It was this article, followed by the oil price crash, which led to the growing speculation about a Shell BP Mega Merger.
By a confidential contributor.
Shell BP Mega Merger: Fact, or extremely well informed conjecture?
…its a typical dark, smoke-filled room where two teams of senior people – top echelon, Board level types, not the operational guys who run organizations these days – are discussing a thorny problem. The structure of the industry is changing: the mega-mergers of the 1990s, which brought BP to scale, saw ExxonMobil become the world’s biggest company and made Chevron and Texaco join hands are almost forgotten and a new world order has emerged. The state oil companies from the resurgent Russian and nascent Chinese super-powers now sit at the head of the negotiating table and the rules of the game are changing. Some of the world’s oldest and largest IOCs are no longer big enough to compete and its time, according to the bankers and consultants, for a ‘game changer’. Unless there a bold move is made, the under-funded pension pots and comfy Board appointments – not to mention more than one Royal family investment portfolio – are all at considerable risk. People are worried.
Extracts from an article by David Taylor published by The Motley Fool on New Years Eve 2014 under the headline: 
By John Donovan
…if prices remain in the region of $60 per barrel, then the current scenario would be retained for a longer period of time, exposing it to takeover bids. Also, if Royal Dutch does indeed takeover BP, it could work out well for both companies.
“…the tumbling commodities price has meant that takeover chatter has spread to even the fantasy realms of BP and Shell. Once considered unthinkable, senior sources are now saying that there is merit in doing the colossal deal…”; “Companies will not be able to continue with business as usual and must either cut back on expensive exploration plans or cut their dividends, or both…” 
ARTICLE BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL
By John Donovan
Reuters article published Tuesday 23 December 2014 under the headline: 
Alleged industrial espionage by Shell Oil Company: A senior individual in the U.S. intelligence community was authorised by U.S. Dept. of Defense government attorneys to confirm to me that an investigation directed at Shell USA had been initiated by the US Department of the Navy, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).
By John Donovan
By John Donovan
According to a report in the Nikkei business daily Royal Dutch Shell will likely exit the oil-refining and sales business in Japan.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Dec 19, 2014, 3:28 PM ET: By DAN JOLING Associated Press
By John Donovan
Four of these experts were from Shell, a prominent member of history’s top 90 polluters. Shell was also paying the costs. Its logo was everywhere, cuddling alongside National Geographic’s. The event was hijacked by Shell…
By John Donovan
The FTSE 100 has been dipping perilously in the past few weeks, giving up 722 points (10.5%) from its recent high of 6,905 on 4 September to Monday’s close of 6,183 — and if it can lose that much in three months it could certainly drop to 6,000 or lower by the end of December. 
By John Donovan
Oil prices continued their collapse on Friday… The new rout began Friday morning… Gas prices will continue to be in a free fall as long as crude oil is searching for a bottom,” the AAA motor club reported on Friday.
It’s completed about $43 billion of asset sales since the 2010 
Even more troubling than Shell’s “Arctic-ready” armada problems is Shell’s spectacular failure of good judgment. To avoid an Alaska tax bill, company managers ordered its secondary drill rig towed south through the winter storm-lashed Gulf of Alaska despite the tug master’s prescient warning that: “the length of tow, at this time of the year, in this location, with our current routing, guarantees an ass-kicking.” The tug master was right. 
Oil giant BP has said it will rack up costs of at least $1 billion (£637 million) over the next year as it embarks on a corporate shake-up which could cull more than 1,000 jobs. It comes as an Iranian official in the Opec oil cartel said crude prices could plunge as low as $40 a barrel in the near future…
The Church of England has warned it could withdraw its investments from BP and Shell unless the oil giants take greater action to tackle climate change.
The Opec oil cartel no longer exists in any meaningful sense and crude prices will slump to $50 a barrel over the coming months as market forces shake out the weakest producers, Bank of America has warned. The major oil companies will have to cut back on projects with a break-even cost below $80 for Brent crude.
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: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
