Mar 19th, 2022
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Argus Media
Australia’s Prelude LNG cleared for restart
Published date: 18 March 2022
Production at the 3.6mn t/yr Prelude floating LNG project in the Browse basin offshore Western Australia (WA) has been granted approval to restart, Australia’s offshore security regulator said.
The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) has closed a direction issued to project owner and operator Shell on 23 December 2021, instructing it to “demonstrate that the facility can operate safely in the event of power loss before production can commence”. Shell also confirmed that the direction has closed, but has no further comment at this stage.read more
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A-0.8%) says cargo shipments have resumed at its 3.6M mt/yr Prelude floating LNG offshore Western Australia, 11 months after it went offline because of technical issues.
Prelude FLNG in the Browse basin has been plagued by technical issues since it started shipments in June 2019.
The Symphonic Breeze LNG carrier is scheduled to arrive at Japan’s Himeji port on Jan. 16 after leaving Prelude on Jan. 9, and the Gaslog Glasgow is scheduled to arrive at Prelude on Jan. 21, Argus reports.
Prelude’s restart follows a spike in prices for northeast Asian spot liquefied natural gas as colder than expected weather in northeast Asia has fueled urgent demand for cargoes.
Two years after a Royal Dutch Shell PLC-led consortium gave the commercial go-ahead for the massive LNG Canada export terminal in British Columbia — dubbed the single largest private sector investment in Canadian history — construction delays have clouded the LNG supply picture and raised the prospect of cost overruns.
The project was likely about four months behind schedule in February because of factors that included delays in engineering and making equipment for the terminal off-site, according to analysts at the investment research firm Webber Research & Advisory. Now the project is probably around six months behind, which is enough to suggest the potential for significant cost overruns and pressure on a planned expansion, the firm said.read more
Aug 3rd, 2018
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Shell announced last year that it was disposing of its 45 per cent stake in the Corrib gas field to a unit of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in an €830 million deal, resulting in about €1 billion of losses. The decision was announced just over 18 months after first gas finally flowed from the field 83km off the Mayo coast, after over a decade of opposition…
Lorna SigginsWestern Correspondent: Wed, Aug 1, 2018
An investigation by the State’s energy regulator into the release of non-odourised gas from the Corrib gas refinery in north Mayo last year says it was caused by the upgrading of an information technology (IT) system.
“Deficiencies” in Shell E&P Ireland’s (SEPIL) operating procedures led to the incident last September, but there were no safety consequences for staff at the Corrib gas refinery or members of the public “in the immediate vicinity”, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has found.read more
Sep 4th, 2017
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Protest event in Ireland during “Shell to Sea” campaign
Joe Brennan: 4 Sept 2017: Extracts from article: “Vayu warns of volatile prices for winter gas”
Ireland imports much of its gas needs through the UK, even though the Corrib field off the Mayo coast, which started production in late 2015, has the potential to meet up to 60 per cent of the country’s gas needs and is expected to supply fuel for up to 20 years.
“We are anticipating considerable energy price volatility this winter, which could be worrying for businesses as this is the time when their energy usage is at its highest,” said Keith Donnelly, an energy analyst with Vayu, noting that winter gas prices have risen by 8 per cent in the past six weeks.read more
May 16th, 2017
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Gordon Deegan:
The performance of the Corrib gas field is exceeding expectations, with its promoters recording sales of (Canadian) $241.34m (€160m) in the first quarter of this year.
That is according to a new report by one of the Corrib partners, Canadian-based Vermilion, which recorded that between January and March this year the project exceeded expectations for “well deliverability and downtime”.
As a result of the strong performance, Vermilion has adjusted its field and well performance estimates “and now expects to maintain peak production through Q1 2018 and potentially into Q2 2018”.read more
Australia’s$200 billion LNG production ramp-up is one of the biggest increases in supply the industry has ever seen, and it will lift Australia over Qatar as the world’s biggest exporter of the fuel.
Even so, most of Australia’s LNG projects currently under construction, including Chevron’s huge Gorgon facility and Royal Dutch Shell’s floating Prelude production vessel, are having trouble keeping within budget and sticking to schedules, and more delays are expected. read more
Environmentalists cheered and oil lobbyists jeered. Both will certainly waste a lot of time and electrons writing long tracts of praising and condemning Obama. And then they’ll waste donor funds fighting it out in court.read more
Dec 20th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By: Shell to Sea
Open Letter to the Irish Minister of Justice, Francis Fitzgerald
Shell to Sea are calling for the Minister of Justice, Francis Fitzgerald to seek that the inquiry into the behaviour of undercover British police (entitled the Pitchford Inquiry) be extended to include the activities of undercover police in Ireland.
The Pitchford Inquiry is so far only investigating undercover policing activities in England and Wales, however the German Government, the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, Claire Sugden have all called for the remit of the inquiry to be widen to include the activities of the undercover British police in their jurisdictions.read more
Dec 5th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By: Danny Fortson – The Sunday Times
The Australian investment giant nicknamed the “vampire kangaroo” is hoping to sink its teeth into Ireland’s £3bn Corrib gas field.
Macquarie, one of the largest owners of British infrastructure, is understood to have approached Shell over a deal that could value the FTSE 100 giant’s 45% stake in the project at more than £1bn. It is unclear whether the Australians have tabled a formal bid.
Corrib started producing a year ago after years of delays and protests from fishermen, environmentalists and locals.read more
Dec 4th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By John Donovan
Printed below are extracts from a communication received from a Shell Civil Engineer who, until recently, worked on the construction of the ill-fated Kashagan oil field.
He says his dire warnings in regard to construction issues were escalated to Shell top management, including Andy Brown, but were ignored.
He has also raised the subject of Shell depriving sacked workers tax breaks on redundancy pay. A policy he describes as theft.
The same source supplied related, apparently authentic, Shell emails.read more
Oct 14th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Kashagan AKA “Cash All Gone”
Forgot the initial cost estimate, probably around $8-10 billion. Now 10+ years too late and ballooned to $50 billion. Most normal companies would have gone bust long ago.
Shell inherited some beauties from the boys of the roaring 90s. I hope someone will write a book one day on this era.
Reserve crisis, Pearl, Sakhalin, Kashagan, Alaska, tarsands, and I must have forgotten a few. Repeated over-promise and under-delivery. All many billions over budget, extreme overruns in startup, loss in AAA status, removal of operational and technical expertise. I find the silence on Prelude ominous. Probably goes the same way as the others.read more
Sep 19th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
REGULARLY UPDATED: Links to over 500 articles (and radio and TV broadcasts) by a host of publishers including the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, New York Times, CNBC, Forbes etc. Plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website, legal documents filed in the U.S. Courts, all containing references to the Donovan’s, their Shell related websites, or their former company, Don Marketing. Includes newspaper and magazine articles, newsletters, video clip links and interview transcripts. All in date order. In addition, there are references to our websites and/or our activities, published in over 100 books. In all, over 550 externally published references to date including articles originated by news agencies such as Reuters or Dow Jones, syndicated to a variety of individual publishers such as the New York Times or The Washington Post. Plus over 60,000 Shell related articles published on our own Shell focussed websites. read more
Mar 31st, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Gordon Deegan: Thursday, March 31, 2016
Shell Ireland has received a further €50m cash injection from oil giant Shell, as the Irish firm finally generates revenues from the long-delayed and controversial €3.6bn Corrib Gas field.
The increase of €50m in capital at Shell E&P Ireland Ltd is confirmed in new documents lodged with the Companies Office, which show that the authorised share capital at the firm now stands at €1.4bn.
Shell and its Corrib Partners over 2015 and 2014 spent €580m, made up of an investment of €260m last year and €320m in 2014 to bring gas ashore.read more
Feb 4th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Shell Corrib firm gets €70m cash injection
Gas began flowing from the field only in the past few weeks – 11 years behind schedule.
By John Mulligan: 4 FEB 2016
Oil giant Shell injected €70m into its Irish unit that’s behind the Corrib gas project in recent months as the field prepared to begin delivering gas, new filings show.
The Corrib gas field is located 83km off Ireland’s west coast in depths of almost 350 metres.
Gas began flowing from the field only in the past few weeks – 11 years behind schedule.
Shell owns a 45pc stake in the Corrib field, with Norway’s Statoil owning 36.5pc. Canadian firm Vermilion owns 18.5pc.read more
Jan 24th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Lorna Siggins: 24 JAN 2016
The €3.5 billion Corrib gas development is due to be opened by Minister of State for Natural Resources Joe McHugh on Monday, almost 20 years after the gas discovery was reported off the north Mayo coast.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny had been earmarked for the invitation-only event, but will be at Downing Street in London. Corrib shareholders Shell, Statoil and Vermillion are hosting a plaque unveiling and lunch in Belmullet, almost 15km from the gas refinery.
While much of the town’s focus is currently on sale of the €13.7 million winning Lotto ticket in Carey’s newsagent, the project opening represents a significant milestone.read more
Jan 5th, 2016
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
…many of those involved have been ridiculed, slandered, spied on, harassed, beaten and jailed – all for upholding their democratic right to peaceful dissent. Incidents included the 2005 jailing of the Rossport Five, who spent 94 days in prison at the behest of Shell.
Ruairí McKiernan
As gas is flared into the skies above north Mayo, it is worth reflecting on a project that has been one of modern Ireland’s greatest scandals, a stunning fiasco in planning, economics, environmental protection and the abuse of civil liberties.
Far from it being just about energy supply, jobs and development, the Corrib gas project cuts to the core of this republic and asks big questions about how the country is run.
For more than 10 years now, campaigners have attempted to highlight the project’s many flaws.read more
Dec 30th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Peter Murtagh: 30 Dec 2015
Natural gas is flowing into the national supply grid from the Corrib gas field off Co Mayo for the first time since it was discovered in 1996.
One of six wellheads, drilled in 350m of water 84km off the west coast, was opened on Wednesday by the field developer, Shell E&P Ireland.
This started gas flowing through a 20 inch diameter off-shore pipeline to an 8.3km-long on-shore pipeline, which includes a 4.9km tunnel beneath Sruwaddacon Bay, the longest in Ireland.
It continues from there into the company’s reception terminal at Ballanaboy, near Belmullet in Co Mayo.read more
Dec 30th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
New Release – Issued by Shell to Sea – December 30th 2015 – For immediate release
— Minister White slips consent to Shell during Christmas period —
Shell to Sea have called the granting by Alex White of consent to operate the Corrib Gas pipeline – desperate and disgraceful. Permission was granted despite Shell’s EPA consent to operate the Corrib Gas refinery currently being admitted for hearing before the High Court. [1]
Shell to Sea is of the view that Shell possibly had contractual obligations which required that Corrib gas flow before end 2015 so they once again snapped their fingers at government to do the needful – in this instance the government of ‘law and order’ has shown itself no different to Fianna Fáil.read more
Dec 26th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Concern over Shell gas flow delay
Saturday, 26th December, 2015
A MAYO TD has expressed concern over the delay in issuing the final regulatory approval to Shell E&P Ireland that will enable the company to start producing gas from the Corrib Gas Field in north Mayo.
Deputy Michelle Mulherin said it is the interest of the State to have gas flowing and she called on Energy Minister Alex White to ensure the assessment process be given additional resources and expedited.
She argued: “From an international point of view it doesn’t send out a great message, especially as we continue to press hard to attract further foreign direct investment into this country. The last thing the country wants is to be seen as ‘the poster boy for frustration’ by people in industry and trade who could be put off in investing here.read more
Dec 21st, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Four local residents have initiated a legal challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision granting Shell E&P Ireland an INDUSTRIAL EMISSIONS LICENCE P0738-03 for the Corrib gas refinery in Co Mayo.
THIS IS THE FINAL DECISION TO PUMP THE GAS
In proceedings before the High Court, four residents argue THAT the decision to grant the license is flawed and should be set aside.
The action, against the EPA and the State, has been brought by Martin and Maura Harrington, and Monica Muller and Peter Sweetman. read more
Oct 13th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
The projected spend of €250m on the controversial project this year will lead to the overall costs exceeding €3.6bn. This is more than four times the original estimate of €800m for the project, which is 12 years behind its original projected completion time of 2003.
Áine Ryan: TUESDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2015
Penultimate permission granted by EPA
ALMOST two decades after its discovery, the Corrib Gas field has been given its penultimate permission, an industrial emissions licence, by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The final statutory permission for the €3.6bn project is expected to be issued very soon by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Alex White, clearing the way for the gas to flow from the Bellanaboy refinery. read more
Sep 22nd, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Dear John,
Interesting to read the two recent articles about Shell/Corrib on your site – Shell’s arrogance, plus their presumption of statutory and ministerial subservient compliance still reign supreme!
Shell could at least have made a cursory acknowledgement of a person’s right to recourse to law by way of Judicial Review of the two presumed consents but, once again, they would appear to know something the rest of us don’t.
I would much appreciate if you could draw your reader’s attention to a Shell to Sea petition addressed to the line Minister Alex White which asks/demands that he refuse Shell consent to operate their ‘Space Shuttle syndrome’ refinery at Ballinaboy. As this is of local, national and global significance, I hope many readers will sign it over the next two days.read more
Jul 4th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Chevron agreed to share the cost with Exxon Mobil, Shell and three Japanese power companies, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power. “This is probably the last of the megaprojects for the oil companies for a while…”
By A. ODYSSEUS PATRICK: JULY 3, 2015
SYDNEY, Australia — Getting anything to Chevron’s gas-processing plant on Barrow Island is a bit of a trick.
Some supplies travel 15 hours from Perth to a supply base for shipping. En route, trucks cannot stop under trees, to avoid picking up bugs and bird droppings. When people and cargo finally make it to the island, an army of 300 enforces a quarantine: Every Velcro strap on clothing and bags is checked for seed pods, boots are scrubbed free of dirt and pants with cuffs never even make it ashore.read more
Jul 1st, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
The lessons for all from the Corrib Gas project in North Mayo
Major infrastructure that is years behind schedule and massively over budget
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
The Corrib Gas project represents a cautionary example of how large industrial developments should not be handled by governments or multinational companies. A lack of consultation and sensitivity to local concerns in the initial stages led gradually to resistance and confrontation. Smouldering resentment over what objectors regarded as unqualified state support for the developer caught fire when five protesters, concerned about the safety of a gas pipeline and its proximity to their homes, were jailed on an application from Shell. From there, there was no going back.read more
Jun 30th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Corrib gas cost overruns deprive State of €600m in tax
The €2.4 billion cost overrun is largely as a consequence of opposition to the project, which was stimulated in part by poor management of it at its outset.
The huge cost overrun on Corrib gas, the single most expensive energy infrastructure project in Ireland and the largest since the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric scheme on the Shannon in the 1920s, will deprive the Government of an estimated €600 million in tax revenue.
The €600 million represents 25 per cent of the project’s likely cost overrun of €2.4 billion, much of which was incurred because of changes made to the project since it began.
Had this additional €2.4 billion not been spent on development costs, an extra €600 million would have been paid to the exchequer as tax on profit, which for exploration companies is levied at 25 per cent. However, like all companies, Shell Exploration and Production Ireland, which is a partner with Statoil of Norway and Vermilion Energy of Canada, can write off capital development costs against taxation.read more
Jun 29th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
The Corrib legacy: what the protests achieved
A rerouting of the pipeline and greater public awareness of how Ireland treats its natural resources were among the positive outcomes of the Shell to Sea, campaigners say
Bríd McGarry, a Mayo landowner, and Mary Corduff, wife of jailed farmer Willie Corduff, after five Mayo farmers were jailed in 2005 for refusing to give an undertaking not to obstruct the construction of the Corrib gas pipe line. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
Lorna Siggins: Monday June 29, 2015
“You’ve gone very quiet up there.” North Mayo resident Mary Corduff reckons that if she had a euro for every time she heard this remark over the past few months, her purse could be pretty full. “People think because they don’t see us on protesting on the television that we have accepted this, but we haven’t,” Corduff says, looking out of her farmhouse window towards the Corrib gas refinery several miles away.read more
Jun 26th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Shell Heads for Alaska While Awaiting Final Drilling Permits
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Jun 26, 2015, 3:42 PM ET
By DAN JOLING Associated Press
One Royal Dutch Shell offshore drill rig is headed to Alaska and a second is poised to leave, despite lacking final federal permits that would allow exploratory drilling and possible confirmation of rich oil reserves under the Chukchi Sea.
A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell PLC said that’s routine. But an attorney for Oceana, one of dozens of groups objecting to Arctic offshore drilling, said seeing Shell’s flotilla sail north puts pressure on federal agencies to sign off on the permits.read more
WASHINGTON — Shell’s plans to bore two wells in the Arctic Ocean this summer may be jeopardized by an obscure permitting requirement that effectively bars drilling operations close to each other in waters off Alaska.
The restriction highlighted by environmentalists opposed to Shell’s Arctic drilling campaign could be a major stumbling block for the company, which has spent $7 billion and seven years pursuing oil in the region.
The provision is embedded in the government’s rules for obtaining a “letter of authorization” allowing companies to disturb walruses, seals and other animals in the region — among the last permits Shell needs to launch activities in the Chukchi Sea next month. Under a 2013 Fish and Wildlife Service regulation, those authorizations are precluded for drilling activities happening within 15 miles of each other.read more
May 29th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
From a regular contributor
THE BEAR FACTS -EMERGENCY RESPONSE MAY TAKE TWO OR THREE MONTHS TO ARRIVE!
“The risk of a blowout or spill is always present when a well is drilled. The US government estimates the probability of such an event in Alaska at 75%. In many cases a relief well is the only way in which a blowout can be brought under control, especially if the well casing is breached. There is no “new technology” in existence that eliminates the risk of a blowout, or provides a guarantee that a blowout can be quickly brought under control if it occurs.
The requirement for “same season” relief well capabilities is intended to avoid a situation where a blowout occurs late in the season and continues unabated until the weather improves sufficiently to undertake well control operations in the following year. The time required to mobilise a second rig, drill a relief well, and kill a blowout may be 2-3 months or more. The “same season” relief well requirement therefore effectively shortens the summer drilling season to just a few weeks. If this requirement is enforced, exploration and development of the Arctic will be almost impossible. If this requirement is not enforced and Shell has a blowout which continues through the winter, the clean-up costs may far exceed Shell’s financial resources.read more
May 25th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Ten years after it first started acquiring new leases in the Arctic, and having spent almost $7bn, Shell has still not yet drilled a single well into oil-bearing rocks. A series of law suits, regulatory objections and its own mistakes have held it up.
FULL FT ARTICLE WITH WORKING LINKS. SETS OUT SHELL’S 2012 DEBACLE IN SOME DETAIL
May 22nd, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By Peter Husk: Saturday May 23, 2015
There’s an Alice-in-Wonderland quality about Royal Dutch Shell’s attitude towards the risks involved in its plan to drill for oil in the US Arctic.
The decision has sparked protests in Seattle, where the Polar Pioneer, one of two rigs the Anglo-Dutch oil giant intends to use, is berthed.
Shell sees the risks in its plan as financial. Critics see a far worse threat to the world’s climate.
Another rig, the Noble Discoverer, is docked along the coast at Everett. Both vessels are expected to sail north to Alaska next month and start exploratory drilling in the Chukchi prospect, between the United States and Russia, in late July.read more
May 19th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
SHELL DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE ABOUT THE ENERGY OF THE FUTURE, NOT A CLUE!!
SOLAR IS THE ENERGY OF THE FUTURE.
PRODUCING ENERGY FROM OIL IS STONE AGE TECHNOLOGY. A SOLAR ENERGY REVOLUTION IS WELL UNDER WAY NOW. YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. INVEST NOW IN SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION. OH, AND GET YOUR RIG THE HELL OUT OF SEATTLE. YOU ARE NOT WANTED THERE!!
AND ONE MORE THING, IF SHELL HAD ANY BRAINS, YOU WOULD AT LEAST BE BUYING STOCKS IN THE TESLA CORPORATION. read more
The 400-foot long Polar Pioneer began moving out of Port Angeles at about 1:40 a.m. PT. The rig is expected to arrive here around 5 p.m. PT, traveling about 120 miles, the Coast Guard said.
The Polar Pioneer is one of the rigs that Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell petroleum plans to use as it moves ahead with plans to use leased space at the Port of Seattle to load drilling rigs and other vessels with supplies and personnel. It is preparing to explore for oil this summer in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast.read more
Apr 28th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Article by Dan Joling of Associated Press published 28 April 2015 by ABC News
Groups Want Review of Shell’s Arctic Regulatory Filings
Two groups petitioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday for an investigation of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and what the groups call misstatements in regulatory filings regarding the risk of a catastrophic oil spill from Arctic offshore drilling.
The petition was filed Monday by Oceana and the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
Mike LeVine, an attorney for Oceana, argued that Shell has not disclosed to investors that its response measures to a major or catastrophic spill are unlikely to work.read more
Apr 2nd, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Shell’s 2008 purchase of a licence to drill in Alaskan waters has been approved. Now it waits to be granted permission to do so
April 1, 2015 – 8:53pm – By Kevin McGwin
With the decision yesterday by the US federal government not to throw out the 2008 sale of drilling licences off Alaska’s northern coast, it is looking increasingly likely that Shell, an oil firm, will be able to resume its Alaska drilling campaign this year.
The decision, though widely bemoaned on social media by opponents, should have come as little surprise. After first being foreseen by The Guardian, a left-leaning British media outlet, last week, the National Petroleum Council, a federal advisory board led by industry executives, indicated what the outcome would be when it, perhaps not unsurprisingly, recommended on Friday that Arctic exploration not be delayed.read more
Mar 30th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell will resume drilling off Alaska after suspending operations for two years in the wake of an accident, the special U.S. envoy to the Arctic said on Monday, but gave no details as to when.
Shell has been moving oil rigs to Alaska as it awaits the green light from U.S. authorities. It froze operations in 2013 after the grounding of a rig in Alaska prompted protests from environmental groups.
“Clearly Shell and others will resume drilling and exploration up off the North Slope of Alaska,” Admiral Robert Papp said in an interview during a visit to Canada.
Papp, noting the accident had happened in December 2012 after that year’s drilling season had ended, said the Anglo-Dutch oil major understood the importance of taking all the necessary precautions.read more
Shell Oil Company, subsidiary of multinational oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS), is conducting drilling tests in Bellingham, Washington, ahead of potential regulatory approval for drilling in the Arctic.
According to media reports, government officials in Washington are observing Shell’s oil spill response system, which is to be deployed in the Arctic. The testing comes two years after the oil company’s previous venture ended abruptly in 2012, after it failed a deployment test because of damage to its emergency containment system. The failure led to heightened concerns over environmental safety. However, the system, which was deployed on a barge, has since been certified after repairs were carried out.read more
A Massive Pipe Came Loose in an Atlantic Gas Field and Irish Environmentalists Are Not Happy
The Corib Gas pipeline project by the Western Irish fishing village of Rossport, County Mayo, has always been a source of controversy. It was established amid arrests and police batons, against the wishes of locals and environmental protesters. The project is supposed to start pumping gas this summer, and those activists remain convinced that extracting fossil fuels from an area famed for its natural beauty is a bad idea.
Just over a week ago, an 800 metre pipe that was supposed to be fixed to the sea-bed floated to the surface. Feeling that their fears may have been justified, local activists are demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) looks into it. I contacted the EPA who had previously said they would be investigating the issue. When I asked whether members of the EPA would visit the site, I was told they “don’t consider it necessary at this time”.read more
Mar 2nd, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Posted by Chris Klint, Senior Digital Producer, [email protected]: Mar 02, 2015
ANCHORAGE – Anarray of Washington-based environmental groups has sued the Port of Seattle over a leasing agreement to host Shell Oil’s Arctic drilling fleet, claiming the deal was negotiated in secret and may pollute the port.
Shell contractor Foss Maritime received a two-year lease, announced in February, for 50 acres of waterfront property and the mooring of up to eight vessels. Port officials expected the lease to bring in at least $13 million in rent during the two-year period.
A Monday statement from Earthjustice says the suit, filed in King Country Superior Court against the port, asks the court to vacate the lease. The suit was filed on behalf of several groups including the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, the Sierra Club, the Washington Environmental Council, and the Seattle Audubon Society.read more
When Finlayson joined the Sakhalin II project, Shell was the controlling stakeholder in the venture.
By the time he departed, Shell had lost its controlling stake and had become a junior partner in humiliating circumstances.
The Putin government found out that Shell had hidden information from them in a high level cover-up. As a Russian government minister, Oleg Mitvol, confirmed to the news media at the time, and more recently in a GERMAN TV documentary segment broadcast across Europe, I supplied that crucial insider information to him. I did so before the real nature of Putin had become apparent. read more
Feb 12th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
From an article by Joe Connelly published 11Feb 2015 by Seattlepi.com under the headline:
Port of Seattle quietly signs homeport lease for Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet
Extracts
The Port of Seattle has quietly inked a two-year lease under which Shell Oil will use Terminal 5 on the Seattle waterfront as the base for its efforts to drill in Arctic waters of Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.
With rapid authorization, negotiation and signing of the lease — reminiscent of how decisions on the waterfront used to be greased — the port has secured a $13.17 million deal and forestalled efforts by the region’s environmental groups to stop it.
“This year we are planning on drilling in Alaska,” Simon Henry, chief financial officer at Royal Dutch Shell, told a stockholder briefing two weeks ago.read more
Feb 5th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By John Donovan
A letter emailed to Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer, Ben van Beurden, on 23 Oct 2014, from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, asked why Shell had omitted to supply in a Form 20-F filing, figures for Shell’s share of Kashagan proved undeveloped reserves.
Shell’s partners in the much troubled Kashagan oil field consortium – years behind schedule and billions over budget – include Eni, KazMunayGas, Total, ExxonMobil, China National Petroleum Corporation and Inpex. The project is known in the oil industry as “Cash All Gone”.read more
Jan 8th, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
From an article by Joel Connelly published 7 Jan 2015 by Seattlepi.com under the headline:
“Will Port of Seattle be repair center for Shell Oil’s Arctic vessels?
Extracts
The Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 is being proposed as a repair and service center for vessels engaged in Shell Oil’s troubled, delayed program to drill for oil in Arctic waters of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off Alaska.
In the summer of 2012, the tug Lauren Foss towed the Shell exploration ship Noble Discoverer away from a beach in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, after its anchor slipped and the 512-foot vessel nearly ran aground.
The contractor operating the Noble Discoverer, Noble Drilling LLC, later pleaded guilty to eight felony counts for violating environmental and safety laws, and paid a $12.2 million fine. The violations were discovered during a U.S. Coast Guard safety inspection.read more
Jan 3rd, 2015
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
By Yereth Rosen: 3 Jan 2015
Six years after dropping more than $2 billion on leases in the remote Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska, Shell has yet to drill into any oil in that icy frontier.
Plans for an audacious offshore Arctic exploration program have been stymied by litigation and adverse court rulings and a string of accidents, mishaps, mistakes and some legal violations.
But the company is seeking to make up for lost time in 2015. After scrapping plans to drill in 2014 — a decision made necessary by a federal appeals court ruling in January that found regulators had failed to properly evaluate environmental impacts of the 2008 leasing — Shell has a new and much more aggressive exploration plan it hopes to make a reality this year.read more
Dec 11th, 2014
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Even more troubling than Shell’s “Arctic-ready” armada problems is Shell’s spectacular failure of good judgment. To avoid an Alaska tax bill, company managers ordered its secondary drill rig towed south through the winter storm-lashed Gulf of Alaska despite the tug master’s prescient warning that: “the length of tow, at this time of the year, in this location, with our current routing, guarantees an ass-kicking.” The tug master was right.
Extracts from a letter dated 11 Dec 2014 by Kim Elton, who served four years as senior adviser to former US Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar.
Here are some lowlights from Shell’s pratfall-ridden 2012 effort to drill exploration wells: A Coast Guard inspection of Shell’s 47-year-old primary drilling ship found 23 “deficiencies” (including engine problems) days before it was set to sail for the Arctic; that rig nearly beached dragging anchor in a calm Aleutian port en route to the Arctic; Shell’s required spill response barge initially flunked minimum seaworthiness tests after it was rescued from a barge boneyard in Southern California; Shell’s spill containment dome was “crushed like a beer can” in placid Puget Sound sea trials, never making it to the Arctic; the lead drilling rig finally punched its first drill bit into the Arctic Ocean floor in mid-September and, the next day, an ice floe the size of Manhattan forced it off; that same rig then suffered an explosion and fire leaving the Arctic; it later was detained by the Coast Guard in Alaska for major safety, propulsion and pollution “discrepancies” (CBS reported when Coast Guard criminal investigators arrived, the crew had been provided with lawyers and declined to be interviewed); Shell’s secondary drilling rig had 19 deficiencies in electrical and maintenance systems discovered when it arrived back in Dutch Harbor from the Arctic; and Shell incurred more than $1 million in fines for air-quality violations in the Arctic.read more
Dec 9th, 2014
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Greenpeace Arctic campaigner, Ian Duff, has issued the following statement:
“Shell has proven time and again it can’t be trusted to manage its contractors safely. That Shell engaged Noble Drilling, a company now guilty of eight felonies, is the clearest indicator yet. Letting Shell back into such a precious and risky environment as the Arctic would be sheer madness, yet that’s what Shell wants to do next summer. Surely now President Obama has to think twice about approving Shell’s next venture in the Arctic, which the government’s own scientists say has a 75% chance of causing a large spill.read more
Dec 9th, 2014
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs
Monday, December 8, 2014
Drilling Company Charged with Environmental and Maritime Crimes in Alaska
Noble Drilling (U.S.) LLC was charged with environmental and maritime crimes for operating the drill ship Noble Discoverer and the drilling unit Kulluk in violation of federal law in Alaska in 2012, the Department of Justice announced.
Under the terms of a plea agreement filed in federal court today, Noble will plead guilty to eight felony offenses, pay $12.2 million dollars in fines and community service payments, implement a comprehensive Environmental Compliance Plan, and will be placed on probation for four years. In addition, Noble’s parent corporation, Noble Corporation plc, headquartered in London, England, will implement an Environmental Management System for all Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs) owned or operated by Noble Corporation plc and its direct and indirect subsidiaries worldwide.read more
Dec 9th, 2014
by John Donovan.
Comments are off for this post
The drilling operator of Shell’s ill-fated drill rig that ran aground south of Kodiak Island will plead guilty to eight felony offenses and has agreed to pay $12.2 million in fines and community service payments stemming from environmental and safety violations aboard its vessels, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday.
Alaska Dispatch News article published 8 Dec 2014
The drilling operator of Shell’s ill-fated drill rig that ran aground south of Kodiak Island will plead guilty to eight felony offenses and has agreed to pay $12.2 million in fines and community service payments stemming from environmental and safety violations aboard its vessels, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday.
Noble Drilling LLC, operator of the drill ship Noble Discoverer and drilling operator of the Kulluk — which broke free from a tow during bad weather and ran aground on Dec. 31, 2012 — also will receive four years of probation and must implement a Comprehensive Environmental Compliance plan for violating federal environmental and maritime law in 2012, according to a release from Karen Loeffler, U.S. Attorney for Alaska.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.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders. (JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER) For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell": WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed. NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer. We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party". MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]
SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY
EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS:
THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
ENDS
(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)
SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004
Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits. Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.
Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
SHELL CONTROVERSIES
selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.
WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.
Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?
Argus Media
Shell resumes LNG shipments from world’s largest floating structure
LNG Canada construction delay creates cost uncertainty, clouds world supply
Shell Corrib firm gets €70m cash injection
New Release – Issued by Shell to Sea – December 30th 2015 – For immediate release
The projected spend of €250m on the controversial project this year will lead to the overall costs exceeding €3.6bn. 
Dear John,
Chevron agreed to share the cost with Exxon Mobil, Shell and three Japanese power companies, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power. 
The lessons for all from the Corrib Gas project in North Mayo
The Corrib legacy: what the protests achieved
Shell Heads for Alaska While Awaiting Final Drilling Permits
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Jun 26, 2015, 3:42 PM ET
Shell’s Arctic drilling plans may hit permitting snag
From a regular contributor
Heather Graf, KING-TV, Seattle: 
Article by Dan Joling of Associated Press published 28 April 2015 by ABC News
By David Ljunggren
Article by 
ANCHORAGE – An 
From an article by Joe Connelly published 11Feb 2015 by Seattlepi.com under the headline:
By John Donovan
From an article by Joel Connelly published 7 Jan 2015 by Seattlepi.com under the headline: 
Even more troubling than Shell’s “Arctic-ready” armada problems is Shell’s spectacular failure of good judgment. To avoid an Alaska tax bill, company managers ordered its secondary drill rig towed south through the winter storm-lashed Gulf of Alaska despite the tug master’s prescient warning that: “the length of tow, at this time of the year, in this location, with our current routing, guarantees an ass-kicking.” The tug master was right. 
Department of Justice
The drilling operator of Shell’s ill-fated drill rig that ran aground south of Kodiak Island will plead guilty to eight felony offenses and has agreed to pay $12.2 million in fines and community service payments stemming from environmental and safety violations aboard its vessels, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday.
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:
