Posts from ‘September, 2009’

THE NEW YORK TIMES

A DISTRICT Court judge who recently ruled that Shell EP Ireland was in contempt of court was told yesterday the company was “very unhappy” with her judgment and wished it to be clarified by the High Court.

Shell Canada is succeeding where Edmonton and Ottawa have largely failed to date: it is trying to engage environmental groups to discuss Alberta’s oilsands.

The criminal investigation by the US Justice Department into former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the award of oil shale leases to the oil company Shell, which subsequently became her employer, comes as no surprise. The stink of corruption is long-lasting, as Shell is aware.

For more than two years, I have publicly drawn attention to this subject, including comments posted on a Denver Post article.

One moment Norton was the head of a US government department negotiating multibillion dollar agreements with Shell, the next (months later) she was working for Shell. This was blatantly improper and against the public interest. It smelt to high heaven.

According to an LA Times article published today:

“Interior Department investigators referred the case to the Justice Department after concluding that there was sufficient evidence of potential illegal conduct, according to federal law enforcement and Interior officials.”

Shell senior management, including Richard Wiseman, its rule-bending Chief Ethics Officer and EP boss Malcolm Brinded, pretend to oppose corruption, but to our certain knowledge, actually fully support unscrupulous Shell employees who engage in corrupt practices on behalf of the company. Deception, cheating small businesses, running a corrupt tender process, stealing IT property – all is Shell management approved.

It should be plain by now that what we are saying about Shell management is true, otherwise Shell would long ago have taken legal action.

The huge gap between Shell’s claimed business principles and Shell management’s hypocritical deeds, is itself a scandal.

Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton is focus of corruption probe

The Justice Department investigation centers on a 2006 decision to award oil shale leases in Colorado to a Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary. Months later, the oil giant hired Norton as a legal counsel.

By Jim Tankersley and Josh Meyer

September 17, 2009

Reporting from Washington – The Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton illegally used her position to benefit Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company that later hired her, according to officials in federal law enforcement and the Interior Department.

The criminal investigation centers on the Interior Department’s 2006 decision to award three lucrative oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado to a Shell subsidiary. Over the years it would take to extract the oil, according to calculations from Shell and a Rand Corp. expert, the deal could net the company hundreds of billions of dollars.

The investigation’s main focus is whether Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm, law enforcement and Interior officials said.

They said investigators also were trying to determine if Norton broke a broader federal “denial of honest services” law, which says a government official can be prosecuted for violating the public trust by, for example, steering government business to favored firms or friends.

The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General began the investigation during the waning months of the George W. Bush administration and more recently made a formal criminal referral to the Justice Department. Norton is the first Bush official at the Cabinet secretary level to be the subject of a formal political corruption investigation.

Shell spokeswoman Kelly C. op de Weegh declined to comment on behalf of both the company and Norton, who did not respond to numerous calls. “Shell has not received an official notification with regard to a government investigation. Consequently, we are not in a position to comment at this time,” she said.

The Justice and Interior departments also would not comment.

Interior Department investigators referred the case to the Justice Department after concluding that there was sufficient evidence of potential illegal conduct, according to federal law enforcement and Interior officials. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive and confidential nature of the case.

Those officials said the referral was based on an already comprehensive Interior Department investigation that included interviews with numerous Interior employees. The Justice Department has assigned prosecutors from its public integrity section and the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington to the case.

Norton, 55, was President Bush’s first Interior secretary. She had worked as an Interior Department attorney before being elected Colorado’s attorney general. Later, as a private lawyer, she represented mining, timber and oil companies.

As Interior secretary, she embraced an industry-friendly approach to environmental regulation that she called “cooperative conservation” and pushed the department to open more public land for energy production.

Norton also backed commercial development of the oil shale reserves buried in the rocks of the Mountain West. Known as “the rock that burns,” oil shale refers to rocks that release liquid petroleum when heated to extreme temperatures. The highly controversial process promises immense fuel production, but environmentalists argue that it contaminates rugged landscapes and drains precious water.

In early 2006 — following the recommendations of a team representing several federal agencies and states — the department announced that it planned to award Shell three oil shale leases. Norton resigned two months later, saying that she had no job lined up. In December of that year, Shell announced it had hired Norton as in-house counsel to its unconventional fuels division, which includes oil shale.

The Justice Department, working with Interior Department investigators, is looking into whether Shell received a competitive advantage or other preferential treatment from the Interior Department in the awarding of the leases.

“If [Norton] had feelers out, or was in discussions with Shell in any way, she is absolutely forbidden from participating in any way from doing anything with Shell,” a law enforcement official said.

The federal government long has sought a cost-effective way to extract the abundant oil resources from Western shale rock.

Then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force recommended aggressive steps to encourage private industry to develop such technology. In response, the Bureau of Land Management issued six oil shale “research, development and demonstration” leases. The leases, five in Colorado and one in Utah, granted access to up to 160 acres of federal land apiece to develop shale programs — with an option to increase that to 5,000 acres once a technique proved commercially viable.

On average, each of those 5,000-acre lease tracts holds an estimated $700-billion worth of recoverable oil (at today’s $70-per-barrel price), said James T. Bartis, a shale expert at Rand. Shell has estimated the costs of recovering the oil at $30 per barrel, leaving a potential profit of about $1 trillion after royalties if all the oil is extracted.

Shell was the only company to receive more than one tract.

“Shell got some of the best lands” that the government made available, Bartis said.

At the time, critics accused the Interior Department of undermining a central goal of the leases by awarding three of them to Shell. The leases were meant to allow companies to test distinct methods for extracting shale from rock. But each of Shell’s tracts was granted for a variation of the same process.

Critics also raised questions about the fairness of the process, given that Shell filed its first lease application just a day after the department issued its call for proposals in June 2005.

That August, Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included a provision that changed federal law to allow companies to hold multiple oil shale leases. Interior Department officials said they did not notify potential bidders that the law had changed. Shell, which had lobbied Congress to allow companies to hold more than one lease, quickly filed two more applications, BLM records show.

No other company applied for more than one lease.

The lease proposals were evaluated in the fall of 2005 by the interdisciplinary team that included representatives of several Western governors and from the Energy and Defense departments. The team’s recommendations included awarding three leases to Shell.

The Interior Department investigation initially focused on whether agency officials had improperly assisted Shell and other private-sector companies. Three of the interviewed BLM employees — who all spoke on condition of anonymity because an investigation was ongoing — said the questions investigators posed focused on Norton and her role in the lease process.

jtankersley@latimes.com

josh.meyer@latimes.com

Related stories

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

SOURCE ARTICLE

RELATED

Sex, drugs alleged in oil deals: “Shell is one of the oil companies named in the report…”

ShellNews.net: Back-tracking by Shell on Colorado oil shale connected with Gale Norton allegations?

Comment posted by John Donovan on Denver Post article, June 2007

New West Network: Ethics Story Thickens Over Abramoff-Interior Relationships (*Shell General Counsel Gale Norton implicated in corrupton)

The Denver Post: Briefs: Probe of Norton’s ties with Shell sought

PlentyMag.com: Shell’s Angel

Financial Times: Former US interior secretary joins Shell

The Guardian: Shell hires Bush’s environmental adviser

New York Times: Out of Sight, Under Fire Over Leases (*Gale Norton, Shell and murky dealings?)

New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department is ending the oil and gas royalty program that ignited a major scandal last year when it was revealed that federal employees had engaged in corruption, drug use and sexual misconduct with industry officials.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, shown here on Monday, said on Wednesday that his department is to phase out an oil and gas royalty program that ignited a major corruption scandal last year.

The Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, told a House committee on Wednesday morning that he was phasing out the royalty-in-kind program administered by the agency’s Minerals Management Service. The program allows oil companies to pay the government in oil and gas rather than in cash for the right to drill on federal lands. Recent audits have shown that the government failed to collect tens of millions of dollars in royalties owed under the program.

“Clearly, the department’s energy leasing and royalty programs have not been working as they should, and the American people have not been receiving the full benefits from these valuable assets,” Mr. Salazar said in testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee. “After a thorough review of the controversial royalty in kind program, I am today announcing a phased-in termination of the program and an orderly transition over time to a more transparent and accountable royalty collection program.”

According to the Government Accountability Office, the Minerals Management Service has done a poor job of tracking drilling revenue and assuring that compensation is paid to the government.

A G.A.O. report issued this week found that the royalty-in-kind program had failed to collect at least $21 million in fees last year. A separate report found that oil companies may have misreported drilling revenue and underpaid $160 million in royalties in 2006 and 2007.

Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, criticized the decision to kill the program.

“Terminating this straightforward method of handling royalty payments runs the risk of raising administrative costs and adding additional layers of paperwork required to determine the value of oil and gas production,” Mr. Gerard said in a statement.

Interior Department investigators charged last year that the Minerals Management Service was riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and ethical breaches.

The report from the department’s inspector general said officials in the royalty program had accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to concerts and sports events.

The investigation also concluded that several officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

Mr. Salazar announced on taking office in January that he would enforce strict new codes of ethics, and one of his first trips as secretary was to the Denver headquarters of the Minerals Management Service to emphasize the new policy.

NYT ARTICLE

Shell in U.S. Gov. Sex, Drugs and Corruption Scandal

Royal Dutch Shell Involvement in Sex and Drugs Scandal

CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) said on Wednesday its Muskeg River oil sands mine in northern Alberta was operating at full production as an environmental protest at the site entered its second day.

It is no secret that Shell is planning major 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. Just days ago the Times reported that up to 10,000 jobs are expected to go.

This has all naturally led to speculation and rumor.

Here are some 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…

According to a source, VP Malaysia, Wee Yiah Hin has resigned and is moving to a midsized operator to lead the business development and growth for the Asia region. The news was not taken well in the HQ… News will break by close of this week.

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

HEALTH WARNING: These are rumors…

Motiva Enterprises LLC Convent Refinery

Overnight postings by Motivaman

OK, lets talk a little about a few things going on at Motiva, Convent.

First, my last post, which was over a month ago, was about a salary person violating a few of the 12 rules and nothing being done about it. Well another salary guy was caught violating the 12 rules, he was caught taking pictures in a unit without signing in or having a permit. This time Motiva terminated the employee. He was caught violating only one rule unlike the prior incident. Why was this treated different? No one knows. We have a definite inconsistency in the discipline of  these rules. I hate for anyone to loose their job, but I think this the handling of this is more along the lines of what should have been done with the prior incident. I have heard the guy whom was let go last week has lawyered up and will sue because he was fired while others were not. Motiva management is playing favorites and I’m glad they are about to get burnt!

Second, A guy by the name of Ray Blank was forced into retirement because he questioned management on why he didn’t get a certain job he put in for. He was told that he could either retire or he would be retired.

Lastly, an employee by the name of Darren Miletello who worked in PHA, quit his job after a lot of his findings found that there were many unsafe and dangerous processes and equipment present at Motiva, Convent. He pitched a lot of ideas of how to fix these problems, but Management refuses to listen, they are just sweeping these findings under the rug. Darren Left and said he would rather quit than be sent to jail when something bad happens. He left on his own and doesn’t have a plan yet on what he will do, but at least he won’t be rotting in a cell and he had the guts to do what he did.

Motivaman for president!

SECOND POSTING

I want to post my  feelings to all of my union brothers and sisters, mostly at Convent but also to all the Motiva sites.

Brothers and sisters, I attend my union meetings and sit there and look around. The same 30 people attend every month.
Brothers and sisters we need to wake up. We at Convent have a membership meeting every month. It is easy to remember the day, it is always the first Tuesday of every month. At Norco it is the third Tuesday.

Earlier this year we ratified a new contract. Some of you didn’t even read it, but voted for it. Yet you sit there every day and whine and complain about it. Shut up, its what the membership wanted, even if a few of us knew what it really was. I don’t blame you, it is our heritage. We along the river are all very friendly and most of us would give our shirts to help others. Some of us came from poverty and had  to rise up to get the job we have. We love to ride in our new cars and have our big houses and all our other materialistic things. Some do not want to rock the boat and some think that they are lucky to have a job. Some just want to do the best for their employer.

Some people never go to THEIR monthly meeting, but show up only to ratify a sub par contract. You might as well stay home then too!

You did not read anything or attend any meetings during the year.

People we need to wake up, You need to go be an active member of YOUR union.

In a perfect world we would not have a need for a Union. Employer/Employee relationships would be wonderful and we would all be treated fairly and just! We do not live in a perfect world. Think about it, if you owned a company, wouldn’t it be to make money? Wouldn’t you try to reduce your costs to increase profitability? If you say no, your friggen stupid. So why wouldn’t Shell/Motiva do the same?

Every day that goes by, management is in their offices figuring out ways to reduce costs. Job consolidations, job cuts, less samples, more work on operations, contractor cuts. Believe me, they can’t wait for our president to pass a public option for health care, because then they can either drop what they offer or raise the employee cost and tell you if you don’t like it, go get government insurance.

We need to stick together! If we all do the same, no one can beat us.

If you do the math, we only have 12 regular meetings a year and shift workers might make 8 or 9 of them. You trying to tell me that you can’t go for 2 hours 8 times a year? Yet you sit and whine and complain. Everything the union does may not be right, but at least go to the meetings and express your discontent. You can make time to go to football games, basketball games, go to concerts, or other things, but how do you pay for these things? Your Jobs!

This is how we earn a living and have/do the things we do. When we hear about  layoffs, a few others come to the meetings. Its ashamed that it takes a person being directly affected to make people wake up. If we are not proactive, it will be to late by the time people wake up.

We have about 300 union members, so 150 are able to be at these meetings, yet we get 30? I can understand 50 having legitt things to do, so we should bring in 100 ever month.

We need to start educating ourselves. Read a little about Shell. Read that they said refineries break even at best and how they make their money at the well heads. Think your jobs are secure, believe that we should be happy with the constant headaches we get at work everyday.

Brothers and sisters wake up. Don’t sit at home on the first Tuesday and never attend a meeting, but come running to the union when you are affected in some way. Come to YOUR meeting, express your approval or disapproval. Think about the futures of our children and their children. Don’t wait until you need help and then come crying. Come stand up for our safety and rights!

Motivaman for president!