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August 5th, 2006:

ShellNews.net: An Open Letter to all Oloibiri, Niger delta by the author Ben Wuloo Ikari

By Ben Wuloo Ikari

I hope Oloibirians (Niger Delta of Nigeria) would not sit tight and allow $hell to return to their land after about 40 years of reckless exploration, exploitation; poverty, environmental damages, diseases, death; total abandonment, and endangerment. 

The company is not honest to have said it left the area due to disagreement. $hell hurriedly dried off the oil fields there and exited without paying the inhabitants a dim of royalty or rent, nor trust fund. 

If it is true that disagreement was responsible for stoppage, how come it did not leave Ogoni and several other Niger Delta communities which had registered and are still registering serious disagreement to the point that the company seek the heads of community leaders?  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Houston Chronicle: THE BP EXPLOSION (*Shell not the only oil giant with flawed Health & Safety culture)

EXTRACT: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined BP a record $21.4 million in September for more than 300 alleged violations of federal regulations in connection with the blast.  BP agreed to pay the fine as part of a settlement, but OSHA levied a second, $2.4 million fine against the company in April for alleged safety violations at its Ohio refinery. BP “failed to learn from the lessons of Texas City to assure their workers’ safety and health,” Edwin Foulke Jr., OSHA assistant secretary, said at the time. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Agence France Presse: Gunmen kill five Nigerian oil workers in restive delta region

08-05-2006, 11h12
LAGOS (AFP)

Five Nigerian oil workers were killed by unidentified gunmen in the country’s oil-rich but restive Niger Delta region, police and industry sources have said.

The incident occurred on Thursday in the Egbema area of Rivers State in southern Nigeria when the men, working as contractors to Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell, were killed during an ambush on their way to work, an oil company executive who requested anonymity told AFP.

He said the motives of the killings were unknown as no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Petroleum News: Newfoundland gamble on grand scale

Chevron-partnership ready to spud C$140 million exploratory well in Orphan basin in mid-August; downplays chances of success

By Gary Park
For Petroleum News

Newfoundland’s storm-tossed seas, which produce some sickening lurches at times for offshore operators, are entering what could be their most exciting phase.

In a 40-year history replete with stories of success, setback and suspended hope there has been nothing to stack up against the C$140 million exploratory well a Chevron Canada-led partnership will spud in mid-August in the deep waters of Orphan basin. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Petroleum News: Major players ask for contract changes

State receives substantive critiques of proposed gas line fiscal contract from oil and gas companies, Doyon, North Slope Borough

By Kristen Nelson
Petroleum News

Comments on the proposed gas pipeline fiscal contract negotiated by the administration of Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski with project sponsors BP, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil are posted on the Web, http://commador.ursokr.com/, and include a number of substantive comments (see story on Anadarko Petroleum’s comments on page 1 of this issue). read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Petroleum News: This is no Shell game: Shell Canada has shredded the reputation of parent company Royal Dutch Shell for fiscal caution…

Comes to terms with inflation, gets serious about building oil sands future

By Gary Park
For Petroleum News

Shell Canada has shredded the reputation of parent company Royal Dutch Shell for fiscal caution by adopting what is arguably the boldest strategy yet to exploit the Alberta oil sands.

Shrugging off a series of operational hitches from the opening phase of its Athabasca project in January 2003, it has taken the first formal step towards expanding that operation, then tackling an even grander program of exploiting its reserves which total 31 billion barrels of in-place resources spread over three regions of northern Alberta. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Agence France-Presse: 3 Filipinos abducted in Nigeria — officials

Oil prices climb after kidnappings

(2ND UPDATE) THREE Filipino oil and gas workers were abducted in southern Nigeria Friday, triggering an upward march in world oil prices, officials said.

“The men were abducted at Bonny Island in Rivers State, near the Nigeria LNG (gas) plant. They are our contractors and employees of Baker Overseas Technology Services,” NLNG spokesman Igwebuike Mbanefo told Agence France-Presse.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) confirmed to INQ7.net the abduction of the overseas Filipino workers. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Daily Telegraph: Database: Legal: Royal Dutch Shell’s approval to develop oil and gas fields at Sakhalin Island will be contested in court…

 

• Royal Dutch Shell’s approval to develop oil and gas fields at Sakhalin Island will be contested in court by a Russian ministry, the government’s second attempt in as many days to delay the $20bn project.

• The City of London Police may expand the role of its financial crimes investigation unit, the largest in the UK, as the Government steps up its campaign against fraud.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Wall Street Journal: Oil News Roundup: August 4, 2006 8:50 p.m.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
August 4, 2006 8:50 p.m.

Oil futures tumbled as Tropical Storm Chris was downgraded to a tropical depression, further calming worries that it could disrupt oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s Friday’s roundup of energy-related news:

* * *
SPREADING SPILL: Lebanon’s environment minister warned that the oil spill caused when Israeli planes bombed a Lebanese power station nearly three weeks ago — called by some Lebanon’s worst environmental disaster ever — could pollute several Mediterranean shores, including those of Cyprus and Turkey. The oil has already affected about 10 kilometers of Syrian shoreline, according to the United Nations, and about two-thirds of Lebanon’s coast, according to Lebanon’s environment minister. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Houston Chronicle: Russia to Challenge Shell-Led Project

By ALEX NICHOLSON AP Business Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry said Friday it would file a court challenge to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC-led consortium’s plans to develop oil and gas fields off the island of Sakhalin, a day after it called for a halt in pipe-laying at the US$20 billion (euro16 billion) project.

Analysts have said the ministry’s probe into the Sakhalin-2 consortium is aimed at pressuring the Sakhalin Energy group to offer state-controlled gas monopoly OAO Gazprom better terms as it jostles to join what will be the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas development. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

ShellNews.net: a warning about tendering for Royal Dutch Shell contracts

By Alfred Donovan
 
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria has a double page spread advertisement in the current edition of The Financial Times inviting tenders for a major contract in Nigeria in relation to the Bonga Northwest field development.

http://www.businessesforsale.com/ft/Shell-Nigeria-Invites-Tenders.aspx

There is a volume of small print setting out the tender terms. Only companies that pass the “pre-qualification evaluation” will be eligible to be invited by Shell to “competitively” tender.
 
Companies wishing to participate have to invest a great deal of TIME and MONEY in the expectation that the tender process will be conducted on an ethical basis whereby all participants are treated fairly and honestly.  
 
I am in possession of evidence in the form of Shell internal and external correspondence, Shell internal notes, plus witness statements and court transcripts which suggest that companies should be extremely cautious in pitching for a Shell contract such as the one currently advertised.  I obtained all of this remarkable evidence during the process of one of the many litigation battles (I have lost count) that my son and I have had with Shell (Shell has yet to win a case against us). 
 
This warning is given because the evidence conclusively proves that Shell managers engaged in a deliberate carefully planned and executed conspiracy involving deception and fraud, designed to obtain without charge to Shell, commercially valuable information and to prevent companies in the tender process from approaching other oil companies. Although this happened some years ago, some of the members of the Shell senior management who endorsed the dishonest behaviour remain at the helm of the Royal Dutch Shell Group including the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell PLC JEROEN VAN DER VEER.
 
This deeply ingrained corporate culture of deceit, whereby Shell claims in its Statement of General Business Principles an ethical code of honesty, integrity and transparency in all of its dealings, but in reality engages in deception and cover-up, was of course also responsible for the reserves scandal which destroyed Shell’s reputation.   
 
The evidence in our hands relates to a Shell plan called PROJECT HERCULES which involved the introduction of a smart card based Shell loyalty card scheme in the UK.
 
Thirty five prospective suppliers were initially involved in the tender for what eventually became the Shell SMART promotion. The tender process was run by a Shell national manager who I will identity as “AJL”. A copy of a note listing potential suppliers/agencies involved at a later stage in the tendering process contained hand-written notes made in his handwriting in which he used “X’s” and circles on the listed numbers to create a shortlist. The companies marked with “X’s” were subsequently expelled from the pitch process. Another hand-written note by AJL listed the companies he had short-listed. AJL then asked a Shell legal advisor to prepare a confidentiality agreement for completion by each of the remaining short-listed companies. The agreement required that they would not offer their services or products to any other oil company during the continuing tender process. 
 
In due course AJL decided to reduce this shortlist to two UK companies, Geoff Howe & Associates and Senior King Limited. In other words, he had decided to reject the other companies on the shortlist, which included a company called Concept Systems. However, he did not want to release the “rejects” from the agreement because they might approach other oil companies. He therefore decided to “Keep rejects holding as long as poss.”, as per his incriminating handwritten note that he sent to his colleagues, including his line manager, Mr David Watson. 
 
AJL wrote to the rejects including McCorquodale; Concept Systems; AT & T Istel and Sheard Thomson Harris, falsely stating that they were still in contention, using the words “please bear with us – we will revert to you when we have made any further progress”.  He also requested further extensive information as part of his excuse for keeping them waiting and to obtain information from them under false pretences. This resulted in the relevant companies investing even more time and resources on a speculative basis in what was actually already a lost cause. Copies of his letters, all marked “CONFIDENTIAL”, were supplied at the time to his Shell colleague Mr Tim Hannagan, who, like Mr Watson, was aware of the plan and therefore part of the commercially motivated conspiracy. 
 
As previously indicated, all of the rejects had, at the insistence of AJL, previously been required to sign confidentiality agreements with Shell, which prevented them from offering goods and services to other oil companies whilst the “tendering process” was still in progress. 
 
Eventually even the two remaining companies – Geoff Howe & Associates and Senior King Limited – were ejected from the tender process.
 
Miraculously the contract was awarded to a company that had never even been in the tendering process: Option One.
 
AJL happened to have a personal relationship with directors of Option One – we have documentary evidence that he went out with their Directors to the theatre and restaurants and entertained them at his own home. For some reason AJL had an offshore bank account. AJL funnelled every project of which we are aware into Option One – his favoured contractor – irrespective of the contractual or moral niceties. 
 
The documents also showed that AJL had passed on to Option One information obtained from the SMART tender companies under the false pretence that they were still participating in the tender process.   
 
There is further documentary evidence of his extraordinary conduct on behalf of Shell.
 
An email from AJL to his colleagues stated his willingness to engage in “illegal” activity despite the prospect that it could be discovered. The email circulated to senior Shell managers in relation to the SMART scheme contained the following comment: “My note of 25/10 expressed a personal and pragmatic view of how to handle the problem – it is in fact illegal and is certainly unofficial, and if we were discovered then we will enforce the official position…” The email exposed the immoral mentality of this Shell National manager.
 
Irrefutable documentary evidence of the SMART tender conspiracy which proves how the plan was conceived and ruthlessly carried out by AJL and his fellow Shell managers was supplied at the time to senior Shell managers including Malcolm Brinded and his fellow Royal Dutch Shell Plc directors, Maarten van den Bergh (then President of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer, Jeroen van der Veer.  We received letters from Malcolm Brinded and Maarten van den Bergh confirming correspondence. 
 
Instead of sacking the individuals involved, AJL was able to claim in his Witness Statement “unreserved support” for his actions that “he has received from Shell management to the highest levels”. My son John and I invited senior Shell management including Mr Brinded, to disassociate themselves from the claimed endorsement of the unscrupulous conduct which was totally at odds with Shell’s Ethical Code – the aforementioned Statement of General Business Principles. No such retraction was forthcoming. 
 
(This is when the penny finally dropped in relation to our own dealings with Shell. We realised that Shell was rotten at the core and warned far and wide that this was the case; we wrote to every director of Shell Transport, Shell UK Limited, Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, UK Government ministers, Tony Blair, institutional Shell shareholders, even the Dutch royal family – reportedly the largest investors in Shell.  Unfortunately our well founded warnings were ignored and the reserves scandal which followed has been openly described on BBC TV in terms of being the biggest investor fraud in history.) 
 
The companies involved in the SMART tender had been deliberately deceived and cheated by Shell. Some were small companies which suffered financially because of the premeditated deceit perpetrated on them. Some individuals lost their jobs. Some companies went out of business.
 
The following is an en extract from a cross examination by criminal law barrister Geoffrey Cox of a senior Shell manager, Mr Frank Leggatt (now retired from Shell) who had no involvement in the SMART tender. The questions were put by Mr Cox (now Geoffrey Cox MP QC) and the answers given by Mr Leggatt.
 
EXTRACTS:
 
Q: Tell me, Mr Leggatt, if somebody enters a pitch, a tender process, and is rejected, would you think it proper not to inform them that they had been rejected, but to allow them to carry out significant further work without being told?
 
A: Would I think that were proper?
 
Q: Yes.
 
A: No.
 
Q: It is not proper, is it, to effectively deceive other potential contractors who have entered a tender and not tell them that you have actually rejected them, but then gone on to require from them further work, knowing all along you have rejected them? That is just not proper, is it?
 
A: No, it is not proper
 
END OF EXTRACT
 
AJL remained employed by Shell for some time.
 
For all of the above reasons, I caution all companies, organizations and individuals who have dealings with Shell to be on their guard, particularly when investing time and/or money in an effort to win Shell business (or whenever trust, legality or moral issues are at stake). read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Aberdeen Evening Express: Offshore workers safety concerns (*the Shell Brent HSE scandal)

EXTRACT: The union will approach energy giant Shell with a view to setting up an independent review panel, Amicus regional officer, Graham Tran, said; “It is necessary for immediate action to be taken on the very important issue of offshore safety and to win back the confidence of the offshore worker in relation to safety matters.

THE ARTICLE

AN OFFSHORE workers-union is demanding better safety for its members.

Amicus, the biggest representative of offshore oil and gas workers, has questioned the effectiveness of Health and Safety Executive. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

ShellNews.net: Shell alleged fraudster Rob Routs appoints new Country Chairman of Shell South Africa

EXTRACT: Shell Executive Director Rob Routs is a named defendant in a number of class action lawsuits relating to the Shell reserves fraud. Shell has already agreed to settle some of the lawsuits, including one brought by its USA employees.  Shell has also set aside half a billion USD to settle a global consolidated lawsuit which has been facilitated with the involvement of ShellNew.net in conjunction with the New York based law firm acting for the lead plaintiffs. The total cost of the reserves fraud to Shell shareholders, bearing in mind money already earmarked for settlements, plus fines already paid to the financial regulators, the SEC and the FSA, for fraud and fooling the markets, is over $750 MILLION USD.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

noticias.info: SINN FÉIN: Ferris accuses Shell of duplicity

EXTRACT: “The fact that Shell, after more than a year of attempting to bully Rossport men, should now drop their action speaks volumes. It confirms what many of us believe; that the entire deal regarding the Corrib field stinks to high heaven. The fact that Shell is willing to abandon its campaign of intimidation rather than shed any light into this dark corner speaks for itself.

THE ARTICLE

www.noticias.info: Sinn Féin spokesperson on Natural Resources Martin Ferris TD has accused Shell of duplicity in their announcement that they are to drop their court injunction against the Rossport Five. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Independent: Shell agrees to change route of gas pipeline in west Ireland

By David McKittrick, Ireland Correspondent
Published: 05 August 2006

The multinational company Shell has promised to change the route of a planned gas pipeline in the west of Ireland following a protest campaign.

The announcement is seen as a major corporate turn-around brought about by a vociferous campaign which highlighted safety and environmental concerns over the Co Mayo project.

The campaign centred on five farmers who were jailed indefinitely for contempt of court over their opposition to the plans. Known as the “Rossport Five”, they spent three months in prison before the company relented. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

UpstreamOnline: Ministry to challenge Sakhalin drilling plans

By Upstream staff

Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry is to challenge in court the Shell-led Sakhalin 2 consortium’s plans to drill for oil and gas off the Siberian island, reports said.

The ministry said today it would file a court challenge to plans to develop oil and gas fields of Sakhalin, a day after calling for pipe-laying wrok for the project to be halted because of the risk of mudslides, the Associated Press reported.

The news service said analysts told it the move was the latest attempt to pressure state gas monopoly Gazprom a stake in what is to become the world’s biggest liquified natural gas development. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

UpstreamOnline: Frontrunner in the safety race (*a devastating indictment of Shell management)

EXTRACTS: It would seem that Shell is now unwilling to give straight answers to many fundamental North Sea safety questions raised by Campbell and Upstream, such as how many emergency shutdown valves across its North Sea operations are still not operating as they should.

At Upstream we will certainly be looking for Shell to follow BP’s example in developing some of the long-overdue willpower, behaviour and actions to address the safety concerns of offshore workers who for too long have been at the sharp end of misplaced management decisions leaving them exposed to high levels of risk. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.