On 25 January 2008, Carl Mortished, World Business Editor of The Times newspaper wrote an article headlined: “Shell chief fears oil shortage in seven years” in which he described the site as “an independent website that monitors the company.”

“Since the proposed project began, your company and/or agents acting on your behalf have been directly responsible for and/or suspected of… Video surveillance of bathers including children at the local beaches. Video surveillance of people in their homes.”

Dear John,

Regards to yourself and my best wishes to your father. Below is the text of the letter to Shell referred to in today’s Irish Times (13th Apr.’10) which you have on your website. Your many readers, including Shell ‘reputation managers’ may be interested in the full text. I have also sent copy as attachment to email as that may be easier to transfer to your site.

Thank you, Maura Harrington.

Re: Letter of Thursday March 18th 2010 (COR-01-SH-GE-1341)

Mr Carrigy

I am writing in response to your recent letter (your reference above) in which you suggested your company and associates conduct “face-to-face and small group meetings within the community” to discuss “this phase of the Corrib gas project” i.e. possible high-pressure raw-gas pipeline routes in the area.

Following a number of public meetings and wide discussions within the Parish of Kilcommon on the issue, I feel all parties must consider the following points.

•    Despite numerous opportunities to do so, your company/agents did not at any time enter into open and honest discussions with the people of the area.
•    Such discussions should have taken place before the proposed project began, not fourteen years after the Corrib gas field was discovered.

Since the proposed project began, your company and/or agents acting on your behalf have been directly responsible for and/or suspected of the following.

•    Unnecessary destruction of the natural environment at Glengad and Broadhaven Bay.
•    Harassment of local people on the roads by construction vehicles.
•    Repeated trespass on private property.
•    Contempt of a District Court Order over trespass issues.
•    Threatening letters and phone calls to local residents.
•    Construction of an illegal road through the Special Area of Conservation at Glengad.
•    Installation of an illegal septic tank in Rossport discharging into Sruwaddacon Bay.
•    Unjustified and hostile legal action against local residents.
•    The jailing of the Rossport Five.
•    Illegally constructed gas pipeline at Leenamore and Bellanaboy.
•    Continued pollution of the local waterways, including the drinking-water source of Carrowmore Lake.
•    Criminal damage to boats at Ballyglass.
•    Theft of electricity at Ballyglass Pier.
•    Light and noise pollution at numerous locations throughout the parish.
•    Suspected fish-kill at Broadhaven Bay.
•    Illegal boreholes at the SAC at Glengad.
•    Interference with protected nesting and feeding birds at Glengad and Sruwaddacon Bay.
•    Physical attacks on marine mammals in Broadhaven Bay.
•    Dumping of excavated materials into the coastal waters.
•    Illegal gas pipeline construction at Glengad.
•    Illegal construction compounds in Glengad and Rossport.
•    Fuel and chemical spills in coastal waters.
•    Illegal employment of unlicensed security guards.
•    Illegal security operation throughout the parish.
•    Repeated breaches of road traffic laws, including vehicle registration, tax and insurance violations.
•    Harassment of people in public places, including the local beach at Glengad.
•    Video surveillance of bathers – including children – at the local beaches.
•    Video surveillance of people in their homes.
•    Verbal and physical assaults on members of the public, e.g. Willie Corduff on Shell property in 2009.
•    Misleading the public and statutory authorities on technical and health and safety issues.
•    Ongoing attempts to criminalize the local community, e.g. jailing of Erris fishermen Pat O’Donnell.
•    Sinking of local fishing boat “Iona Isle”.
•    Theft of and damage to local fishing gear.
•    Involvement in recruiting international terrorists.

Considering all of the above, which effectively amounts to ongoing and escalating physical and psychological harassment  – and particularly whilst Pat O’Donnell remains unjustly incarcerated, I have decided not to meet with you or any of your agents in relation to the proposed Corrib gas project for the foreseeable future.

Signed

By James Paton

April 14 (Bloomberg) — The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission cleared Royal Dutch Shell Plc and PetroChina Co.’s A$3.5 billion ($3.3 billion) bid to acquire Arrow Energy Ltd. after a monthlong review of the proposed transaction.

“Taking into account the significant competing gas suppliers and abundant gas reserves that would remain post- acquisition, the ACCC considered that the proposed acquisition was unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any relevant market,” the Australian regulator said on its Web site.

Shell and PetroChina are still seeking approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board after agreeing last month to buy Arrow’s Australian business for A$4.70 a share in cash. Arrow investors also will receive shares in a new company, Dart Energy Ltd., which will hold the explorer’s gas assets overseas and Arrow’s stakes in Australian-listed companies.

Phil Connole, a Shell spokesman in Melbourne, wouldn’t say how long the review board process could take and declined to comment on the ACCC’s decision.

Shell and PetroChina initially made a A$4.45 a-share offer, Brisbane-based Arrow said on March 8. The Australian energy company announced an agreement on March 22 after the two companies raised their bid.

Shell and PetroChina join BG Group Plc and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. in acquiring coal-seam gas assets in Queensland to supply planned liquefied natural gas ventures.

–Editors: Alex Devine, Jane Lee.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney at jpaton4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Jan Kopernicki, president of the UK Chamber of Shipping industry association and also vice president of Shell Shipping, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell, told Reuters an “industrialisation of piracy” was taking place.

Therefore, anyone who has followed the wretched Corrib Gas saga will watch Dalkey with interest because one suspects that the outrageous policies of the Wild West will not be applied in Ireland’s most fashionable address.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

APRIL 13, 2010

KAMPALA, Uganda (Dow Jones)–An Ugandan high court has issued an injunction prohibiting Shell Uganda Ltd., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN), from transferring its shareholding and assets in the country until it settles a dispute with a local property company, court officials said Tuesday.

According to court documents, Shell is required to deposit a requisite security of not less than 35 billion Uganda shillings ($17 million) with the court before it can divest its operations in the country.

The dispute is over commercial properties in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, in which Mercator Enterprises Ltd., a local property company, is claiming unpaid rent in arrears, as well as interest, from Shell Uganda amounting to UGX35 Billion.

Last month, Royal Dutch Shell announced plans to sell its downstream operations in 21 African nations.

Shell Uganda declined to comment.

-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 256-75-2624615 bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk

WSJ ARTICLE

LETTERS FROM more than 400 residents of a north Mayo parish who claim that they are being subjected to “ongoing and escalating physical and psychological harassment” have been delivered to Shell EP Ireland.

The Irish Times – Tuesday, April 13, 2010

LORNA SIGGINS Western Correspondent

LETTERS FROM more than 400 residents of a north Mayo parish who claim that they are being subjected to “ongoing and escalating physical and psychological harassment” have been delivered to Shell EP Ireland.

The 409 signed letters were presented by community representatives yesterday to Shell’s offices in Belmullet, Co Mayo.

The lead Corrib gas developer is still working on a response to An Bord Pleanála in relation to its controversial onshore pipeline route, and has applied to the Department of the Environment for a foreshore licence to conduct further investigative work to this end.

Glengad resident Eamon Ó Murchú, who co-ordinated the delivery of letters with Inver resident Terence Conway, told The Irish Times that the correspondence reflected the depth of feeling in the area about the project.

“The letters were signed by people living all over Kilcommon parish, from Glengad to Pollathomas and Rossport – and from six people outside it,” he said.

“Some are Shell to Sea and some are Pobal Chill Chomáin supporters and some are not aligned to any group. We didn’t canvass every one of the 2,000 residents in the parish. People approached us after we held a public meeting on the issue recently in Inver,” Mr Ó Murchú said.

The community meeting in Inver on March 19th last debated Shell’s recent invitation to residents to engage in “face-to-face” or “small group” meetings in relation to the onshore pipeline route.

Mr Ó Murchú said that those attending the meeting agreed they would not meet company representatives while Porturlin fisherman Pat O’Donnell is still in prison. O’Donnell is serving a seven-month sentence in Castlerea prison for Corrib gas protest-related offences.

In the letters, residents state that they object to being “bombarded by Shell’s propaganda”.

The residents single out for criticism the content of a recently published Corrib gas project community update, which includes a “feedback form”. The residents say that “seeking opinions on the Corrib project from those who live outside the danger zone is simply dishonest”. They also say they believe that returned forms would be “misused as a statistic in future promotional propaganda”.

“Despite An Bord Pleanála recently declaring the project unsafe, the [Corrib gas project] leaflet tries to gloss over the potential danger to local residents,” the letters state. “The latest plan seems to be to tunnel the gas pipe under Rossport strand, close to the national school in Pollathomas, even though Shell and their consultants had already ruled out this route.”

The company has until May 31st to respond to An Bord Pleanála, following the board’s direction last year that the current proposed pipeline route is “unacceptable” on safety grounds due to proximity to housing.

Shell EP Ireland was unavailable for comment yesterday.

SOURCE ARTICLE

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) has advised its shareholders to vote down at its annual general meeting in May a resolution requiring the company to conduct a thorough review into the commercial viability and environmental sustainability of its Canadian oils sands operations, according to documents posted on its Web site Monday.

The Infratil New Zealand Super Fund joint venture that bought Royal Dutch Shell’s local downstream assets gained an “extremely cheap” entry into the industry, according to brokerage McDouall Stuart.

The purchase at just under $700 million has been made at the bottom of the economic cycle, and both Infratil and the Super Fund are longer term participants willing to see through that cycle, said John Kidd, head of research at McDouall Stuart.

Shares of Infratil slipped 1.1 percent to $1.76, having reached an eight-month high on Monday.

The shares have climbed 12 percent this year, outpacing the NZX 50 Index’s 1 percent gain.

The company is rated a ‘buy’ based on the consensus of six recommendations compiled by Reuters.

The exit of Shell from downstream activities “represents all integrated oil super majors across the world retreating from the forecourt,” Kidd said.

New Zealand is a small, mature market, where the majors could present a good case for diverting “lazy capital,” and there are rumours that at least one other oil major is actively looking to exit its downstream businesses, he said.

“There are questions who can buy though, as they’re complex asset suites with investments along the supply chain.”

For example, the JV vehicle Aotea Energy’s purchase includes 95 truck stops, specialist aviation and marine supply facilities, 25 percent of Fly Buys, 12 storage and distribution facilities and a 25 percent share of the coastal shipping network that supports the national fuel distribution chain.

That’s in addition to 17.1 percent of New Zealand Refining and 229 retail forecourts.

“There’s not a large number of natural buyers for the complex suite, though perhaps more who would take part of the infrastructure or supply chain,” Kidd said.

It is well-known within the industry that oil products generate a minority of an oil company’s downstream earnings, and that Infratil has already indicated that a lack of retail investment has been notable over the past decade.

“What are they going to do over time to add further value to the retail side?” Kidd said.

“The joint venture is prepared to spend money to make it more appealing, and there’s a real opportunity there.”

As a NZ-owned entity, Aotea Energy, and with Shell possessing the largest market share in petroleum product sales, there may be an opportunity to provide a kiwi-oriented brand.

Though not suggesting Kiwifuel as a brand, the New Zealand market has seen an example in the growth and popularity of Kiwibank, Kidd said.

“This is a good NZ Inc story,” he said.

“Through commercial means, part of a multinational has been bought out and is back in the local fold with a cornerstone stake and the largest market share.”

SOURCE ARTICLE

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

April 12, 2010 By Hassan Hafidh Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

A multibillion-dollar deal between Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) and the Iraqi government to jointly develop domestic gas infrastructure in Iraq’s south has run into difficulty, an Iraqi official familiar with the talks said Monday.

The two sides failed to finalize the deal last month, after negotiations lasting more than a year, and have agreed to extend the talks for another six months ending Sept. 21, the official told Dow Jones Newswires.

The proposed $10 billion to $20 billion joint venture between Iraq’s South Gas Company, Shell and Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.T) aims to capture huge amounts of gas that is currently being wasted.

Using its own finances, Iraq has managed to boost gas production by 100 million cubic feet a day from the South Rumaila oil field, bringing total gas production from the Rumaila and Zubair fields to 450 million cubic feet a day, the official said.

-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com

WSJ ARTICLE