Oil giant Shell is set to unveil record profits of more than £30 billion as households and businesses grapple with sky-high energy bills.
The corporate giant is expected to say this week that annual profit more than doubled as the war in Ukraine restricted supplies from Russia, sending the price of gas and electricity rocketing.
The FTSE100 behemoth and its arch rival BP have faced mounting criticism for cashing in. BP chief executive Bernard Looney famously described his company as resembling a ‘cash machine’ because of the amount of money it has made from elevated prices.
But, since he made those comments in 2021 – three months before the invasion of Ukraine – the profits made by BP and Shell have continued to escalate rapidly.read more
He is one of the most powerful business leaders on the planet, with a pay package of £6million in 2021.
But, in a candid admission that will strike a chord with anyone who feels their talents are overlooked at work, Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden says his stellar career was almost derailed two decades ago.
The Dutch oilman says that when he was in his 40s he was told at an assessment centre for leadership training that he did not have what it took to get to the top.read more
Aug 18th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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Daily Mail
Shell and BP’s plans to reduce carbon emissions will still overshoot the 1.5°C warming limit in the Paris Agreement by a ‘significant margin’, study warns
Fossil fuel firms’ projections don’t fit with Paris Agreement targets, study claims
Projections from the firms show ‘delayed reductions in fossil fuel consumption’
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change
Fossil fuel companies’ plans to reduce carbon emissions will still overshoot the 1.5°C warming limit in the Paris Agreement by a ‘significant margin’, a new study warns.
Researchers have studied the ‘decarbonisation scenarios’ outlined by vast energy companies Shell, BP and Equinor.read more
PUBLISHED: 15:03, 4 June 2019 | UPDATED: 16:15, 4 June 2019
Shares in Royal Dutch Shell fell despite the oil and gas giant revealing plans to return $125billion (£99billion) to shareholders over five years through dividends and share buybacks.
This is more than double the $52million (£41billion) handed to shareholders between 2011 and 2015.
Shell said it expects to pay for that with money from new projects, which it expects will generate $35billion, assuming oil remains priced at $60 per barrel.read more
Mar 18th, 2019
by John Donovan.
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Ben Van Beurden’s total pay package soared by 126% last year: Last year, over a quarter of Shell’s investors voted against Mr van Beurden’s pay at the energy giant’s annual meeting
The boss of oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell received a 126 per cent pay rise last year.
Chief executive Ben Van Beurden pocketed over £17million, including a long-term incentive plan linked sum of £12.8million, up from £7.6million, and a £2.5million bonus.
In its latest results, the group said: ‘As a consequence of the LTIP vesting in particular, the single figure of remuneration for the CEO is significantly higher this year than in previous years.’read more
PUBLISHED: 22:01, 15 September 2018 | UPDATED: 13:44, 16 September 2018
Research for The Mail on Sunday shows that even though many firms are struggling to generate extra profits, they are rewarding investors with a payouts bonanza.
Royal Dutch Shell tops the generosity league. It is set to pay dividends of more than £11 billion this year, followed by HSBC, £7.6 billion, and BP, £6 billion, in third place.
The research is likely to cause controversy, coming just days after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, criticised businesses for focusing on short-term profits and called for a wealth tax to create a fairer society and higher wages for working people.read more
The boss of oil giant Shell is facing the threat of a revolt over his £7.8million pay packet.
Institutional Shareholders Services, a leading investor advisory group, is recommending that Ben van Beurden’s pay is voted down at the annual general meeting later this month.
ISS said it also wants more information about how the 60-year-old’s bonus was affected by an incident in Pakistan in 2016, when a fuel tanker operated by a Shell Pakistan contractor exploded, killing more than 200 people.read more
PUBLISHED: 02:25, 24 December 2017 | UPDATED: 02:25, 24 December 2017
The three founders of an energy provider which set out to challenge the major firms are set for a stocking filler of more than £110 million this Christmas after a takeover by oil giant Shell.
First Utility was set up by entrepreneurs Darren Braham, 51, along with Mark Daeche and Marcus Citron, both 54, in 2008. The firm is now supplying gas, electricity and broadband to more than 825,000 homes.
The price paid by Anglo-Dutch Shell was not disclosed, but sources close to the deal told The Mail on Sunday it was about £240 million.
Daeche, who separated from his model wife Amanda Cronin earlier this year, is understood to own about 20 per cent of the company. Citron has a similar stake and the pair are set to receive about £48 million each.read more
Female staff at Royal Dutch Shell earn more than a fifth less than their male colleagues, the oil giant has revealed.
The FTSE 100 group’s gender pay gap report showed a difference of 22.2 per cent on average for male and female employees in the UK.
But it said it was ‘confident we have equal pay’ and stressed the gap was largely down to the lack of women in senior management roles and higher-paid technical and trading jobs.read more
Nov 9th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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One of the two funds poured a billion US dollars into Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company. The Shell Technology Ventures Fund then invested in ‘production and exploration’ technologies, such as innovative oil rigs. The universities have faced protests from staff and students over their investments in fossil fuels in recent years.
Aug 21st, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Children paddle past an oil pipeline head near their home in the Andoni settlement on Bonny waterways, in Nigeria’s southern Rivers state on April 12, 2011
Royal Dutch Shell has raised an alarm over the continuing siege at a Nigerian facility by protesters, saying they could be putting their safety at risk.
Hundreds of protesters from the Kula and Belema communities in Nigeria’s restless southern Rivers state have occupied the plant since August 11 to press their demands for jobs and better living conditions.
“The illegal occupation of Belema Flow Station and Gas Plant in Rivers State has safety implications both for the people at the facilities and nearby communities,” the company’s Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company, said in a statement on Sunday.read more
Aug 14th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Although Shell was forced to quit oil production in the area in 1993, the company still runs a network of pipelines criss-crossing the area
By AFP: PUBLISHED: 17:34, 12 August 2017
Hundreds of protesters have occupied a Nigerian oil facility owned by Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell, demanding that a local company take over its operations, a community leader said Saturday.
“We want Shell to hand over the operations of the flow station to Belema Oil Company because it appreciates our challenges and needs,” community leader Godson Egbelekro told AFP.
Protesters from the Kula and Belema community in Nigeria’s restive southern Rivers state said the community has suffered through decades of poverty and neglect.read more
LONDON/CAPE TOWN, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Gunvor has offered to help Equatorial Guinea with financing as the Swiss commodity trader looks to edge out rivals bidding for supply from Africa’s first deepwater floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) plant.
Gunvor, Vitol and Royal Dutch Shell have been shortlisted for an LNG off-take deal from the $2 billion Fortuna project with a decision expected this month.
Industry sources say Gunvor is looking to help state-run Sonagas finance a 30 percent stake in the project in return for selecting it to export gas from it.read more
Jul 31st, 2017
by John Donovan.
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“There will be fewer one-of-a-kind highly complex mega-projects and proportionately more simple to medium complex projects… This heralds a more ‘commoditised’ world for project delivery,” said the document, which was given to royaldutchshellplc.com, an independent website used by Shell staff, and seen by Reuters.
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to cut more than 400 jobs in the Netherlands, mainly at its major projects and energy technology operations, as the oil giant shifts its business model in response to lower oil prices, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.
The world’s second-largest oil company by market capitalisation said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters that “approximately 400 (staff) are potentially at risk of redundancy during the last quarter of 2017/first half of 2018”.read more
LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – The world’s oil consumption could peak as early as the end of the next decade as electric vehicles become more popular, Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday.
The prospect of a decline in oil consumption after more than a century of growth as the world switches to burning cleaner fuels is gathering pace. On Wednesday Britain announced plans to ban diesel and gasoline vehicles by 2040, following a similar move by France.read more
Images of men kissing and groping the cardboard cutouts have been circulating online
Energy giant Shell said it is removing life-sized cutouts of a Malaysian woman in a headscarf from its petrol stations in the Muslim-majority country after photos of men groping the figure started circulating online.
The adverts featuring a female employee, wearing a red T-shirt with a Shell logo, black trousers and a black headscarf, smiling and with her thumb raised in the air, had been placed at Royal Dutch Shell’s stations in Malaysia.
But images of men kissing the cardboard cutouts, holding her hand and grabbing her chest and crotch started circulating on Facebook in recent days, in what Shell blasted as “distasteful and suggestive acts”.read more
Jun 29th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Shell was alleged to have helped in the arrest of Nigerian men who had sought to peacefully disrupt oil development in the region because of health and environmental impacts
Four Nigerian women are taking legal action in the Dutch courts against Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell accusing it of complicity in the 1990s executions of their husbands by the Nigerian military, Amnesty International said Thursday.
The civil case has been brought by Esther Kiobel, the widow of Barinem Kiobel, who was hanged in 1995 along with writer and campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa and seven others. Three other widows are also joining the action in The Hague.
A writ was set to be placed before a civil court in The Hague on Thursday alleging that Shell was complicit “in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of nine men who were hanged by Nigeria’s military government in the 1990s,” Amnesty said in a statement.read more
May 25th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, May 24 (Reuters) – Canadian equity markets risk being swamped with oil sands company shares this year as Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips prepare to offload C$6.8 billion ($5.1 billion) worth of stakes in two domestic producers, just months after acquiring them.
The two firms acquired shares in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd and Cenovus Energy as part of deals struck earlier this year to sell off oil sands assets.
Sources told Reuters on Tuesday that Shell has decided to sell its C$4.1 billion stake in CNRL while ConocoPhillips has said it is not a long term investor in Cenovus.read more
May 23rd, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Shell to sell C$4.1 billion stake in Canadian Natural -sources
By John Tilak and David French: 23 May 2017
TORONTO/NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc has decided to offload a roughly C$4.1 billion ($3 billion) stake in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL) that it acquired as part of a deal to retreat from Canada’s oil sands earlier this year, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
Shell has been interviewing investment banks to hire a financial adviser for the share sale, four people said in the past week, declining to be named as the discussions are confidential.read more
Apr 10th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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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
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
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
Royal Dutch Shell has announced a deal to sell its liquefied petroleum gas business in Hong Kong and Macau to DCC Energy for $150.3million as it continues its $30billion asset sales programme.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major has been active in the two locations for close to 60 years and supplies services which help meet the needs of over 100,000 households. The business will continue to operate under the Shell brand.
Mar 31st, 2017
by John Donovan.
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By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 12:13, 31 March 2017 | UPDATED: 13:58, 31 March 2017
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) – The Nigerian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it had shut down the Nembe Creek Trunk Line, which exports Bonny Light crude oil, in order to remove theft points.
The managing director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) said the company was working to “remove a significant number of oil theft connections and repair any leaks on the pipeline.”
The line, operated by Aiteo, is one of two along with the Trans Niger Pipeline that carries Bonny Light crude oil to the export terminal. Exports of roughly 232,000 barrels per day (bpd) were planned in April, according to loading programmes, but it was not immediately clear how much of this would be impacted by the pipeline shutdown.read more
March 31 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc plans to double the capacity of its liquefied natural gas import facility at Hazira on India’s west coast to 10 million tonnes a year, a top company executive said on Friday.
Shell Gas B.V, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, owns a 74 percent stake in Hazira LNG Ltd, while Total Gaz Electricite France, a unit of France’s Total SA, holds the rest.
“We’ve done all the work, now it’s sort of taking a look at when is the right timing in terms of demand that’s available,” Nitin Prasad, chairman of Shell Companies in India, told Reuters, without giving a timeline for the expansion.read more
LONDON/HOUSTON, March 27 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp may let a 10-year joint venture in the oil-rich Permian Basin of Texas expire and split their properties, hoping to speed up development, according to a senior Shell executive.
The divorce and re-parceling of acreage would let each company drill and develop new wells at its own pace in the Permian, which has become the U.S. oil industry’s hottest development area for its low operating costs as crude prices hover under $50 per barrel.read more
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – Carlyle Group has bought Royal Dutch Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon for $587 million as the world’s largest private equity fund expands in the global oil and gas sector.
For Shell, the deal marks a further step in a $30 billion asset disposal programme to help cut debt after its $54 billion acquisition of BG Group last year. The Anglo-Dutch oil company has sold assets for more than $15 billion since 2016.read more
Oil stocks took a knock this week as the price of the black stuff slipped to its lowest level since November.
Despite an agreement to cut production by 1.2m barrels a day by the oil cartel Opec being widely adhered to, supply is still outpacing demand.
Now some experts are concerned the deal could be derailed by a surge in the US, where a 55 per cent year-on-year jump in active rigs has driven production levels to record highs. read more
Mar 17th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Nigerian court overturns seizure of oilfield from Shell and Eni
By Reuters: PUBLISHED: 09:48, 17 March 2017 | UPDATED: 10:18, 17 March 2017
ABUJA, March 17 (Reuters) – A Nigerian court on Friday overturned a request by Nigeria’s financial crimes agency to seize an oilfield from Royal Dutch Shell and Eni.
In January, a court had ordered the seizure of the OPL 245 oil block and transfer of operations to the federal government on the request of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Oil companies Shell and Eni had filed motions to dispute this.read more
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency on Thursday filed corruption charges against oil majors Shell and Eni over a $1.3 billion offshore block deal.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused 11 defendants of “official corruption”, according to court documents.
Shell, Eni and Agip, Eni’s Nigerian subsidiary, are alleged to have corruptly given the “aggregate sum of $801 million” to Nigerian businessmen and politicians.
This is the latest probe into the controversial 2011 oil deal that highlights endemic corruption within the sector.read more
More than 40,000 Nigerians will on Thursday discover if London’s High Court can rule on their pollution claims against Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell over spills in the Niger Delta.
Lawyers for the claimants are demanding action from Shell to clean up spills that have devastated their communities for decades, but the multinational argues that the claims should be heard in Nigeria.
The firm’s lawyer Peter Goldsmith told judge Peter Fraser during a hearing in November that the cases concerned “fundamentally Nigerian issues”, and shouldn’t be heard in London.read more
PUBLISHED: 13:05, 8 January 2017 | UPDATED: 13:24, 8 January 2017
Jennifer Hudson has faced abuse from cruel trolls after appearing in a music video campaign for Shell.
The singer, 35, performs a song called Best Day Of My Life alongside Pixie Lott and four other musicians, in order to promote the brand’s support of clean energy.
However the Daily Star reports that the new judge of The Voice UK has been attacked by environmentalists for participating in the Make The Future campaign – with one particularly abusive user even telling her to kill herself.read more
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency is reviving a five-year-old scandal involving one of Africa’s richest oil blocs, in which a former petroleum minister and his allies allegedly made $1.1 billion dollars and the state oil company $210 million.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission filed suit Tuesday in the federal high court charging former petroleum minister Dan Etete, former justice minister Mohammed Bello Adoke and businessman Aliyu Abubakar with fraud and money laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars in the sale of the bloc. The money came from a Nigerian escrow account at the London branch of JPMorgan Chase, according to the court document.read more
A finance boss at Royal Dutch Shell who was tipped to take over the top job has suddenly left – just days after he sold stock worth £1million.
Credited with leading the firm’s £41billion takeover of oil and gas group BG last year, Simon Henry was a key lieutenant of chief executive Ben van Beurden.
But the 55-year-old’s departure was announced yesterday to the shock of the markets. Relatively unknown internal finance executive Jessica Uhl has been appointed in his place.
It emerged Henry sold more than £1million of shares on December 1, within 24 hours of the historic Opec deal to cut production that then sent the price of oil soaring.read more
Residents of the communities in south-east Nigeria remember clearly the day oil giant Shell first arrived in the 1950s.
Children could hear the rumble of the trucks from a distance, so they’d wave at the drivers as they passed.
It still happened when King Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi, community leader of the Ogale community in Ogoniland, was growing up in the 1960s.
The region, largely marshland and swamps, was poor but the British firm, with its modern technology and skilled engineers, seemed to represent a new era of prosperity. read more
Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell on Tuesday urged a High Court judge in Britain to block pollution claims brought against it by more than 40,000 Nigerians, demanding the case be heard in Nigeria instead.
Lawyers for the claimants are demanding action from Shell to clean up oil spills that have devastated their Niger Delta communities for decades.
But Royal Dutch Shell lawyer Peter Goldsmith told High Court of England and Wales judge Peter Fraser that the cases concerned “fundamentally Nigerian issues”, and shouldn’t be heard in London.read more
LONDON (AP) — Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi, leader of Nigeria’s Ogale people, unpacked four bottles of water from his homeland and lined them up on a table to show why his subjects are suing Royal Dutch Shell in a London court.
The Nigerian water is contaminated with oil and cancer-causing compounds such as benzene. It’s what his people drink every day.
Britain’s High Court will begin hearing lawsuits on Tuesday filed by the Ogale and Bille people alleging that decades of oil spills have fouled the water and destroyed the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the Niger River Delta, where a Shell subsidiary has operated since the 1950s. They brought their fight to Shell’s home base because they say the Nigerian courts are too corrupt.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is facing a High Court battle over alleged environmental damage from its oil pipelines in Nigeria, in a test case that could open the floodgates to more multinationals being sued in London courts.
The oil giant and its subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), are both being sued by two Nigerian communities, who are seeking about £100m in compensation after suffering repeated oil spills they claim came from SPDC pipelines in the Niger Delta.read more
Dividends at BP and Shell are set to come under threat as fears grow that a deal to prop up oil prices is about to collapse.
The two oil giants yesterday reported better-than-expected results – and gave a boost to their millions of small shareholders by protecting payouts.
But they have only been able to keep their dividends after slashing billions of pounds in costs following a collapse in the oil price from $112 a barrel in 2014 to less than $30.read more
LONDON (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell says third-quarter earnings rose 18 percent, boosted by increased production after the acquisition of BG Group.
The company said Tuesday that profit adjusted for one-time items and the fluctuating value of inventories rose to $2.79 billion from $2.38 billion in the same period last year.
Gains from increased production more than offset falling oil prices. Oil and gas production rose 25 percent to the equivalent of 3.6 million barrels of oil a day. That includes 806,000 barrels a day from BG assets.read more
AMSTERDAM, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Gas extraction from the northern Groningen gas field will be held at 24 billion cubic metres per year for the coming five years, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.
The decision made on Friday by Rutte’s government cemented a preliminary plan to cut output to minimise the risk of earthquakes resulting from production at Groningen, which once supplied 10 percent of the gas used in the European Union.read more
Oil is slowly climbing back to $50 a barrel as a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia and an agreement on production in Venezuela helped to stabilise prices.
The production agreements could finally give some assurances to dozens of companies who have suffered since crude slumped from $114 a barrel in 2014 to $28 early this year.
Oil supermajors such as BP and Shell have been high-profile casualties, losing billions in profits.
They’ve written off billions of pounds and have had to slash tens of thousands of jobs as they change their businesses to cope with the reduced profits.read more
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s anti-corruption office is asking the country’s energy minister to sell his stock in Royal Dutch Shell, where he was an executive of the local branch.
Juan Jose Aranguren became energy minister in December. He has faced growing criticism for continuing to own a reported $1.1 million in Shell’s class A shares.
The head of Argentina’s anti-corruption office said Monday that Aranguren should get rid of his stock or set up a blind trust to handle his finances.read more
Nigerian militants on Sunday blew up a crude pipeline operated by Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell in the restive oil-producing south, residents said.
“The incident occurred at about 1:00 am near Odimodi community in Delta State with the velocity of the blast shaking apartments in the community amidst a huge ball of fire,” said local resident Endoro Newworld.
“The trunk line known as Trans Ramos belongs to the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), he said.read more
LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell reported a more than 70 percent fall in quarterly profit on Thursday, well below analyst estimates, blaming weak oil prices, poor refining profits and higher charges resulting from its $54 billion acquisition of BG Group.
Shell’s current cost of supplies — its definition of net income — came to $1 billion in the second quarter, compared with analyst expectations of $2.2 billion and $3.8 billion achieved the same time last year.read more
Jul 8th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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Royal Dutch Shell has changed its redundancy terms so it can claim tax refunds that some UK workers would otherwise have been able to claim on redundancy payments, internal documents seen by Reuters show. Copies of one presentation have been published on Shell protest site: http://royaldutchshellgroup.com/
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has changed its redundancy terms so it can claim tax refunds that some UK workers would otherwise have been able to claim on redundancy payments, internal documents seen by Reuters show.
The move comes as the Hague-based oil giant is slashing 5,000 jobs this year following the collapse in oil prices and its merger with smaller UK rival BG Group.
The UK government allows employees who have worked part of their career overseas to reclaim some, or in some cases all, of the tax due on severance payments.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is facing allegations that the firm which signs off its accounts is not impartial.
A leading investor yesterday raised concerns that EY, which has been appointed as auditor of the oil supermajor, had a conflict of interest because it had checked the books of BG Group ahead of its £36billion merger with Shell.
Standard Life, which raised the objection, said it had it had already voiced concerns about conflicts of interest at the Shell annual general meeting last year and said that it voted against the appointment this year and was ‘disappointed’ with Shell’s decision to select EY.read more
THE HAGUE, May 24 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell cannot switch too quickly to producing renewable energy without risking its dividend payments and even its very existence, the oil and gas group’s chief executive warned.
Major investors, including Dutch pension fund PGGM, have criticised Shell’s climate change policy in recent months, saying it should do more to mitigate climate change risks.
However, 97 percent of Shell shareholders at its annual meeting on Tuesday rejected a resolution to invest profits from fossil fuels to become a renewable energy company. The Anglo-Dutch firm had previously said it was against the proposal.read more
OVER 500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR SHELL WEBSITES
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 websiteetc. 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.
JOHN DONOVAN, THE OWNER OF THIS AND SEVERAL OTHER SHELL FOCUSSED WEBSITES
SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER
The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.
The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name - Pioneering Spirit.
GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE: FEBRUARY 2010
MORE INFORMATION: Contact details for over 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell reached John Donovan and some environmental and human rights groups, ostensibly from disaffected Shell staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company. The database, from Shell’s internal directory, contained names and telephone numbers for all the company’s work force worldwide, including some home numbers. It was supplied with a 170 page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm done by the company’s operations in Nigeria. John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.
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.websitepublishes Shell Energy customer complaints posted on Trustpilot where there is an ample supply. Use this link for Shell’s own website.
Shell Breaking News
Shell and BP take a beating as bank woes hit crude pricesMarch 15, 2023 17:36Proactive InvestorsBP PLC (LSE:BP.) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) shares have taken a hit, dropping over 8%, due to a sell-off in the banking sector.
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Former Shell CEO's pay jumped 53% to $11.5m in 2022March 9, 2023 11:17Gulf NewsBen van Beurden, chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, speaks during the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015
Image Credit: Reuters
London: Shell's former chief executive, Ben van Beurden, received a pay package of 9.7 …
Big Oil Goes Green: Shell Acquires VoltaFebruary 9, 2023 06:03Law Street MediaIn Big Oil’s latest foray into green energy, Shell has announced its acquisition of Volta, Inc. for $169 million.
Expected to close during the first half of 2023, the all-cash deal “builds on the momentum in electric mobility by combining one of the …
Shell CEO's first changes combine upstream and LNG operationsJanuary 30, 2023 09:20ReutersFILE PHOTO: The Royal Dutch Shell logo is seen at a Shell petrol station in London, January 31, 2008. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo/File Photo
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SHELL’S ROLE IN NIGERIAN OPL 245 BRIBERY SCANDAL
Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.
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.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders. (JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER) For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell": WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed. NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer. We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party". MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]
SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY
EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."
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:
THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
ENDS
(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)
SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004
Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits. Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.
Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
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.
SHELL CONTROVERSIES
selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.
WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.
Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?
Oil giant Shell set to unveil record profits of more than £30bn as households and businesses grapple with sky-high energy bills
Ukraine brands Shell ‘deplorable’ after accusing it of using an ‘accounting trick’ to keep buying Russian oil
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Royal Dutch Shell’s gender pay gap report showed a difference of 22.2 per cent 
One of the two funds poured a billion US dollars into Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company. The Shell Technology Ventures Fund then invested in ‘production and exploration’ technologies, such as innovative oil rigs. The universities have faced protests from staff and students over their investments in fossil fuels in recent years.
Royal Dutch Shell has raised an alarm over the continuing siege at a Nigerian facility by protesters, saying they could be putting their safety at risk.
Gunvor offers E.Guinea funding help in bid for LNG
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Nigerian court overturns seizure of oilfield from Shell and Eni
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
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:
