SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSB) hasn’t received official approval to build a refinery and petrochemical complex with Qatar Petroleum International and PetroChina (PTR) yet, a senior company executive said Friday.

Three British companies — BP, Cairn Energy and BG Group — are among the bidders, alongside companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Gazprom. Competition is expected to be fierce and the groups were reluctant to reveal which fields they wanted.

Shell General Business Principles

We are judged by how we act – our reputation is upheld by how we live up to our core values honesty, integrity and respect for people. Our eight Business Principles are based on these core values and indicate how we promote trust, openness, teamwork and professionalism, and pride in what we do.

The above text is the web page heading on shell.com: “Shell General Business Principles“

Shell trumpets about its respect for people. We assume this is also meant to include Shell employees.  Shell says it promotes openness.

The Shell internal correspondence released to me on 30 November 2009 provides evidence that Shell has for some time been spying globally on its own employees.

This has been taking place at Shell premises in an effort to:-

1. Trace who is visiting royaldutchshellplc.com.

2. Discover the identities of employees posting comments on our Shell Blog. (The only place where they can make their feelings known about changes at Shell and alleged mistreatment.)

3. Found out who is leaking information to us.

How is this covert activity, directed at Shell employees around the globe, compatible with the claimed core principles of openness and respect for people?  It also does not say much for Shell senior management integrity or honesty. Or perhaps it does.

The two most revealing Shell emails are dated 21 March 2007 and 17 June 2009. Both follow on from the Shell internal email of 9 March 2007 which amounted to an unannounced declaration of hostilities against the dreaded Donovans who, from the evidence in other Shell emails, apparently strike fear and apprehension into the hearts of a cowardly Shell senior management, frightened of reprisals by us. Incredible, but true.

More, much more, will be revealed in coming days and weeks.

The “CAS” mentioned in connection with NCFTA (the U.S. National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance largely funded and staffed by the FBI) is in fact Shell Group “Corporate Affairs Security”.  The two top people at CAS are the former British Secret Service officer Ian Forbes McCredie OBE and Richard T. Garcia, a former senior FBI official.

Nice to have connections, but is it appropriate for a U.S. government sponsored specialist facility – NCFTA center – supposedly the world-wide hub of the fight against cyber-crime, to be hijacked by a foreign multinational company to spy on its own employees on a global basis – over 100,000 people – partly with the objective of blocking free speech on the Internet?

That is about as far removed from respect and openness as it is possible to be.

So Shell management is not only breathtakingly incompetent, it also continues to be the most hypocritical bunch of executive directors on the planet.

Foreign oil executives are flocking to Iraq as it prepares to open some of its untapped oil assets to Western oil companies, undeterred by a string of attacks Tuesday that killed more than 120 people.

Cynthia Karol at her Pleasant Street Auto Center. (Staff photo by Mike George)

BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:56 AM EST

Local owner among plaintiffs in lawsuit

ATTLEBORO – A David-and-Goliath legal battle pitting a local service station owner against an international oil company has finally reached all the way to the Supreme Court.

Cynthia Karol, owner of Pleasant Auto Center and a former Shell service station operator, is one of eight Shell franchisees who will get their day in court Jan. 19, when the nine justices will hear oral arguments.

The Supreme Court has already agreed to address issues stemming from a 2004 trial, a Shell representative said.

Karol is among eight current and former Shell station operators who have been battling Shell Oil Products and two related companies since 2000 over changes in company practices they say drastically increased their rents and violated federal law. Shell, through court documents, contends its actions were legal and clearly spelled out in contracts with its franchisees.

The Attleboro station owner and her co-plaintiffs won their initial case in U.S. District Court in Boston in 2004 when a federal jury awarded them $3.3 million plus $1 million in interest. Shell’s appeal was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals, resulting in the company filing with the Supreme Court. For Karol and the other plaintiffs, it’s been a long road.

“I don’t know how many times over the years we’ve thought ‘just six more months and this will be over,’” she said.

The lawsuit began with 49 plaintiffs, but a majority either dropped out or arrived at settlements with Shell Karol said. Karol said she and the others persisted “because of the principle” and because the value of her and others’ franchises had been eroded.

At the heart of the lawsuit are contractual arrangements between Shell, its affiliate, Motiva Enterprises LLC, and its independent franchisees governing the price of gasoline and the rent they would pay for their locations.

According to legal briefs filed with the court, each franchisee had a “contract rent” they were obligated to pay but received rebates based on the amount of fuel they sold that reduced the amount due.

Although franchisees allegedly signed contracts that allowed the company to change that practice, plaintiffs claim they were told by company officials to disregard the contract language and that the rebate system or something very like it would always be in effect.

When the oil company changed the rent subsidy program, the plaintiffs said, it effectively tripled their rents. Some, Karol said, were forced out of business while others continued to operate while they considered legal action.

Karol’s own rent jumped to $99,000 per year from about $34,000.

Karol said she believes the company’s actions were motivated by a desire to replace independent operators with company-owned stores. Shell, in its appeal, said it was merely changing an outmoded rent system based on the amount of gasoline sold to one tied to the overall value of the locations which had begun to sprout convenience stores to augment the filling stations.

Motiva, which is 50 percent owned by Shell and 50 percent by Saudi Refining Inc., has now settled all but a handful of claims in the original suit by agreement according to a spokeswoman for the company. Terms of the settlements are confidential. Motiva refines and markets products through about 8,100 Shell stations in the eastern and southern United States.

Karol, who operated the Shell station on the corner of Pleasant Street and Starkey Avenue since 1981, gave up that location in November after moving her auto repair business to the former Tarbox Jeep Chrysler at 676 Pleasant St.

The long-time station owner says she hasn’t decided yet whether to travel to Washingon to hear her case argued. She said she’s more intent on building her new venture – including an expanded auto service facility, convenience store and amenities such as a spotless customer lounge and a children’s area – into a success.

“After so many years in court, it gets tiring,” she said. “If you asked me would I do it again, I don’t think I would.”

RICK FOSTER can be reached at 508-236-0360 or at rfoster@thesunchronicle.com.

SOURCE ARTICLE

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Complete and utter disarray at Royal Dutch Shell
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LEAKED SHELL INTERNAL SENIOR EXEC EMAILS
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Ruias-controlled Essar Oil (EOL) is looking to seal a deal with Royal Dutch Shell at $1-1.2 billion (between Rs 4,670 and 5,600 crore) for acquiring the global petroleum giant’s three refineries in Europe. EOL has presented its valuation of assets to the Shell management and the negotiations are on verge of completion, said banking sources close to the development.

Shell is the operator with a 50% share with partners Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) holding 35% and India’s ONGC Campos Ltda. 15%.

Last month, Shell agreed to buy a 33 percent stake in the block from Tullow, which will remain the project operator.

Standard Chartered Bank has extended a $1-billion (Rs 4,600 crore) line of credit to Essar Oil to part-finance its acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s refinery assets in Europe, a senior banker told ET NOW, as the Indian company moves closer to sealing a deal estimated to be worth over $2 billion.