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Houston Business Journal: Report: Shell ranks as No. 1 oil company (*Absolute BS)

Shell Oil Co. is the world’s best oil company when it comes to sustainability, social responsibility, corporate governance and ethics and transparency, according to an oil and gas industry ranking compiled by Spanish research and rating firm Management & Excellence.

The annual ranking, now in its fourth year, measures oil and gas companies’ compliance with 386 relevant international standards such as those of the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, national laws, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, industry benchmarks and standards and reserves accounting.

Shell (NYSE: RDSA), which has its U.S. headquarters in Houston, has captured the No. 1 spot for the last four years. Its compliance score this year was 90 percent.

But the company has undergone some rough times during those four years. Two years ago, Shell admitted improper booking of its proven oil reserves, slashing the number by more than 20 percent, which cost the company billions of dollars in market value and resulted in the resignations of the company’s two top executives.

The Spanish ranking company noted that in 2006 “corruption dropped at Shell, which fired numerous employees over a bribery affair in Nigeria,” and the oil giant’s “social investments” rose more than 20 percent.

BP dropped in this year’s rankings to fourth place “mainly due to its Texas City refinery accident,” an explosion in March 2006 which killed 15 people at the company’s Texas City refinery near Houston.

Investigations put blame for the accident on BP, citing inadequate training of workers and poor maintenance of equipment.

BP also struggled with a number of other incidents during 2006, including corrosion of an oil pipeline on the North Slope in Alaska that caused a temporary, but disruptive, shutdown. Nevertheless, BP was given a compliance score of 81 percent.

In seventh place in the rankings is Houston-based ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) with a compliance score of 67 percent.

The M&E study includes an assessment of the leading oil service companies Schlumberger Ltd., Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc.

“All excel at corporate governance and financials, but only the top two, Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB)and Halliburton, perform in human resources, sustainability initiatives and community programs,” the study reported.

Halliburton (NYSE: HAL)and Baker Hughes (NYSE: BHI) are based in Houston, and Schlumberger has major operations here.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2007/02/19/daily33.html 

Some related links from Google…

Shell World’s Most Sustainable and Responsible Oil Company 2007
Earthtimes.org – Feb 21, 2007
For the fourth consecutive year, Shell is the world’s best oil company insustainability, social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance,

Shell World’s Most Sustainable and Responsible Oil Company 2007
PR Newswire (press release), NY – Feb 21, 2007
MADRID, Spain, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ — For the fourth consecutive year, Shell is the world’s best oil company in sustainability, social responsibility (CSR)

*Comment added by John Donovan of ShellNews.net: This PR report must qualify as the biggest load of BS in the history of PR propaganda. Amongst the claims, it says that Shell has been number one in ethics and transparency for the last four years. That includes the time period of the reserves scandal when three senior executives were forced to resign and Shell paid hundreds of millions in fines and settlements. The debacle made headlines around the world was described as the biggest fraud in corporate history (on a BBC programme) and a related multi-billion global class action lawsuit is still in progress. Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer has confirmed that Shell has already set aside £500 million to settle. It will not be enough. What about the PR debacles in Ireland and Sakhalin-2? Have the clowns responsible for this rubbish not visited the Wikipedia article covering Shell’s reputation. Unlike this report, it is a balanced and neutral article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Dutch_Shell_Environmental_and_reputational_issues

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