An article published on 22nd May by BrandRepubic.com (printed below) revealed Shell’s plans to appoint a digital agency to turn around the online reputation of Shell.
This represents a very considerable challenge as it is almost impossible to search for any online information relating to Shell without stumbling across websites containing negative content.
For example, if you Google “Royal Dutch Shell Plc”, the number 3 result (out of 867,000) happens to be a Wikipedia article about what is described as a “Domain name oversight”. The “oversight” was actually gross negligence on the part of Shell management which allowed me to obtain registration of the precise dotcom domain name for Royal Dutch Shell Plc (which adorns this website). Shell subsequently attempted to seize the domain name by issuing proceedings against an 88 year old war veteran, me. This act alone generated global adverse publicity for Shell in the news media and online.read more
On 16th May I attended the inaugural Royal Dutch Shell Plc AGM located in West London. This was the downgraded (satellite) venue for what are evidently considered to be second class Shell shareholders. I refer to the former shareholders in Shell Transport and Trading Company Plc.
Not a single board member of Royal Dutch Shell Plc was present. Instead we watched the granite faced retiring Royal Dutch Shell Chairman, Aad Jacobs, on a giant video screen during a long-drawn-out AGM with shareholder questions alternating between the two AGM venues – one in Holland and the other in the UK.read more
OIL and gas service provider Saag Consolidated (M) Bhd has clinched a US$50 million contract from Russia’s Sakhalin Energy Investment Co Ltd.
Under the contract, Saag will be part of an exploration team assisting Sakhalin Energy, with the aim of stepping up crude oil production.
Sakhalin Energy is a Royal Dutch Shell plc-led consortium, of which the Anglo-Dutch oil giant takes up a 50 per cent interest in the Western Siberian oil field off Japan.
Russia is the world’s fifth largest oil producer.read more
RBC, 30.05.2006, St. Petersburg 19:14:02.Gazprom plans to complete asset swap talks with Shell within the terms of the Sakhalin-2 project by July 1, 2006, Gazpromexport’s (Gazprom’s fully owned subsidiary) Deputy General Director Sergei Yemelyanov said in St. Petersburg today.
As reported earlier, Gazprom and Royal Dutch/Shell signed a memorandum of understanding to swap assets within the terms of Zapolyarnoye-Neocomian field and Sakhalin-2 projects, according to which Gazprom would secure a 25-percent stake plus 1 share in the Sakhalin-2 project, and Shell would get a 50-percent stake in the Zapolyarnoye-Neocomian project.read more
By Emma Amaize
Posted to the Web: Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Warri — A militant group, the Iduwuni Volunteer Force (IVF) in Bayelsa State, has threatened to shut down all flow stations/oil wells in their area belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) if no tenable explanation is offered by the company for its non-challant attitude to the people.
The militant group has been embroiled in a running battle in the past few weeks with Shell over a statement that about N800 million was expended by the Anglo-Dutch oil firm in the execution of development projects in some oil producing communities in Iduwini kingdom.read more
The price of crude oil resumed its volatile trading Tuesday, jumping 66 cents a barrel to close at more than $72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, driven in part by fresh evidence of China’s thirst for oil. Here is today’s news roundup on oil and energy.
* * *
STILL THIRSTY FOR OIL: China’s oil consumption rose 10.8% in April from a year ago, the biggest such gain since 2004, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Beijing recently lifted the cap on fuel prices in China, encouraging refiners to buy more oil to make more fuel, feeding the surge in demand. Strong oil consumption in China, the world’s No. 2 oil consumer after the U.S., has helped keep global energy prices high.read more
· Staffing is biggest issue for industry, says union
· Firms already offering £10,000 signing-on fees
Terry Macalister
Wednesday May 31, 2006
The Guardian
A skills shortage threatens to derail Britain’s nuclear decommissioning and new building programme, the industry’s biggest trade union has warned.
Prospect, the engineering, science and management union, said the poaching of staff is already endemic among engineering and other companies ahead of a £50bn-plus dismantling bonanza and the final go-ahead for a second generation of nuclear power stations.read more
Business Wire: Deep Well’s Valuation is Set in the Oil Sands Game after Shell’s/BlackRock Takeover Bid; Deep Well’s Reserves Value is Estimated, in Comparison at $16.60 Per Share, Says Investrend Affiliate SISM Research Analyst Ernest C. Schlotter
May 30, 2006
(Investrend Research Syndicate) Ernest C. Schlotter, a senior analyst with Investrend affiliate SISM Research and a Starmine four star analyst, has placed an estimated reserve value of $13.20 to $16.60 per share on Deep Well Oil & Gas (OTC: DWOG) reserves.read more
By Thomas Catan
Published: May 30 2006 19:15 | Last updated: May 30 2006 19:15
With energy prices at record highs, oil and gas companies are hardly begging for money these days.
ExxonMobil has posted the largest annual profit in corporate history; BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other “supermajors” are struggling to find ways to use their huge infusions of cash.
Collectively, the largest oil companies have returned well over $120bn to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends over the past two years. ExxonMobil alone is returning $2bn to shareholders every month.read more
By Ellen Kelleher in London
Published: May 31 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 31 2006 03:00
There are two types of companies in which Luke Newman, manager of F&C’s £50.5m Special Situations fund, likes to invest: those that are undergoing some sort of change and those with share prices that imply little to no growth.
Mr Newman’s thesis is that value tends to be found when companies are either in a position of recovery or a turnround. The fund is quite focused as there are just 30 to 50 stocks in the portfolio.It has a bias toward mid- to small-cap stocks.read more
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Western Oil Sands Inc. (WTO.TO: Quote), whose sole business is a stake in a Canadian oil sands project, said on Tuesday it will explore for oil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
The Calgary-based firm said its WesternZagros Ltd. unit has signed a exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) with the Kurdistan Regional Government, Sulamaniyah Administration.
“We believe this EPSA is an early-entry opportunity into a highly prospective area and, subject to exploration success, could provide Western with an additional world-class asset,” Jim Houck, chief executive of Western Oil Sands, said in a statement.read more
A California state appeals court ruled in favor of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) petition on behalf of three online journalists Friday, holding that the online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as offline reporters do.A California state appeals court ruled in favor of the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF’s) petition on behalf of three online journalists Friday, holding that the online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as offline reporters do.”Today’s decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large,” said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl, who argued the case before the appeals court last month. “The court has upheld the strong protections for the free flow of information to the press, and from the press to the public.” Full story, For the full decision in the case [PDF], For more on Apple v. Doesread more
Online journalists have the same rights as traditional reporters, a Californian court has ruled.
The decision was made in a case brought by Apple against a number of reporters who published information online about a future Apple product launch.
Apple filed the lawsuit to find out the source of the reporter’s information.
But judges said that online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as offline media.
“Today’s decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large,” said Attorney Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital rights organisation who have been defending the journalists.read more
Judge overturns AppleInsider and PowerPage rulings
Tom Sanders in California,
30 May 2006
California judge has ruled against Apple’s request to force several bloggers to reveal the sources of confidential information leaks. The ruling overturned an earlier verdict in Apple’s favour.
Apple had alleged that AppleInsider and PowerPage had violated its trade secrets.
Both websites published information in 2004 about a product codenamed Asteroid or Q97, a forthcoming application that would allow users to record analogue audio within Apple’s GarageBand software.read more
Apple’s attempts to force an online technology news site to reveal its source have been blocked by a US State appeals court.
Apple had initially been granted permission to subpoena the email records of Apple insider and another site Powerpage.org in order to ferret out a mole that had leaked product information.
However, the three-judge State of California Court of Appeal was far less impressed with Apple’s tactics.
They overturned the earlier judgement claiming Apple failed to undermine the journalistic status of bloggers and chastised the company for bringing any of it to court before conducting a thorough internal search for the leak.read more
LOS ANGELES — Tempers are rising along with gas prices. Gas stations across the country report that drivers are taking out their gas rage against big oil by yelling at clerks and cashiers and sometimes driving off without paying.
“Everyone is suffering at the same time,” said Sam Shirazie, a clerk at a Chevron station east of downtown Los Angeles.
No detailed statistics are kept on incidents of gas rage. But the National Association of Convenience Stores said anecdotal evidence indicates they have increased since prices began climbing in February.read more
SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) – Royal Dutch Shell group and mining giant Anglo American Corp have formed an alliance that may result in the 5 bln aud Monash synthetic diesel and electricity project being developed in the Australian state of Victoria, the Age newspaper reported, citing the companies.
Shell and Anglo have formed the global alliance to pursue “clean”, coal-converting energy opportunities and have nominated the Monash project as their leading candidate, the daily said.read more
By Christopher Brown-Humesin Stockholm
Published: May 30 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 30 2006 03:00
Talk about a hard act tofollow. When Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo takes over as chief executive of Nokia on Thursday, he will be stepping into the shoes of Jorma Ollila, who over 14 years built the company into the world’s leading maker of mobile phones, a man repeatedly hailed as one of Europe’s top businessmen.
Not that 52-year-old Mr Kallasvuo appears daunted. “Mr Ollila is a hard act to follow. But I am not looking back, I am looking forward to the tasks and challenges ahead,” he tells the FT.read more
Published: May 30 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 30 2006 03:00
There are many reasons to express doubts about the move by Arcelor, the Luxembourg-based steel group, to buy Severstal of Russia in order to sidestep the hostile bid by Mittal Steel. One is the way the Arcelor board is presenting the takeover as a done deal, which only an absolute majority of all shareholders will be able to reject. A second is the opportunity for yet another oligarch’s fortune to leave Russia, with Alexei Mordashov picking up nearly one-third of Arcelor in return for his90 per cent of Severstal.
But the reason to welcome this deal, which will have been cleared in advance with the Kremlin, is that Vladimir Putin, the president, is evidently showing none of the neurosis about one of his country’s top two steelmakers coming under foreign control that he displays about foreign ownership in Russia’s energy sector. If only his evidently relaxed view on Severstal could become the template for a more general Russian openness to foreign investment. But only last week, at his summit with the European Union, Mr Putin was touchily describing the energy sector as “the holy of holies of our economy” and demanding reciprocity for any EU investment in it.read more
By Tom Mitchell in Daya Bay
Published: May 30 2006 01:39 | Last updated: May 30 2006 01:39
South China’s first industrial revolution bypassed Donglian, a poor village on the picturesque shores of Daya Bay. The factory sprawl that raced through Guangdong province’s manufacturing heartland in the 1980s and 1990s never reached this corner of the Pearl River delta, 80km north-east of Hong Kong. Even as the 20th century gave way to the 21st, Donglian’s residents still used water buffalo to plough their rice paddies.
Then Guangdong’s second industrial revolution landed right on top of Donglian in the form of CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company (CSPC) – Royal Dutch Shell’s $4.3bn (€3.4bn, £2.3bn) petrochemical joint venture with offshore oil producer CNOOC. Donglian’s ramshackle concrete and brick dwellings were razed, its wooded hills flattened and ancestral graves transplanted.read more
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices rose toward $72 on Tuesday, as a dispute between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear programme rumbled on and OPEC delegates said the cartel would keep pumping at near maximum rates to soothe market fears.
U.S. crude for July delivery was trading 38 cents up at $71.75 a barrel by 0053 GMT. London Brent crude traded 32 cents up at $70.91, after both markets were closed on Monday for holidays.
“The gains are a little surprising but people are looking at Iran and waiting for the big OPEC meeting,” said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo.read more
PROSPECTS for the vast brown coal resources in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley to host a $5 billion synthetic diesel and electricity project have soared.
Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell has thrown its money and technology behind the project, the Monash energy project near Traralgon, in a global alliance with the project promoter, South Africa’s Anglo American.
Shell and Anglo have formed the alliance to pursue “clean” coal conversion energy opportunities and have nominated the Monash project as their leading candidate.read more
RIO DE JANEIRO (MarketWatch) — Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.LN), and other private firms within a month will have to turn over their Bolivian gas station network to state-energy firm Yacimientos Petroliferas Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, the Estado newswire said Monday.
Petrobras owns about 25% of Bolivia’s gas stations.
The transfer of the fuel distribution business also hits the companies Copenac, Pisco, Refipet, and Pexim, the newswire said.read more
The Chinese government is to woo foreign companies such as BP and Shell to explore for oil in Tibet.
The controversial move follows a failure by the partly state-owned PetroChina to realise Beijing’s hopes that the disputed land could quickly become a major source of fuel for energy-starved China.
PetroChina is to oversee the opening up of 10 exploration blocks for foreign participation in the Qiantang basin, in the far north of Tibet. The company has asked its Daqing Oilfield subsidiary to prepare a package of data and bidding documents that it will present to foreign oil companies in the second half of this year.read more
By Thomas Catan
Published: May 29 2006 13:34 | Last updated: May 29 2006 13:34
Amid soaring energy prices, international oil companies are making unprecedented profits.
ExxonMobil posted the largest annual profit in corporate history this year. BP, Royal Dutch Shell and the other “supermajors” are having a difficult time working out what to do with the money.
Over the past two years, the largest oil companies have returned well over $120bn to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Exxon alone is returning more than $2bn to investors each month.read more
David Gow in Brussels
Saturday May 27, 2006
The Guardian
Arcelor, the pan-European steel group, yesterday torpedoed Mittal’s latest hostile takeover bid by buying Russia’s Severstal in an agreed 13bn euro (£8.8bn) deal designed to create an “unrivalled global champion” out of reach of its Indian-owned predator. The friendly transaction will see Alexei Mordashov, who owns 89% of Severstal, take 32% of the new group and, potentially, become its chief executive and even owner within a few years.read more
ST. LOUIS, MO, United States (UPI) — U.S. energy industry leaders are divided on the best way to produce energy from coal — with some providers showing reluctance to adopt cleaner technology.
U.S. coal reserves could last at least 200 years at the current rate of energy consumption, but coal is largely responsible for increases in global warming, The New York Times reported.
A 500-megawatt coal-fired electricity plant that generates enough power for 500,000 homes annually produces roughly the same emissions as 750,000 cars, Royal Dutch Shell estimates.read more
RIO DE JANEIRO (MarketWatch) — Brazil’s state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.LN), and other private firms within a month will have to turn over their Bolivian gas station network to state-energy firm Yacimientos Petroliferas Fiscales Bolivianos, or YPFB, the Estado newswire said Monday.
Petrobras owns about 25% of Bolivia’s gas stations.
The transfer of the fuel distribution business also hits the companies Copenac, Pisco, Refipet, and Pexim, the newswire said. read more
Shell and Norwegian oil company Statoil are seeking a partner for their revolutionary $1.5bn (£800m) project to take millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from a new power station and pump it under the sea.
The two companies, which announced plans for the carbon sequestration project in March, want a third company to build and operate the power station.
They are expected to approach Norwegian energy giant Norsk Hydro, Danish firm Elsam and US chemicals group DuPont, among others, about joining the venture. Informal discussions with some companies have already taken place.read more
Published: 26 May 2006
Royal Dutch Shell’s flagship investment in Russia was facing uncertainty last night after the Natural Resources Ministry threatened to scale back the company’s stake in a huge liquefied natural gas project to allow the Kremlin greater control.
The threat concerns the Sakhalin-2 project, the largest direct foreign investment in Russia, and a venture that will result in the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas plant in the far east of Russia. Shell has a 55 per cent stake in the $10bn (£5.3bn) project while two Japanese firms own the other two stakes. The Russian government has a revenue-sharing arrangement with the consortium but is known to be keen to get a direct stake in the project as Moscow seeks to bring more strategic energy reserves under the Kremlin’s control.
President Vladimir Putin has already urged Shell to honour a promise it apparently made to surrender a 25 per cent stake in the project in exchange for a share of a Siberian gas field.
Yesterday the pressure intensified when the Natural Resources Minister said it supported radical advice it had received from the country’s Academy of Natural Science urging it to take a 51 per cent stake in three different revenue-sharing projects including Sakhalin-2.
“The Academy suggests boosting the presence of Russian companies in these consortiums to 51 per cent as one of the measures to boost efficiency,” it said.
The other two projects were the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas venture, in which Exxon has a 30 per cent stake, and a large oil extraction operation in Russia’s far north in which Total is involved.
The ministry said it intended to act on the academics’ recommendation and to write to other government ministries to “correct the situation”.
Shell declined to comment but is known to have incurred the Kremlin’s wrath due to massive cost overruns on Sakhalin-2, which have prompted the Anglo-Dutch firm to ask the government to allow it to double its investment to $20bn.
There were also reports that the Natural Resources Ministry intended to take legal action against Total, a company the authorities believe is mismanaging its Russian investments, and to initiate detailed investigations into the efficiency of Shell and Exxon.
When revenue-sharing projects such as Sakhalin-2 were launched in the 1990s, Russia was relaxed about giving foreign firms large stakes in big oil and gas projects, but under Vladimir Putin that policy has changed and Russian, often state-controlled, firms usually take a 51 per cent stake.
The Natural Resource Ministry’s threat came on a day when Mr Putin told a summit of EU leaders the West could count on Russia as a reliable energy partner.read more
WRIGHT, Wyo. — More than a century ago a blustery Wyoming politician named Fenimore Chatterton boasted that his state alone had enough coal to “weld every tie that binds, drive every wheel, change the North Pole into a tropical region, or smelt all hell!”
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Peabody Energy, left; Brendan McDermid/Reuters, right
Gregory Boyce, of Peabody Energy, left, and Michael Morris of American Electric Power disagree on a new technology.
Articles in this series will periodically examine the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy-efficient, environmentally benign future.read more
By Financial Times reporters
Published: May 26 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 26 2006 03:00
Russia’s natural resources ministry yesterday called for a review of the two largest foreign oil projects in the country, even as senior officials sought to assure EU leaders that Russia was a reliable energy partner.
The ministry said the legal agreements underpinning oil and gas developments on Sakhalin island, on Russia’s eastern flank, were ineffective and should be reviewed.read more
Dow Chemical Co. and either British Petroleum or Shell may be partners in a joint-venture refinery project in China that Kuwait is considering to help build, a Kuwaiti official said on Saturday.
This is not the website of Royal Dutch Shell Plc nor is it endorsed by Shell or affiliated with Shell in any way. If you wish to visit the Shell portal website you are only one click away: Click here for the Royal Dutch Shell Plc portal site: shell.com
LONDON (Reuters) – Global miner Anglo American Plc said on Thursday it had formed an alliance with Shell Gas & Power International in converting coal to clean energy.
Anglo said in a statement that the aim was “to maximise the benefits from the emerging field of clean coal energy by taking selective equity positions in coal conversion projects”.
The projects would make use of Anglo's coal reserves and combine its mining capabilities with Royal Dutch Shell's technologies, with the object to extract, gasify and convert coal into chemicals, hydrogen, power, liquid hydrocarbons and other uses.read more
Financial Times: Russia calls for review of two foreign oil projects
By Financial Times reporters
Published: May 26 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 26 2006 03:00
Russia's natural resources ministry yesterday called for a review of the two largest foreign oil projects in the country, even as senior officials sought to assure EU leaders that Russia was a reliable energy partner.
The ministry said the legal agreements underpinning oil and gas developments on Sakhalin island, on Russia's eastern flank, were ineffective and should be reviewed.read more
THE Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (Step) gives 1,000 ambitious students a chance to boost their CV with business skills earned on eight-week placements at selected small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This is not about working for Shell, the oil company.Interns collaborate on projects in R&D, business processes and systems, marketing and manufacturing. Completed projects are outlined in a 1,000-word report and entered into a competition to find the Step “most enterprising student” of the year. Previous winners of the title and £1,000 prize include a University of Warwick student who patented a cellophane bag that automatically cleans water for the firm with which he was placed.
NI_MPU(‘middle’);
Students must be in the second or penultimate year of a full-time degree in any discipline at a UK university. Interns are placed regionally and earn £185 a week (tax exempt). There is no travel allowance.
The Independent: Shell's Technology Enterprise Programme: One big Step for studentkind
Shell's Technology Enterprise Programme offers the best-paid holiday jobs ever.
By James Morrison
Published: 25 May 2006
For many undergraduates, holiday jobs are spent surgically attached to headsets in sweaty call-centres, or stifling yawns through night shifts at service stations. The idea of being paid £185 a week, tax free, to enhance your career prospects by putting your degree subject to practical use in the workplace simply doesn't compute. read more
The WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
May 25, 2006Volatile crude-oil futures plunged by nearly $2 to settle at less than $70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, battered by speculators and a U.S. government report of rising inventories of gasoline and other distillates. Here is today’s roundup of news about oil and energy.
* * *
UNREST IN INDIA: Protests by hundreds of contract workers for Oil India Limited, India’s state-owned oil company, disrupted production in oil-rich Assam State. The workers, agitating for higher pay and benefits, set three oil pits ablaze after battling with police earlier in the week. Assam accounts for about 5 million tons of India’s 30-million-ton annual crude-oil production.
AIMING HIGHER: Morgan Stanley analyst Douglas Terreson raised his forecast for the average price of WTI crude oil in 2006 to $65 a barrel from $57.50. He raised his projected 2007 price to $60 a barrel from $55. He also boosted his estimate of U.S. refining margins, lifting profit forecasts for major oil companies in the quarters to come. “We are buyers of the integrated oil stocks,” he wrote.read more
The WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
May 25, 2006Volatile crude-oil futures plunged by nearly $2 to settle at less than $70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, battered by speculators and a U.S. government report of rising inventories of gasoline and other distillates. Here is today’s roundup of news about oil and energy.
* * *
UNREST IN INDIA: Protests by hundreds of contract workers for Oil India Limited, India’s state-owned oil company, disrupted production in oil-rich Assam State. The workers, agitating for higher pay and benefits, set three oil pits ablaze after battling with police earlier in the week. Assam accounts for about 5 million tons of India’s 30-million-ton annual crude-oil production.
AIMING HIGHER: Morgan Stanley analyst Douglas Terreson raised his forecast for the average price of WTI crude oil in 2006 to $65 a barrel from $57.50. He raised his projected 2007 price to $60 a barrel from $55. He also boosted his estimate of U.S. refining margins, lifting profit forecasts for major oil companies in the quarters to come. “We are buyers of the integrated oil stocks,” he wrote.read more
On a sunny May day in an office park in the Surrey countryside outside London, a Ferrari-driving hedge fund manager named Aref Karim is scooping up contracts to buy oil in July for $75 a barrel, $3 more than it's currently selling for. His company, QCM, has garnered more than $125 million in fresh cash since the beginning of the year, and he's itching to keep it at work. A few hundred miles to the south in Paris, on the trading floor of Societe Generale Asset Management, Arnaud Chretien's team of Ph.D.s and engineers operates in near silence, with powerful computers buying and selling commodities according to preset algorithms, taking advantage of swift movements in everything from heating oil and gasoline to zinc and copper. “It's quiet because we try to think,” says Chretien, a dapper 41-year-old who sports an Hermes watch and resembles a younger, Gallic Kurt Russell. read more
The WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
May 24, 2006Crude-oil futures surged by more than $1 to settle north of $71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, driven partly by worries about another robust hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico. Here is today’s roundup of news about oil and energy.
* * *
BIG OIL UNDER ATTACK: Even longtime supporters of the oil industry are turning more critical of giant firms’ record profits. Amid these attacks, Big Oil is launching its most vigorous political offensive since the 1970s, but its current political woes go deeper than the recent surge in pump prices.
CHINA LETS GAS PRICES RISE: Just as it is starting to let its yuan trade with the slightest bit of extra freedom against the dollar, China is also loosening up its price controls on gasoline and diesel fuel. Beijing’s second price increase in two months will allow a 10% gain in the price of gas and an 11% gain in diesel, effective tomorrow. But those won’t likely be enough to quell demand or inspire the adoption of conservation measures, experts say, meaning China will probably keep putting upward pressure on global fuel prices for some time to come. On the bright side, China’s refiners will get a little more money for their efforts.read more
Creaky Machinery
Under Attack, Big Oil Finds
Reserves of Clout Running Low
Giants Cut Back U.S. Lobbying
As Action Shifted Abroad;
New Bid to Play Catch-Up
How Rep. Barton Turned Critic
By BRODY MULLINS and RUSSELL GOLD
May 24, 2006; Page A1Rep. Joe Barton should be Big Oil’s biggest friend in Congress. The Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee hails from a booming corner of the Texas energy patch. An engineer by training, he spent years working for a large integrated oil company, Atlantic Richfield Co. Since 2000, no House lawmaker has received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than Mr. Barton.
But in recent months, Mr. Barton has become a vocal industry critic. He struck from last summer’s energy bill a measure that would have relieved the companies of liability for pollution caused by a gasoline additive. He started an investigation into record profits. Earlier this month, he sent a letter to the top U.S.-based executive of BP PLC, which now owns the company that once employed him, demanding that the company spend more of its profits to expand refining capacity in the U.S. The same day he sent another letter to Exxon Mobil Corp. blasting the compensation and pension package for recently departed CEO Lee Raymond. Mr. Raymond received a lump-sum pension payment of nearly $100 million.read more
Shell Declines to Pay Nigeria Damages Pending Appeal
By Gilbert da Costa
Abuja
An oil installation belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company in Odidi, Niger Delta area of Nigeria, Feb. 2006
Multinational oil company Shell, is set to defy a Nigerian court-ordered deadline to pay $1.5 billion in compensation damages to local communities in the Niger Delta. Shell’s decision not to pay the damages pending an appeal is likely to incense militants who have attacked oil-and-gas facilities in the past six months.
Shell says it will wait for a decision on its appeal before considering a court order to pay $1.5 billion in compensation damages to ethnic-Ijaw communities in the Niger Delta.read more
Published: Wednesday, 24 May, 2006, 10:23 AM Doha Time
BEIJING: Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said it’s in talks about investing in a 19.3bn-yuan ($2.4bn) oil refinery being built by China National Offshore Oil Corp in southern China.
Shell wants to invest in the refinery to integrate the facility with an adjacent $4.3bn chemical joint venture with China National Offshore, Lim Haw Kuang, chairman of Shell’s companies in China, said at Daya Bay in Nanhai, an area in the southern province of Guangdong. read more
Shell appointed technological partner for Extremadura refinery (La refineria de Extremadura 'ficha' a Shell como aliado tecnologico del proyecto)
Expansion; May 23, 2006
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In Spain, shareholders in an oil refinery in the Spanish autonomous region of Extremadura approve a rights issue and formed the board of directors of the company responsible for the project, Refineria Balboa. Spanish entrepreneur Alfonso Gallardo has a 47 per cent stake in the firm, while Sociedad de Fomento Industrial de Extremadura has a 20 per cent stake. The remaining 33 per cent is owned by leading Spanish electricity group Iberdrola and leading Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and savings bank Caja Madrid (10 per cent each) and Corporacion Empresarial de Caja Extremadura (3 per cent).read more
Shell to Sea says poll findings support its campaign
Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
Irish Times; May 23, 200
Political and business interests advocating progress on the current plans for Corrib Shell gas project are in the “minority” as a result of yesterday’s Irish Times /tns mrbi opinion poll findings, the Shell to Sea campaign has said.
The poll’s findings on the Corrib gas onshore pipeline give “the lie” to the claim that opponents of the high pressure onshore pipeline are in the minority, Dr Mark Garavan, Shell to Sea campaign spokesman, said yesterday. Shell E&P Ireland said it was “pleased that the majority of those surveyed want the Corrib project to go ahead”.
The poll conducted by The Irish Times / tns mrbi nationally early last week focused on the pipeline, rather than the entire project. It asked if the pipeline should go ahead on its current planned route, should be re-routed or should be scrapped. Only 20 per cent felt it should proceed on its planned route through Rossport to the onshore terminal at Bellanaboy in north Mayo; 44 per cent said it should take a different route, while 17 per cent said it should be scrapped. Dr Garavan said that in Connacht, “63 per cent support a reconfiguring of the project”.
Shell pledges to cooperate with Nigeria efforts to end row with Ogoniland
AFX Europe (Focus); May 23, 2006
LAGOS (AFX) – Royal Dutch Shell has pledged to cooperate with a government’s peace initiative to resolve its age-long row with Nigeria’s troubled Ogoniland.
Community unrest forced Shell to quit Ogoniland, where it had many oil wells, in 1993. Shell is Nigeria’s major operator, accounting for around half of the west African country’s daily output of 2.6 mln barrels.
President Olusegun Obasanjo last year set up a panel to reconcile Shell and the community.
“As a party to the reconciliation process, we commit to play our part to ensure the success of the peace initiative and as Mr President put it, ‘lay the foundation for genuine reconciliation in Ogoniland’,” Shell said in a statement here.
The Ogoni people, through the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), have been seeking local control of Nigeria’s oil wealth as well as compensation for exploration activities in their region.
Ogoniland is at the heart of the Niger Delta, home to Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry. The region is also the centre of ethnic and militant unrest as a result of environmental neglect and degradation.
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.
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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.
Peabody Energy, left; Brendan McDermid/Reuters, right
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:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
