Oliver Morgan and Heather Stewart Sunday April 30, 2006 The Observer
The growing international crisis over Iran's nuclear programme could trigger a catastrophic oil price spike, sending crude prices over $100 a barrel, senior Wall Street analysts are warning.
With prices already at around $72 a barrel, such an increase could mean drivers facing prices of 110p a litre on forecourts, according the the Petrol Retailers Association. Last week Lord Browne, chief executive of BP, warned that prices could rise to £1 as he unveiled bumper $5.27bn profits for the first quarter.
Shell is also expected to announce close to record numbers next week, with analysts expecting profits around $5.57bn, driven largely by the oil price.read more
BOSTON (AP) — On the brink of the 21st century, a group of energy experts peered into the future of natural gas, and what they saw was quite rosy — and quite wrong.
To satisfy growing demand, producers could crank out a third more natural gas over the next decade at ''competitive prices.'' It could ''power our economy'' for decades beyond. Or so said the National Petroleum Council in its 1999 report.read more
The Gulf of Mexico’s largest producing oil platform knocked off-line by Hurricane Katrina could be running again in May, just before the start of this year’s hurricane season.
Shell Exploration & Production Co., a unit of Britain’s Royal Dutch Shell PLC, said April 20 repairs to its Mars platform will be finished in April, with partial production restored in late May. Hurricane season starts June 1.
The platform represents about 5 percent of the Gulf’s daily oil and gas production, which before the hurricane stood at 140,000 barrels of oil and 150 million cubic feet of gas a day. read more
Company is close to finishing first phase of feasibility study that’s likely to decide the fate of huge Nikiski fertilizer plant
Allen Baker
For Petroleum News
This coming summer will provide a crucial “litmus test” on whether Agrium Inc. and other potential investors pony up well north of a billion dollars to convert coal into feedstock for the Canadian company’s giant Alaska fertilizer plant.
That’s what Bill Boycott, general manager of Agrium Kenai nitrogen operations, told Alaska legislators April 19. read more
Apache buys BP’s last producing GOM continental shelf properties; $1.3B purchase second it has made from British giant
Ray Tyson
For Petroleum News
BP says it decided to sell the last of its producing properties on the Gulf of Mexico’s continental shelf because they no longer muster up to BP’s investment standards, not because of an increasing threat of hurricanes, which is said to be causing some producers to rethink their future on the shelf following last year’s devastating storms. read more
From a whirlwind of events in the Alberta oil sands there was a ground-breaking deal between Shell Canada and a northern Alberta aboriginal community to jointly develop leases.
The pact significantly advances plans by the Fort McKay First Nation to enter the commercial oil sands world in a way that could spell untold riches for its 500 residents.
A complex exchange of options and a possible land swap culminates a decade of talks involving 8,200 acres and a possible 500 million barrels of recoverable bitumen worth US$35 billion at today’s prices. read more
Mackenzie explorers want gathering and main pipelines under one regulator
Gary Park
For Petroleum News
The pace of future natural gas development in the Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Sea region may hang on whether Canada’s National Energy Board agrees in June to assume jurisdiction of both the gathering system and main line, submissions to the board have warned.
Having already missed a deadline to contract for firm capacity on the two systems, six members of the Mackenzie Explorer Group have told the federal regulator there is an “urgent need” to resolve an impasse in negotiations with Imperial Oil, the lead partner in the Mackenzie Gas Project. read more
Setting the stage for Arctic offshore oil, gas exploration
Alan Bailey
Petroleum News
With oil prices at record levels and companies champing at the bit to find more oil reserves, plans to shoot seismic offshore Alaska’s Arctic are picking up speed. Shell, ConocoPhillips and Houston-based GX Technology Corp. all plan to shoot seismic this summer in the Chukchi Sea, ahead of a Chukchi lease sale planned for 2007 by the U.S. Minerals Management Service. And Shell also plans to shoot seismic on leases it purchased in MMS’ 2005 Beaufort Sea lease sale. read more
Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense: the myths about high oil prices By Niall Ferguson (Filed: 30/04/2006)
The British call it petrol, Americans prefer gasoline. But whatever you call it, prices at the pump are soaring. Last week gas hit $3 a gallon in some parts of the United States. To which British motorists can only reply: Diddums.
Driving down the M40 on Friday, I passed petrol stations selling regular unleaded at 97.9 pence per litre. That works out at $6.62 a gallon. If a British outlet offered petrol at American prices – 44 pence a litre – there would be a queue from Beaconsfield to Birmingham.read more
'We've got 2 trillion barrels of the stuff left'(Filed: 30/04/2006)
Sylvia Pfeifer finds that the doomsayers who have been predicting that we'll soon be running out of oil are far too pessimistic
When Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, unveils a strategy update this Thursday, investors will want to know one thing: is Shell finding more oil?
With oil at $73 a barrel, nobody can pump the stuff fast enough. But in order to keep pumping it, oil companies also need to find new reserves. Unfortunately, most western oil majors aren't getting any better at finding oil, let alone at building their reserves. The last discovery of more than 5bn barrels was the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan in 2000.read more
AS if Shell did not have enough problems already with the Corrib gas field, it has now emerged that the pipes it plans to use to pump gas ashore in north Mayo are rusting away in Killybegs.
Work on the €900m Corrib gas project is suspended, and while Shell waits for a breakthrough in the stand-off with locals, more than 7,000 pipes that it bought four years ago are being battered by the Atlantic elements in Donegal. The oil company has already spent about €3m having them cleaned and preserved.
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Experts say that “shot-blasting” is the only way to ensure “the integrity and wall thickness of corroded pipes”, but it appears that Shell has not used this method so far.
Shell to Sea, a protest group campaigning for the gas to be refined offshore, claims a significant number of the pipes are now corroded by rust and are not protected by plastic caps.
The anti-Shell protesters were tipped off about the condition of the pipes recently in an anonymous letter from a Killybegs fisherman who says that he was employed to clean them last year.
read more
The Independent: Shell gas field protesters threaten to turn Ireland into a new Nigeria
'Rossport Five' warn that more local people are ready to go to jail over plans to pipe raw gas across their land
By Tim Webb
Published: 30 April 2006
The Rossport Five, who went to jail last year for their protests against a planned Shell gas pipeline in Ireland, have warned that the company will need army protection if it does not change its plans.
Vincent McGrath spent 94 days in jail with four other County Mayo landowners over their campaign against the Corrib gas project. He told The Independent on Sunday that more protesters, including women and children, would be prepared to go to jail to try to stop the pipeline going ahead.read more
Ethanol switch cited for outages at some Houston-area gas stations
By PURVA PATELCopyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Scores of gas stations in Houston were out of at least one grade of gasoline today as the conversion to ethanol-blended gasoline presented logistical problems, fuel suppliers and station owners said.
Experts say the problem is not a general lack of supply, but bottlenecks in delivery as companies convert to a new gasoline formula. This could mean scattered outages through the weekend.
“It’s been a total nightmare,” said Mohammed Ali Dhanani, who distributes gasoline to retailers and owns dozens of gas stations in the Houston area. He noted that 60 percent of his locations were out of gasoline by late today. “Many terminals where we get our gas have been down because of the ethanol transition.” Valero reported problems at 80 Houston-area stations today, while Shell had about nine stations with outages.read more
Shell refinery blamed for 'aluminium water pollution'28/04/2006 – 15:58:31
The local water supply in North Mayo is being polluted by aluminium run-offs from a Shell gas refinery, it was claimed today.
Around 100,000 tonnes of peat had been removed to create a site for the Corrib gas field in Bellanaboy and activists claimed it has led to the exposure of aluminium deposits.
'Shell to Sea' spokesman John Monaghan said the aluminium was running into the local river and on to Carrowmore Lake, which is the main source of water for the Erris region.read more
'Wake-Up Call' Gas-Price Uproar Is Likely To Shift U.S. Energy Policy
Anxious Congress WeighsTougher Fuel Standards,Ethanol and Hybrid Cars
Little Short-Term Impact Seen
By JOHN J. FIALKA and LAURA MECKLER in Washington, and STEVE LEVINE in Dallas Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNALApril 29, 2006; Page A1
The surging price of oil and gasoline has sparked a wave of jockeying in Washington that could presage the biggest change in federal energy policy since the 1970s.
Suddenly, ideas that have languished on various wish lists for years have a realistic chance of becoming policy, as motorists in many parts of the country face $3-a-gallon gasoline even before the summer driving season starts. Among those getting serious consideration for cutting gasoline costs and reducing foreign-oil dependence: higher fuel-economy standards for cars, new incentives to shift cars away from gasoline, a crackdown on energy-price manipulation and inducements to encourage more refining.read more
From traders to tankers: who makes a mint out of $70-barrel oil
This week petrol prices broke new records in Britain and the US, creating political fallout for President Bush and pushing UK fuel towards £1 a litre. But who is getting rich? We offer a dollar-by-dollar guide to a $2.4trillion global oil industry
Oil production Oil companies Companies such as make the bulk of their money from the “upstream” business: the exploration and production of oil. BP reported earlier this week that it had earned $6.8bn upstream out of a total profit of $8.5bn in the three months to March 31. Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil exporter in the world and rising oil prices have swollen government coffers. Exploiting oil is relatively cheap in Saudi – less than $3 for a $70 per barrel price, and it's all controlled by the state. Last year the country made $133.5bn out of oil and spent $74.8bn on things like education ($18.7bn) and health ($7.2bn), according to figures from the Centre for Global Energy Studies. It also spent on defence: $38.5bn, some of which goes to Britain to pay for BAE systems jets. Some of the $57.1bn surplus in 2005 went to pay off the enormous Gulf War One debt Saudi ran up. The rest? US Treasury bonds and other capital markets including shares of UK stock-listed companies. The princes take personal commissions on big trade deals and their money – estimated in total at $1trillion – is invested in all sorts of assets including London property. Dubai, like other members of the UAE, has put its money into becoming a centre of finance, trade and tourism. Dubai Ports World recently bought one of Britain's best-known companies, P&O. Nigeria has become the first African nation to pay off its outstanding debts using oil revenues: it paid $4.5bn to Paris Club creditors last week. In Nigeria, private oil companies such as Shell pay for the cost of finding oil and then pay a royalty tax to the government. Venezuela is using its newfound wealth in quite different ways. Hugo Chavez, the left-wing president of Venezuela, is promoting a massive new social reform programme. He is also selling oil at knock-down rates to Latin American neighbours in a bid to separate them from Washington's political orbit.$5.9 billion, Value of oil produced globally in a day
Transportation Massive demand for oil around the world has helped fuel the biggest shipping boom in history. Noone has yet secured the recognition of the former maritime magnates such as Onassis and Niarchos but Greeks – and Norwegians – still control the bulk of the world's tankers. The new figures of Greek shipping are men such as Loucas Haji-Iaonnou (father of easyJet founder Stelios), plus the Angelicoussis and Livanos families. Norwegian shipowner John Fredriksen is probably the nearest thing nowadays to Aristotle Onassis but he favours a low profile and is not someone who likes to be seen at society gatherings. Fredriksen has been spending some of his millions in Britain – he did once own London's most expensive property in Chelsea. Shipowners like the usual millionaire baubles such as fast cars, yachts and Impressionist paintings.But many love shipping and historically pile much of their money into even more vessels, fuelling over-capacity and bringing boom cycles to the inevitable bust. Overordering is happening right now. Owners – including and the other oil companies – can make $6m on one cargo carried on a typical longhaul journey from Saudi Arabia to the US east coast. The price of vessels has shot up due to heavy demand and it can cost up to $140m now to build a new one. A typical supertanker can carry 2m barrels of oil and at $70 per barrel this means a ship is moving a cargo worth $140m. Big insurance premiums have to be paid to cover the ships and cargos meaning large revenues for Lloyd's of London. $84 million, Daily cost of oil transportationread more
NEW ORLEANS, April 28 — Of course Bob Dylan had the appropriate songs when he headlined the first day of the 37th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, a celebration of New Orleans culture where Hurricane Katrina was on everyone's mind.
MarketWatch: Petrobras completes purchase of Shell Colombia assets
Apr 28, 2006
RIO DE JANEIRO (MarketWatch) — Brazil's state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, Friday said it has completed the acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell PLC's (RDSB.LN) fuel and distribution businesses in Colombia.
Petrobras is buying 39 gasoline stations and convenience stores in and around Bogota, a storage base, a lubricants plant in Puente Aranda and a terminal in Santa Marta, the company said in a filing to Brazil's stock-market regulator. read more
Shell unveils plans for 'biggest refinery in US'Apr 28 11:03 AM US/Eastern
Anglo-Dutch oil group Royal Dutch Shell has announced plans to make its jointly owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the biggest in the United States.
Shell founded the Motiva refiniery in 1998 with Saudi Refining and is considering increasing the output at the facility by 325,000 barrels per day.
“The project would make the Port Arthur Refinery the largest in the country,” Shell said in a statement on Friday.
Output would rise to 610,000 barrels per day, higher than the 557,000 barrels per day produced by the ExxonMobil facility in Baytown, Texas, the current biggest in the country.
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Forbes/AFX News Limited: Shell jnv Motiva plans US refinery expansion
04.28.2006
LONDON (AFX) – Motiva Enterprises LLC, jointly owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Saudi Refining Inc, said it plans to increase its oil refining capacity at Port Arthur in Texas by 325,000 barrels per day.
The additional capacity will be on-stream by 2010. Construction work will start in 2007 once the required regulatory approvals have been secured. The project, once finished, will make the Port Arthur facility the largest in the US, it said. read more
Unison.ie, Ireland: Corrib gas project 'has polluted Mayo drinking water'
08:06 Friday April 28th 2006
Opponents of the Corrib gas pipeline are claiming that drinking water from Carrowmore Lake in Co Mayo has been heavily contaminated as a result of the project.
The Shell to Sea campaign says the water has been polluted with aluminium as a result of the removal of peat from the site of the onshore gas terminal being built by Shell in Ballinaboy.
The group is due to offer samples of the water to officials from the Department of the Environment today in an effort to get an investigation into the concerns.read more
BP and Shell join oil majors facing Senate tax check By David Litterick in New York (Filed: 28/04/2006)
BP and Shell are about to be dragged into the latest row over high petrol prices after a US Senate committee demanded to see tax returns from the 15 largest oil companies as part of an inquiry into industry profits and soaring prices.
“I want to make sure the oil companies aren't taking a speedpass by the tax man,” said Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate finance committee, meaning that they were not dodging their taxes, as he asked the Internal Revenue Service to hand over records for the past five years.read more
The WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINEApril 28, 2006 12:40 a.m.
Oil fell to nearly $71 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. But crude prices are still up 16% this year and analysts believe they will stay lofty, thanks to brisk global demand and seemingly endless supply worries. Here is today's well of news about oil and fuel prices.
* * *
EXXON's PAYDAY:Exxon Mobil reported blockbuster earnings — quarterly profit rose 7% to $8.4 billion. Revenue for the quarter climbed 8.4% to $88.98 billion. But the world's biggest oil company missed Wall Street's more-demanding forecasts, and investors sent Exxon's stock price down 1.1% by the close. The latest bulging profit from Exxon comes at a time when both Wall Street and Washington are criticizing Big Oil for amassing hefty cash piles. For its part, Exxon trumpeted two statistics to indicate it is trying to get more oil and natural gas out of the ground. The company said its capital and exploration spending totaled $4.8 billion in the quarter, 41% more than in the year-earlier period. And it said its fossil-fuel production averaged 4.6 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, up an unusually strong 5% from a year earlier.read more
Investors harbour anxieties about standards of eastern bloc firms listing in London
Terry Macalister and Jill Treanor Friday April 28, 2006 The Guardian
Vladimir Putin's ambitions for state-owned energy companies such as Gazprom and Rosneft to become global giants is triggering a backlash in western countries, including high-level complaints about the way foreign investors are being treated in Russia.
Clara Furse, head of the London Stock Exchange, which could host a flotation in July by the Russian oil company Rosneft, has written in support of the institutional investor Hermitage Capital Management, whose boss has been barred from visiting Russia for the last four months.
F&C, a top City investor, cautioned yesterday that the Rosneft flotation raised serious questions of governance and legal risk, reflecting wider concerns in the investment community about governance standards of eastern bloc companies floating in Britain. read more
WASHINGTON, April 27 — Senate Republicans tried on Thursday to get the upper hand in the escalating political battle over high gasoline prices by proposing a $100 rebate for taxpayers and by suggesting that they might increase taxes on oil-industry profits.
WASHINGTON–Rising gas prices have sparked a new proposal in Congress that would pony up millions of taxpayer dollars to reward hydrogen energy breakthroughs.
Backed primarily by Republicans, the H-Prize Act of 2006 would create three categories of prizes to be awarded over the next decade, including a $100 million berth for “transformational changes in technologies for the distribution or production of hydrogen that meet or exceed far-reaching objective criteria.” It would be up to the U.S. Department of Energy to designate an independent, non-governmental organization to set the contest's rules and pick its judges.
Smaller awards of up to $1 million would be distributed every other year to inventions in four categories: hydrogen production, storage, distribution, and utilization. In alternate years, one prize of up to $4 million would go to those who achieve prototypes of hydrogen-powered vehicles or other products that meet certain predetermined benchmarks. read more
DALLAS (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. posted the fifth-highest quarterly profit for any public company in history on Thursday, and with oil prices above $70 a barrel it could go down as the company's weakest quarter for the year.
Exxon Mobil's first-quarter was lower than its record fourth-quarter, when the world's largest oil company reported the highest profits ever for any publicly traded company. And the earnings, which rose 7 percent to more than $8 billion, still fell short of analysts' estimates.read more
WWF stresses oil spill dangers of Sakhalin project
28 Apr 2006 00:02:06 GMTSource: Reuters
GENEVA, April 28 (Reuters) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) should not make loans to Shell's giant energy project off Russia's Pacific coast without more measures to protect the environment, WWF said on Friday. The conservation group said ice and poor weather around the proposed Sakhalin oil and gas operation would make it nearly impossible to clean up any spills for half of the year, placing marine life at risk in the case of an accident.
“This is the most difficult place on earth to have to respond to an oil spill,” Paul Steele, WWF International's chief operating officer said in a report.
“Wave heights in spring and winter are often five times higher than current recovery methods can cope with,” he said.
The EBRD's board is expected to vote in June on whether to approve a $300 million loan to support the Royal Dutch Shell Plc-led Sakhalin-2 project, which has drawn heavy criticism from green groups.
The massive oil and gas fields off the north coast of Sakhalin Island are located near the feeding grounds of the critically endangered Western Grey whale.
Shell and its partners Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi say they are working to safeguard the species.
Their Sakhalin Energy consortium spent about $7 million on whale research from 1997 to 2005 and agreed last year to reroute offshore pipelines.
WWF, formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, urged the European development bank to be cautious in its involvement in the $20 billion project.
“The EBRD cannot agree to fund this project whilst remaining consistent with its environmental values and maintain its credibility,” Steele said. “If it goes ahead and funds Sakhalin, its environmental reputation will be heavily tarnished.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday reported quarterly profit surged, driven by rising oil prices.
Net income in the first quarter was $8.4 billion, or $1.37 a share, up from $7.86 billion, or $1.22 a share, a year earlier.
Revenue jumped to $88.98 billion from $82.05 billion.
Crude oil prices have risen steadily from about $20 a barrel in 2002 to over $75 last week, handing oil and gas companies a long-running profit bonanza.read more
NEW DELHI (AFX) – India's state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) plans to pay oil giant Royal Dutch Shell about 170 mln usd for a 15 pct stake in a Brazilian oil field, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.
'The upfront payment for acquiring a 15 pct stake in block BC-10 is about 170 mln usd,' ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha told reporters, PTI said.
Another senior ONGC executive, R.S. Butola, said the company would spend another 234 mln usd as its share of the cost involved in bringing the field to production by the end of 2009. read more
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Wednesday it was increasing its stake in a Brazilian oil block and, as part of the transaction, India's state-controlled ONGC Videsh Ltd would also take a stake.
Shell has exercised its pre-emption option to buy an additional 30 percent interest in the Shell operated BC-10 block offshore Brazil and will sell half this stake to ONGC.
Technical and commercial studies are underway for the development of BC-10, which has the potential for production of around 100,000 barrels of oil per day, Shell said.read more
The Independent: The Big Question: Should we fear Kremlin control of Europe's energy supply?
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
Published: 27 April 2006
What is Gazprom?
Gazprom is the world's biggest gas producer. It supplies 20 per cent of global demand and holds about 25 per cent of world gas reserves – some 18 trillion cubic metres of the stuff, worth $84bn (£47bn). That is more than North America, South America, Europe and Africa contain put together and is equivalent to about a third of Middle East gas reserves.read more
WASHINGTON (AP) — Responding to an election-year spike in gasoline prices, Senate Republicans on Wednesday drafted legislation providing $100 rebates for taxpayers as key lawmakers sought access to Big Oil's income tax returns.
The rebate legislation also calls for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an intensely controversial proposal that will probably contribute to the defeat of the overall measure.read more
Financial Times: Shell uses Nigerian companies linked to rebels
By Dino Mahtani and Daniel Balint-Kurti in Lagos
Published: April 26 2006 22:09 | Last updated: April 26 2006 22:09
Royal Dutch Shell has admitted it has subcontracted work to companies run by Nigerian militant activists involved in a violent insurrection in 2003 that shut down 40 per cent of the country’s oil output.
The activists in question have links to a rebel group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), that attacked Shell oil facilities this year, closing down more than a fifth of the output of the world’s eighth largest exporter.read more
LONDON, April 2(UPI) — Environmentalists want the Royal Dutch Shell Group PLC to abandon a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration venture in eastern Russia.
The World Wildlife Federation and similar groups are demanding the Anglo-Dutch company quit its $20 billion project in Sakhalin, the Independent reported Wednesday.
Activists say RDS failed to persuade an independent panel of scientists that its activities will not harm a critically-endangered population of western grey whales. The cetaceans are due to arrive shortly in their breeding grounds when work on the project's pipeline begins.read more
The text in italics below is the heading and opening paragraphs of a letter I sent to Mr James Ross at Human Rights Watch on 7th February. I received no response.
THE PERSECUTION OF DR JOHN HUONG BY A MULTINATIONAL GIANT
I note that your organizations focus is understandably directed mainly towards evil regimes that resort to repression and torture. read more
from ECCR – the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility – www.eccr.org.uk
ECCR URGES SHELL SHAREHOLDERS TO VOTE YES
TO RESPONSIBLE RESOLUTION
The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR), the faith-based organisation that has initiated a resolution for Royal Dutch Shell shareholders to consider at their AGM in The Hague and London on 16 May, has replied today to the company’s published statement about the resolution by urging responsible shareholders to vote yes to the motion.read more
Deposits to Strategic Reserve Are Suspended, Rules on Ethanol Changeover Relaxed
By JOHN D. MCKINNON, JOHN FIALKA and JEFFREY BALLApril 26, 2006; Page A4
WASHINGTON — Under pressure to curb soaring gasoline prices, President Bush announced he would suspend deposits to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost consumer supplies and also seek to relax some antipollution rules.
The moves, combined with calls by Mr. Bush for an end to certain tax breaks for oil companies, reflect something of an about-face by the president and show the political risks for Republicans in the latest increases in gas prices. Those increases, which have pushed pump prices to more than $3 a gallon in some areas, come as voters' attitudes about the economy and pocketbook issues are beginning to take shape before the fall elections.read more
Portal to a variety of creative gripe websites containing invaluable information and sometimes rude commentary about famous people, companies, brands and institutions
This is non-commercial website provided for information purposes only, with multiple links to gripe, sucks and complaint websites: no subscription or other charges and no advertising. So that we remain entirely independent, we do not solicit or accept donations; websites are listed free of charge
A ‘gripe site’ is a type of website devoted to the critique and or mockery of a person, place, corporation or institution. They are also widely known as “sucks”, protest, or complaint sites. The Internet provides a low cost public platform for anyone, even of modest means, to reach a global audience via a “blog” or a “gripe” website. It is the high-tech equivalent of having a soap box at “Speakers Corner” in Hyde Park, London – that long-established bastion of free speech.read more
Oil Minister Asserts Iran Won't Cut Exports Despite Nuclear Standoff
By BHUSHAN BAHREE, CARLA ANNE ROBBINS and CHIP CUMMINSStaff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNALApril 26, 2006; Page A1
With Iran facing a showdown with the West over its nuclear ambitions, its top oil official said yesterday that the country would not use its oil exports as a political weapon and that it already is struggling to meet its own domestic oil demand.
Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, said Iran has the capacity to disrupt world oil markets, but doesn't intend to do so. “The need of the world for energy is soaring, and if Iran is taken out of the equation, prices will shoot up and there will be big difficulties in the energy markets,” Mr. Vaziri said at a meeting of top officials from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and consuming nations in Doha, Qatar.read more
CARACAS, Venezuela — Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Tuesday that recent state-imposed contract changes that brought a Venezuelan oil field it operates under government control will likely impact its share of earnings but is not expected to lead to job cuts.
Venezuela recently required Shell and other private companies operating 32 fields to convert their oil-pumping contracts into joint ventures majority-owned by state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. It seized two fields from companies that resisted the changes.
The new contract terms gave PDVSA a 60 percent stake in the Urdaneta West oil field and left Shell with the remaining 40 percent.
Sean Rooney, the head of Shell’s Venezuela operations, said the changes would not affect the overall revenues generated by the field but would impact the company’s share of profits.read more
Don't rule out a gas cartel; it makes sense to Russia
By Carl Mortished
WHAT ARE the prospects for a gas cartel, an organisation of gas exporting countries or Ogec? The unpleasant truth is that they look better every day and not just because Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas exporter is being vocal about its ambition to dominate global gas markets.
With periodic gas shortages and thermal units selling at high prices in Britain and the US, you might think that a gas exporter, such as Gazprom or Algeria’s Sonatrach, has nothing to worry about. There is ample demand and constrained supply. Europe’s big reservoirs of gas in the North Sea are depleting quickly, power stations are hungry and Russia struggles in periods of peak demand to maintain the pressure in export pipes.
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Europe needs much more gas, so why should its potential suppliers — Russia, Algeria, Libya, Nigeria and Qatar — risk political opprobrium among consuming nations by combining forces. The answer is fear. Many fear a glut of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and their fear is justified.
Oversupply is building in LNG, a market which is upsetting the old wisdom about gas being a local, disconnected market of rigid long-term contracts between suppliers and consumers linked by pipelines. To everyone’s surprise, a trading market in LNG has quickly emerged in the Atlantic basin where refrigerator ships loaded with frozen gas can alter course to Europe or America, in search of the best price.
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ROYAL Dutch Shell, the oil giant that earlier this year announced record annual profits, has taken the opportunity of a little cost-cutting at its London headquarters. The free lunches enjoyed by staff at the canteen have been axed. An astonishing decision given that the soaring oil price looks set to bring in another year of record earnings at the group.
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POLITICAL correctness seems to have broken out at one of London’s top legal firms. Nearly all the City’s lawyers now have people in charge of “diversity” — to the uninitiated that means ensuring that recruitment programmes include enough women and people from different ethnic backgrounds. Herbert Smith, however, has gone one step further, and has hired its first inclusivity manager. What does it mean? And how does it differ from a diversity manager? read more
The following is an email received from Ben Wuloo Ikari, the author of a recently published book entitled *“Ken Saro-Wiwa And Mosop-The Story and Revelation”.
Dear Mr. Donovan,
I write to show my appreciation for all your efforts at making Shell Oil accountable and responsible. You've been one of the very few who keep the deadly company on its toes. Dr. John Houng, is another. Thanks so very much for the tested information you continue to provide your audience. My regard also to your son for his high spirit and zeal to uphold the truth against a company that believe in killing for profit making.read more
Oil firms willing to bend-over for mullahs of Iran
As the clock ticks toward possible economic sanctions on Iran, foreign oil companies keen to gain a foothold in the country's massive hydrocarbon industry are as eager as ever to do business with the Islamic republic of mullahs.
Attracting foreign investment into the Iranian oil and gas industry appears to be a priority for both the country's firebrand president and his powerful oil minister. The close ties between Iran and global energy companies suggests U.S. efforts to use sanctions as a way to stop development of the country's nuclear program may not prove successful. “One has to realize that with Iran, when you look at both the oil and gas reserves, they have a very strong position as a country,” said Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which has a long history of involvement in Iran. For Iran, as well as for large energy companies and big consumers such as China and Japan, the stakes are high. Iran straddles 12% of global oil reserves and holds the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia, but the country needs an estimated $50 billion of foreign investment over the next 10 years to reach future energy production targets. For Iran to maintain its number two slot in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, it needs to tap into its oil reserves and quickly.read more
Crude oil and gasoline futures fell Tuesday after President Bush gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to relax regional clean-fuel standards to attract more imports of gasoline to the United States and to make it easier for supplies to be moved from one state to another.
President Bush also said he would halt deposits of oil to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve until the fall, but analysts said that measure would have next to no impact on crude prices and certainly would not help make gasoline any cheaper. Even the fuel-specification waivers will have a marginal impact, analysts said, given that the main force behind today's soaring pump prices is the near-record price of crude oil.read more
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia's gas monopoly Gazpromwants to buy all gas from ExxonMobil's (XOM.N) Sakhalin-1 project on the remote eastern island for re-exports to China and Korea, a business daily reported on Tuesday.
Vedomosti said Gazprom had raised the idea in its Sakhalin development strategy, which is due to be reviewed by the firm's state-controlled board on April 27.read more
Local protestors delay gas development on the west coast of Ireland
Large scale energy projects often provoke strong feelings within communities. Shell E. & P. Ltd is presently involved in a multi-million pound scheme developing a gas field of the west coast of Ireland.
In County Mayo a number of locals were imprisoned as a result of their opposition to an onshore pipeline Shell wishes to build as part of this project. The group have now been freed, but are still trying to prevent the work from going ahead.
Why we should love high oil prices Martin Vander Weyer (Filed: 25/04/2006)
Oil is seven times more expensive today than it was in 1998 and, according to the doomsters, the rise is far from over. As the price hit $75 a barrel last Friday, there were plenty of experts willing to predict that a conflict with Iran could drive it higher yet – to $120, or $150, or think of a number and double it.
This extreme change in the cost of the basic fuel that drives the world economy ought, on the basis of experience in the 1970s and 1980s, to be causing mayhem in financial markets and panic in treasuries the world over.read more
Fuel prices push Q1 Shell profit up 7.2%: $447-million net income: Athabasca output reduced by torn conveyor belt
Financial Post – Canada; Apr 25, 2006
var html = getInAdHTML(“box”,FTSite,FTSection,FTPage,FTIndustry); document.write(html);
if (showAd == 1) { var o = DOMGetElement(“artAd”); if (o) { DOMElementShow(o); } } else { var o = DOMGetElement(“artImg”); if (o) { DOMElementShow(o); } }
Shell Canada Ltd., the oil company controlled by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, said first-quarter profit rose 7.2% as fuel prices rose. Gains were blunted by equipment failures that cut output at an oilsands project.read more
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.websitepublishes Shell Energy customer complaints posted on Trustpilot where there is an ample supply. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
SHELL’S ROLE IN NIGERIAN OPL 245 BRIBERY SCANDAL
Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.
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.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders.
(JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER) For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell": WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed. NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer. We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party". MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]
SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY
EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."
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:
THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
ENDS
(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)
SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004
Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits. Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.
Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
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.
SHELL CONTROVERSIES
selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.
WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.
Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?
OVER 500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR SHELL WEBSITES
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 websiteetc. 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.
JOHN DONOVAN, THE OWNER OF THIS AND SEVERAL OTHER SHELL FOCUSSED WEBSITES
SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER
The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.
The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name - Pioneering Spirit.
GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE: FEBRUARY 2010
MORE INFORMATION: Contact details for over 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell reached John Donovan and some environmental and human rights groups, ostensibly from disaffected Shell staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company. The database, from Shell’s internal directory, contained names and telephone numbers for all the company’s work force worldwide, including some home numbers. It was supplied with a 170 page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm done by the company’s operations in Nigeria. John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.