Royal Dutch Shell plc .com

LEAKED SHELL INTERNAL WARNING FROM ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC CHIEF ETHICS & COMPLIANCE OFFICER RICHARD WISEMAN (RIGHT) REGARDING THE LEAK OF THE SHELL GLOBAL ADDRESS BOOK:

I do not feel that there is any need to be alarmed

Colleagues,

I am writing to inform you of an incident involving misuse of company data.

It has become clear recently that the Global Address List, containing contact information of everyone in Shell and some contractors, joint ventures and other third parties, has been downloaded without authorisation and distributed to some external parties.  We do not know who did this.   We are investigating and are raising this theft of information with the relevant data protection authorities.  The incident is receiving some media coverage.

I do not feel that there is any need to be alarmed.  However, as a precaution, if you receive any nuisance telephone calls or e-mails then please contact your line manager, HR or security.

Whilst writing about this incident, I would like to take the opportunity to remind us all of the requirements of the Code of Conduct relating to Information Management, including data privacy and communications.

Richard Wiseman
Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer

COMMENT BY JOHN DONOVAN

I note an important inconsistency between what Richard Wiseman is saying to Shell employees compared with what he has said to me in email correspondence.  Mr Wiseman claimed in an email that there is a risk to the personal safety not only to Shell employees but “considerable numbers of people not employed by Shell but who are employed by third parties”.  Contrast this with his message to Shell employees published above. Mr Wiseman does not mention any personal risk to the safety of people listed in the directory. Instead, the worst potential consequent of the database leak is downplayed to the possibility of the listed people receiving nuisance phone calls. So who is Mr Wiseman attempting to mislead: me, or over 100,000 people in the Global Address List?

POSTINGS TODAY ON SHELL BLOG…

It is Shell that has acted in a cavalier way with other people’s personal data, otherwise the Shell Address Book could not have been circulated to hostile parties, including Nigerian activists.

Posting by “Anonymous”
on Feb 7th, 2010 at 2:55 pm

By John Donovan

Some strange events at Shell Brunei Petroleum (SBP).

Around four weeks ago we published an email from a senior official of the Brunei government writing from The Chairman’s Office of Shell Brunei Petroleum, explaining the mysterious absence of  the companies Managing Director, Dr Grahaeme Henderson. It said he was absent for medical treatment.

We understand from our sources that in November the head of SBP HSE left the country in a hurry and did not return.

Now we learn that a number of fraud investigations are going on, allegedly involving Nigerian expats.

Perhaps all of these matters are unconnected. Or it could be that Dr Henderson was pressing for action to be taken in relation to the corruption, when he encounterted a medical problem that necessitated his temporary exit from Brunei.

We have commented before on the corrupting relationship between Shell and the head of the Brunei Royal Family, the Sultan of Brunei.

Borneo Bulletin: Fraud probe at oil company

By Ignatius Stephen

Saturday 6 February 2010

In an effort to keep the country’s cooperate image clean the Brunei Anti Corruption Bureau has begun a series of massive fraud investigations against more than 10 senior oil company officials.

The amount probed, according to reliable sources, exceeds $5 million and both local and foreign employees are allegedly linked to what is quoted as “irregular material purchase procedures and related matters.”

The company Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) has already dismissed some of the officials after questioning while the affairs of others are still being looked into, informed sources said. Some of the others are under investigation, it is learnt.

The matter is still in its early stage and a thorough check has been on the way for some time and a source said that “no stone will be left unturned.” It is understood the alleged fraud was discovered during a routine audit check.

The authorities, it is understood, are looking into the allegations seriously, although no arrests have been made apart from the termination and suspension of some of the alleged miscreants.

Oil and gas are the country’s lifeblood and the authorities are determined keep the industry clean.

Rumours of the alleged fraud have been strong in recent times although no public announcements have been made so far.

The country’s oil industry is mainly based in Seria, in the south of the capital.

Oil and gas account for 48 percent of the country’s economic output that is helped by the country’s stability and an efficient and clean oil industry sector helping to maintain the country’s production levels.

Although there have been instances of petty irregularities in the oil sector in the past that brought about court action, instances have been rare.

In recent times other overseas oil companies have begun major operations here.

SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED ARTICLE

Brunei launches investigation into fraud at Brunei Shell

By John Donovan

If anyone would like a free copy of the Shell database containing the names, location, phone numbers etc of over 100,000 Shell employees/contractors, please feel free to apply via john@shellnews.net

The information would only be provided if we are convinced that it would be used for legitimate purposes e.g. poaching Shell employees (and without putting any Shell employee at risk).

For example, Exxon, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips or Total might each like a copy of this commercially valuable information? Prime up to date intelligence.

Don’t worry Mr Wiseman. We are only having some more fun at Shell’s expense.

The serious point is that the information is in circulation. We are not the only party with a copy of the Directory. There are many and other parties may not be as responsible as we are.

Shell has stated that its employees are at risk. If this is correct (and we accept that it is) then this is a potentially dangerous situation for which Shell as a company is ultimately responsible. The Directory could spread around the Internet in a matter of hours.

The genie is out of the bottle.

Houston, we have a problem.

By John Donovan

Another major humiliation and security breach for Shell.  First we beat Shell to the top level domain name for Royal Dutch Shell Plc.  As a result, with Shell’s written approval, we process job applications and business proposals meant for Shell, dealing with them as we deem appropriate.

We also regularly publish leaked Shell information, including for example breaking the news last May about Voser’s Transition 2009 plans for Shell.

Now a further huge embarrassment. We have in our possession a leaked database directory with contact information for every Shell employee on the planet – over 100,000 people. This is despite a global spying operation by Shell against its own employees designed to prevent insider information from reaching us. Shell Corporate Affairs Security is no doubt redoubling its efforts to plug the leaks, but the damage continues.

We supplied some sample data to Shell from the internal directory and also sent test emails to a sampling of listed Shell employees (and advised Shell accordingly). The Directory also includes information on employees of Sakhalin Energy. Gazprom is unlikely to be pleased to learn of such a serious breach of security.

Published below is a selection of self-explanatory email correspondence with Shell, which is now concluded. Mr Wiseman did not mention the risk of the information being used for identity theft.

EMAIL FROM JOHN DONOVAN TO RDS PLC COMPANY SECRETARY MICHIEL BRANDJES

From: John Donovan [mailto:john@shellnews.net]
Sent: 03 February 2010 12:29
To: Brandjes, Michiel CM RDS-LC
Cc: Wiseman, Richard RM SI-RDS-CCO
Subject: COLOSSAL SECURITY BREACH AT SHELL

Dear Mr Brandjes

We are in possession of a massive database containing contact information for every Shell employee throughout the world.

It was supplied by an organized group of over 100 Shell employees from the USA, the UK and the Netherlands intent on a corporate revolution inside your company. We agree with the aims of the group.

No doubt “CAS” is already investigating this colossal breach of security.

In addition to an article being prepared, we intend to make the database available online later today.

Please advise as a matter of urgency if Shell has any objections, and if so, what they are. Obviously we do not want to put anyone at risk, though we cannot currently see that this would be the case.

If it is just a matter of a huge embarrassment for Shell, then we will publish as planned.

Best Regards
John Donovan

REPLY FROM RICHARD WISEMAN, CHIEF ETHICS & COMPLIANCE OFFICER, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC

From: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Date: 3 February 2010 13:29:07 GMT
To: john@shellnews.net
Cc: michiel.brandjes@shell.com
Subject: RE: COLOSSAL SECURITY BREACH AT SHELL

Dear Mr Donovan

Unfortunately, Mr Brandjes is not able to respond and in view of the deadline you have imposed, I thought it sensible to reply.  You will appreciate that our immediate concern is the security of Shell’s staff.  Accordingly I should be grateful if you would let me know exactly what information you have and intend to publish.  In particular, please let me know whether this information includes private contact information like addresses and phone numbers, in which case we would protest very strongly indeed and require that this information is not published.

Regards

Richard Wiseman

Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA

Registered in England and Wales number 4366849
Registered Office:  Shell Centre, London, SE1
Headquarters: Carel van Bylandtlaan 30, 2596 HR
The Hague, The Netherlands

Email: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com

REPLY FROM JOHN DONOVAN

From: John Donovan <john@shellnews.net>

Date: 3 February 2010 13:58:52 GMT
To: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Subject: Re: COLOSSAL SECURITY BREACH AT SHELL

Dear Mr Wiseman

As indicated, we have no wish to jeopardize the security of Shell staff and will delay publication of public access to the database until you have had an opportunity to consider the matter with your security advisors and advise us the outcome. If there is any genuine danger to your employees, then we will not make the database available online.

I will shortly send you samples of the information in the database.

We will however press ahead with publication of other related information.

Regards
John Donovan

FURTHER EMAIL FROM RICHARD WISEMAN

From: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Date: 3 February 2010 15:41:44 GMT
To: john@shellnews.net
Subject: Directory Publication

Dear Mr Donovan

I have now had a chance to consider this and consult with colleagues more familiar with the nature and contents of the “leaked” directory than I am.  I am afraid I must ask you not to publish the data.

The reasons for this request are as follows:

1  Although the data are predominantly business related, some of the information is personal – some telephone numbers for example.
2  Some of the information is sensitive from the security point of view and in some cases personal safety could be compromised by its publication.
3  Although this is a “Shell” directory, it contains information about considerable numbers of people who are not employed by Shell but who are employed by third parties.

In the circumstances therefore, I’d be grateful for your assurance that you will not be publishing the directory.

Regards

Richard Wiseman

Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA

REPLY FROM JOHN DONOVAN TO RICHARD WISEMAN

From: John Donovan <john@shellnews.net>
Date: 3 February 2010 16:12:09 GMT
To: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Subject: Re: Directory Publication

Dear Mr Wiseman

I note your polite request and the grounds on which it is made.

I would not wish to take a chance putting anyones personal security at risk.

I feel sure my father will share this view and will speak with him late this evening and send confirmation in the morning.

At least we have a nice database from which to compile an email list.

Regards
John Donovan

REPLY FROM RICHARD WISEMAN TO JOHN DONOVAN

On 3 Feb 2010, at 16:20, richard.wiseman@shell.com wrote:

Dear Mr Donovan

Thank you for taking this responsible approach.  Please let me know in good time if you change your mind.

Regards
Richard Wiseman

Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA

EMAIL TO RICHARD WISEMAN FROM JOHN DONOVAN

From: John Donovan <john@shellnews.net>
Date: 4 February 2010 16:28:07 GMT
To: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Subject: Re: Directory Publication

Dear Mr Wiseman

Just to confirm that based on what you have stated about the risk of compromising personal safety, we will not be making the relevant Directory information available online. This is in line with a previous decision not to publish an article on a different matter when Mr Brandjes made a request for us not to do so, because of special circumstances he disclosed to us.

Regards
John Donovan

EMAILS END

RELATED WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE

FROM A SHELL INSIDER

MR OVERPROMISE AND UNDERDELIVERY

Tip for Voser: if production is declining for the seventh year in a row while predicting all those years it would increase, thereby justifying the enormous investments, what does this say of your head of upstream? You know the bald fellow with the facial hair? Him with the same senile smile as Tony Blair? The mother of all micro managers? The one who did the same when he was the boss of Expro? The one being accused of criminal behaviour resulting in the death of two workers on Brent? The one who ‘manages’ some 200 projects personally? The one who surrounds himself with sycophants? (FYI a sycophant is a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite). Yes, I mean Brinded. And to be more explicit: you should fire him asap. Shell will next year probably go below 3 mln bopd if we extrapolate your performance. And you think so too with the remarks of freezing the dividend. Firing another 1000 is not going to help, you should fire Brinded. It is quality that counts, not quantity!

Or does Brinded know something about you and is he blackmailing you? I almost start to think so.

Oil firm will sell 15% of refinery operations and slow down tar sands projects as fourth-quarter profits fall by 75%

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By James Herron
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) data containing the contact details of tens of thousands of employees, which the company said could compromise their personal safety, has been leaked to a blogger critical of the company, according to emails seen by Dow Jones Newswires.

The data, which includes mobile numbers and home postcodes of workers in dangerous locations like Port Harcourt, Nigeria, was leaked by a number of Shell staff to John Donovan, a blogger who is critical of the company and is a frequent recipient of leaks from within Shell.

Shell’s Niger Delta operations have been troubled by violence for several years. Attacks or sabotage on oil infrastructure in the region regularly disrupt production and employees are sometimes targeted.

Four expatriates working for a Shell Petroleum Development Co. contractor in Port Harcourt were kidnapped last month and later released unharmed. Two Nigerians were killed during the kidnapping.

“Some of the information is sensitive from the security point of view and in some cases personal safety could be compromised by its publication,” Shell’s Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer Richard Wiseman wrote in an email to Donovan. Wiseman asked Donovan not to publish the information on his Web site.

Donovan told Dow Jones Newswires he hasn’t yet decided whether to publish the data in full, but said he takes Wiseman’s warnings about safety of Shell employees seriously.

According to another email seen by Dow Jones Newswires, the data was leaked by a group of Shell employees in the U.K., the U.S. and the Netherlands who believe the company is abusing the environment and human rights in Nigeria.

Shell wasn’t immediately able to comment.

Shell has recently finished a major restructuring program during which many employees had to re-apply for their own jobs and 5,000 people were made redundant. Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser said there will be another 1,000 job cuts this year aimed at cutting costs by $1 billion and improving profitability.

Blog Web site: http://www.royaldutchshellplc.com

-By James Herron, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9317; james.herron@dowjones.com

WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE

Royal Dutch Shell, the oil company that suffered a humiliating defeat by shareholders on pay last year, made a mistake by under-estimating how fast the mood on executive salaries was changing, according to the new head of its remuneration committee.

In his first comments in his new role, Hans Wijers, chief executive of paint company Akzo Nobel and a former Dutch economics minister, said the Anglo-Dutch oil major had failed to see how tensions over bankers’ pay had increased investors’ concerns about executive pay.

The force of the rebellion left Shell directors shocked in spite of a previous revolt against pay the year before. Jorma Ollila, chairman, vowed not to make the same mistake again and to reform its pay policy.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.

FULL FT ARTICLE (SUBSCRIPTION)

Sun Feb 7, 2010 11:44am GMT

LAGOS, Feb 7 (Reuters) – A Nigerian militant group said on Sunday it had attacked a major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) oil pipeline in the Niger Delta but the Anglo-Dutch company said it had no reports of any such sabotage on its infrastructure.

The Joint Revolutionary Council, a coalition of ex-militants and community leaders, said in a statement it had disabled a trunk line in the Obunoma area of Rivers state connecting several flow stations to the Bonny export terminal.

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Reporting by Nick Tattersall)

Heath Aston, Daily Mail
5 February 2010, 9:51am

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell will cut jobs and refine capacity as it enters an ‘uncertain’ 2010 faced with weak gas prices and depressed refining margins for oil products.

Under pressure from better performing rivals such as BP, Shell chief executive Peter Voser conceded that the Anglo-Dutch company had become bloated during the good times of sky-high oil prices before the financial crisis.

He said: ‘We’ve had four years of record profits. You know yourself when you have a good time you eat a little too much and you get a bit fat.’

In a bid to trim the company down, Voser will axe 1,000 staff, mainly executives, and sell about 15% of Shell’s oil refineries dotted across the globe, raising up to £1.9bn.

The deeper cuts come after Shell got rid of 5,000 staff last year and reduced its refining capacity, especially in established western markets where fuel consumption has dwindled since the recession. Last week the company closed a refinery in Montreal, Canada.

The need to strip back and kickstart Shell’s operating performance was illustrated by earnings figures showing annual profits in 2009 at $9.8bn were just a third of the $31bn bagged in 2008.

By comparison, BP’s annual profits halved.

n what one analyst described as a ‘truly awful set of figures’, Shell’s fourth quarter earnings on a current cost of supplies basis wilted to $1.2bn from $4.8bn in the same quarter of 2008.

Excluding one-off items – mainly the $900m cost of redundancies – earnings fell to $2.8bn from $3.9bn, below what the City had anticipated.

Oriel Securities analyst Andrew Whittock described the result as ‘disappointing’.

Voser warned there could be no quick fix, with refining capacity in the market outweighing demand and refining margins at their lowest point in 15 years.

Shell’s move to increase its exposure to the lower carbon natural gas market has backfired in the short term, with prices falling much harder than oil since their peaks.

Echoing statements from BP, Voser said the rebound in the global economy would take longer than many people expected.

He said: ‘On the outlook, I wouldn’t call it a rosy one. I would be quite cautious.’

Voser said Shell’s $28bn capital expenditure programme would be directed more at expanding Asian markets although building new refineries was not on the agenda after India and China opened refineries that have added two million barrels a day of oil supply in that region.

Royal Dutch Shell’s A shares ended the day in the doldrums and down 43p at 1732p.

DAILY MAIL ARTICLE

• BP board in Williamsburg squashed proposals in 2004
• Ex chief claims merger could have been worth $9bn a year
• Tie-up with Yukos rejected after ‘untoward’ encounter with Khodorkovsky

Terry Macalister
Friday 5 February 2010 16.24 GMT

Lord Browne claims the merger proposals had the support of his team, which would have included current BP chief executive Tony Hayward (above) who was then head of exploration. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

Lord Browne took BP to the brink of a mega-merger with Royal Dutch Shell six years ago only to be thwarted at the last minute by opposition from a handful of his own board members, the former chief executive has claimed.

“We missed the boat” argues Browne in his autobiography, which is published on Monday.

The Shell deal would have involved selling off the whole of BP’s downstream refining business – an operation that is currently struggling to make money.

“We estimated that a merger could create synergies of around $9bn [£5.8bn] a year in three to five years’ time. It also would have been a significant boost to the oil industry outside of the US,” he argues in Beyond Business, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

There was much speculation at the time that BP and Shell had held casual talks but the oil companies denied it had been anything other than early soundings that quickly led nowhere.

But Browne, who stepped down in 2007 in favour of his head of exploration Tony Hayward, planned to put detailed proposals to the BP board at a meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia. Browne claims he had the support of his own executive team, which would have included Hayward.

“On the plane there I knew the answer even before the meeting started. The sentiment was ‘why rock the boat’. The Shell merger was not discussed. It was not going to be done and that was that… In the end we did not rock the boat; we missed it,” he says.

Browne also revealed how he also thought about buying into Yukos rather than TNK as his entrance point to Russia. But he claims a meeting at his house in Cambridge with the now-imprisoned Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky put him off because the Russian talked about his political influence in that country. Browne said: “It is easy to say this in hindsight but there was something untoward about his approach.”

GUARDIAN ARTICLE

An previous investigation by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into reports BAE paid about 1 billion pounds over a decade to Prince Bandar bin Sultan in connection with the al-Yamamah arms deal had been halted in December 2006 by former Prime Minister Tony Blair after the probe angered Saudi Arabia.

From The Times
February 5, 2010

In his fascinating new book about his life and long career at BP, Lord Browne reveals he had talks with Jeroen van der Veer in 2004 about a merger with Shell.

The idea was to combine the two companies and to dispose of all BP’s refining and marketing operations. Lord Browne says it seemed “so obviously right to me and the executive team”.

But some BP directors took a different view and the proposal was never discussed by the board.

In retrospect, such a deal would not have addressed the key challenge both companies now face — access to reserves. And while Lord Browne says it would have yielded cost savings of $9 billion, results from both companies this week have shown there was huge scope for efficiency savings even without a merger.

Lord Browne’s book also details the extraordinary story of BP’s expansion in Russia. And in a frank and moving extract we will publish tomorrow, he reveals how he was forced to step down early after lying to a court about his private life.

SOURCE ARTICLE