News and information on Shell PLC
From an article by Jonathan Porritt published by The Guardian on 10 February 2015 under the headline:“Oil company employees should consider quitting their jobs”
By John Donovan
I wonder if Paddy was thinking of Shell when he published this on this Facebook page?
The grotesquely high “compensation packages” of the Directors of the likes of HSBC as well as being morally repugnant are also bad for business. The rewards for making it to the top are so obscene that ladder climbers will do anything to make it. So every decision they take is driven by their own ambition and their need to kowtow to those who might appoint them to these golden jobs. This is a brake on creativity and innovation and on long-term thinking.
The issue before the Court is whether Shell’s internal FCPA investigation is absolutely privileged from a defamation claim by persons named in the report as having violated the FCPA. The former employee claimed defamation from Shell’s report of its internal investigation provided to the Justice Department. 
Tom Fox | February 10, 2015
Extracts
The Justice Department has been continually criticized, from blog commentators to U.S. senators, for not having more prosecutions against individuals for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Perhaps forgetting the Mitt Romney-ism that corporations are people too, one school of thought says that by only fining companies, the message is sent that getting caught for violations of the FCPA will simply be seen as a cost of doing business. Of course the more cynical might simply say corporations are tired of paying increasing FCPA fines.
By John Donovan
Following the decision announced on 9 February 2015 that Allseas is changing the name of The Pieter Schelte to the Pioneering Spirit, Ton Biesemaat, the Dutch investigative journalist, posted the following comment on our Shell Blog, which I assume is partly tongue in cheek:
Every seaman knows that changing a ship’s name brings bad luck. Especially if you do not purge all the references to the former name. Not even Pieter Schelte can stay on any documents. However Allseas with their admiration for the Nazi Pieter Schelte Heerema has chosen to rename their Nazi ship into Pioneering Spirit. Which is still a reference to the evil SS-man and even retains the P and S of Pieter Schelte. No sane minded seaman will take the risk to sail on this ship. Evil reigns there. Beware of the bad spirits!
By: MICHEAL KAUFMAN: Published: Feb 8, 2015 at 8:40 am EST
According to the quarterly results announced during the past few weeks, major oil companies have reported a mediocre performance for last year, as far as exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas reserves is concerned. At the same time, companies have also reduced their capital spending budgets for this year, which might exacerbate their lower production problem.
Over the last decade, some of the biggest oil companies have seen their production drop and their growth of reserves stutter, even though oil price was going up for the most part. Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A), BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) are five of the biggest global oil and gas companies, which saw their production drop 3.25% year-over-year (YoY) on average last year, while failing to replace the crude oil and natural gas – they extracted last year – with new reserves.
Information and graphic sourced from an FT article by Richard Milne in Oslo, Christopher Adams in London and Ed Crooks in New York, published 6 February 2015.
The first of two drilling rigs contracted by Shell will soon leave Singapore and once sea ice has sufficiently receded, will embark on a summer drilling project in U.S. Arctic waters, despite the objections of environmental activists. The Arctic is said to hold nearly a third of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13% of undiscovered oil.
Crude oil price is a major source of concern for energy companies, since it has tumbled over 50% during the last six months. Companies amid the low-price scenario are looking to maintain adequate liquidity. Shareholders are also concerned over the amount of dividends they are likely to receive in the current scenario.
Shares of BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) since the last six months have fallen over 18%, while shares of Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) have plummeted 15%. Investors and shareholders are clearly concerned regarding the ability of the energy companies to pay consistent dividends during these troubled times and have caused the energy stocks to crash since the crude oil price collapsed.
By John Donovan
Associated Press has confirmed that after protests, the Allseas Dutch-Swiss maritime engineering company said Friday it will change the name of a giant ship that had been christened after a convicted Nazi.
Allseas Group said that due to the “widespread reactions” Edward Heerema has announced that the name of the vessel will be changed.
“It has never been the intention to offend anyone,” the company said in a statement.
Earlier Friday, the company said it had no plans to change the name. The new name was not immediately announced.
In the last few minutes Dutch investigative journalist Ton Biesemaat has advised me that he has heard from two sources that Allseas is dropping the Nazi name of its giant new ship, which has generated so much offence on an international basis. We await confirmation from Allseas or Shell as to whether this information is correct. 
UPDATE BY JOHN DONOVAN 6 Feb 2015
According to a Dutch magazine article published today, Shell had a long connection with Pieter Schelte Heerema, who, on May 17, 1942, was promoted by Heinrich Himmler no less, to SS- Untersturmführeris. Shell is currently scheduled to be the largest user of the Nazi named ship. Consequently, Shell has the clout to put immense pressure on Edward Heerema to change the name, under the threat of cancelling the contract. Surely Shell has contingency insurance in place to cover any losses, knowing beforehand that it was playing with fire in contracting to use a ship with such a toxic name? Astonishing similarity with the Brent Spar decommissioning affair, which turned into a PR disaster for Shell and seems destined to happen again in this foreseeable “storm of criticism” unless Shell acts decisively. Regular visitors to this website know that I have been warning Shell for ages about associating itself with this Nazi named ship. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the sleazy sinister son, Edward Heerema, is unhinged in relation to this issue. Shell should bear this obvious fact in mind. By naming his pariah ship after his father, Mr Heerema has transformed a relatively obscure Nazi into an internationally infamous Nazi and in the process, drawn a lot of unwelcome attention to himself and his tax affairs.
By John Donovan
Just read the article by Tom Banks published today by Design Week under the headline:
Extracts
Radley Yeldar has redesigned Shell’s website, which will act as a hub for all corporate and consumer activity.
Radley Yeldar digital director Richard Coope says this extended to 74 different websites, in the region of 68 social networks and accounts and 18 mobile apps. In total they found were 27,000 pages of content.
His team has worked with the Shell brand and visual identity teams to make Shell’s branding “more in tune with a digital environment”. It is, he says, “the most rigorously policed and well understood brand in the world.”
By John Donovan
A letter emailed to Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, on 23 Oct 2014, from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, asked why Shell had omitted to supply in a Form 20-F filing, figures for Shell’s share of Kashagan proved undeveloped reserves.
Shell’s partners in the much troubled Kashagan oil field consortium – years behind schedule and billions over budget – include Eni, KazMunayGas, Total, ExxonMobil, China National Petroleum Corporation and Inpex. The project is known in the oil industry as “Cash All Gone”.
“We survivors do not want our past to be our children’s future,” said Roman Kent last week.
He spoke at the site of the Auschwitz death camp, seventy years on from the liberation of those imprisoned in this hell.
Roman was one of 300 survivors, reunited to remember the 1.1 million people who perished there at the hands of the Nazis.
As they gathered, the world’s biggest crane-vessel was preparing for the UK.
The Pieter Schelte is named after a SS officer, a war criminal, a man jailed for the enslavement of 4000 men on the eastern front, a man who allegedly spoke of the Aryan supremacy and in the most abhorrent terms about the Jewish people.
“For Allseas to name its vessel after a convicted Nazi war criminal is utterly shameful…: ”To even countenance honouring a Waffen-SS officer just shows how twisted, arrogant and out-of-touch Allseas management is. The Pieter Schelte should not be permitted to operate until it changes its name.”The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is demanding that Allseas Group SA, the owner of a ship that honours convicted Nazi war criminal Pieter Schelte, immediately change the vessel’s name.
The Pieter Schelte is a Panamanian flag of convenience vessel, contracted by Shell to service its Brent platforms situated on the UK continental shelf. It was named in honour of the Allseas Group’s owner’s father, who was a Nazi Waffen-SS officer.
ITF president Paddy Crumlin said the vessel’s name was a disgrace and it should not be permitted to operate in UK or European waters.
By John Donovan
Scottish TV news is reporting that the UK National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, and its sister unions, are outraged by the fact that Shell has awarded the Brent oilfield decommissioning contract to a ship with a Nazi name, The Pieter Schelte.
The unions intend to take coordinated action to stop the continued use of the scandalous Nazi linked name on the high seas.
Numerous articles have been published today as a result of a PR campaign by Shell in which it ironically claims to have learnt the lessons from the Brent Spar debacle. The STV story is the first to mention the Nazi name controversy.
From an article published by Interactive Investor on 2 Feb 2015 under the headline:Extracts
FTSE indices closed firmer today as blue-chip oil stocks enjoyed a sortie higher on improved crude prices. Tullow Oil (TLW) spiked on rumours of a possible bid from Shell (RDSA).
In the news, Tullow Oil (TLW) soared a hearty 9.32% to 399p on the Shell chatter.
From an article by Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Media: February 2, 2015After Shell’s troubled 2012 drilling season in the far north, the Interior Department began working on Arctic-specific standards for offshore drilling.
But those new standards aren’t done yet. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell says they won’t be in place to guide Shell’s planned return to the Chukchi Sea this year.
“As Shell indicated just recently that they were going to go forward with their exploration plan this summer, we’ll be holding them to the standards that we’ve held them to before, with upgrades and proof that they can do what they say they do before they’re allowed to go up there,” Jewell told reporters in a press call today, primarily talking about the president’s budget for her department.
An article by Michael Corkery and Peter Eavis published 2 Feb 2015 by The New York Times under the headline: American history is littered with oil busts that created big winners and losers.
Now, as the cracks appear in the latest energy boom, the forces of failure and opportunity are stirring again. Resolute Energy, a Colorado company that borrowed big in the boom, is among those in an endgame that is being played up and down Wall Street and in the vast oil fields that new drilling methods have opened in recent years.
It is a struggle that could take place at scores of other companies, leading to thousands of layoffs, as well as losses for banks and investors. At the same time, new fortunes stand to be made.
From an article by The Australian Pipeliner published 3 Feb 2015 under the headline:Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden has confirmed the company’s proposed Arrow LNG Project with PetroChina has been cancelled, but the Arrow Bowen Pipeline will not be affected.
Arrow Energy, which is jointly owned by Shell and PetroChina, had initially planned to develop a CSG to LNG processing facility on Curtis Island, Queensland. “We have slowed down on new developments which, for example, means Arrow greenfield LNG is off the table,” Mr van Beurden said.
However, work is continuing on the development of the Arrow CSG reserves in Queensland, which are now likely to be commercialised through a separate LNG project, with front-end engineering design (FEED) work progressing on the Arrow Bowen Pipeline.
Article by Peter Campbell On The Brent Delta Rig In The North Sea published by The Daily Mail/This is Money 2 Feb 2015 under the headline:Even though we are in British waters, the closest train station is Bergen, in Norway. In fact, the rig that we are standing on is so remote that London is three times further away than the Arctic Circle and the nearest landfall, on the Shetland Islands, is more than one hundred miles to the South West.
But Britain has this remote patch of icy water to thank for much of its prosperity over the last three decades. The Delta oil field, only a few miles from the border that divides British waters from Norwegian, has been one of the most productive ever discovered.
By John Donovan
On 29 Jan I published the comments from a former Shell employee who advised, based on Shell insider information, that Ben van Beurden and Marvin Odum would be ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to day, celebrating the launch of SHLX (Shell Midstream Partners LP) on the NYSE.
That seemed unlikely since Shell Midstream Partners rang the closing bell at the NYSE on Friday 16 Jan 2015 for that same purpose.
The source speculated that there is something bigger going on – perhaps the announcement of a Royal Dutch Shell BP merger?
By John Donovan
A number of people have contacted me about an article by Andrew Kellock published by the Aberdeen Press & Journal a few days ago under the headline:
The “oil boss” is Kieron McFadyen, Royal Dutch Shell Plc executive vice-president of health, safety and the environment.
The “bad boy made good” phrase comes from an article published about him in September 2006, when Mr McFadyen admitted that at the time he left school, he was a complete waster.
From the comments I have received in the last few days, it is fair to say that he has his fans and his detractors. (For comments about Mr McFadyen see foot of article)
From an OilPrice.com article by Nick Cunningham published 1 Feb 2015 under the headline:Oil companies have eyed the Arctic for years. With an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil lying north of the Arctic Circle, the circumpolar north is arguably the last corner of the globe that is still almost entirely unexplored.
As drilling technology advances, conventional oil reserves become harder to find, and climate change contributes to melting sea ice, the Arctic has moved up on the list of priorities in oil company board rooms.
That had companies moving north – Royal Dutch Shell off the coast of Alaska, Statoil in the Norwegian Arctic, and ExxonMobil in conjunction with Russia’s Rosneft in the Russian far north.
Bloomberg article by Dinesh Nair and Jillian Ward published 2 Feb 2015 under the headline:(Bloomberg) — Want to buy an oil well in U.K.’s North Sea? There are plenty available as some of the industry’s largest names try to sell aging, costly wells that have become even less profitable with the plunge in crude prices.
BG Group Plc, Apache Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. are among companies that have explored a sale of their North Sea assets, according to people familiar with the processes. In all, assets worth as much as 20 billion pounds ($30 billion) are currently for sale in the North Sea, said Dave Blackwood, senior adviser to investment bank Evercore Partners Inc.
By Brandon Lowrey
Law360, Los Angeles (January 30, 2015, 8:50 PM ET) — A California judge on Friday tentatively approved Shell Oil Co.’s $90 million good-faith settlement of personal injury claims brought by nearly 1,500 Los Angeles-area residents allegedly harmed by buried waste oil, leaving intact claims against the developer of their neighborhood, Barclay Hollander Corp., and its current owner, Dole Food Co.
The settlement lets Shell out of the lawsuit brought over the highly publicized contamination of the Carousel housing tract in Carson, about 13 miles south of downtown LA. Shell’s $90 million deal will offset any judgments…
(Bloomberg) — The United Steelworkers union, which represents employees at more than 200 U.S. oil refineries, terminals, pipelines and chemical plants, began a strike at nine sites on Sunday, the biggest walkout called since 1980.
The USW started the work stoppage after failing to reach agreement on a labor contract that expired Sunday, saying in a statement that it “had no choice.” The union rejected five contract offers made by Royal Dutch Shell Plc on behalf of oil companies since negotiations began on Jan. 21.
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.website publishes Shell Energy customer complaints posted on Trustpilot where there is an ample supply. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA – HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
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:
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. 
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 website etc. 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.
