Shell is considering selling its UK energy supply business after injecting £1.2bn into the loss-making division to help it cope with rocketing gas and electricity prices.
The company on Thursday said it had launched a strategic review of the business, which supplies 1.4m British households and also operates in the Netherlands and Germany.
It raises the prospect of the unit being sold just six years after Shell first moved into the UK household supply sector.read more
David Bunch, Shell’s UK chairman, said the expanded levy announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement is forcing the company to re-examine a slew of projects in the pipeline, from North Sea investments to renewable energy schemes.read more
Oct 27th, 2022
by John Donovan.
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The Telegraph
Shell in talks with Government as ministers consider new windfall tax
Oil and gas giant did not pay any tax in Britain, despite an existing windfall scheme
By Rachel Millard: 27 October 2022 • 5:48pm
Shell is in talks with the Government as ministers consider a fresh windfall tax on oil and gas companies to help fill a £35bn black hole in the public finances.
Ben van Buerden, chief executive of the oil and gas giant, said he accepted the case for higher taxes after the industry was boosted by surging fossil fuel prices following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.read more
Shell and the owner of British Gas are handing billions of pounds back to shareholders as Russia’s war in Ukraine drives record-breaking profits.
Shell will repurchase a further $6bn (£4.9bn) of shares in the third quarter, having already bought back $8.5bn of stock in the first half of the year.
It came after the FTSE 100 company’s profit jumped to $11.5bn in the three months to the end of June – its second consecutive quarter of record profits – as it cashed in on high oil and gas prices.read more
Greenpeace has been accused of making Britain more vulnerable to Russian blackmail by urging a judge to block drilling at a major North Sea gas field.
The eco campaign group claims Shell was wrongly granted a development licence for the Jackdaw field without proper environment checks last month, in defiance of the UK’s climate commitments.
It has brought a legal challenge against the Government and is vowing to frustrate other schemes brought forward in the North Sea as well.read more
The FTSE 100 company’s Jackdaw project is set to produce about 6.5pc of Britain’s gas output with Shell aiming to start production by the second half of 2025.
Shell’s plans for the field were initially knocked back by environmental regulators last year but have been approved after they were revised.
The Government wants to cut the use of fossil fuels in the long term but is also under pressure to bolster domestic supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent international oil and gas markets into turmoil.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, tweeted on Wednesday: “Jackdaw gas field – originally licensed in 1970 – has today received final regulatory approval.read more
Shell and Scottish Power are joining forces to develop what could be the world’s first large-scale floating wind farms off Scotland’s north-east coast.
The FTSE 100 oil and gas giant and the subsidiary of Spain’s Iberdrola have jointly submitted “multiple proposals” to Scotland’s first offshore wind leasing round in a decade.
Shell and Scottish Power are keen to boost their presence in a booming renewable power market as economies around the world try to slash carbon emissions. Shell is also under acute pressure to show it is cutting its reliance on fossil fuels. read more
Royal Dutch Shell plans to increase payouts to shareholders amid the recovery in the global economy.
The oil giant will raise dividends to within the range of 20pc to 30pc of cash flow from operations, starting from its second quarter results on July 29.
It said the move comes on the back of a “strong operational and financial delivery, combined with an improved macro-economic outlook”.
Oil prices have been rebounding as demand for crude has begun to recover, with many countries now emerging out of coronavirus lockdowns thanks to vaccination programmes.read more
Royal Dutch Shell will begin supplying renewable electricity to more than 700,000 homes in the UK this week as it powers up plans to take become the world’s biggest electricity company.
Under the brand Shell Energy, it will become one of the country’s biggest green power suppliers overnight when it replaces First Utility, a year after acquiring the “big six” challenger brand.
Customers will automatically switch to green energy at no extra cost.
“On Monday morning more than 700,000 homes will wake up, turn on the lights, and switch on the kettle, using renewable electricity,” said Colin Crooks, the chief executive of Shell Energy Retail.read more
Royal Dutch Shell will join forces with renewable energy developers to build an €18m (£15.7m) floating wind project off the coast of Norway by next year.
The Anglo-Dutch fossil fuel giant will take a majority stake in the development company that hopes to prove that the cost of floating wind projects could fall significantly using innovating approaches.
Shell has increased its share of the project from an initial one third stake to almost two thirds, alongside German renewables company Innogy and Denmark’s Stiesdal Offshore Technologies.read more
‘We’re not an oil company,” says Ben van Beurden from across the table. It is an affable, but pointed intervention typical of the man leading the FTSE 100’s highest-valued business.
“I don’t want to be facetious or pedantic,” he continues good-naturedly. “But we are a much broader and more sophisticated company than one that produces oil. We produce much more gas than we do oil, for a start.”
For the boss of Royal Dutch Shell, the distinction is one that rings at the heart of a personal mission to transform a company which for over a hundred years has fuelled the development of the modern world.read more
Royal Dutch Shell may be spending billions of dollars on renewable energy and electric cars, but the oil major is not straying far from its fossil fuel roots just yet.
The energy giant’s chief executive Ben Van Beurden has warned the industry not to be swayed by the flurry of headlines marking Shell’s steps towards cleaner energy.
“Even headlines that are true can be misleading,” he told delegates at a London conference.
“They might even make people think we have gone soft on the future of oil and gas. If they did think that, they would be wrong,” he said.
Speaking one day after the UN’s landmark climate report warned that more must be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Mr Van Beurden said Shell still “means business” on oil and gas.read more
Sep 9th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Ben Marlow, executive business editor: 9 SEPTEMBER 2018 • 8:39PM
Like a pair of mysterious soothsayers, Maarten Wetselaar and John Abbott are peering into the future. The world they see is almost unrecognisable from the one we inhabit today, and yet it is only just around the corner.
In the west, the petrol car has become obsolete. Lorries are powered by liquid natural gas. Freight liners criss-cross the oceans fuelled by hydrogen. Solar and wind provide the energy to our homes.
And the petrol station has been reimagined as an unlikely retail hotspot where people routinely gather to do their food shopping, pick up parcels, and sip artisan coffee. A convoy of vehicles are being rebooted at one of many charging points on the forecourt.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has triggered the start of a long-awaited £19bn ($25bn) share buyback scheme that will reward patient investors over the next two years.
The oil major will kick off the payday by distributing $2bn over the next three months for those shareholders who accepted shares rather than dividends during a downturn in the oil price two years ago.
As the crude market has recovered, Shell has prioritised paying down debt and selling off $30bn in assets over repurchasing the dividend scrips.read more
Jul 9th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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8 JULY 2018 • 7:00PM
The Church of England is to withdraw funds from polluting firms that fail to tackle climate change.
Companies including Shell and BP could face disinvestment from the church within five years if they do not fall in line with strict environmental measures.
Its General Synod, meeting this weekend in York, voted to bring in the timetable to put more pressure on companies which fail to meet the aims of the Paris climate accords.
The church pulled £12m in funds out of assets such as coal and tar sands oil following another Synod vote in 2015, but is still an investor in major fossil fuels companies.
The church’s pension fund, worth £2bn, is understood to be in deficit, but a spokesman said it was on track to remove it.
The decision came after the church was slammed by one of its bishops for failing to move with sufficient urgency.read more
Companies racked up a record £391bn of debt in the face of demand from investors to step up dividends and as bosses went hunting for deals.
The overall level of debt for UK plc in the 2017-18 financial year far surpassed pre-crisis levels of £286bn, according to the Debt Monitor report published by Link Asset Services UK today.
Among the heavy borrowers, oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell accounted for £1 in every £7 of all UK companies’ net debts last year.read more
The energy supplier owned by Royal Dutch Shell will raise the energy bill of around 165,000 British homes by almost 6pc from next month.
First Utility, the largest energy supplier outside of the Big Six, said the rising price of wholesale energy and policy schemes pushed its costs higher by 9pc compared to last year.
As a result the supplier will “regrettably” lift its standard variable tariff for gas and power by an average of 5.9pc, or £5.58 a month.
First Utility’s default tariff will rise from an average of £1,132 a year to £1,199 a year, but this only applies to around 20pc of its customers. The rest have opted for fixed prices deals which won’t change.read more
The boss of Royal Dutch Shell has suffered a bruising shareholder revolt after more than a quarter of its investors voted against his multi-million euro payout for last year.
Ben Van Beurden pocketed €8.9m (£7.8m) for 2017 after trebling the company’s profits to $12.1bn (£9bn) as the oil giant staged an impressive recovery from a crash in prices.
But shareholders took against the FTSE 100 boss after an accident in Pakistan last year claimed the lives of more than 200 people in an explosion of a fuel tanker operated by one of the energy giant’s subsidiaries.read more
Europe’s largest oil super-major is not really an oil company, according to the boss of Royal Dutch Shell.
This is just as well for the energy giant, which plans to halve its carbon emissions within the coming decades as it bids to bring its offering in line with the global war on climate change.
“If anything we are more a gas and oil company, and on top of it, of course, we are a much broader energy company, as well,” Ben van Beurden insists.read more
A new hydrogen pump has been installed at Beaconsfield services on the M40, the second on Britain’s motorway network and the first to be built ‘under the canopy’ at an existing petrol station.
The machine has been supplied to Shell by Sheffield-based energy company ITM Power. It can be used by motorists to refuell hydrogen fuel cell cars such as the Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Nexo and Honda Clarity.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has struck a stumbling block in its march into the European power sector over plans to pluck a Dutch utility from public ownership.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major is a front-runner in the €3bn (£2.64bn) race to snap up Eneco from the hands of 53 Dutch municipalities after the decision to privatise the green energy company.
The group already partners with Eneco on wind power projects in Europe, which could pave the way for its next step into the power market after buying UK energy supplier First Utility for a rumoured £200m.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has doubled its profits following the oil major’s worst financial year in over a decade as the oil market recovery takes hold.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant said the “transformation” following its 2016 mega-merger with BG Group and $30bn portfolio overhaul has reopened flows of cash back into the business as oil prices soared to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at its lowest point in early 2016.
Shell’s earnings on a ‘current cost of supply’ (CCS) basis, which is a standard oil industry measure, more than doubled from the previous year to reach $15.8bn (£11bn) for 2017.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is set to unveil its highest earnings since the oil market collapse this week, just one year after the oil major’s lowest profits in more than a decade.
The Anglo-Dutch oil group’s efforts to overhaul its portfolio during the depths of the oil market rout are expected to be turbo-charged by the recovery in oil prices to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at their lowest point in early 2016.
Analysts predict the group’s earnings on a “current cost of supply” basis will be more than $15.7bn (£11bn) for 2017 from just $3.5bn (£2.5bn) the year before. The final quarter of last year is expected to generate higher earnings than the whole of 2016 at $4.2bn (£3bn), according to analyst consensus forecasts.read more
Oil giant Shell will soon begin supplying lighting and heat to British homes through a major deal to buy the biggest energy supply rival to the ‘big six’ utilities.
Shell’s European arm will snap up First Utility for an undisclosed sum, giving the oil major a route into the domestic energy supply market in the UK and Germany, as it begins to shift towards clean electricity and electric vehicles.
The landmark deal emerged after a four-year relationship between the supplier and Shell, through which the Anglo-Dutch oil company provides all of First Utility’s wholesale gas and power. At the same time First Utility trades under the Shell brand in Germany.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has signalled the end of the three-year oil market downturn by restarting its all-cash shareholder payouts as its cash flow begins to boom.
The oil major began paying out dividends in the form of shares in 2015, in the wake of the oil price crash and its $50bn takeover of BG Group.
But chief executive Ben van Beurden said the Anglo-Dutch group was now confident that it could call an end its scrip dividend as its cost-cutting and divestment programme pays off.read more
Nov 27th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Shell has teamed up with Ionity, which is backed by major carmakers, to roll out high-speed charging across 80 of Shell’s biggest European petrol stationsCREDIT: PETER BYRNE/PA
Royal Dutch Shell has accelerated its drive into the electric vehicle market by teaming up with Europe’s fastest charging network.
The collaboration with Ionity, which is backed by major carmakers, will roll out across 80 of Shell’s biggest European petrol stations to allow drivers of the latest generation of electric cars to charge up in as little as five to 10 minutes.read more
Global oil prices broke above two year highs and could climb higher to hit $70 a barrel in the wake of a shock anti-corruption purge of Saudi royals and senior officials.
Oil prices bounded to highs not seen since July 2015 at over $64 a barrel on Monday following a sweep of arrests targeting ministers, investors and members of the Saudi royal family on corruption charges over the weekend.
The shock crackdown also helped drive shares in Royal Dutch Shell to within a breath of its highest ever share price at £24.89 following the company’s rosy financial results last week. Before the oil price crash in late 2014 the company’s shares traded at a peak of £25.76.read more
Royal Dutch Shell became the latest major oil company to deliver better than expected earnings in recent months as the market recovery begins to gain traction.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant reported $4.1bn (£3bn) in earnings for the last quarter on a current cost of supply basis, its standard measure of profitability. The sum comes in well above analyst forecasts that the group would make $3.6bn for the latest quarter.
Shell’s quarterly earnings are almost 50pc higher than in the same quarter last year, when they reached $2.8bn.read more
A director of Shell has resigned after being charged with fraud in relation to his former job at global miner Rio Tinto.
Guy Elliott said he would step down from his non-executive director role at Shell with immediate effect after US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission charged him in relation to a botched coal deal while he was chief financial officer at Rio.
Mr Elliott has been charged with fraud alongside Rio Tinto and its former chief executive Tom Albanese over allegations they hid the true value of coal assets in Mozambique following a disastrous acquisition.
Rio took a $3bn (£2.28bn) writedown on Riversdale Mining in 2013. It bought the coal project in the southern African country for $3.7bn in 2011 but sold it for just $50m three years later, after realising it would be unable to ship coal downriver to port.read more
Royal Dutch Shell will begin construction of a new $10bn petrochemicals site in the gas-rich Marcellus shale basin in the US within the next ten weeks as part of a radical growth plan for its petrochemicals business.
The oil major told investors that global demand for petrochemicals – which are used to manufacture the raw materials used to make plastics, paints and textiles – is set to grow by around 50pc by the end of the decade, making it a key area for the company’s growth.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is preparing to open Britain’s first “no-petrol” service station in the capital next year as part of its drive towards cleaner motoring.
The forecourt is expected to offer motorists biofuels, electric vehicle charge points and hydrogen cell refuelling instead of traditional petrol and diesel pumps. Meanwhile, the buildings are due to be powered by renewable energy from solar panels on the forecourt roof.
Sources close to the Anglo-Dutch oil giant told The Telegraph that a central London site had been chosen, but the project was still at a very early stage. A spokesman for Shell declined to comment.read more
Dividends at some of Britain’s largest companies – many of them likely to be a staple of your portfolio – could be at risk from ballooning pension deficits.
Huge final salary pension obligations have the potential to limit your investment returns, with tighter regulation and negative publicity surrounding the demise of BHS, the defunct retailer once owned by Sir Philip Green, already taking their toll.
Analysis by Telegraph Money shows that, of the 10 companies paying the highest dividends in Britain, seven have a pension deficit of more than £10bn, prompting concerns for the sustainability of payments to shareholders. Many of us will be investing in these companies through company pension schemes and other savings plans.read more
Aug 24th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Shell, where Mr Brinded was a director for 10 years until 2012, is facing an investigation over alleged corrupt payments to acquire an oilfield off the shore of Nigeria in 2011.
The world’s largest mining company is to shake up its board after two directors announced they would be stepping down – one after just six months.
The FTSE 100 group also announced that former Shell executive Malcolm Brinded would be stepping down after three years on the board as a non-executive.
Mr Brinded would not be seeking re-election “given his involvement in ongoing legal proceedings in Italy relating to his prior employment with Shell”, Mr Nasser said.read more
Identifying a tipping point is not always easy. But when one of the world’s most powerful oil bosses says he is in the market for an electric car, there can be little doubt.
Ben van Beurden, the Royal Dutch Shell boss, last week delivered the clearest indication yet that the burgeoning electric vehicle industry is already hastening the decline of global oil demand. “When that will be is not certain. But that it will happen, we are certain,” he told investors.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has reported a large rise in second quarter profits after the energy giant was boosted by higher oil and gas prices.
The firm said adjusted earnings rose from $1.05bn (£800m) to $3.6bn, an increase of 245pc, as chief executive Ben van Beurden said he was making progress on “reshaping the company”.
“Cash generation has been resilient over four consecutive quarters, at an average oil price of just under $50 per barrel,” Mr Van Beurden said.read more
Araft of top European companies will be forced to pull out of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia or face crippling sanctions under draconian legislation racing through the US Congress.
Berlin and Brussels have threatened retaliation if Washington presses ahead with penalties on anything like the suggested terms, marking a dramatic escalation in the simmering trans-Atlantic showdown over America’s extra-territorial police powers.
A consortium of Shell, Engie, Wintershall, Uniper, and Austria’s OMV is providing half the €9.5bn (£8.5bn) funding for the 760-mile pipeline through the Baltic Sea to Germany. “This is a spectacular interference in internal European affairs,” said Isabelle Kocher, the director-general of Engie in France.read more
The Chinese coal industry and stock market debutant Saudi Aramco have been named as the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide.
As new data claims to have identified the top 100 emitters of greenhouse gases over the last three decades, a leading NGO has warned that natural resources companies need to transform their business models to adapt to a low-carbon future.
Just 100 firms are responsible for 71pc of carbon dioxide gases released into the atmosphere since 1988, the year that climate change was first recognised as an international problem, according a report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).read more
Royal Dutch Shell boss Ben Van Beurden has joined over 100 major companies to back calls from a G20 taskforce for the world’s largest companies to come clean on the financial impact of climate change.
The task force, set up by the G20’s Financial Stability Board (FSB), is chaired by Michael Bloomberg and aims to cast a light on climate-related financial risk to avoid incubating a future global market shocks by mis-pricing companies and assets.read more
Royal Dutch Shell will shed a further 90 jobs from its offices in Aberdeen as it continues to whittle away at costs in the wake of a downturn in the oil market.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant warned last year that it would make further cuts to its onshore UK workforce, most of which is based in Aberdeen, as part of a global cull.
Shell has already axed 750 jobs from its North Sea business, of which two thirds were UK jobs.
Since then Shell has sold off half its North Sea assets in a £3bn deal with private equity-backed oil company Chrysaor.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has convincingly defeated a climate activist uprising after facing down one of its most bitter stand-offs with shareholders over its climate goals.
Around 94pc of shareholders voted down a special resolution calling for the oil giant to set and publish annual targets to reduce carbon emissions at its AGM in the Hague on Tuesday. The board also survived a vote on executive pay which was backed by 93pc of shareholders.
But anger over the group’s focus on fossil fuels dominated the meeting, underlining the mounting pressure facing oil majors to address public concern.read more
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
Royal Dutch Shell has brushed off concern that the burgeoning market for liquefied natural gas is already oversupplied, after paying £36.5bn to buy market leader BG Group.
Shell’s first outlook report for LNG since the tie-up has predicted a market boom as demand from countries including China and India which will outpace the string of new project start-ups.
The market for LNG imports has already grown considerably in recent years but market commentators have raised fears that an explosion of new projects might flood the market. A deluge of LNG could push down prices just as Shell works to pay down the heavy cost of the tie-up.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is to recommit itself to the North Sea as it prepares to dismantle the colossal oil rigs in the historic Brent oilfield, heralding hopes of hundreds of decommissioning jobs.
The oil major will today submit its decommissioning plans to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – including a controversial plan to leave the base of the four giant structures in the sea bed – ending a decade-long project on how to safely retire the ageing field.read more
Royal Dutch Shell is poised to lead a comeback this week as it reveals annual profits have more than doubled on the back of the recovering oil price.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant is expected to post bumper profits of $8.17bn (£6.91bn), a huge jump on the $3.8bn it reported at the depths of the market downturn.
Alongside the profit boom, Shell is expected to announce the $3bn sale of its North Sea oil and gas assets to a private-equity-backed explorer.read more
Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi, who is the leader of Nigeria’s Ogale people, has taken the Royal Dutch Shell company to the High Court in London as he says they are responsible for the “devastating” pollution.
The court will rule on whether the case is under the UK’s jurisdiction on Wednesday. read more
Shell’s plans to sell off UK oil assets are expected to move ahead within weeks ahead of an M&A boom for the North Sea.
City sources have said that private-equity backed investment funds are expected to close in on asset sales from supermajor Shell as well as French energy giant Engie amid rising investor confidence in the oil market recovery.
In the wake of the oil price crash early last year industry experts predicted that cash strapped oil companies would streamline their portfolios by selling off assets to bargain hungry funds, but deals have been slow to emerge due to market volatility.read more
In January 2015, Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay £55m in compensation to thousands of residents of Bodo, a fishing community in the Niger Delta. Their livelihoods had been devastated by two oil spills in 2008-09 that had been caused by corroded Shell pipelines.
After years of high-profile wrangling, the landmark settlement was supposed to draw a line under one of the most toxic reputational issues for the Anglo-Dutch energy giant, and pave the way for the oil blighting the village to finally be cleaned up.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
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.
The natural resources market has been volatile, with Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate falling by 4- …
Shell CEO Pay Up 50%March 9, 2023 21:23Manufacturing Business TechnologyCEO of Royal Dutch Shell Ben van Beurden speaks at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. Shell paid outgoing Chief Executive Ben van Beurden a total of 9.7 million pounds ($11.5 million) in 2022 as the …
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
Changes could result in some job cuts, Shell says
Upstream boss to oversee expanded unit
Executive …
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.
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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?
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
Jillian Ambrose
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant may “turbo-charge” its drive into renewable power and electric vehicles within five years
8 JULY 2018 • 7:00PM
By 
Jillian Ambrose
The Telegraph: Shell’s Brent plans to spark North Sea jobs boost
Emily Gosden
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:
