News and information on Shell PLC
Jan 14, 2016
British shareholder advisory firm PIRC on Thursday recommended investors vote in favour of Royal Dutch Shell’s $48 billion acquisition of BG Group later this month.
“The rationale for the proposed acquisition has been clearly disclosed and does not raise any concerns,” PIRC said in a note to investors.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Mark Potter)
Shell’s Deal Math on BG Vote
Petrol will soon cost less than bottled water as the relentless decline in oil prices sends fuel down to 86p a litre, it has been claimed.
Brent crude fell to below $30 a barrel for the first time since 2004 on Wednesday evening – and has fallen by more 73pc since reaching highs of $115 last summer.
Motoring group RAC said pump prices now could fall back to levels last seen in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009, if the commodity plunges to as low as $10, a forecast made by Standard Chartered bank earlier this week.
The main stock markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris sank by about 2%, tracking steep overnight losses on Wall Street and on Asian indexes.
The Brent crude oil benchmark fell another 0.4% to $30.15 a barrel, having briefly drifted below $30.
The pound hovered close to five-and-half-year lows against the dollar.
The FTSE 100 index was about 1.9% lower two hours into trading, with only four stocks in the index making gains.
“This market is in contraction and I expect this contraction to continue for the next six months,” Beaufort Securities’ sales trader Basil Petrides told Reuters.
By Rupert Hargreaves – Thursday, 14 January, 2016
There’s nothing worse than analysts labelling a company ‘dead money’, the slang term given to an investment that’s unlikely to produce a positive return for the foreseeable future.
If the investment truly is dead money, the likelihood of a turnaround is low and investors should consider selling the shares before incurring additional losses.
Unfortunately, the market seems to think that Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) is dead money. But is this really the case?
January 14, 2016 [OPIS] – Motiva Enterprises is a juicy candidate to take to market for a U.S. flotation as 50% stakeholder Saudi Aramco pursues its putative goal of taking itself public, investment bank Cowen and Company said in a research note.
Cowen has pegged Motiva’s theoretical market capitalization at $8.7 billion, stating a possible public valuation could be $8.5 billion-$10 billion, numbers Cowen’s equity research team of Sam Margolin, Jason Gabelman and Tanner Strunk see as “conservative.”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 14 (UPI) — A group of environmental activists filed a challenge to leases held by Royal Dutch Shell in Alaskan waters, citing the need to act on behalf of the climate.
Earthjustice, working on behalf of eight conservation groups, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, filed to intervene in decisions before the Department of Interior regarding Shell’s leases in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.
“The Arctic Ocean is ground zero for climate change, and drilling in such a sensitive region threatens the whales, seals and countless other wildlife that call it home,” Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe said in a statement.
Press Association: Thursday 14 January 2016 07.34 GMT
Fuel could become cheaper than bottled water if the price of oil continues to plummet, motoring experts have said.
Oil prices have fallen by 30% since early December, with Brent crude sinking below $30 a barrel on Wednesday. Many analysts predict it could tumble even further, with Standard Chartered warning that $10 a barrel is a possibility.
The RAC said this could lead to UK motorists paying 86p per litre (ppl) for fuel, as long as the pound does not continue to weaken against the dollar.
After U.S. crude prices broke below $30 per barrel for the first time in 15 years, the market is asking how low oil futures can go? Most analyses see it rebounding in the back half of 2016, but crude faces significant headwinds in the coming months, experts told CNBC.
On Monday, Morgan Stanley joined Goldman Sachs in saying oil prices could dip to $20, and a number of major banks cut their crude cost outlook this week. Standard Chartered even raised the specter of $10 oil.
Oil as low as $20 — and perhaps even lower — is indeed possible, said Matt Smith, ClipperData’s director of commodity research.
Rupert Neate in New York and Phillip Inman in London
Wednesday 13 January 2016 22.15 GMT
Shell may have bought more than half of the Forties cargoes loading in January, according to estimates from North Sea crude traders. Price differentials for Forties, which is the largest of the four North Sea crudes that underpins the dated Brent physical benchmark, rose.
“I think it has to do with Shell’s position,” said a North Sea trader with another company, referring to the strengthening in Forties differentials seen during late December. “Lack of Forties availability.”
By Mehreen Khan: Telegraph Newspaper: 13 JAN 2016Oil prices have crashed to below $30-a-barrel amid warnings the rout could reach as low as $10 and bring down petrol prices to levels last seen in 2009.
Standard Chartered became the latest major bank to downgrade its oil outlook to $10, joining the likes of Goldman Sachs, RBS and Morgan Stanley in making ultra-bearish calls as prices have collapsed by 15pc this year.
Brent crude has now slipped to a fresh 12-year low of $30.41 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate – the US benchmark – is trading at $29.93 – a level last seen in December 2013. Analysts warned the oil market remains fundamentally out of balance as record over-supply and stagnant demand weighs on traders.
By STANLEY REED: A version of this article appears in print on January 13, 2016, on page B3 of the New York edition
LONDON — The persistent plunge in oil prices has translated into a new round of industry job cuts.
The British oil giant BP said on Tuesday it would eliminate 4,000 of the approximately 24,000 positions in its exploration and production units this year. That would be in addition to about 4,000 jobs that the company cut last year, when it trimmed its work force to about 80,000.
The City of London’s most vocal “bear” has warned that the world is heading for a financial crisis as severe as the crash of 2008-09 that could prompt the collapse of the eurozone.
Albert Edwards, strategist at the bank Société Générale, said the west was about to be hit by a wave of deflation from emerging market economies and that central banks were unaware of the disaster about to hit them. His comments came as analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland urged investors to “sell everything” ahead of an imminent stock market crash.
Standard Life, a top shareholder in both Royal Dutch Shell Plc (LON:RDSA) and BG Group, will support the deal via its holding in BG, sources close to the company revealed yesterday, after last week the UK fund said it would vote against the deal with its Shell shares.
Shell has had a bad start to 2016 and is trading close to its 52-week low, but investors should not consider this as an opportunity despite a strong balance sheet.
Shell’s strong balance sheet is overshadowed by the fact that its gross margin has declined and leverage has increased as compared to big oil players such as Exxon and Chevron.
Shell’s leverage growth of 32% is almost four times higher than BP’s leverage growth, indicating that its interest burden has increased at a faster pace than rivals.
Standard Life Investments is to use its stake in BG Group to back the oil company’s £40bn merger with Royal Dutch Shell, just days after calling the deal “value destructive”.
The investment firm, which owns 2.1pc of Shell and 1.3pc of BG, plans to support the proposal at the latter’s annual general meeting on January 28,
It comes less than a week after David Cumming, head of equities at Standard Life Investments, vowed to vote against the deal using the Shell stake because the low oil price would not make it worthwhile.
The continuing collapse in commodity prices pushed oil futures still lower Monday, and analysts predicted that the slide was far from over.
Oil prices fell to their lowest level in 12 years, with futures of West Texas intermediate crude for February delivery settling at $31.41 a barrel, down 5.3 percent. Oil futures, which lost 30 percent last year, have declined every day of 2016. Brent oil, the main international benchmark, lost 6.5 percent and closed at $31.55 a barrel.
Last year a broad reassessment occurred in commodities, as the global economy slowed and demand from emerging markets like China, India and Brazil waned. The slump in oil prices picked up momentum last week on renewed concerns about the health of China’s economy, which led to a rout in global markets.
By Mark Kleinman, City Editor: 11 JAN 2016
A leading City investor is to vote some of its shares in favour of Shell’s £36bn takeover of BG Group, despite its public opposition to one of the oil industry’s biggest-ever deals.
Sky News has learnt that Standard Life Investments will vote its roughly 1.3% stake in BG in support of the tie-up at an extraordinary shareholder meeting later this month.
The decision will follow a vocal effort by Standard Life Investments’ top fund manager, David Cumming, to encourage Shell to renegotiate the terms of the deal.
HOUSTON — The oil bust that has cost the United States roughly 70,000 energy jobs has become more severe than any downturn in 45 years, Morgan Stanley said Monday, as crude prices fell a sixth day.
Crude prices tumbled below $32 a barrel on Monday, and over the past 19 months have plunged further and for a longer time than even the 1986 oil bust that deeply bruised the Texas economy. Morgan Stanley says the five major downturns since 1970 no longer can be a credible guide as the oil market enters “uncharted territory.”
Shell’s mega bid for rival BG Group has received crucial backing in the US as the oil giant’s boss predicts the price of oil could double.
Glass Lewis, which gives guidance to US investors, has said it supports the £36billion offer that Royal Dutch Shell made in April last year.
Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has shunned suggestions the deal is unwise due to sinking oil prices, currently around $33 per barrel, and has predicted prices will double.
He said: ‘The oil prices we are seeing today are not sustainable and are going to settle at higher levels over the next few decades than the low $60s that we require to make this deal a good deal.’
The CEO of Shell has made a pretty bullish call on the price of oil just weeks before the company tries to complete its merger with BG Group in one of the biggest oil deals in history.
Speaking with the Sunday Times ahead of a vote by shareholders on the proposed $51 billion (£35 billion) deal, Ben van Beurden said that he couldn’t see today’s oil prices lasting and that he reckoned things would pick up in the coming years (emphasis ours):
“The oil prices we are seeing today are not sustainable and are going to settle at higher levels,” he said, “and higher, in my mind, over the next few decades than the low $60s that we require to make this deal a good deal.”
…investors have questioned whether Shell is paying too much after oil prices slumped to the lowest in almost 12 years.Royal Dutch Shell Plc is a month away from completing its biggest acquisition, which would vault it over Chevron Corp. to become the world’s second-biggest non-state oil company.
The takeover of BG Group Plc would raise Shell’s market value close to $175 billion, boost flagging reserves and production, add to cash flow and bolster its ability to pay dividends, the company says. Yet investors have questioned whether Shell is paying too much after oil prices slumped to the lowest in almost 12 years.
JANUARY 8TH, 2016
The UK finance ministry stands to make close to $300 million and banks, law firms and other advisers will receive as much again, if the Shell-BG takeover gets the go- ahead later this month.
There are less than three weeks to go until the Anglo-Dutch major’s general meeting on January 27th when shareholders vote on the takeover. BG’s own shareholders will vote a day later.
The deal is now worth about $53 billion, down from the initial $70 billion, thanks ultimately to low oil prices. Of that roughly 1% goes in payments, including the UK government’s 0.5% in Stamp Duty.
By JON REES, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY: 10 JAN 2016
Shell’s £36billion offer for rival BG Group has received a boost after shareholder advisory group Glass Lewis is understood to have come out in favour ahead of the investors’ vote later this month.
Glass Lewis is the leading adviser for US shareholders and nearly a third of Shell’s investors and a quarter of BG’s are US-based. The deal has also won the backing of the other leading shareholder advisory group ISS last week.
It said a weak outlook for oil prices plus risks for BG in Brazil could make the deal “value destructive for Shell shareholders.”
Few investors or analysts have openly challenged the deal’s strategic benefits for the firm.
Shell said it remained confident of winning the vote.
A Shell spokesman said: “We continue to believe we have the broad base of shareholder support we need for the deal to complete.”
Shell has also won the support of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), an influential advisory firm, which recommended that Shell shareholders support the deal.
Standard Life Investment’s announcement came on the same day influential shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) endorsed the deal, saying the downturn in oil markets did not detract from its strategic benefits.
The first public sign of dissent from a key investor was unlikely to scupper Chief Executive Ben van Beurden’s drive to win the required shareholder support in a Jan. 27 vote.
Few investors or analysts have openly challenged the deal’s strategic benefits for Shell, which will become the world’s top liquefied natural gas trader and a major offshore oil producer.
Standard Life Investments, the 16th largest shareholder in Shell with a 2.1pc stake, has voiced doubts that the oil price will bounce back sufficiently to make the tie-up worthwhile.
Brent crude fell again on Friday to trade at $33.55, having slumped more than 70pc since July 2014. It is believed investors feel the price needs to be around $60-$65 in order to support the deal.
Standard Life Investments also has concerns over BG’s assets in Brazil, which is at risk of heft tax bills in th struggling South American economy.
By John Donovan
Interesting to read the news today that the repressive and barbaric Saudi regime is considering publicly listing the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco.
The headline on one such article is: “Saudi Arabia’s Giant & Secretive Oil Company May Go For IPO“
It is ironical under the circumstances that retired Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the long-time claimed champion of transparency and ethics, is a member of the Saudi Aramco board.
His late brother George Moody-Stuart was the highly respected Chairman of Transparency International.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc has won the backing for its takeover of BG Group Plc from a body that advises many of its largest shareholders.
Shell’s biggest ever deal has “compelling strategic rationale” and “significant positive economics to be realized within a relatively short time frame,” Institutional Shareholder Services said in a report dated Thursday. “Support for this transaction is warranted.”
Shell is on the brink of pulling off its biggest acquisition, but oil’s collapse to less than $35 a barrel from about $55 on the day the deal was announced in April has prompted some investors to question whether the company is paying too much. The energy producer has justified the deal by saying it would boost its ability to maintain dividends, make it the world’s largest LNG producer and give it new assets from Australia to Brazil.
By City & Finance Reporter for the Daily Mail: 8 JAN 2016
An influential shareholder group is expected to support oil giant Royal Dutch Shell’s £36billion bid for gas specialist BG Group.
Shell needs more than 50 per cent of its investors and 75 per cent of BG’s to give the thumbs up for the deal to go ahead, but the collapse in the price of oil – down more than 70 per cent since summer 2014 – has made the deal difficult.
Shareholders are due to cast their vote on January 27 and 28.
By SELINA WILLIAMS: Jan. 7, 2016 3:08 p.m. ET
The cash and shares deal, valued at around $51 billion, is important to both companies. If approved, the merger will give the Anglo-Dutch oil giant a dominant position in the growing liquefied natural-gas market as well as stakes in highly prized oil fields offshore Brazil. BG investors will receive a chunky premium for selling up if the deal goes through.
But the deal has been roiled by further declines in oil prices in recent weeks and turmoil in China’s stock market that has pulled down global equities. Investors are also still worried that Shell is paying too much for BG, which it proposed to buy when crude prices were about $55 a barrel in April—about 40% more than they are now.
LONDON | BY RON BOUSSO AND EMILIANO MELLINO: Deals | Thu Jan 7, 2016 1:58pm EST
Royal Dutch Shell has told investors its purchase of BG can work even if oil prices average $50 a barrel for two years, its lowest estimate to date as it seeks to secure shareholder support for the $51 billion deal amid plunging crude markets.
The Anglo-Dutch group is confident investors will back the deal at a Jan. 27 meeting, even though crude prices are languishing near 12 year lows around $32 a barrel and it faces a cut to its credit ratings due to higher debts, sources with knowledge of its meetings with analysts and investors said.
“It’s fair to say most of the evidence points to them overpaying,” said a Shell shareholder. “There’s a decent chance we might vote against it. You can take a view on when oil prices are going to bounce . . . Over a 15 to 20-year timeframe, [Shell] are right, [the BG takeover] will work. But they certainly could have got it cheaper. As stewards of shareholders’ money they have to think about that.”Another sizeable Shell shareholder threatened to vote against the deal, saying the company should renegotiate the terms.
See Air Transport Feedback No116 at www.chirp.co.uk
The Confidential Human Factors Reporting Programme is critical of Shell giving helicopter operator Dancopter short notice of contract termination as they move the flying to CHC Helicopters threatening high pilot stress and a disincentive to report ill that they liken to Germanwings.
CHIRP don’t name the companies but they are discussed at www.pprune.org in a thread entitled Shell Southern North Sea Contract 2012 which stated when Shell dropped Bristow (who had the contract for 14 years) for Dancopter.
By John Donovan: 7 JAN 2016
This would not be the first major crisis at Shell for either executive. Both had involvement in the 2004 oil and gas reserves scandal. Ben van Beurden was personal assistant to the Group Chairman, Sir Philip Watts who was forced to resign. Simon Henry had a starring role.
Both managed to survive but are unlikely to do so if the BG deal falls through, as is increasingly likely, because of the ill-fated miscalculation over oil prices.
With hundreds of millions being paid to financial advisors, surely it was not beyond the ingenuity of those involved to have catered in the terms for the possibility of a severe fluctuation in the price of oil?
By Harvey Jones | Fool.co.uk: 7 JAN 2016
It’s been a shocking start to the year for global stock markets in general and the oil price in particular. A barrel of Brent crude has fallen to a 12-year low of $34 and there’s no sign of it bottoming out. That’s astonishing as you might have expected the opposite to happen, given soaring tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world’s largest and fourth-biggest oil producers, respectively.
Glut of black gold
Geopolitical troubles could easily trigger an oil shock that could send the price spiralling upwards as fast as it has fallen. Yet markets can’t bring themselves to think about that prospect with the world swimming in an absolute glut of the black stuff.
7 JULY 2016
So how low will oil go? Paul Stevens, professor emeritus at the University of Dundee and a Middle East specialist, predicted in a BBC interview that shale production would not slow down meaningfully until prices fall below $25 a barrel – and perhaps even as low as $20. This echoes the forecasts of analysts including Goldman Sachs late last year.
Capital founding partner John Kilduff, meanwhile, told CNBC that prices could even break below $18 a barrel if Iranian sanctions are lifted as expected in the coming months and the country ramps up exports. A price war is getting underway already in Europe as Saudi Arabia discounts to shore up market share.
Brent crude fell 4.7% while US West Texas Intermediate was down 3.9%.Companies and governments that rely heavily on oil revenues have been suffering as a result.
Adding to the continuing fall in oil prices, China depreciated the yuan on Thursday, sending regional currencies and stock markets tumbling.
Demand for crude tends to fall when the US dollar is stronger against currencies of purchasing countries and China remains the world’s biggest energy consumer.
China’s stock markets were suspended for the rest of the day, less than half an hour into trading, after falling 7% and triggering a new circuit-breaking mechanism for the second time this week.
The price of Brent crude oil continues its relentless slide on global markets and is now at its lowest level for 12-years, and there is no reason at all to think that it has hit rock bottom.
This has serious implications for Shell as it determinedly presses ahead with its bid for BG Group, formerly the exploration arm of the ‘old’ British Gas.
With each fall in the oil price the value of Shell shares, down 2 per cent in latest trading, takes a hit and the shape of the offer for BG changes. When Shell set out to buy BG in April the oil price was $67-a-barrel and it is now near enough half that.
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS: A version of this article appears in print on January 7, 2016, on page B2 of the New York edition
The decline in the global Brent oil benchmark price to below $35 a barrel, the lowest level since the depths of the 2008-9 economic downturn and a decline of nearly two-thirds since summer 2014, helped push stock markets lower.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, the main benchmark for the United States stock market, declined 1.3 percent Wednesday and breached the psychologically important 2,000 level to close at 1,990.26.
Shell is expected to make some of the biggest announcements, as it tries to create a leaner structure following the $70 billion acquisition of BG Group.
In fact, The Hague-based group will look to liquidate $30 billion worth of assets once the megadeal is finalized. Shell is already believed to have sold properties worth around $20 billion during the 2014-2015 timeframe. It’s part of the company’s efforts to strengthen its financial position and earn considerable cash flow for the shareholders in the years to come. Toward this goal, Shell has also announced plans to cut 6,500 jobs (or 7% of its global workforce).
ANDY STOREY: JANUARY 6, 2016
Erris, County Mayo, is a long way from Dublin. But events there have huge economic significance for the country as a whole, including the capital city.
Gas is finally flowing through the controversial pipeline in Erris, bringing raw gas ashore from the Corrib field for refining. Shell, the project leader, is bragging about its success. At peak production, it is expected that the field will produce the equivalent of 45,000 barrels of oil per day.
But already local people are alarmed by intense levels of gas flaring – burning off flammable gas and potentially producing dangerous emissions – on New Year’s Eve, confirming many residents in their long held doubts about the safety of the project.
By The Canadian Press in News | January 6th 2016
A Shell-led joint venture company has obtained a key permit to build a liquefied natural gas export facility in northern British Columbia.
LNG Canada is the first in the province to receive a facility permit from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission. The document outlines the requirements for design, construction and operation of the proposed facility in Kitimat, B.C.
Director of external affairs Susannah Pierce said it’s a crucial development for the project, following environmental approval from federal and provincial authorities last June.
EMAIL RECIPIENTS AT BG GROUP AND ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC ARE AS LISTEDFrom: THE OSSL COMPANY <[email protected]>
Subject: Ethical BG …is Shell a good fit …given that The Corrib Project stinks all the way to the top
Date: 6 January 2016 at 14:22:57 GMT
To: [email protected], [email protected], tobybates <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], “<[email protected]>” <[email protected]>, “<[email protected]>” <[email protected]>
No sooner are we into the new year than the stage is set fair for a classic showdown between City short- and long-termism.
This will be on January 27 and 28 when the shareholders in Shell and BG vote on the companies’ proposed £47 billion merger.
Until recently, and the fall in the oil price, I would have said it was a dead certainty the deal would get the nod.
Ever since 1997 when British Gas divested Centrica and became BG, Shell has thought of combining.
The industrial logic is compelling, the joint savings would be enormous, but Shell never did do much in a hurry.
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.
