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May 19th, 2010:

Toxic Living: California Neighbors Sue After Finding Homes Were Built on Oil-Saturated Soil

“The lawsuit, filed in October against Shell, the developer and its subsequent owners, claims among other things that the companies were negligent in their treatment of the site and that they fraudulently concealed chemical hazards on the property.”

Experts Say Homeowners Exposed to Dangerous Levels of Benzene, Methane

By SARAH NETTER CARSON, Calif. May 19, 2010

The tidy rows of hacienda-style homes in a pretty, well-manicured southern California neighborhood give little indication of the festering chemicals under the soil.

Carson Toxins Adolfo Valdes, pictured with his 3-year-old daughter Alexa, no longer lets his daughters play outside after environmental experts found crude oil just feet under his front lawn.

(Sarah Netter/ABC News)
More Photos

Built on top of a long-forgotten crude oil storage site, the 285 homes in Carson’s Carousel neighborhood are now ground zero for an environmental and medical crisis that has pitted current and former homeowners, some of them cancer-stricken, in a massive lawsuit against Shell.

“I’m very angry. I’m angry that this could happen to our family or anyone else’s family,” longtime Carousel homeowner Royalene Fernandez said. “It has definitely ruined our lives and I don’t want it to ruin my kids’ lives or my grandchildren’s.” 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.

Pension deficits threaten 1 in 10 FTSE firms

"The biggest deficit contribution was made by oil group Royal Dutch Shell, which handed £2.7bn to its pension scheme."

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.

Reputation Management

ROADSIDE RETAIL

The maintenance of a good corporate reputation in today’s febrile multimedia age is no easy task – not least because the needs of a company’s various stakeholders are all too often contradictory. Investors may seek cost efficiencies which boost earnings and dividends whilst employees seek job security. The need to boost the resource base, especially for oil and gas companies, will often conflict with the needs of local communities and environmentalists. And in some industries, like tobacco, the very nature of the business activity itself can be hard to defend and virtually incapable of being painted in a positive light. So does that mean that there are no firm guidelines that can be established to help companies manage their reputation – is it all too difficult? This article will argue that the reverse is the case – so long as companies understand that brand management and reputation management are the same thing – and so long as they have an imperative to integrate what they say with what they do – and then tell the truth. And as long as they have the confidence not to have their reputation management decisions taken by lawyers!

Let’s start with the key premise that there is really no difference between a company’s corporate brand and its reputation. This is not semantics – the need to understand this principle is an essential condition before we can go on to put a reputation management plan together. But first lets clarify what we mean by corporate identity or brand. In a company like Unilever the corporate brand is the company name and it is the multitude of product brands that comprise the consumer offer. Lipton and Lux and Persil stand alone as distinctive brands and although there is some measure of endorsement from the Unilever parent brand this is not crucial to the product brands’ success. When Unilever experienced some problems with the reformulation of their Persil brand back in the 1990s it did little harm to their corporate brand or to their business performance. It was a costly error – but it was confined to one product line – albeit an important one. 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.

Shell deal forges new links with China

Times Online

May 19, 2010

China’s biggest energy company has agreed to take a stake in Royal Dutch Shell’s oil and gas unit in Syria in a deal estimated to be worth $1.5 billion (£1 billion).

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has acquired a 35 per cent interest in Syria Shell Petroleum Development.

Shell has been eager to foster closer links with China, the world’s second-biggest oil consumer after America, and to team up in exploring and producing in the Middle East.

Shell signed a 30-year deal with CNPC on Sunday for joint gas exploration and production in Qatar. 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.

Shell pledges $2B to cut gas flaring in Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria — Royal Dutch Shell PLC says it will spend more than $2 billion in the coming years to cut down on gas flaring in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta.

Shell announced Wednesday that its project would involve 26 flow stations in the Niger Delta, in areas where the oil major had seen its work stopped by funding shortages or security concerns.

Shell says its Nigerian subsidiary already spent more than $3 billion to install such equipment at 32 flow stations.

Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas that is produced along with crude oil. Environmentalists describe it as one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. 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.

Gulf of Mexico oil spill won’t stop Shell drilling in Alaska

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Royal Dutch Shell intends to push on with its plans for deepwater drilling off the coast of Alaska this summer, despite political hostility caused by BP’s catastrophic spill in US waters.

By Rowena Mason, City Reporter (Energy)
Published: 6:33AM BST 19 May 2010

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig on fire in the Gulf of Mexico last month Photo: AP

President Barack Obama has requested extra safety assurances about Shell’s plans and halted new exploration in some areas, after the explosion at BP’s well in the Gulf of Mexico three weeks ago.

But Shell yesterday told investors at its annual meeting in the Hague that it plans to press ahead.

“We won’t drill in Alaska if we can’t do so safely and responsibly,” said Peter Voser. chief executive. “The characteristics of the fields are different to those in the Gulf of Mexico – less deep and there is less pressure. We intend to drill this summer if allowed.” 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.