Posts from ‘November, 2009’

From a contributor…

Every picture tells a story and the picture  attached perfectly shows the current state of the once so proud, well organized and technology oriented oil company and industry leader Shell:

totally run down, ransacked and nearly out of oil……………

Infratil’s bid to buy Shell New Zealand’s petrol stations looks like a done deal and could be finalised early next month after the utilities investor provided more details to investors.

The US state of Maryland has divested 38.3 million dollars from energy giant, Royal Dutch Shell, over its investment in Iran’s petroleum industry, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported on Monday. Six other states – Missouri, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois and California – have enacted legislation to divest their pension plans of companies that do business in Iran.

Port Harcourt — Following the Federal Government’s decision to end gas flaring, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) says over $1 billion have so far been spent on the Gbaran-Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas project within the last 18 months.

Each organization uses a slightly different set of financial metrics to come up with its own rankings. Royal Dutch Shell tops Fortune’s list for 2009, followed by ExxonMobil. Forbes comes up with the same top two in its rankings.

“You have to allow a secondary market to develop,” David Hone, Shell’s climate change adviser, told reporters at an energy conference in Singapore today. “You don’t want to have a carbon market that’s restricted from doing what other commodity markets are doing.”

EXTRACTS

As the road approaches the Shell gas terminal at Ballinaboy on Ireland’s Atlantic west coast, only the posters pinned to the telegraph poles give any hint of the country’s longest-running environmental protest.

…for the past four years this remote but beautiful corner of north Mayo has been the setting for a bitter industrial dispute. At times, hundreds of police have been deployed to break up pickets. And this summer, the tiny hamlets of Glengad and Rossport looked on as two Irish navy frigates moored in Broadhaven Bay, apparently there to stop the protesters’ dinghies interfering with the Solitaire, Shell’s vast pipe-laying ship.

Exactly how a grass-roots campaign led by a retired schoolteacher and a handful of hill farmers and lobster pot fishermen has frustrated Ireland’s most important energy project perplexes industry experts.

…this tiny group, with its headquarters in a huddle of tents in a field overlooking Broadhaven Bay, has consistently outwitted Shell’s vast public relations apparatus.

Shell, by contrast, has been flat-footed. Its decision in 2005 to resort to the courts is now seen, even by company officials, as counter-productive. Three farmers and two retired schoolteachers, quickly dubbed the Rossport Five, were sent to prison for defying a court order to let Shell on to their fields and became overnight celebrities in a country that loves a rebel.

“Shell took the local people for idiots,” says Pat O’Donnell…

FULL FT ARTICLE (SUBSCRIPTION)

FROM A SENIOR SHELL INSIDER

John

I spoke to a few HR people in Aberdeen. Word is out now that in the imminent culling, HR staff (especially those who are familiar with the workers at the coalface) will be let go first. Thereafter the EP people. Clever ploy: in case of disagreements or questions, they cannot contact those HR people anymore. The remainder obviously will have been instructed to stonewall all questions. The picture of Dogbert as a one dog call centre with 8371 waiting customers comes to mind. But to be fair, Dogbert put in the cheapest bid!

In the current round in Shell of MOR (= Managed Open Resourcing, or in plain English ‘How to bamboozle staff and not be faced with telling someone directly he has to leave’) there are over 2700 positions. In total more than 9000 staff have applied over 18000 times. And this was for only jobgroup 2 and above. This does not mean that over 7000 will be without a job, it means that lots of people in jg3 and 4 must have applied too in the hope of scoring a promotion. Around now the postings for jg3 will be posted. You cannot believe how total the mess is. Governments cannot handle properly the mass migration that is taking place the last few years. And neither can Shell handle this mass round of applications. The difference is that Shell ‘designed’ it themselves!!! And then to think that before Hofmeister arrived, we had the best resourcing system in the world. Even Hofmeister admitted that. But it never stopped him from wrecking it. I fear for accidents and other great mishaps because it is very clear that people are pre-occupied with keeping their job or scoring a job they want.

Voser is putting pressure on the process and wants it finished before Xmas. He is a very empathic, touchy feely person: he wants to reduce the stress and avoid uncertainty over the holiday period.  What a kind man. He knows that ‘People are our greatest asset’ and treats them as such….  But could it be he is a cynic like Dogbert and wishes to get it all over before end of year so all costs go to 2009 and can be fully blamed on v.d. Veer?

I would not bet against this. Just curious when he will sort out the real baddies such as Brinded and his band of cronies.

Reference our recent article – Shell Stanlow Refinery in terminal decline with large job losses? – we understand from an insider source that following questions asked by the unionised employees at Stanlow, Slide 35 on the Essar Analysts Presentation has now been changed to show Stanlow as a Refinery / Terminal. It had originally been described solely as a Terminal implying a downgrading in its status, with consequential job cuts.

The workforce might be more assured about Essar plans if the “terminal” option/description was deleted entirely from slide 35.

There is currently an end of November deadline to complete the negotiations between Royal Dutch Shell and Essar: Essar Oil CEO: Exclusive Talks With Shell to End Nov. 30 – WSJ.com

Photo: John Donovan of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.com

Date: 15 November 2009
To: gavin.white@shell.com
Cc: michiel.brandjes@shell.com

cc. richard.wiseman@shell.com
Subject: Data Protection Act 1998 – Subject Access Request

Attention of Mr Gavin White, Company Secretarial Department, Shell International Limited

Dear Mr White

You are of course aware of our SAR Application lodged on 4 September 2009 via Mr Brandjes and my subsequent correspondence with you on the matter, most recently my email dated 10 November.

Since I have not yet received the information requested under the application, can I just remind you to include any relevant correspondence that Mr Wiseman had with any residents of homes built on or near the former Shell terminal at Earley near Reading in Berkshire.  As you may be aware, multiple attempts were made by  Shell to decontaminate the land prior to its sale to Persimmon Homes for the housing development.

Best Regards

John Donovan