Posts from ‘September, 2009’

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="203" caption="Shell Exec Tom Botts"][/caption]

From our archives 2 February 2006…

FROM A SHELL INSIDER

Hello Alfred

Below is the crap we receive from our ‘leader’. It continues to baffle me that these politicians keep finding hollow words for their messages that never change. This cowboy from Wyoming expects a few things to be different this year (see bullet points at the bottom). This means in his eyes:

- We are NOT honest to each other.

- We do NOT learn quickly from mistakes

- There are gaps in the Operating Model (actually his personal invention)

- We do not simplify things and try to make shortcuts

All these statements are actually correct!!

Good to hear this from the ‘leader’ who is very good at scaring the hell out of his underlings and who simply will quench any opinion (and the bringer of that opinion) which does not lead to more bonus for himself. He is the prime example of how NOT to make a learning organisation.

A true learning organisation must be especially honest to itself. Bad news must travel fast without killing the messenger. And people must have fun. The rest will then follow automatically.

But surrounding oneself with sycophants, being very angry when bad news surfaces, destroying the messengers of the bad news and then publishing crap like the stuff below, is like in the old Kremlin days. They said something and did something else. We all know what happened to them.

I am so glad your website is open for sharing this with others.

A disgruntled shell employee.

LEAKED SHELL INTERNAL DOCUMENT DATED 30 JANUARY 2006

Message from Tom on 2005 Performance and Looking Ahead
30-Jan-2006
Tom Botts, Executive Vice President – Europe

Colleagues,

First, let me wish each of you a happy and safe New Year. I hope most of you were able to take some time off, relax, and spend time with family and friends. EP Europe is now in its third year—it’s hard to believe. I want to tell you I am very proud of the progress we have made on many fronts. At the same time, I also fully recognise the many challenges we still have in front of us to really make EPE Europe ‘be all it can be’. The key point for me is we are delivering very strong financial returns to the Group and our plateau production forecasts for the future extend further in time than ever before. In short, we are a cash engine for the Group and there is still a long future ahead of us.

Clearly the lowlights of 2005 are the four fatalities. We are making every effort possible to gain and embed all the learnings from these tragedies. Performance against our business targets was mixed. We generally did well on gas production, project delivery, providing growth opportunities, environmental performance, and recruiting new graduate and experienced people. We missed our targets on liquids production, opex, and of course have struggled getting the Corrib project back on track. Details of Group and EPE performance and the Business Performance Factor will be outlined in early February with the Q4 Business Results.

Looking ahead, we must shoot to meet or beat our EP Roadmap targets as outlined in the 2005 EPE Business Plan. Given the critical role we play in the Group, we must focus – month on month – on delivering our part. Our first priority remains safety. Thereafter the Roadmap targets of reserves, production, growth, project delivery, operational excellence and cost. All this is underpinned by using our professional skills and talents to their best effect. Those skills are our strength in EPE and they have really impressed me over the past 3 years. But we need to continue to help our people develop and contribute more effectively.

I know that last part is most important. If we don’t get that right, we can’t achieve what we’ve set out to do. Along those lines, I have sent a letter to your home address outlining the upcoming EPE Connecting Days which builds on the enhanced engagement we started at the ELN conference in Groningen in November. The EPE Connecting Days aim to bring together the entire EPE community to collectively review where we have come from, where we are going, and how we can make EPE better. My ELT colleagues and I look forward to seeing you all there!

Lastly, a word on what I expect to be different this year. Starting with myself and my Leadership Team, we will:

Have more honest talk and listening – bring issues into the room
Highlight successes, learn quickly from mistakes, and move on
Address the gaps in the operating model so we can maximise business value
Make the most of the EPE Connecting days to reengage the organization.
Find ways to simplify things, one step at a time

We are making progress and putting in place a sustainable foundation and legacy. As Jeroen said in his year end message, none of us joined Shell to be second best. If we stay on course, I know we will be a winning team!

Tom

Message from Tom on 2005 Performance and Looking Ahead
30-Jan-2006
Tom Botts, Executive Vice President – Europe

CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Greenpeace activists who occupied mining equipment at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSa.L) Canadian oil sands project ended their protest on Wednesday after 1-1/2 days and were escorted away without facing charges, the environmental group said.

Visitors to this website, which is self-evidently focused on the activities of Royal Dutch Shell, may wonder why we are drawing attention to current news involving BAE Systems and the UK  Serious Fraud Squad (and the parallel corruption investigation by the US Justice Department).

All will be revealed very shortly…

FINANCIAL TIMES

By Michael Peel and Jeremy Lemer

Published: September 30 2009 14:33 | Last updated: September 30 2009 14:33

EXTRACTS

Corruption investigators were on Wednesday poised to press criminal charges over BAE Systems’ arms deals as the long-running probe into one of the country’s most-politically charged cases finally comes to a head, the Financial Times has learned.

A prosecution would provide a final showdown in a bitter case in which BAE has fiercely contested allegations that it paid hundreds of millions of pounds of bribes to win business in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, South Africa, Romania, the Czech Republic and other countries.

The company is also under investigation by the US Department of Justice…

FT FULL ARTICLE (Subscription)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

UK Serious Fraud Office Says Talks With BAE Systems Continue

SEPTEMBER 30, 2009, 10.33 A.M. ET

LONDON (Dow Jones)–The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office, or SFO, said Wednesday that it was still in discussions with defense giant BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) over an inquiry into allegations of bribery and corruption.

The SFO, a government department that investigate allegations of serious and complex fraud, had never said there was a deadline in talks with the company, according to an SFO spokesman.

“There are still ongoing discussion between us and the company,” he said, adding that there would be no announcement Wednesday.

BAE Systems previously has faced accusations of bribery and corruption in its dealings abroad. In December, 2006, the SFO called off a two-year long probe of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia after the U.K. government raised concerns that it might jeopardize national security and antiterrorism cooperation with Riyadh.

A spokeswoman for BAE Systems couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. The company previously has denied all allegations of bribery.

-By Jonathan Buck, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 8237; jonathan.buck@dowjones.com

Bloomberg has published a revised version of its article “Shell Output Set to Pass BP With $40 Billion Spent on Projects“.

The arms giant BAE tonight appeared to be ready to defy an ultimatum from the Serious Fraud Office to accept a plea deal over corruption allegations, or face prosecution. (ROYAL DUTCH SHELL INVOLVEMENT IN BAE SYSTEMS AL-YAMAMAH OIL FOR ARMS – SAUDI CORRUPTION SCANDAL)

BLOOMBERG.COM

By Paul Burkhardt and Kaipin Yee

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc will employ about 1,100 contractors at its Deer Park, Texas, plant, as it begins a planned shutdown of an olefins unit at its chemical plant.

“The number of contract workers at Shell will peak at approximately 1,100 workers in late September and will decline as the projects are completed in mid-November,” the company said in a statement, explaining that the activity at Deer Park will snarl local traffic.

Shell announced the shutdown of a light/heavy olefins unit in a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

In a separate filing on Sept. 27, the company said it would shut an alkylation unit for work.

The Deer Park refinery can process 340,000 barrels a day, according to the company’s Web site.

To contact the reporters on this story: Paul Burkhardt in New York at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 28, 2009 13:03 EDT

Bloomberg Article

Tuesday 29 Sept: Important Shell internal telecast today…?

Monday 28 Sept: Whisper from a worried engineer:

We hear that the 3 musketeers Marvin, Matthias and Malcolm are unable to reach agreement on whether everyone in jobgroup 2 and above has to re-apply for a job in Shell.

Matthias as a good Swiss with a Teutonic streak wants to go for the ‘Endlösung’ and have it all over with soon by forcing a date for re-application to all jobs by end October.

But now for once the big brain of Malcolm, the mother of all micro managers, starts to feel nervous since he realises that HR cannot cope with the enormous load. Even HR can do overpromise-underdelivery!!!

So, the target of reaching 3.25 million boe/day in 2012 is becoming more unlikely by the day. Nobody is working on maintaining production, completing the projects or filling the funnel with new projects, everyone is fighting for survival and will spend all his/her time on looking good to whomever may decide whether he/she stays or goes.  Time is almost ripe for Exxon or a Chinese or Russian company to pounce and shred Shell to pieces.

Thank you Watts. Thank you Hofmeister. Thank you Brinded. Thank you van de Veer. Thank you Voser. Thank you all who have sold out Shell and are now speeding up the process of destroying it further.

More on Job Cuts

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Pete Voser first warned of job cuts months ago but has not been forthcoming on details.

The long delay has led to numerous press articles on the subject. The Times has reported that up to 10,000 jobs are expected to go.

This has all naturally led to speculation and rumor.

Here are some other rumors currently in circulation…

Some people apparently are whispering about cullings of 20-30% in Rijswijk and head office in The Hague…

EVERYONE in EP, with just a few exceptions, will have to reapply for their jobs…

OTHER RUMORS…

Motiva inside news, Motiva norco GM Ann-Marie has quit the company and going to work for another company outside of Shell. Maintenance Manager Tony Pastor going to convent.

Investigation said to have started at Shell Deer Park Refinery & Chemical Plant into people taking kickbacks from a contractor. We have the contractors name…

Received 25 Sept from a worker at Stanlow Refinery. “I attended a meeting this week organised by the operators union and decided I would join them to be protected at work. However I go into work today and all of us are told to go to meetings to be told by our supervision we should not join a union. I thought this was a illegal practice in the uk to be so anti union. I will still join the union but I will not let my boss know as I am scared it will go against me. There are many problems at Stanlow due to lack of investment and today we are told not to use the showers or drink the water or use safety showers as there is an employee in hospital seriously ill with legionaires disease.”

WARNING: These are rumors…

Attention Royal Dutch Shell Plc: If you confirm by email that any information printed under this headline is categorically untrue, it will be removed immediately.

Voser, meanwhile, who took over the CEO post at Shell in July, is orchestrating a major revamp at the Anglo-Dutch oil giant that includes job and cost cuts.

It is notable that although Bloomberg routinely make their articles permanently accessible on the Bloomberg website, the article that was the subject of postings by our contributors below – “Outsider” and “Insider” – has been deleted by Bloomberg without explanation or apology. It is of course impossible to do the same with newspaper articles which were published based on the Bloomberg article.

REVISED POSTING ON SHELL BLOG BY “Outsider”

How much did Shell pay Bloomberg to misquote their production forecasts?

It is unbelievable that two of Bloomberg’s journalists put out a story, reprinted around the world again and again, which is completely false.

Bloomberg claimed that Shell’s production will rise to 4.25MMBoe/day in 2012, surpassing BP. Shell’s own forecast in the Deutsche Bank presentation is that they will be producing just 3.2 MMBOE/day in 2012 in spite of their massive capital investment programme. BP expect to produce 4.1 MMBOE/day in 2012.

Shell overtaking BP? I don’t think so. Some of the articles even attribute an increase in Shell’s share price to the claim that Shell will increase their production by 30% – could it be that someone is deliberately trying to manipulate the share price?

SUBSEQUENT SHELL BLOG POSTING BY “INSIDER”

Outsider: well spotted! In Henry’s presentation he mentions a 5% decline from existing fields. This is hope over reason. Just look at viewgraph 8 of the famous overpromise-underdelivery presentation in 2000. I am sure you can get hold of a copy. In those days the decline of existing oil assets was 10% per year and this was based on very detailed and thorough work by professionals.

If anything, the decline will now be steeper because Shell has trained and developed people good at behavioural skills and preferably working in finance or HR and much less in the mundane fieldmonitoring and dreadful reservoir engineering. That is something the service contractors will do for us. (Remember that Jennings was of the opinion HR meant Human Remains, a scandal ensued and he apologised. But we were all wrong and he was right!!!).

So, if Henry thinks we will decline by 5%, this means gasassets are infinite and will not decline. Therefore I humbly suggest Simon to go speak (or more important, LISTEN) to some reservoir engineers who will explain it slowly to him. These should be reservoir engineers who are close to retirement and have nothing to fear. There should be one or two left… And don’t tell Brinded you spoke to a reservoir engineer because he might blow a fuse!

Couple all this highly optimistic forecasting (other people might call it lies) to the recent inability of Shell to deliver on major projects and the 3.25 mln boe/day becomes very dodgy.

No doubt we will be following the production endeavours of Shell on the Donovan site.

RELATED ARTICLES

Big-spending Shell ready to overtake arch-rival BP

Shell Upstream Boss Malcolm Brinded: Mr Overpromise and Underdelivery

Shell Output Set to Pass BP With $40 Billion Spent on Projects

Shell to overtake BP as biggest oil producer after $40bn investment

Shell output set to pass BP with $40bn spend spree

Shell output set to overtake BP with US$40b projects

Did Bloomberg publish false Shell production forecasts?