Stuff.co.nz: Oil finds fuel shareholders’ bid against Shell
“to press their long-running $23 million insider trading case against Shell.”: “The High Court has already ruled the small shareholders had a case to take against Shell. That decision was upheld by the Appeal Court.”
29 August 2004
By GARRY SHEERAN
Spiralling oil share prices are spurring on shareholders in the former oil explorer Southern Petroleum to press their long-running $23 million insider trading case against Shell.
Shareholder spokesperson Tony Gavigan said he was confident they now had information to prove price-sensitive information was withheld from them during Fletcher Energy’s takeover of Southern Petroleum in 1995.
He said the new information emerged during a search of relevant documents as part of the legal “discovery” process in recent months.
That process began in November last year when Shell withdrew an attempt to take the matter to the Privy Council, and agreed the full case be heard in the High Court first.
Shell, which bought Fletcher Energy’s assets in 2000, has assumed liabilities, including legal challenges by small shareholders.
Southern Petroleum shareholders were paid 75c a share in the takeover, but say they should have got $1.25 a share more because price-sensitive information on Southern’s oil and gas prospects were withheld from them.
Gavigan said the recent NZ Oil & Gas (NZOG) finds west of Maui were in the same Kapuni sands and at similar depths (between 3500m and 4500m) as the Mangahewa and Pohokura prospects sold to Fletcher Energy before their potential was widely known.
He said NZOG shares had risen from 39c to highs of more than 80c on the strength of finds at the Pateke, Amokura and Tui wells.
“NZOG’s share play is a timely reminder of what Southern Petroleum shareholders missed out on,” he said.
Gavigan said some estimates suggest Southern Petroleum shares would have traded as high as $3 in similar circumstances.
The country’s longest-running insider trading case is due to be heard in the High Court in Auckland on November 8.
The High Court has already ruled the small shareholders had a case to take against Shell. That decision was upheld by the Appeal Court.
However, the High Court has made no judgement yet on the insider trading case itself.
Shell has strongly denied the allegations, and still has the right to take certain legal issues to the Privy Council.
A victory by the 700 small shareholders would open the way for all Southern Petroleum shareholders to seek compensation.
That could escalate the claims against Shell from $23m to $100m-plus, or about half the $190m profit Shell NZ made last year.
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: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
