In its Gourami Business Challenge, teams of undergraduates battle to develop a five-year business plan which will be presented to senior Shell leaders. The game, says Shell, allows students to gain first-hand knowledge about the energy business, test their management potential and develop valuable skills along the way. At the end of the challenge, successful students are invited to a Shell recruitment day when the Gourami performance will contribute to the overall evaluation.
Oil company not surprised production problems in Russia can drive up world fuel prices-expected to happen here too
31 July 2004
It is no surprise to one major oil company that production problems in Russia can drive up world fuel prices.
US light crude has hit a new all-time high, closing at $US43.80 a barrel. The price is tipped to hit $US45 soon.
Shell spokesman Simon King says a range of international events can affect world prices.
He says events in the Middle East can affect it as well as disruption to supplies in Russia.
By JACK GRONE
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 30, 2004 11:07 a.m.
Posted 31 July 04
LONDON — The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority has hit the big time.
By slapping Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) with a GBP17 million fine Thursday over the company’s misreporting of its oil and gas reserves earlier this year, the FSA did little damage to the oil giant’s bottom line.
But the penalty, announced alongside a bigger fine that Shell will pay to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, should send a clear warning to the broader market, observers said.
The Wall Street Journal: Shell Transport And Trading Buys Back 2M Shares
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 30, 2004 5:27 a.m.
Posted 31 July 04
LONDON — Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s (RD, SC) agreement to pay a fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the company’s reserves overstatements fails to correct corporate governance flaws, the attorney for two large U.S. institutional shareholder groups said Thursday.
“The fine is the exact type of damage to the company that should be paid by the defaulting executives or board members,” Bill Lerach, a partner at the San Diego-based law firm Lerach Coughlin Stoia & Robbins, said in a statement.
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 30, 2004 5:48 p.m.
Posted 31 July 04
The following is a press release from Moody’s Investors Service:
New York, July 30, 2004 — Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Deer Park Refining L.P.’s (Deer Park) long-term debt to A2 from A1 and confirmed the company’s Prime-1 commercial paper rating. The rating outlook is stable. Deer Park is a refinery project joint-venture owned 50% by Shell Oil Company and 50% by P.M.I. Norteamerica, a subsidiary of Petroleo Mexicano (PEMEX, rated Baa1 foreign currency). It is financed on a non-recourse basis to its owners. The long-term rating downgrade primarily reflects the impact of Moody’s downgrade in May 2004 of Deer Park’s 50% owner, Shell Oil Company to Aa2 from Aa1.
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 30, 2004 4:44 p.m.
Posted 31 July 04
The following is a press release from Moody’s Investors Service:
New York, July 30, 2004 — Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Motiva Enterprises LLC’s long-term debt to A2 from A1 and confirmed the company’s Prime-1 commercial paper rating. The rating outlook is stable. Motiva Enterprises is a refining and marketing joint-venture owned 50% by Shell Oil Company (Aa2, stable) and 50% by Saudi Refining Inc. (not rated). Motiva is financed on a non-recourse basis to its owners. The long-term rating downgrade primarily reflects the impact of Moody’s downgrade in May 2004 of Motiva’s 50% owner, Shell Oil Company, to Aa2 from Aa1.
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Posted 31 July 04
The following is a press release from Moody’s Investors Service:
New York, July 30, 2004 — Moody’s Investors Service confirmed the Aa1 long-term debt ratings of the guaranteed subsidiaries of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies with a negative outlook. Ratings confirmed included the Aa1 long-term securities of Shell Finance (Netherlands) B.V. and Shell Finance (U.K) PLC. The Prime-1 guaranteed commercial paper ratings of both entities were not under review and are affirmed. At the same time, Moody’s confirmed the Aa2 Issuer Rating and certain IRBs of Shell Oil Company and the A1 preferred stock of Shell Frontier Oil & Gas, both with a stable outlook. The Issuer Rating of Coral Energy Holding, L.P. was downgraded to A2 from A1, also with a stable outlook maintained.
Reserves fine won’t dent bottom line
Friday July 30, 2004
Posted 31 July 2004
The $120m it cost Royal Dutch/ Shell to settle with the securities and exchange commission over the reserves scandal sounds a lot. Even the significantly more modest £17m slapped on by the Financial Services Authority dwarfs the previous record fine (£4m) imposed by the British regulator. But when a company is the world’s third-largest oil company, will it really notice fines on this scale?
Not surprisingly, Royal Dutch/Shell says it will. “Eye watering” was the term used by one executive yesterday. But pause a moment. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows the fines equate to less than four days of the group’s second-quarter net income of $4bn.
Mark Milner
Friday July 30, 2004
Posted 31 July 2004
Royal Dutch/Shell said yesterday it had agreed in principle to pay £83.6m in fines to regulators in Britain and the US to settle investigations into the oil reserves scandal that broke this year.
News of the fines came alongside results from Shell which showed higher oil prices helped the group to earn net income of $4bn (£2.2bn) in the second quarter.
Shell said it would pay $120m to the securities and exchange commission for breaches of SEC rules and US laws, and £17m to the Financial Services Authority under UK market abuse provisions. The British fine is the largest imposed by the FSA and more than four times the previous record. Shell promised the SEC it would spend another $5m on bolstering internal compliance procedures.
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.
