Shell’s chief financial officer is to stand down after deciding that her family could not follow the oil giant in its move to Britain.
Jessica Uhl, 54, has held the role since March 2017 and was a “key architect” of Shell’s decision to simplify its share structure and move its headquarters and the roles of chief executive and chief financial officer from the Hague to London.read more
Nov 15th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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BBC News
Shell plans to move headquarters to the UK
15 Nov 2021
Royal Dutch Shell has announced a plan to move its headquarters to the UK as part of proposals to simplify the company’s structure.
The oil giant will ask shareholders to vote on shifting its tax residence from the Netherlands to the UK.
It also wants to do away with its dual share structure in favour of just one class of shares to boost “the speed and flexibility” of shareholder payouts.
Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, will relocate to the UK.read more
Splitting up Shell’s oil and renewables divisions would not work as the supermajor’s strength is the integration and funding new energy solutions with the earnings from the legacy business, the company’s top executives said on Thursday, a day after an activist investor called for breaking up the major into separate companies.
Activist investor Third Point built a position in Shell in the second and third quarters, and said on Wednesday that it would be beneficial for Shell to split off its LNG and renewables divisions, leaving Shell’s upstream, refining, and chemicals operations to be separated from the greener divisions.read more
Mar 16th, 2021
by John Donovan.
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Goldman Sachs board nominates Royal Dutch Shell CFO for director role
By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall: ·
NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s board of directors on Monday nominated the chief financial officer of Royal Dutch Shell plc to become its newest member.
If her appointment is approved by shareholders, Jessica Uhl will be the fifth woman director on Goldman’s board and its only member to come from the fossil fuel industry.
The bank has backed away from fossil fuel development in recent years.read more
Dec 10th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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World’s top oil trader retiring from Shell
Javier Blas and Laura Hurst, Bloomberg News: 9 Dec 2020
Royal Dutch Shell Plc is shaking up its mighty in-house trading unit, with the retirement of Mark Quartermain as head of crude — a job widely seen as the most powerful in the global oil-trading industry.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major used the reshuffle to promote at least three women to top positions in trading, a rarity for an industry still dominated by men.
Quartermain will retire in the summer of 2021, less than four years after taking the job, having led the team through one of the most turbulent and profitable periods in history. He will be replaced by Stacie Pitts, who becomes the most influential woman in the oil-trading business.read more
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) – The ongoing transition to low-carbon energy sources may accelerate as economies recover from the impact of the coronavirus crisis, the head of oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday.
Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said while Shell was not ringfencing its low-carbon Integrated Gas and New Energies division from spending cuts to weather the crisis, those businesses would be shielded from the worst of the reductions.
“Where possible, we try to spare (New Energies) a little bit and that is basically because we still believe that there is an energy transition underway which may even pick up speed in the recovery phase of this crisis and we want to be well positioned for it,” he said after Shell announced first-quarter results.read more
May 3rd, 2019
by John Donovan.
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by David McPhee: 03/05/2019, 7:40 amUpdated: 03/05/2019, 7:48 am
Oil giant Shell yesterday cited a “strong start to 2019” and increased pre-tax profits as the reason for implementing a bullish share buyback programme.
The firm announced it intends to repurchase almost £20 billion shares by 2025, with the first tranche expected to see it re-aquire £2.1bn over the next three months.
Shell pre-tax profits rose to £7.2bn for Q1 if this year, compared to £6.3bn over the same period in 2018.
But, by Shell’s own preferred method of reporting it also experienced a 7% drop in statutory earnings and a 2% fall in underlying earnings.
Chief executive Ben van Beurden said the firm had delivered “robust results” despite challenging market conditions.read more
London — Shell is keen to grow its US shale oil portfolio but does not feel pressured to chase new acquisitions, as Occidental and Chevron battle for control of Anadarko’s Permian-rich upstream assets, Shell Chief Financial Officer Jessica Uhl said Thursday.
Shell doesn’t “need” to do a US shale deal as it already has a strong US portfolio of shale and tight oil, which has further room for volume growth, Uhl said.
“We have significant growth capacity in our existing position and, in that sense, we are not desperate. We don’t need to find new shale exposure … but we like the business,” Uhl told analysts on an earnings call.read more
May 3rd, 2019
by John Donovan.
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By Mark Williamson: Group Business Correspondent
ROYAL Dutch Shell finance chief Jessica Uhl has hailed a “huge step up” in performance by the company in the North Sea and underlined the fact it sees big potential in the area.
Speaking after Shell became the latest giant to report a fall in profits amid renewed oil price volatility, Ms Uhl made clear the oil giant’s focus in the North Sea has shifted to growth after a period of retrenchment.read more
Oil is trading well below its price of a decade ago, but you’d have no idea looking at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s giant pile of cash.
The Anglo-Dutch oil major generated the most cash from operations in 10 years last quarter — almost $15 billion. The last time Shell pumped out that much money was the year crude soared to $140 a barrel, compared with about $75 today.
As a result, the company is showing greater confidence. It increased the pace of a $25 billion buyback program, rewarding shareholders who stuck with it through crude’s collapse. The cash surge is a feather in the cap of Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden, who splashed more than $50 billion on buying BG Group Plc in 2016 during the depths of the downturn.read more
Apr 27th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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26 April 2018
ROYAL Dutch Shell finance chief Jessica Uhl has hailed a big increase in profitability in the North Sea and underlined the oil and gas giant’s commitment to the area.
As Shell posted a 42% increase in first quarter profits to $5.3bn (£3.8bn) from $3.8bn, helped by the rise in oil and gas prices, Ms Uhl indicated the North Sea has played a big part in the growth story.
“We’re seeing a really fantastic performance from our assets in the North Sea,” she told reporters.read more
Mar 19th, 2018
by John Donovan.
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Management thinks the things it has done in recent years will set it up to deliver huge returns for shareholders.
Tyler Crowe (TMFDirtyBird) Mar 19, 2018
It’s hard for a $250-billion-plus business to change its stripes, but Royal Dutch Shell’s(NYSE:RDS-A)(NYSE:RDS-B) has done a rather incredible job over the past few years transforming the company into one of the most compelling investments in the integrated oil and gas industry.Now that Shell has weathered the storm of low oil prices and is back to generating returns, management has plans both within and without the oil industry to preserve what it calls a “world-class investment case.” Here are several quotes from the company’s most recent earnings conference call that highlight some of the efforts Shell is taking to both grow the business and make the stock a better investment.
Diversifying the business away from oil
One thing that is becoming a larger fixture of every investor conference call for Shell and other big oil companies is touting one’s alternative energy strategy. Shell is around the middle of the pack when it comes to shifting away from oil and gas, but CEO Ben van Beurden was quick to point out some of the investments the company made recently as well as the framework for its alternative investment strategy.
So we expect our capital investment in New Energies to be $1 billion to $2 billion on average per year until the end of the decade. But as it is dependent on both organic and inorganic investment opportunities, this might be a little bit more or a little bit less depending on the year. But that’s, of course, without changing the overall group capital investment budget for that year.read more
Royal Dutch Shell has sewn doubt in the market about an early 2018 start-up of the oil major’s innovative Prelude floating LNG project off the coast of north-west Australia, with chief executive Ben van Beurden signalling that the project will only start contributing noticeably to cash flow in 2019.
Nov 13th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Reuters Staff: NOVEMBER 13, 2017
LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is selling part of its stake in Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company, Woodside Petroleum Ltd, to equity investors for about $1.7 billion.
Shell, which has been slowly divesting its Woodside holding, said on Monday its Shell Energy Holdings Australia Limited (SEHAL) unit had struck a deal with two investment banks over the sale of 71.6 million Woodside shares for A$31.10 ($23.79) apiece.read more
Aug 17th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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The management team wants the company to focus on long-term returns, which means investing in different types of projects.
Tyler Crowe: (TMFDirtyBird):Aug 17, 2017
Like so many other integrated oil and gas companies, Royal Dutch Shell‘s (NYSE:RDS-A)(NYSE:RDS-B) goal of the past several years was to preserve capital by any means possible in the short term without giving up too much of the future. Based on the company’s most recent earnings report, it has done a pretty good job of achieving that first goal. The second part? That is all up to what Shell’s management does from here.There were several hints on the company’s most recent conference call that suggest Shell has developed a new playbook that looks very different than its prior one. Here are quotes from that conference call that show Shell’s possible future.
Making the grade
Shell has been trying to pull off an elaborate corporate shift over the past couple of years. It wanted to absorb and integrate BG Group into Shell, unload about $30 billion in assets from the combined company to lower total debt levels, reduce operating costs and capital spending, and get back to generating enough cash to cover capital expenditures and dividends. To make this transformation even more challenging, it was trying to do it in a low oil price environment.
Based on the company’s most recent performance, it looks like management has pulled it off. Here’s CEO Ben van Beurden taking stock of the situation.read more
Jul 28th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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MATT CHAMBERS: Resources reporter, Melbourne: 28 July 2017
Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden has said he is very supportive of Malcolm Turnbull’s moves to impose export restrictions to increase domestic supply on the east coast, where Shell runs the Queensland Curtis LNG project.
But the oil major has revealed there have been some unspecified operational problems at QCLNG, which exports coal-seam gas from Gladstone.
Speaking on a second-quarter earnings call in London last night, Mr Van Beurden backed the Prime Minister’s intervention in the markets, which gives the government the power to restrict exports from any LNG project that is not a “net contributor” to domestic markets.read more
Jul 27th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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July 27, 2017 12:23 PM EDT
The image of a driver slurping an iced latte while pulling a Mustang up to the drive-in window of a fast-food joint is either your idea of a capitalist apotheosis or civilization’s decadent demise.
Or … it’s what flashed through your mind as you listened to Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s earnings call on Thursday.
Jessica Uhl, Shell’s chief financial officer, at one point talked up the oil major’s marketing business:
We’re the world’s largest fuel retailer. Every day, Shell serves more than 30 million customers across our 43,000 sites in close to 80 countries. That is more sites than Starbucks; it is more than McDonald’s.read more
Jul 26th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch/Shell is shifting its focus toward downstream operations like refining and chemicals and away from traditional upstream activities like exploring for oil and gas, the Financieele Dagblad said on Wednesday.
This shift is likely to become even clearer when the company publishes its second quarter figures on Thursday, the paper said.
Shell’s investment in exploration slumped to $157m in the first quarter of 2017 from an annual quarterly average of between $500m to $600m in recent years, the paper points out. This is partly due to the group’s recent acquisition of the BG Group which has large deep-sea reserves off the coast of Brazil.read more
Shell paid more than $55.6billion (£43.7billion) to governments around the world in 2016, but got a sizeable rebate from the UK Treasury, the oil major revealed today.
The group, which is headquartered in London and the Netherlands, received a tax credit of £111million from the UK government last year primarily as a result of North Sea decommissioning costs.
About £90million worth of UK tax credits were linked to the Brent field and other northern North Sea projects.
May 5th, 2017
by John Donovan.
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Tyler Crowe: (TMFDirtyBird) May 5, 2017 at 10:33AM
The investment thesis for Royal Dutch Shell(NYSE:RDS-A)(NYSE:RDS-B)radically changed back in 2015, when the company acquired BG Group. The idea of combining these two companies held a lot of promise, but investors would only benefit if management could successfully integrate the company, divest itself of some lower-return businesses, and lower the debt load it took on to get the deal done.
It wasn’t an easy task, but Shell’s most recent couple of earnings reports suggest that management has pulled it off. Here’s a look at its latest earnings release and what management has done recently to get the company one step closer to realizing the potential of that investment thesis laid out a couple of years ago.read more
ROYAL Dutch Shell’s new finance chief has said the company will continue to invest in the North Sea where it is making good returns but declined to rule out selling off more UK assets.
Speaking after Shell posted a 140 per cent increase in first quarter profits, Jessica Uhl said the North Sea remains important to the firm although rationalisation moves will leave it with a much reduced presence in the area.
The oil and gas giant agreed in January to sell a portfolio of mature assets which account for around half its UK production to Chrysaor for up to $3.8 billion.read more
Investors monitoring the fourth quarter results of Shell and BP must look beyond the top line figures to get a good reading of the firms’ vital signs.
Iain Armstrong, divisional director at Brewin Dolphin, said the fourth quarter was notoriously hard to predict as oil and gas deliveries tended to be down.
Mr Armstrong said the two majors’ headline figures could be disappointing, unless strong demand from China gives them a boost.
He also said Shell should be in a position to sell more of its North Sea assets, thanks to improved oil prices and the BG Group acquisition showing signs of fruition.read more
Dec 20th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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from an old EP hand:
Another american woman. I do not know her, she must be very clever. But Shell has not had a lot of luck with senior american women. Do I need to mention the Cook woman? Or the Boynton woman?
And as a total outsider, I must observe that this Uhl woman is a bit tainted. She worked for Enron in the top years of all the scandals and in a very senior position.
We now know that the people working in Enron in that period might be the cleverest in the business, but not the most ethical ones. And for a finance director only the highest ethical standards should apply. A huge risk IMHO.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
Dec 20th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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by Rakteem Katakey: 15 December 2016, 16:47 GMT
Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s appointment of Jessica Uhl as finance chief on Thursday posed one simple question for many of the analysts who follow Europe’s largest oil company: “Who?”
The 48-year-old U.S. citizen, currently head of finance for Shell’s Integrated Gas unit — a key cash cow since this year’s acquisition of BG Group Plc — will take over from Simon Henry in March. Having been at the oil major for 12 years, exclusively in finance, she has “in-depth knowledge” to execute its cash-generation plans, according to Shell.read more
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry will step down in March after seven years in the post and be replaced by Jessica Uhl, a finance executive in Shell’s gas business.
Henry, a 55-year-old Shell veteran, was one of the executives who oversaw the $54 billion (43.27 billion pound) acquisition of BG Group, which completed in February, and the integration of the gas company which turned Shell into the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) trader.read more
Dec 20th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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Royal Dutch Shell executive Jessica Uhl has been elevated to chief financial officer for global operations.
Uhl, the current executive vice president of finance for integrated gas, begins her new post in March and will continue to work at The Hague. She will replace CFO Simon Henry, who will assist with the transition through June.
Before joining Shell in 2004, Uhl was a director of project development and later a vice president of corporate development for Enron in Houston and Panama.
Uhl also will serve as an executive director of Shell and sit on the executive committee. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden praised Uhl’s promotion.read more
“I have been privileged to spend the past 34 years working with great colleagues, in a great company,” said Henry.
“Together we have made a difference in an industry that really matters to so many people around the world. I wish Jessica every success in the role, and am confident that she and Shell will deliver a world class investment, in the most responsible and sustainable way.”read more
Dec 20th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) will replace Simon Henry as chief financial officer on March 9, 2017 with Jessica Uhl, a financial executive in Shell’s gas business, the company said on Thursday.
Henry will remain available to the company until June 30, 2017, Shell said. It gave no reason for his departure.
“Jessica combines an external perspective with broad Shell experience and is a highly regarded executive,” Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said.
Uhl joined Shell in 2004 and was previously employed at Enron and Citibank in the U.S. and Panama.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 Renewables Head to Leave Amid Fossil Fuel ShiftJune 30, 2023 14:49Financial PostBreadcrumb Trail Links PMN Business Shell Plc’s European renewable power boss Thomas Brostrom has decided to leave the company as the oil supermajor revises its strategy to focus more investment into fossil fuels. Author of the article: Bloomberg 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 …
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.
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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?