News and information on Shell PLC
Timeline: Nigeria’s OPL 245 oilfield licence bribery cases
LONDON (Reuters) – An Italian court acquitted Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni on Wednesday of corruption in one of the oil industry’s biggest court cases centred around the acquisition of a Nigerian oilfield in 2011.
Italian prosecutors alleged that most of the $1.3 billion purchase price for the licence for the offshore oilfield known as OPL 245 was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen.
By John Donovan
Printed below is an article published yesterday by BBC News reporting that the “Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €3.7bn (£3.2bn; $4.2bn) in a French tax fraud case.”
The article goes on to say that “Following similar cases in the US in 2009 and Germany in 2014, the bank accepted large fines.”
During the period of criminal activity the then Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc – Peter Voser – was paid millions of Swiss francs in his role as a director of UBS AG. He was also a member of the governance and nominating committee and of the strategy committee.
The trial of officials of oil giants Eni and Shell over the controversial Malabu scandal will resume Wednesday at the Milan Palace of Justice in Italy, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.
The Milan court’s decision came after Simon Taylor, a founding director of anti-corruption group, Global Witness, appeared before it as witness on Wednesday.
Mr Taylor’s Global Witness, together with PREMIUM TIMES and its London partner, Finance Uncovered, have for years done extensive investigations into the long-running controversial oil deal.
Royal Dutch Shell has said the corruption trial over a Nigerian oil deal may last several months, warning staff of continued critical media coverage in the $1.3 billion case.
An internal memo sighted by Reuters indicates that Shell’s Legal Director, Donny Ching, encouraged employees to study an internal web page that the Anglo-Dutch oil giant had set up for the case before responding to questions from relatives and friends.
Shell and its Italian peer, Eni are defendants in a Milan bribery trial, now in its early stages, focusing on the 2011 purchase of Nigeria’s $1.3 billion OPL 245 offshore oilfield.
NO, IT’S NOT MALCOLM BRINDED. HIS BRIBERY & CORRUPTION TRIAL (RE OPL 245) ALSO RELATING TO NIGERIA, IS STILL IN PROGRESS. 
By Ernest Chinwo in Port Harcourt: OCTOBER 10, 2018
A Port Harcourt High Court yesterday sentenced the Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor, and two others to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour for disobeying court order.
But reacting to the court judgment, the SPDC’s spokesman, Bamidele Odugbesan, said the oil giant did not accept the judgment and had appealed it.
“We do not accept that SPDC has disobeyed any lawful order of court and have accordingly appealed this judgement.
CAIN BURDEAU: July 19, 2018
CASTELBUONO, Sicily (CN) – Nigeria could learn Friday at a court in Milan whether it can pursue damages against oil giants Shell and Eni in a sprawling international corruption case.
The trial centers on a $1.3 billion bribery deal Royal Dutch Shell Plc. and Italy-based Eni S.p.A. executives allegedly entered into in 2011 with Nigerian officials, including then-President Goodluck Jonathan, to purchase a much-coveted oil field off the coast of Nigeria.
In December 2017, Italian judges in Milan ordered the companies and a number of individuals, including top executives at Shell and Eni, to stand trial. The trial has been slow to unfold and remains in preliminary hearings.
Reuters Staff: MAY 14, 2018
MILAN (Reuters) – The trial of top executives from oil majors Eni (ENI.MI) and Shell (RDSa.L) over alleged corruption in Nigeria kicked off on Monday with a brief procedural hearing and a decision to re-adjourn next month.
At the next hearing, set for June 20, the Milan court said it would assess requests from third parties, including a series of international non-profit organizations, to join the case.
At Monday’s hearing Domenico Cartoni Schittar, a lawyer representing the Nigerian government, said he was stepping down from his role.
A corruption trial against oil giants Shell and Eni and Nigeria’s ex-oil minister Dan Etete is getting started in Milan. The case deals with alleged bribes valuing millions, and the Italian trial is not the only one.Starting Monday, the Italian city of Milan will be the scene of a month-long trial that deals with corruption allegations in the oil industry.
The Milan public prosecutor’s office accuses the Italian oil firm Eni and the British-Dutch oil company Shell of having paid millions of dollars in bribes in order to acquire a lucrative oil exploration and drilling license in Nigeria.
Now 15 defendants are facing trial. Most of them employees of the two companies but Nigeria’s ex-Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete, will also be tried.
Shell and Italian oil giant, Eni, are also defendants in the charge of ‘Aggravated international corruption,’ leveled against the oil executives in the trial which began in Milan, Italy on Monday.BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK: MAY 11, 2018
Two retired secret agents of British Mi6 identified as Collegate Guy Jonathan and John Coplestone De Carteret, are among the executives of Royal Dutch Shell under prosecution in the ongoing trial of bribery allegation in the purchase of lucrative Nigerian Malabu oil block.
Shell and Italian oil giant, Eni, are also defendants in the charge of ‘Aggravated international corruption,’ leveled against the oil executives in the trial which began in Milan, Italy on Monday.
By Bayo Akinloye: 12 MAY 2018
The Royal Dutch Shell and Eni, along with a number of their senior executives, will on Monday face criminal charges in Milan, Italy, for alleged aggravated international corruption for their role in a $1.1bn deal for a Malabu Oil’s OPL 245.
This was made known in a statement yesterday by the international corruption watchdog, the Global Witness.
It noted that no company as large as Royal Dutch Shell or senior executives of a major oil company had ever stood trial for bribery offences.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc referred a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa Peter Robinson to the Dutch authorities, suspecting he may have committed crimes related to an asset sale in Nigeria.
The allegations of criminal misconduct by one of its employees come at a difficult time for Shell. Europe’s largest energy company and several former executives, including Robinson, are already facing a criminal trial in Milan over an alleged bribery scheme related to the separate purchase of a Nigerian oil block called OPL 245.
EXTRACTS
By Sarah Kent in Abuja, Nigeria, and Eric Sylvers in Milan: Feb. 13, 2018 12:40 p.m. ETA top oil executive walked into the marble lobby of an exclusive Milan hotel on a chilly winter night. His dinner date was a former Nigerian oil minister offering to sell one of Africa’s biggest untapped oil discoveries.
Eight years later, the question of whether the $1.3 billion paid for the license to that prized oil field was mostly a bribe is at the heart of one of the biggest bribery scandals the oil industry has ever seen.
Shell executives, including Malcolm Brinded, Shell’s global exploration and production chief at the time of the deal, will also be tried on those charges, as well as both companies. Eni and Shell both deny wrongdoing, saying they simply paid the government and didn’t know the money would be used for …
Extract from the ebook “John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare” (now available on Amazon websites globally)Extract Begins
CONTENT OF A LEAFLET PUBLISHED ON OUR WEBSITE AND CIRCULATED IN JUNE 2004 AT THE SHELL CENTRE, LONDON. ALL EXTRACTS FROM COMMENTS MADE BY DR. JOHN HUONG
“I will supply for publication further informed comment and revelations in the run up to Shell’s AGM on 28 June. It will include examples of the toxic combination of arrogance, greed, dishonesty, and blatant disregard for all ethical norms by Shell Management, that has culminated in the current shame heaped upon the once proud Shell name.”
Big names in Houston’s energy world, like KBR, Shell and SBM Offshore, were suddenly having to explain how they came to win drilling rights and contracts worth billions of dollars in countries like Nigeria, Angola and Brazil. That money was then to be passed to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company controlled by the former Nigerian oil minister and convicted money launderer Dan Etete. For years, Shell said it was unaware of what happened to the money, but emails obtained by Global Witness indicated that the company knew the money was going to Malabu.
29 December 2017
Confidential internal documents of Royal Dutch Shell suggest that the oil giant capitalised on the 2011 presidential election to arm-twist the federal government into a “cheap” deal over the sale of the disputed OPL 245.
The international oil company also used an arbitration case it filed with the International Centre for the Settlement of International Disputes (ICSID), an organ of the World Bank, to railroad the government into brokering truce between it and Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, its estranged erstwhile partner and the original licensee.
LONDON — An Italian judge ruled on Wednesday that two of the world’s largest oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell and Eni, the Italian company, must go on trial on charges of corruption over a $1.3 billion oil deal in Nigeria.
The judge set a March 5 trial date in Milan for the companies as well as a group of current and former executives, including Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s chief executive, and Malcolm Brinded, a former chief of exploration and production for Shell. No current Shell officials were to be tried in the case.
Mr. Brinded said: “I have done nothing wrong and believe that will become clear in any legal proceedings. I stand by my view that there is absolutely no basis for the charges against me.”By Dow Jones Newswires
An Italian judge Wednesday indicted Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the chief executive of the Italian oil-and-gas company Eni SpA and other industry executives on corruption charges connected to a 2011 deal to acquire drilling rights off the coast of Nigeria.
Prosecutors say in court documents that Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and the other executives at both Shell and Eni knew that most of the $1.3 billion Eni and Shell paid to the Nigerian government to acquire the drilling rights would be distributed as bribes. Prosecutors will argue that Goodluck Jonathan, the Nigerian president at the time of the deal, received part of the kickbacks, according to court documents.
Oil giants Eni and Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria.
Italian giant Eni and fellow petroleum company Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria.
A judge in Milan ordered Eni, Shell and key figures such as Eni chief Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni to stand trial in proceedings to begin March 5.
Eni SpA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc and senior executives will face trial over a $1.1 billion bribery scandal in Nigeria, an Italian judge ruled on Wednesday.
The trial will start on March 5 in Milan, judge Giusy Barbara told reporters. The long-awaited decision, initially expected several months ago, will not only affect the two companies but 11 individuals including Eni Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi.
The case is related to the acquisition of a deepwater oil-prospecting license by Eni and Shell in the Gulf of Guinea in 2011. Prosecutors allege that the two companies’ payment of almost $1.1 billion into a Nigerian government escrow account was later distributed as payoffs. While energy producers have come under scrutiny for bribery and corruption in the past, a trial centered around the sitting CEO of an oil major is rare.
Shell and Eni’s acquisition of Nigeria’s infamous OPL 245 oil block in Nigeria is now mired in an international corruption investigation that has spread to the United States, sources say, with a huge leak of documents of the companies revealing the deal was a financial disaster for the people of Nigeria from the beginning. They also indicate that some of the money ended up in the hands of top politicians that include former President Goodluck Jonathan. Shell and Eni’s acquisition of Nigeria’s infamous OPL 245 oil block in Nigeria is now mired in an international corruption investigation that has spread to the United States, sources say, with a huge leak of documents of the companies revealing the deal was a financial disaster for the people of Nigeria from the beginning.
They also indicate that some of the money ended up in the hands of top politicians that include former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The companies, and several of their senior managers in Nigeria and Italy are already facing charges.
1 Sept 2017
Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng FEI is President of the Energy Institute, the professional body working to equip energy professionals and wider society with the knowledge, skills and good practice needed to build a safe, secure and sustainable energy system.
His career spans 38 years at Royal Dutch Shell, including a decade on the main board as Executive Director for Upstream International and for Global Exploration and Production. He was previously Managing Director for Royal Dutch Shell and Shell UK Chairman and remains a trustee of the Shell Foundation.
Malcolm Brinded, a former executive director of Shell, also urged the UK Government to provide the greater certainty around energy policy.
In his first interview since becoming Energy Institute (EI) president in July, Mr Brinded warned failure to do so could mean missing out on ambitious oil production targets.
Industry and government are targeting the extraction of another 20billion barrels of oil over the remaining lifetime of the North Sea.
The MER (maximising economic recovery) UK strategy was launched in March 2016 to assist with the task.
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 2011.23 AUGUST 2017 • 11:07AM
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.
A shake-up at the board of mining company BHP Billiton has been announced this morning.
Firstly, the highly experienced Terry Bowen and John Mogford have been appointed to the BHP Board as independent non-executive directors.
But it is the departures that are more interesting.
The firm says that, “given his involvement in ongoing legal proceedings in Italy relating to his prior employment with Shell”, Malcolm Brinded has decided not to stand for re-election as a non-exec.
And “owing to concerns expressed by some investors”, fellow non-exec Grant King has decided that he will not stand for election at the 2017 annual general meeting.
The BBC has seen evidence that top executives at Shell knew money paid to the Nigerian government for a vast oil field would be passed to a convicted money-launderer.
It also had reason to believe that money would be used to pay political bribes.
The deal was concluded while Shell was operating under a probation order for a separate corruption case in Nigeria.
Shell said it did not believe its employees acted illegally.
OPL 245 is an oilfield off the coast of Nigeria whose estimated nine billion barrels of oil are worth nearly half a trillion dollars at today’s prices. Shell has been active in Nigeria for nearly 60 years and was keen to acquire the field.
Wed Feb 8, 2017 | 6:36pm GMT
Italian prosecutors have asked for the CEO of state-controlled oil major Eni (ENI.MI), Claudio Descalzi, to stand trial over alleged corruption in Nigeria, judicial sources said on Wednesday.
The prosecutors also asked for 10 other people, including former Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni, to be sent for trial along with the Eni and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) companies, the sources said.
Scaroni was not immediately available for comment. No comment was immediately available from Shell.
Written by OE Staff Date created Wednesday, 29 June 2016
The Energy Institute (EI) has appointed former executive director for Shell Upstream International, and current chairman for the Shell Foundation Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng FEI as president-elect, in addition to the announcement of several other EI appointments.
Brinded, who joined the EI’s Council in 2013, will succeed Professor Jim Skea CBE FEI as EI President in 2017 for a two-year term. He was main board executive director of Royal Dutch Shell for a decade until retirement in April 2012. His last role in a 38-year career at Shell was as executive director for Upstream International. He was previously executive director for global exploration and production from 2004 to 2009, managing director of Royal Dutch Shell from 2002, and Shell UK chairman from 1999. He is currently chairman of the Shell Foundation, a non-executive director of Network Rail, CH2M HILL and BHP Billiton.
A large number of press articles have appeared recently mentioning Ben van Beurden.
Since these articles are presumably fed to the press by Shell’s PR team, and Shell is not a one-man company, I checked to see whether other Shell directors have appeared recently in press releases.
The results are somewhat curious. For example, searching for Matthias Bichsel on Google News shows that articles were published about him at least weekly until October last year, but the articles then stopped abruptly. References to Simon Henry seem to have dried up a few weeks ago – until mid-March there were articles on Henry on an almost daily basis, but recently there has been nothing. Harry Brekelmans seems to have had a low profile since his appointment, so it is harder to see whether any change has occurred. Andy Brown has almost as many press articles as Ben van Beurden.
Some of the largest shareholders in Royal Dutch Shell, the giant petroleum and energy group, are expected to publicly back the company’s $53bn (£35bn) takeover of BG amid concern the deal could be sabotaged by those who want it scrapped.
Thursday 2nd July 2015
Oil giant Shell has been fined more than £6,000 after a diesel leak on board the same North Sea platform where two workers died 12 years ago.
Sean McCue, 22, and Keith Moncrieff, 45, lost their lives when they were overcome by gas while working on the energy firm’s Brent Bravo rig in 2003.
The oil company was previously fined nearly £1 million after admitting safety breaches which led to their deaths.
Yesterday Shell UK bosses returned to the court after approximately 13 to 15 tonnes of diesel spilled into the North Sea despite warnings over the transfer system going back over a decade. Senior management from the Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary appeared in the public benches at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where the company pleaded guilty to an unlicensed release of fuel.
Brinded speaks out on sustainable and accessible energyWritten by OE Staff: Friday 26 June 2015
Speaking this week as the 2015 recipient of the Energy Institute (EI)’s Cadman Award, Malcolm Brinded, chairman of Shell Foundation, has called for increased focus on breakthrough technology and business innovations to respond to the challenges of international development, climate change and urbanization – while meeting the world’s growing demand for energy.
“Today five billion people consume less than one third of the world’s energy, whilst two billion of us consume more than two thirds,” said Brinded, while addressing 180 energy professionals in London. “Two billion poor are completely without reliable and affordable energy. And 1.2 billion live entirely without electricity.”
Article by Joshua Warner published Monday 27April 2015 by Alliance NewsLONDON (Alliance News) – Royal Dutch Shell PLC successfully lobbied to undermine European renewable energy targets, in favour of the expanded use of gas, ahead of a key agreement on emissions cuts reached in October last year, according to newly released documents obtained by The Guardian newspaper.
Citing documents it received under the Freedom of Information Act, the newspaper said Shell began lobbying the then European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, since 2011 to scrap the European Union’s formula for linking carbon-cutting goals with binding renewable energy laws.
Love hurts: How a special relationship between a Shell oil executive and a Government Minister contributed to offshore deaths 
From: John Donovan
Subject: THE EMAIL YOU RECEIVED FROM MR BILL CAMPBELL
Date: 9 March 2015 22:50:38 GMT
Cc: Campbell <Cambell
Dear Baroness Liddell,
I understand you have received an email from Mr Bill Campbell, the highly esteemed retired HSE Group Auditor of Shell International.
As you are aware, it relates to your alleged contact some years ago with Mr Malcolm Brinded, when he was a Shell Managing Director whose responsibilities included Shell North Sea Platforms.
Email Dated 4 March 2015 from Mr Bill Campbell, Retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International, to Mr Billy Gordon, a senior officer of Police ScotlandDear Mr Gordon
Firstly, I would like to thank you for your continual support especially over the period when the Fiscal Anne Currie was carrying out her investigation into the conduct of Shell and HSE officials (2009 – 2011), Appendix C of the attached refers. If you check your files you will bring to mind that early in 2012, I sent a joint communication copied to you and the Royal Dutch Chairman (RDS) Jorma Ollila and his Legal Counsel Michiel Brandjes. We discussed in some detail the contents of a conversation that took place shortly after Shell had issued a press release (Appendix A) with a complete denial of the claims made both on BBC Scotland TV and the oil and gas industry trade Magazine Upstream. As a result of this communication, and by April 2012 ,Malcolm Brinded was released from the employ of RDS, his release initiated by his employer. For the record, as you are aware I was not allowed to come to Aberdeen to make a statement or to convey the many pages of evidence in what is a complex business. Acting to the instruction of the Fiscal Anne Currie the evidence was passed by Grampian police to her.
(THE ABOVE SCREENSHOT IS FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHED SUNDAY 28 DEC 2014)
ARTICLE BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONALIn the usual manner *TFA Malcolm the Tank Engine arranged for his apprentice Marc Carne to take over as CEO of Network Rail, but like his disciples Bjorn Berget, Chris Finlayson, Gregory P Hill, dear Marc is a follower, not a leader, how otherwise would TFA Brinded have recruited them as his obedient servants in the first place.
Outside the protected arena of Shell, and in the public domain, we sense their true worth.
By John Donovan
After all the Royal Dutch Shell senior management promises to improve safety on Shell North Sea platforms, serious incidents continue to occur.
EnergyVoice.com is reporting that Shell workers have today been evacuated from the Brent Alpha and Bravo platforms after a crane dropped a large container into the North Sea.
Extracts
The container, which was in the process of being winched onto a support vessel when the incident unfolded, initially rested dangerously close to a mass of subsea pipelines which connect into the Far North Liquids & Associated Gas System (Flags) pipeline.
Can’t help wondering whether Malcolm Brinded will be “helping the police with their enquiries” regarding OPL245 as he was in charge of E&P at Shell at the time. Assuming that Shell/ENI lose the block, I presume there will be a $550 million hole in the Shell accounts to explain…By John Donovan
Claudio Descalzi, the CEO of oil company Eni and one of his director colleagues are under investigation, suspected of involvement in the corruption of Nigerian politicians.
Extract from a Bloomberg news report “Eni says CEO probed over $1.1billion Nigeria deal….”
Eni teamed with Royal Dutch Shell Plc in 2011 to buy Oil Prospecting License 245 for $1.1billion. The deal was challenged last year by a Nigerian parliamentary committee, which recommended revoking the rights. The acquisition process was “highly flawed,” the committee said. Global Witness, a London-based corruption watchdog, has also criticized the deal and the involvement of Dan Etete, a former Nigerian oil minister.
Analysts hint at merger of Shell and BPAccording to an article by Keith Findlay published by energyvoice.com: “Falling fortunes at BP and Shell could force the two oil and gas giants into a “mega-merger” within a couple of years, some City analysts believe. Some of Shell’s big shareholders are said to be frustrated by the company’s spending on expensive far-flung projects that fail to yield.” MORE HERE
SEE ALSO: Shell BP Mega-Merger?: 29 May 2014
A BloombergBusinessweek article reveals that “For all its vaunted language, Shell continues to fund and support several groups pursuing the opposite aim: to stymie climate policies sprouting up around the globe that the Trillion Tonne Communique applauds.” According to the article: “Shell has backed other groups opposing regional climate rules. The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, which includes a Shell executive on its 16-member board, hailed the country’s repeal in July of its carbon policy, which made Australia the first developed nation to rescind a price on carbon emissions.”
A safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform in 1999 led by Bill Campbell exposed a “Touch F*** All” culture with safety records routinely falsified. The damning audit report was passed to then Shell EP director Malcolm Brinded, who made promises to remedy the situation that were not kept. Instead Brinded decided to put profits before safety. Hence the subsequent deadly explosion followed by a cover-up at the highest level of Royal Dutch Shell. It seems from recently published articles that despite all the pledges and the appointment of a so-called safety Czar, nothing has changed.
By John Donovan
In 2005, Shell received a record breaking fine of £900,000 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, for a series of safety failings on the Brent Bravo platform, which led to a gas leak inside the giant platform’s utility leg and the tragic avoidable deaths of offshore workers.
A safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform in 1999 led by Bill Campbell exposed a “Touch F*** All” culture with safety records routinely falsified.
The damning audit report was passed to then Shell EP director Malcolm Brinded, who made promises to remedy the situation that were not kept. Instead Brinded decided to put profits before safety. Hence the subsequent deadly explosion followed by a cover-up at the highest level of Royal Dutch Shell.
Bichsel will undoubtedly leave shortly, joining Ollila, Rees, Brown, Brinded, Voser, Finlayson, Carne… And when everything starts to collapse, he will at least now have the satisfaction of saying “I told you so”. This is typical for a coward…By John Donovan
Earlier today Reuters published comments attributed to Royal Dutch Shell Plc Executive Director, Matthias Bichsel.
Extract
“There is always so much talk about these big LNG projects around the world, but only a small fraction of them will get built,” said Matthias Bichsel, who is also a member of Shell’s Executive Committee.
The Financial Times has this weekend pointed put “the company’s leadership is changing at a time when its financial performance has been under scrutiny from investors” and also drew attention to the recent profit warning, following a succession of dismal quarterly results.
“With hindsight you should revisit his CV printed out by the BG Group at the time of his appointment, a work of fiction that Hans Christian Andersen would have been proud of. You are right, your web site warned the World about his previous track record but such foresight is often ignored.” John
There was many years ago a principle put forward by LJ Peter in his 1969 book as to why things always go wrong in organisations. Peter espoused that managers were oft promoted into positions that they were incompetent to handle. So it was with Chris Finlayson who was tracked up through the ranks holding on to the coat tails of his mentor TFA Brinded. I used to call it the parasitical approach to development and promotion through attachment to a big powerful animal who was on an accelerated promotion curve the employee could avoid the normal HR assessment process safeguarded by his powerful mentor. In return Brinded had a set of disciples who would be loyal and unquestioning and whom he could micromanage as he saw fit.
His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei meeting Malcolm (TFA) Brinded, Shells then Executive Director, Upstream International
By John Donovan
There may be some relief by Muslim employees of Shell Brunei at the news that “Brunei has postponed the introduction of tough Islamic criminal punishments that were due to begin on Tuesday.”
Fortunately for Shell, the Sharia code appears vague on the subject of corruption.
Shell enjoys a so called symbiotic relationship with the scandal-tainted Brunei Royal family.
Mining giant BHP Billiton has appointed former Royal Dutch Shell executive Malcolm Brinded to its board as a Non-executive Director. He is also a Non-executive Director of the Network Rail Board in the UK, where he chairs the Safety, Health and Environment Committee. (Information published today)
Ironic bearing in mind the evidence assembled by Bill Campbell, the highly respected former HSE Group Auditor of Shell International confirming that Brinded already has the blood of Shell offshore employees on his hands. The evidence relating to Shell’s notorious “Touch F*** All” safety culture on the Brent Bravo North Sea Platforms while Brinded was in charge, includes tape recorded conversations with senior Shell officials.
By John Donovan
There is a hilarious video circulating on the Internet revealing how an engineer feels when he’s surrounded by idiots.
It seems that something like this has happened in Kashagan…
It appears now what the problem is: they have used the wrong steel or welding procedures or both on the pipelines. And as a result they have to re-lay all these pipes at an astronomical cost. Not even counting the cost of deferred production. And loss in reputation (or whatever was left of that).
Extract from an article published today: The incident was stood down later that morning, but inspectors have accused Shell of failing to have systems in place that would see equipment which is exposed to the elements checked regularly for rust. The notice – which was made public yesterday – stated: “You (Shell) failed to have effective arrangements to ensure work equipment exposed to conditions causing deterioration which is liable to result in dangerous situations is inspected at suitable intervals, and an adequate record of that inspection kept, to ensure that health and safety conditions are maintained and that any deterioration can be detected and remedied in good time.”By John Donovan
In 2005, Shell received a record breaking fine of £900,000 at Stonehaven Sheriff Court, for a series of safety failings on the Brent Bravo platform, which led to a gas leak inside the giant platform’s utility leg and the tragic avoidable deaths of offshore workers.
A safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform in 1999 led by Bill Campbell exposed a “Touch F*** All” culture with safety records routinely falsified.
His report was passed to Shell EP director Malcolm Brinded, who made promises to remedy the situation that were not kept. Instead Brinded decided to put profits before safety. Hence the subsequent deadly explosion followed by a cover-up at the highest level of Royal Dutch Shell.
By John Donovan
Last night a remarkable 90 minute documentary was aired on BBC FOUR TV under the title: Mad Dog: Gaddafi’s Secret World
Part of the documentary covered the bombing of Pan Am 103 and the subsequent release of the convicted bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in a deal involving oil.
Shell is the only oil company named in the documentary. It claims to operate under strict business principles, but in fact has no scruples at all.
The following are extracts from a related Daily Mail article published under the headline: Shell wrote letter Tony Blair used in £325m Libyan oil deal
Have you noticed it has gone a bit quiet around Andy Brown? Heralded as the saviour of the Upstream! He is not making a big impact apparently. And you should keep an eye open for this mega(lomanic) project of the FLNG. A floating LNG unit, described to be so long that it is equal to a par 5 golfhole… It will be the biggest vessel in the world ever, 600,000 tonnes. I would never work on something like this. Too dangerous. Initially perhaps OK, but then a like minded Brinded will come along and see costcutting possibilities. Such as the TFA. And you don’t screw around with gas.
John
Have you noticed it has gone a bit quiet around Andy Brown? Heralded as the saviour of the Upstream! He is not making a big impact apparently. And quite a few jobs in the upstream are filled by downstream guys but they lack any feel for the business. Shell is still suffering from the generation of American managers that have transformed it to use their and the analysts language. My language would be that they ruined it. And it will take many years to fix the damage of all the short-termism and deterioration of technical skills. But I doubt if Shell will ever really recover. Destroying something good is a lot easier than building something good. If only the past generation of American managers would be half as good as the top technical people they had in abundance in the 70s-90s, Shell would have been still the best company in the world.
Subject: Chris Finlayson
My dealings with Chris were a long time ago during an Audit in 1999. This Audit uncovered remarkably bad behaviour in the then Shell Expro organisation stemming from the business drivers and messages coming from the top of the organisation.
I spent some hours in the presence of Aberdeen auditors trying to get Finlayson to retract his statements made to journalists and the BBC North reporter Colin Wight that the Touch F All concerns raised by workforce representatives were unwarranted whilst in fact the situation was worse, much worse than anyone outside the organisation could have envisaged. Last December on his appointment as the BG Chief the Independent newspaper (Mark Leftly) run a article on Finlayson titled if I can remember BG Chief breached safety rules when he was at Shell. Subsequently I wrote a couple of articles putting the meat on the bones of this which John Donovan published. BG given the right to reply made no comment and to date have not requested the evidence to support although this was offered to them.
In summary, and there was evidence in 1999 to support this to a degree, Finlayson saw himself as a victim of a brutal regime run out of Seafield House where the TFA mode was born and his MD Malcolm Brinded who was frantically doing everything in his power to suppress all this because he was seen by the Audit to be the principal architect of the demise in standards throughout the oilfield. Finlayson in my book was weak, and ineffective, promoted in my opinion into a position he wasn’t competent or willing to handle.
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC (COMPANY SEC MICHIEL BRANDJES) AND THE SCOTTISH POLICE (CHIEF SUPT. BILLY GORDON) HAVE HAD ADVANCE SIGHT OF THIS EMAIL AND ATTACHED INFORMATION FROM BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONALFrom: Cambell
Subject: Articles
Date: 25 September 2013 12:33:02 GMT+01:00
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], [email protected]
John
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I want to keep up the pressure on Shell by the publication of these two additional articles that cover the hardware faults taken from Shell’s own data.
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The Chairman wrote to me some time ago saying he agreed with the 2006 press releases, I understand his defence now is that he was misled at the time by Malcolm Brinded and his legal counsel Keith Ruddock.
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I want to use the fact that the Chairman has not raised, and will not raise, any legal objection to these articles in this correspondence copied to the police, and the previous article re behaviours, in future correspondence with the HSE and the judiciary.
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I will pass to all the bundles of evidence supporting these articles in due course
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Bill
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EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA – HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal. 
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
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