Jillian Ambrose: 30 APRIL 2017 • 6:50PM

Shell and BP are preparing to bask in the benefit of the recent oil price surge with big profit jumps helping to draw a line under years of ferocious cost cutting.

On Tuesday Shell is expected to unveil profit of just above $3bn after a loss of $460m in the same quarter last year, using the oil industry’s standard ‘current cost of supplies’ measure.

Meanwhile BP investors are poised for profits of $1.26bn in Thursday’s results, using the major’s equivalent measure, after reporting $532m in the first quarter of last year. read more

Sky News: 29 April 2017

The largest vessel on the planet has successfully carried out the world’s biggest lift at sea, plucking a 24,000-tonne oil rig platform from the North Sea.

The mammoth engineering task was carried out as part of the first phase of decommissioning one of the most important oilfields in the region.

Engineers took hours to position the specially-built £2.4bn Pioneering Spirit into place around the Brent Delta platform.

But it took just seconds for the powerful hydraulic system to lift the topside off its supporting legs, setting a world record in the process. read more

Upasana Khatri: 22nd February 2017

When Esther Kiobel—who believes Shell collaborated with Nigerian authorities to commit gross human rights abuses, including the murder of her husband—could not find justice by suing Shell in U.S courts, she decided to sue the Dutch oil giant in the Netherlands. In support of the Dutch action, EarthRights International (ERI) helped Ms. Kiobel and her Dutch lawyers file an application under the Foreign Legal Assistance (FLA) Statute to gain access to important evidence originally gathered during the U.S. litigation. In December, a U.S. federal court granted Ms. Kiobel’s petition, allowing her access to documents housed in Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, the law firm that defended Shell in the U.S. read more

by Tony Tamuno
26 April 2017, 12:08 BST

Nigeria detained a vessel with crew members from countries including Pakistan, Indonesia and Ukraine for alleged theft of crude from a facility owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the navy said.

The tanker, MT TECNE, was apprehended before dawn on April 25 while loading crude from the Afremo platform operated by Shell’s Nigerian unit, Ibrahim Dewu, a navy spokesman, said Wednesday by phone from the southern city of Warri. “They had siphoned about 2,000 metric tons of crude oil from the loading jacket before their arrest,” he said. read more

The New York City Bar Association has joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in backing law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore in its appeal of an order to turn over documents belonging to client Royal Dutch Shell plc in a possible overseas lawsuit accusing the oil giant of facilitating human rights violations.

The New York City Bar Association filed an amicus brief in support of Cravath on Tuesday in the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to reverse a ruling that the law firm produce Shell documents to Esther Kiobel, a Nigerian woman seeking to sue Shell in the Netherlands after she was previously blocked from doing so in the U.S. read more

By Tsvetana Paraskova – Apr 26, 2017, 9:58 AM CDT

Royal Dutch Shell and Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production (OOCEP) have signed a Heads of Agreement for cooperation in resource exploration in an oil and gas block in Oman, the Omani company said on Twitter on Wednesday.

Under the cooperation agreement, Shell Exploration and OOCEP will carry out an initial aerial study, before deciding whether to launch more activities in Block 42, Times of Oman reports.

The block spans on an area of 25,600 square kilometers (9,884 square miles) and could have oil and gas reserves in several geological plays. Block 42 mostly consists of the northeast coastal range of the Omani mountains and the basin immediately to their south. The presence of hydrocarbons has already been proven by exploration wells, which report hydrocarbon shows in several reservoir intervals, OOCEP says. read more

Steve Phimister, who also oversaw the £3billion sale of assets to Chrysaor earlier this year, takes up the position as he enters his new role as vice president of Shell’s UK & Ireland upstream business unit.

Phimister will be taking the place of his Shell upstream predecessor Paul Goodfellow on Oil & Gas UK’s board of directors with immediate effect.

“The Maximising Economic Recovery Strategy and the steps we have taken as an industry to improve efficiency are bearing fruit

“I look forward to shaping the next steps with industry partners as we seek to become a globally competitive basin.” read more

by Rakteem Katakey: 26 April 2017, 00:01 BST

Big Oil’s struggle against crude’s collapse is starting to ease, giving some companies enough cash to pay shareholders without piling on more debt.

The world’s five biggest non-state oil producers, known as the supermajors, probably increased cash from operations by a combined 67 percent last quarter from a year earlier, according to HSBC Bank Plc analysts Gordon Gray and Kim Fustier. That may allow some to cover dividends and capital spending without borrowing for the first time since 2012, they said. read more

by Mark Chediak: 25 April 2017, 05:01 BST

A group of companies and non-profit agencies that includes energy giants Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BHP Billiton said global greenhouse gas emissions could be cut in half by 2040 without impeding economic development, in part by converting grids to use mostly renewable power.

The declining costs of wind, solar and batteries will make it possible within 15 years to build power networks that get as much as 90 percent of their power from renewable sources while providing electricity at a cost that’s competitive with fossil-fuels, according to a report released Tuesday by the Energy Transitions Commission, a group of energy companies, investors and non-profit organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute. read more

April 24, 2017, 11:49:10 AM EDT By MT Newswires

American depository shares of Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) were up nearly 2% Monday after the oil major said it and four European energy firms signed financing agreements for Gazprom’s proposed Nord Stream 2 pipeline project. Shell said each of the five energy companies has committed to provide financing and guarantees for up to 10% of the total cost of the Nord Stream 2 project, which is currently estimated at EUR9.5 billion ($10.3 billion). read more

By Ry Crozier : Apr 24, 2017

Implementing a subsea fibre optic link to underpin automation and remote monitoring aboard Shell Australia’s forthcoming Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform means it will only need to fly people out to the plant “by exception”.

The Prelude project is being closely watched by the LNG sector as a potential model for future gas extraction from increasingly remote offshore fields.

Prelude’s operations will be monitored remotely from Shell Australia’s collaborative work environment (CWE) in Perth, which acts as the company’s main operations centre. read more

Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, on Thursday reaffirmed the target date to split up the Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL] refining joint venture with co-owner Saudi Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] would be May 1.

Shell and Saudi Aramco in March 2016 announced the plan to divide up the nearly 20-year-old venture, which runs three refineries and other assets. The date of the split has been pushed back twice since the announcement.

As part of the deal, Saudi Aramco will make a $2.2 billion balancing payment to Shell. Of that total, Aramco will only have to pay about $700 million in cash to Shell, with the remainder satisfied by Aramco assuming most of Shell’s half of the $3.2 billion debt held by Motiva. read more

WASHINGTON — Shell Oil Co. and Dow Chemical hid a cancer-causing chemical in two commonly-used pesticides that contaminated the drinking water of millions of people in the state of California, according to lawsuits detailed in a report from the Environmental Working Group earlier this month.

TCP, a poisonous insecticide gas, was used for decades in the pesticide Telone, made by Dow, and D-D, made by Shell.

Shell stopped using D-D in 1984, while Dow ceased usage of Telone during the late 1990s. But “garbage” chemical TCP was found in tap water supplies of about four million people in 13 states between 2013 to 2015, according to the nonprofit group. read more

BY HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDA (HEDA RESOURCE CENTRE) APR 20, 2017

The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), a Nigerian non-governmental organization, has petitioned Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, urging him to request that Nigeria be included in the Milan Court’s prosecution of Shell and Eni with respect to the scandalous Malabu deal.

In a petition addressed to Mr. Osinbajo, who also doubles as the Chairman of the Asset Recovery Committee, HEDA advised the federal government to request that the Italian court judge should recognize Nigeria as a civil party to the Malabu criminal proceeding in order to request adequate compensation for the damages received by the corrupt scheme. read more

Court orders Shell-Exxon criminal probe over Dutch gas quakes

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM, April 20 (Reuters) – A Dutch court ordered prosecutors to open an investigation on Thursday into whether a Shell-Exxon joint venture bears any criminal responsibility for earthquakes triggered by production at the country’s largest gas field.

No physical injuries have been caused by numerous small quakes, which have damaged thousands of buildings and structures across the north-eastern province of Groningen, and prosecutors had previously declined to act, arguing it was a civil matter. read more

Fresh Revelations of Alleged Shell Corruption to be Heard in Italian Court

By Chloe Farand • Thursday, April 20, 2017

Court proceedings are due to begin in Italy today to determine whether oil giant Shell will face trial on corruption charges over the purchase of one of Africa’s most valuable oil blocks.

Italian prosecutors claim Shell and Italian oil major Eni concluded a deal for the rights to exploit the Nigerian deepwater oil block OPL 245 with knowledge that the money would fall into the hands of a convicted money-launderer and be turned into political kickbacks. read more

20 April 2017

Shell and Eni are waiting to learn whether a judge will accept a request from a Milan prosecutor for the two companies and individuals — including Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of the Italian energy group — to face trial for alleged corruption.

Shell acknowledged for the first time last week that it knew Malabu would be compensated for relinquishing its claim on OPL 245. Anti-corruption campaigners see Shell’s admission as a smoking gun, and have seized on the leaked emails sent between senior company employees between 2008 and 2010 as evidence of bribery.  read more

Royal Dutch Shell PLC inaugurated on Tuesday a treatment plant for shale oil and gas in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale play, one of the world’s largest.

The plant, announced in 2014, has a capacity to process up to 10,000 barrels per day from the Sierras Blancas, Cruz de Lorena and Coiron Amargo Sur Oeste blocks operated by Shell, the company said in a statement.

“(The plant) receives output from the wells of these blocks, processing the oil and gas to leave it ready for commercialization,” the statement said. read more

Written by Mark Lammey – 19/04/2017 12:18 pm

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said Shell had failed to put appropriate controls in place to protect workers from dangerous gases in one of the platform’s legs.

HSE said the company had identified the risks of exposure to hydrogen sulphide and hydrocarbon gas while accessing the column C1 leg.

But Shell did not adequately describe how control measures would be “organised, controlled, monitored or reviewed”, according to HSE.

The prohibition notice was served early in February. read more

Australia’s government may support construction of a 1K-mile gas pipeline likely to cost more than A$5B (US$3.8B), WSJ reports, amid growing concern about shortages of liquefied natural gas and blackouts on the country’s populous eastern seaboard.

Two senior ministers expressed support for a transcontinental pipeline as Prime Minister Turnbull met with major LNG exporters including Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Santos (OTCPK:STOSF) to discuss ways of getting more LNG into the domestic energy market. read more

Tanzania’s government has prepared a draft agreement with international oil companies willing to take part in a $30-billion LNG export project, and has sent the draft for ministerial review, local media reported on Wednesday, citing a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals.

State-run Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is partnering with ExxonMobil, Statoil, Ophir, and Shell in developing an LNG project that would allow the country to export gas from its offshore resources. read more

“Etete can smell the money. If, at 70 years old, he does turn his nose up at 1.2 billion he is completely certifiable.”

That’s a quote from a confidential email which is embarrassing the oil giant Shell. For years, Shell had strenuously denied that it knew anything about the involvement of convicted money launderer and former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete in its purchase of the rights to one of Nigeria’s biggest oil fields.

But last week, the British environmentalist and anti-corruption organization, Global Witness, published confidential emails written by a Shell employee. This correspondence, which went right to the top of the Shell management hierarchy, proves that there was a direct link to the convicted Nigerian. After publication, Shell then decided that further clarification of its correspondence was needed. One had to negotiate with Etete “whether one wanted to or not,”  it said. read more

19 April 2017

In a note to clients, the US bank cut its stance on BP to ‘neutral’ and chopped its rating for Shell to ‘sell’ after scrutinising recent annual reports

Oil majors BP PLC (LON:BP.) and Royal Dutch ShellPLC (LON:RDSB) both fell back this morning under pressure from comment by Citigroup, which downgraded its ratings for both.

In a note to clients, the US bank cut its stance on BP to ‘neutral’ and chopped its rating for Shell to ‘sell’ after scrutinising recent annual reports. read more

The Netherlands will cut production of its Groningen gas field by 10% beginning in October to limit the risk of earthquakes, the country’s economy minister says.

Production would be reduced to 21.6B cm/year from 24B cm/year as a first step, according to the minister; output has been cut several times from 53.9B cm in 2013 as criticism mounted the Dutch government had failed to adequately assess the risk from earthquakes caused by production at Europe’s biggest field.

Groningen is operated by a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM). read more

by Jennifer A Dlouhy 17 April 2017, 19:30 BST

As President Donald Trump contemplates whether to make good on his campaign promise to yank the United States out of the Paris climate accord, an unlikely lobbying force is hoping to talk him out of it: oil and coal producers.

A pro-Paris bloc within the administration has recruited energy companies to lend their support ahead of a high-level White House meeting Tuesday to discuss the global pact to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions, according to two people familiar with the effort who asked not to be identified. read more

Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B) says it has urged the Dutch government to come up with bolder offshore wind targets and quadruple the goal for installed capacity to 20 GW by 2030.

Shell, which has traditionally invested little in green energy sources, is ramping up renewable energy investments to $1B/year by the end of the decade after pressure from shareholders.

Some of the company’s recent activities in renewable energy include winning a contract leading a consortium to build a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands and bidding for an offshore wind license in the U.S. read more

13 APRIL 2017

Oil company Shell has admitted for the first time that it negotiated with a money-launderer for access to an oil field in 2011. Shell and Italy’s Eni paid $1.3bn to Nigeria for access to the field. But investigators claim $1.1bn was passed to a firm controlled by Dan Etete, a man who was convicted of money laundering in a separate case.

Documents filed by Italian prosecutors claim $466m of that was laundered and passed on to then president Goodluck Jonathan.

SOURCE

by AIT: 12 April 2017

Courts in Nigeria and Italy are investigating the purchase of the offshore block which was initially awarded in 1998 to Malabu Oil and Gas, in a disputed deal, before Royal Dutch Shell and Eni were awarded the rights in 2011.

Shell and Eni paid $1.3 billion for the rights to the block, which industry estimates say could hold more than 9 billion barrels of oil.

The House of Representatives mandated the committee to “conduct a thorough examination of the process and circumstances surrounding OPL 245 and identify culpability of any persons, groups or organisations,” committee chairman Razak Atunwa said in an emailed statement. read more

By: Emeka Ugwuanyi On: April 13, 2017

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC) and Joint Venture (JV) partners, paid $29 billion to the Federal Government over the last five years.

This is contained in the oil majors 2016 Sustainability Report released yesterday. The report said the $29 billion was the economic contribution from  SPDC JV partners to the government from 2012–2016.

It stated that $1.4 billion was Shell’s share of royalties and corporate taxes paid to the government last year, adding that  SPDC’s share was $1billion, while Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) contributed $0.4 billion. read more

by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo: 12 April 2017, 11:50 BST

Nigeria will start paying back a $5.1 billion debt owed to international oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, with a first installment this month in accordance with an agreement reached last year.

“The initial payments would be made by the end of April 2017,” Emmanuel Kachikwu, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, said in an emailed statement Wednesday. The energy companies are expected to reciprocate “by ensuring that they ramp up investments in the country’s oil and gas sector,” he said. read more

On Monday, reports surfaced that some of Shell’s money circulating in Nigeria was used for payoffs.

April 12 (UPI) — One of the largest oil companies in the world, Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it was focused on a low-carbon strategy that was geared toward long-term growth.

Shell highlighted its movement through a changing energy landscape in a sustainability report on activities last year. Chief Executive Officer Ben van Buerden said in the report that lower crude oil prices and a global community coordinated around the U.N.-backed Paris climate agreement meant changes were necessary for the oil and gas business. read more

Malabu Scandal: Abacha’s son wants court to stop Nigerian govt, Shell, Agip from operating block

April 12, 2017Evelyn Okakwu

Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. has asked an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to stop the sale of a $13. 5 billion deep water project located in the controversial oil block, OPL 245.

The OPL 245, regarded as one of Africa’s richest oil blocks with an estimated over 9 billion barrels of crude, was controversially awarded to Malabu in 1998 by the then petroleum minister, Dan Etete who partly owned the company through a fictional character, Kwekwu Amafegha.

The block was controversially sold to oil giants, Shell and ENI, in 2011 with a large chunk of the $1.1 billion paid ending up in private pockets including those of Mr. Etete. read more

Reuters | Apr 12, 2017, 04.10 PM IST

April 12 (Reuters) – ** Shell said the volume of oil stolen from its joint-venture operations in Nigeria fell to 5,600 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2016, the company said in its annual sustainability report

** This represents a 77.6-percent fall from 25,000 bpd in oil thefts in 2015 partly due to better air and ground surveillance and anti-theft mechanisms installed on equipment

** Shell said its Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) had removed more than 880 theft points since 2012 read more

Written by Alan Shields – 12/04/2017 2:05 pm

The hailed the progress made in recent years, such as the Paris Agreement, as marking a worldwide change in attitude in moving towards a low carbon economy.

In the opening remarks of the supermajor’s sustainability report for 2016, he describes how Shell is working to help meet the world’s growing demand for more and cleaner energy.

In his introduction, van Beurden said: “In 2016, the world took significant steps towards building a low-carbon energy future. The United Nations (UN) Paris Agreement and the UN’s sustainable development goals came into force, setting new targets for tackling climate change, promoting sustainable economic growth and providing access to modern energy. read more

Royal Dutch Shell employed an average of 92,000 workers in more than 70 countries during 2016, the company revealed in its 2016 sustainability report released Wednesday.

The company also stated that it recruited “around 800 graduates, 800 experienced professionals and 2,800 people” in its Shell Business Operations last year.

Close to 40 percent of graduate recruits came from universities outside of Europe and the Americas and around 40 percent of the firm’s total workforce is located in countries outside of Europe and North America, Shell highlighted in its latest report. read more

For decades, Shell and Dow hid a highly potent cancer-causing chemical in two widely used pesticides, contaminating drinking water for millions of people in California and beyond, according to lawsuits detailed in a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The chemical 1,2,3-trichloropropane or TCP, was formerly an unwanted and ineffective byproduct in Dow’s Telone and Shell’s D-D pesticides. Internal documents uncovered in lawsuits filed by communities in California’s San Joaquin Valley show that the companies saved millions of dollars a year by not properly disposing of TCP, a chemical a Dow scientist once called “garbage,” as hazardous waste. read more

SEE BBC WORLD SERVICE VIDEO

Shell likely to cash in on Ireland’s Corrib

By Silvia Favasuli11 April 2017

After battling for nearly a decade and a half to develop Ireland’s Corrib gas field, Shell may be about to offload its stake in the project just over a year after announcing first gas.

Although Shell has refused to confirm that it is looking to sell, The Sunday Times reported in December that Australian investment bank Macquarie had approached the Anglo-Dutch major about a potential deal.

Ireland’s Business Post followed up the story in early March, stating that “up to three” potential buyers were considering making unsolicited bids for Shell’s 45% stake in the Corrib project, which the two newspapers valued at more than £1 billion ($1.24 billion). read more

“This is a huge U-turn that reveals Shell’s duplicity,”

By Idris Akinbajo and Samuel Ogundipe: 10 April 2017

After repeated denials in various countries, Anglo-Dutch oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, on Monday finally admitted it had foreknowledge that the $1.3 billion itself and ENI paid to Nigerian government for the OPL 245 oil block licence would ultimately be used to settle convicted former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete.

“Over time, it became clear to us that Etete was involved in Malabu and that the only way to resolve the impasse through a negotiated settlement was to engage with Etete and Malabu, whether we liked it or not,” The New York Times quoted Andy Norman, a spokesperson for Shell, as saying in an email Monday. read more

Only 24 hours after claiming it had no knowledge of “improper payments” to a convicted money-launderer over a $1.3 billion (£1.1 billion) oil field acquisition in Nigeria, Shell has admitted it had known it was dealing with the controversial figure but doing so was “the only way to resolve [an] impasse”.

The oil scandal involves former Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete, whose company Malabu bought the nine-billion-barrel OPL 245 field off the coast of Nigeria for just $2 million while he was in his government post.

Shell and its Italian partner ENI then bought the field from the Nigerian government in 2011 for $1.3 billion, with more than $1 billion being passed onto a company controlled by Etete, according to Italian prosecutors.

Etete — who was convicted of money-laundering in an unrelated case — denies wrongdoing. read more

Shell spokesman Andy Norman said the group had known the Nigerian government “would compensate Malabu to settle its claim on the block”. Shell previously had said only that its payments from the 2011 deal went to the Nigerian government.

In an email to Reuters, Norman said that while Shell knew that former oil minister Dan Etete was “involved” with Malabu, it had not confirmed that he controlled the company.

Etete was convicted of money laundering in a separate case in France in 2007. read more

• Ben Chapman
• Tuesday 11 April 2017 08:54 BST

In a huge u-turn, the company has now admitted it knew Mr Etete was involved.

Top executives at Shell knew that money they paid as part of a $1.3bn deal for a huge Nigerian oil field would end up in the hands of a convicted money launderer who awarded the asset to his own company when he was oil minister of the country.

Emails seen by The Independent and reported by anti-corruption campaign groups Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, show senior bosses at the UK’s biggest company had been informed that hundreds of millions of dollars could flow through former oil minister Dan Etete to be paid in bribes to former President Goodluck Jonathan and other political figures. read more

11 April 2017

Shell has admitted for the first time it dealt with a convicted money-launderer when negotiating access to a vast oil field in Nigeria. It comes after emails were published showing Shell negotiated with Dan Etete, who was later convicted of money laundering in a separate case. Shell and an Italian oil company paid $1.3bn (£1bn) to the Nigerian government for access to the field. Investigators claim $1.1bn was passed to a firm controlled by Mr Etete.

Shell and the Italian firm ENI agreed a deal with the Nigerian government for the rights to exploit OPL 245, a prime oil block off the coast of the Niger Delta. read more

BY SAHARAREPORTERS, NEW YORK APR 10, 2017

Global oil giant, Shell, has been forced to admit that it knew it was paying bribes to Nigerian government officials during the transaction for OPL 245. Shell, which had consistently denied wrongdoing, on Monday, admitted that the transaction lacked fidelity.    

On Sunday, Global Witness and Finance Uncovered exposed freshly leaked emails showing that Shell knowingly participated in a massive bribery scheme for one of Africa’s most valuable oil blocks, which robbed Nigerians of $1.1billion. read more

FULL ARTICLE

April 10 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell hasn’t provided enough information on plans to take down key North Sea infrastructure to address our concerns, environmental groups said.

Shell started a 60-day consultation period for its plans to decommission three of its Brent production platforms in the North Sea in early February. That consultation period concludes at the end of the business day Monday.

In preparation, a consortium of environmental groups said they opposed the decommissioning plans as submitted because of the lack of information. Lang Banks, the Scottish director of environmental group WWF, said that, by his read, the outline from Shell lacks “qualitative judgments and opinions” from experts, including some of the engineers at the Dutch supermajor. read more

Current chief executive Ben Van Beurden has also been caught up in the investigation. He was not in position when the deal was complete, but after Shell’s Hague offices were raided in February last year, Dutch authorities wire-tapped a call between Van Beurden and then chief financial officer Simon Henry in which Van Beurden allegedly urged Henry not to disclose the raid to shareholders.

Wiretap: After Shell’s headquarters in the Hague were raided in February last year, ceo  Ben Van Beurden urged chief financial officer Simon Henry not to disclose the raid to shareholders

By Sabah Meddings For The Daily Mail: PUBLISHED: 21:51, 10 April 2017

Shell was last night accused of taking part in ‘one of the worst corruption scandals the industry has ever seen’ after buying an oil field in Nigeria.

The Anglo-Dutch giant joined forces with Italian rival Eni to acquire the site off the coast of the West African country for £1billion – giving it access to 9bn barrels of oil, worth nearly half a trillion dollars at today’s prices. But leaked documents suggest it knew much of this cash would fall into the hands of a convicted money launderer and be used to bribe government officials. read more

By AFP: PUBLISHED: 22:07, 10 April 2017

Corruption watchdogs alleged Monday that Shell executives knew that money earmarked for a controversial oil deal was being used to bribe senior Nigerian officials, a claim rebuffed by the petroleum giant.

The allegations by Global Witness and Finance Uncovered refer to the 2011 purchase by oil giants Shell and Eni of OPL245, an offshore oil block estimated to hold 9 billion barrels of crude, for $1.3 billion.

The deal saw the Nigerian government act as an intermediary between the oil majors and Malabu Oil and Gas, a Nigerian company allegedly controlled by former petroleum minister Dan Etete. read more

Published: Monday, 10 April 2017 18:54

When Shell was buying the OPL 245 oil field in Nigeria for US$1.3 billion, its executives knew that 1.1 billion will land in the pocket of former petroleum minister and convicted money launderer, Dan Etete, media reported Monday.

The BBC claims to have seen emails obtained by anti-corruption charities, Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, which say that Shell representatives were negotiating with Etete for a year before the deal was finalized. read more