Posts from ‘May, 2011’

By John Donovan

Today we publish further confirmation of Shell’s financing of Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Extract from a review of “Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order” by F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL

“Later, the consequences from Baron Kurt von Schroeder’s January 4, 1932 meeting would have to be faced after he, Heinrich von Papen and Hitler secretly arranged a Nazi takeover. A year later, another meeting followed preparatory to acting. The Weimar government was weak, the scheme was to topple it, and it made Hitler Reichschancellor on January 30, 1933. On August 2, 1934 he seized absolute power as Fuhrer. British interests backed him, Royal Dutch Shell financed him, and the Bank of England “moved with indecent haste to reward” him with a vital line of credit. The rest, as they say, is history, and from it would emerge a new world order.”

EXTRACT FROM PAGE 100 OF THE BOOK

“On January 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the Reich.

The final London visit of Alfred Rosenberg was in May 1933, this time as one of the inner figures in the new Hitler government. He went directly to the country home in Buckhurst Park in Ascot of Sir Henri Deterding, the head of Royal Dutch Shell and arguably the world’s most influential businessman. According to English press accounts, the two had a warm and eventful discussion. Rosenberg had first met Deterding during his 1931 London trip.  Royal Dutch Shell had intimate contact and support to the German NSDAP. While the details were kept secret, reliable British reports of the day were that Deterding had provided substantial financial support to the Hitler Project in its critical early phases.”

EXTRACT ENDS

Notes

1. Dr. Alfred Rosenberg was Hitlers envoy

2. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known in English as the Nazi Party. (Extract from Wikipedia)

About the Author

F. William Engdahl is the author of the best-selling book on oil and geopolitics “A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order.” It has been published in eight languages. He is one of the more widely discussed analysts of current political and economic developments, and his articles and analyses have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines and well-known international websites.

Shell ‘apologises’ for worldwide damage in “erratum” to annual report

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS, May 17, 2011: During the Shell annual general assembly (AGM) in The Hague, today, Friends of the Earth International presented an “erratum” [1] to Shell’s 2010 annual report. In this spoof “erratum”, which was distributed among shareholders, Shell ‘admits’ that it is “causing a lot of unwanted and unnecessary damage” in its global oil-gas- and biofuels operations. The company also states that Shell “has learnt from these mistakes” and pledges to take “full responsibility to prevent and mitigate costs for the environment and people affected by our operations”.

The “erratum” published by Friends of the Earth International today highlights 12 cases from 5 different continents. It displays climate and other environmental impacts from Shell’s oil and gas operations, but also shows the involvement of Shell in the violation of human rights and labour irregularities, such as those resulting from Shell’s joint venture with Brazilian biofuel producer Cosan S.A., which has been linked to slave labour and violations of labour rights. Furthermore, the report lists cases of corruption and interference with politics in order to ensure business profits. The erratum, which should serve as a wake up call for Shell’s shareholders and board, is backed by an in-depth report about the 12 cases involving life threatening pollution, bribery, slavery and violation of national and international laws.

Paul de Clerck, coordinator of the corporates campaign at Friends of the Earth International, said: “We expect that the promises in the erratum we wrote for Shell will become reality. Shell is aware of the damage it is causing to the environment and of the violation of rights of local communities that it is involved in. We want the company to take measures to restore this damage and to prevent further wrongdoing”.

During the presentation of the “erratum” to Shell’s shareholders and board, today, representatives  from different communities affected by Shell’s wrongdoing were present:

Eric Dooh, a Nigerian farmer who is taking Shell to court in The Netherlands [2] for refusal to clean up oil spills in his fishponds and on his fields said: “Oil spills from Shell pipelines caused the water and agricultural land in our village to be severely polluted. We want Shell to clean up the pollution so we can fish and farm again”.

Lionel Lepine, representing the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Canada said: “Shell’s tar sand operations are disrupting our traditional way of life. They are destroying our air, water, land and medicinal plants and the birds, fish and animals we depend on to sustain our people” Mr. Lepine also stated that “Shell’s footprint in our lands will have a multi-generational effect on our children not yet born, they are violating our Indigenous rights, the rights of our sacred Mother Earth and we are here at their AGM to put them on notice that we will stop them.”

[2] On May 19, Eric Dooh will for the first time face Shell in court during a hearing in The Hague. For more information about the court case and about what will happen on May 19, please visit: www.milieudefensie.nl/english/shellinnigeria

Published on : 18 May 2011 – 12:29pm | By Hélène Michaud

It is his very first visit to the Netherlands, home of the company that he says has destroyed his family’s investments: “Our fish ponds, our bakery, our land.” He wants them back.

The green parks, the urban infrastructure, trains that arrive on time: Eric Dooh is impressed at what he’s seen in the Hague, where he’s just attended Royal Dutch Shell plc’s Annual General Meeting . He says he came to inform the company’s shareholders about the ongoing level of devastation caused by oil spills in Goi, his community in the Niger delta.

“Since 2003, we don’t produce fish anymore, there’s not a single fish in the water. The source of drinking water is oil. When we cook, our food smells like kerosene. We grow cassava and yam: if you cook them, you get a taste of crude.” He asked when Shell would use part of its benefits to clean up the water and the land.

Smiling very soon

Shell’s response was consistent. CEO Peter Voser said that sabotage and theft accounts for more than 80% of the volume of oil spilt in 2010, amounting to around 100,000 barrels a day. When asked when if it has a timetable to clean up the spills or end gas flaring, the company responds that it is committed to do so, but that this depends on the Nigerian government’s willingness to invest and on limited access to sites because of violence by militant groups.

Eric Dooh says the answers are “purely political”. I’ve been hearing this story for so long. When governments want to deceive you, they say: ‘The people will soon smile’. So now Shell is telling us we will soon smile, and I asked: ‘How soon?’ They told me: ‘Very soon.’”

Dutch pension funds concerned

In recent years, shareholders big and small, have become increasingly vocal when it comes to Shell´s environmental record in Nigeria. At this year´s AGM, Sylvia van Waveren speaking on behalf of the Dutch APG pension fund, the Robeco investment fund and other important shareholders with pension funds worth over 500 billion euro, said they “remain highly concerned with the operations in Nigeria and the potential damage to Shell´s reputation.” She said they were equally concerned about the “low standard and quality” of Shell´s dialogue with stakeholders, especially in indigenous communities in Canada where controversial oil sands are being exploited and in Nigeria.

Eric Dooh, wearing a black hat a la Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and large necklaces with red and white beads around his neck, is impressed. “I noticed that people of this part of the world have great interest in the suffering of the people in the Niger delta. You don’t know us, and yet you are agitating for how the benefits of oil are being used in developing this area. I find this commendable.”

On trial

Eric Dooh’s Goi community and three other Niger Delta communities, supported by the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth, have started legal proceedings against Shell in the Netherlands. On Thursday, the trial resumes in the Hague. At stake is whether Royal Dutch Shell plc in the Netherlands can be held accountable for Shell Nigeria’s activities. They want their communities to be cleaned up and they want reasonable compensation for the loss of their livelihoods.

Chief Dooh will be sitting in the tribune during Thursday’s hearing. Before coming here he says he told his daughter that “I’m going to defend you, your mom and your grand dad in the Netherlands.” He says that if he is finally granted compensation he will send her to study abroad “so that she can attain the same knowledge that those people in charge of these multinationals have acquired.”

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RELATED ARTICLES

• Dutch-Nigerian activist Ofehe still a suspect
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• Nigerian youth: Shell needs better spin
• Shell in Nigeria: unable or unwilling?

Children carrying water near gas flares at Shell`s Obigbo oilfield, near Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

By Kenneth Mukoro

The Ugheivwen Kingdom has been a recipient of various peaceful awards but nothing can be shown for 50 Years of Oil Exploration and our environment has been destroyed .

Shell company operating in the Ugheivwen Kingdom host to the Utorogu Gas plant and the Gas Plant Phase 2 and uncountable numbers of well head and flow stations is neglecting the people while destroying the land without any compensation. Shell has been operating in the kingdom for 50 years but nothing can be said of development or infrastructure.

I am sure that you will be surprised at the rate of development, the story of Ogoni Land is still fresh in our hearts but we embrace peace and dialogue. We want the international community to know that the Federal Government and the Shell Petroleum Development Company is neglecting the plight of the of Ugheivwen Kingdom, the only livelihood of the people which is fishing, hunting and farming is totally destroyed by the operations of Shell. The air is polluted by the constant gas flaring that has destroyed the ecological system of the forest and also in the community.

Our river banks are blocked by the wall protecting oil wells head directly opposite the River (Well 6 Otu-jeremi Utorogu area Delta state Nigeria), so we don’t have access to the river which is the means for surviving. And nothing is paid in compensation to the people of this kingdom which supplies gas to most part of west Africa for electricity.  There is darkness in the villages while the Shell installation has Turbine Plants to generate electricity.

We will not relent to say the truth if the Shell company is not ready to help the Ugheivwen people according to Shell policy we will advise the SPDC to vacate the land so the People of the Kingdom can return to their normal lives.

We hope that the truth will be exposed so that the people of Ugheivwen will be given attention and the issue of the GMOU looked into. We advise Shell and the Federal Government to review the programme so that it will be of benefit to the 32 communities that makes up the Kingdom.

Please bring our plight to the notice of the international community. We want peace to remain as it used to be in the Kingdom. We want dialogue to settle the above matters.

By Anna Shiryaevskaya and Kari Lundgren – May 18, 2011 12:00 AM GMT+0100

The collapse of BP Plc (BP/)’s alliance with Russia’s state-run oil company brings one of the world’s largest untapped drilling opportunities back onto the market.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX) are potential candidates should OAO Rosneft look for a new partner to explore the Kara Sea in Russia’s Arctic, a person with knowledge of the company’s plans said, declining to be named because the matter is private. Rosneft will start talks with replacements immediately, another person said yesterday.

BP’s four-month battle to salvage the Rosneft deal, which included a $7.8 billion share swap, was driven by the chance to unlock as much as 15 billion barrels of oil, equal to more than five years of U.S. crude production. The biggest oil companies are competing for a diminishing number of drill sites as foreign governments deny access to resources and existing fields are depleted.

“It isn’t difficult to find partners for the Arctic,” said Valery Nesterov, an oil industry analyst at Troika Dialog in Moscow. “There is competition.”

Russia, the world’s largest crude oil producer, has sought deals with international oil companies to exploit offshore fields that require more technology and capital to drill than deposits on the Siberian mainland.

Offshore Drilling

Rosneft would probably favor U.S. and European companies over Asian peers because of their experience in offshore drilling and superior technology and personnel, said Brian Gallagher, an analyst at Dolmen Securities Ltd. in Dublin.

“It has to be a supermajor because you have to bring a certain amount of political clout,” he said. “You need to have enough capital to operate in these waters, and not that many companies have the experience.”

A Rosneft spokesman said the company is studying the situation and will make a choice in the near future.

Shell Chief Executive Officer Peter Voser said yesterday his company, which already has projects with Russian gas exporter OAO Gazprom, is interested in expanding in Russia. He declined to comment specifically on the Kara Sea.

Exxon and Chevron have both reached offshore deals with Rosneft in the past year. Exxon agreed on Jan. 27 to explore the deepwater Tuapse Trough in the Black Sea, where Chevron signed an accord last year for a separate area.

“Chevron continues to work with Rosneft on opportunities to collaborate in business ventures,” Kurt Glaubitz, a spokesman for the San Ramon, California-based company said in a telephone interview. Glaubitz declined to specify what prospects, assets or locations within Russia are under discussion.

Patrick McGinn, an Exxon Mobil spokesman, sent an e-mailed statement declining to comment on commercial matters.

West Siberia

BP and Rosneft had agreed to explore 125,000 square kilometers (48,000 square miles) of the Kara Sea, north from Russia’s largest developed fields in West Siberia. The area may have as much as 50 billion barrels of oil in place, of which 12 billion to 15 billion is recoverable, a person with knowledge of the matter said in January when the BP deal was signed.

Under the January accord between BP and Rosneft, the exploration venture was to be two-thirds held by the Russian company and one-third by BP, which agreed to carry the first $1 billion of exploration costs. BP would have been able to book reserves from any discoveries made.

The two companies still have an agreement to explore off Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East and are partners in a German oil refining venture.

Legal Challenge

BP’s deal with Rosneft collapsed after the U.K. producer’s billionaire partners in its existing TNK-BP venture used a legal challenge to block the alliance. TNK-BP is Russia’s third- largest oil company, and BP’s 50 percent share in 1.7 million barrels a day of production makes it the biggest foreign producer in the country. BP agreed it would cede its place in the Arctic venture to TNK-BP. Rosneft declined, saying TNK-BP didn’t have the knowhow.

While BP said in a statement yesterday talks will continue with Rosneft and its billionaire partners, the failure of a deal blessed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin risks weakening its position in the country. It also damages CEO Bob Dudley, who took the helm last October, charged with leading BP’s recovery from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“The market perception of Bob Dudley’s personal credibility could have likely been damaged by the situation,” Credit Suisse Group AG analyst Kim Fustier said in a note to clients. BP “should have been fully aware of the provisions in the TNK-BP shareholder agreement.”

To secure a new deal, Rosneft may have to abandon the idea of a share swap. Chevron CEO John Watson has rejected the idea of adopting the structure of the BP-Rosneft deal.

“I don’t think you will see us taking on any sort of share swap,” Watson said in a March 14 meeting with analysts and investors in New York.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net; Kari Lundgren in London at klundgren2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net.

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Corrib building blockaded as Shell AGM held in The Hague and London

Áine Ryan: 17 May 2011

AS ROYAL Dutch Shell holds its AGM in The Hague and London today (Tuesday),  protestors blockaded the Corrib Natural Gas building in Belmullet, to highlight the giant oil company’s huge profits.

The small group of Shell to Sea and Rossport Solidarity Camp protestors stopped workers from entering or exiting the building from about 7.30am.

A Shell spokeswoman confirmed there were company personnel already in the building and that some work continued.

The Royal Dutch Shell AGM was held in The Hague, with an audio-visual link to a satellite meeting in London.

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Tuesday May 17, 2011

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN) has made “no secret” of its interest in developing the hydrocarbon resources in the Russian Arctic, but its preference remains for investment on a project-by-project basis rather than buying stakes in local companies, Chief Executive Peter Voser said Tuesday.

“We are interested in exploring in Russia, and we have made no secret of that, ” said Voser, who was addressing shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-17-110815ET
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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FROM RICHIE O DONNELL (Filmmaker): ‘The Pipe’ upcoming UK theatrical release

Documentary charting the battle between the tiny village of Rossport and the Oil Giant Shell is coming to UK screens.

Hi John,

I have a UK theatrical release coming up, see below. Would you be able to post something on your site and could you also say that we are looking for people to put on grassroots screenings, and our email is thepipethefilm@gmail.com. Thanks a million.

You can get back to me before you post it if you need any clarification etc. If you could post the trailer with the dates it would help too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMSLuxuf_iE
and our site has the screening details: www.thepipethefilm.com/main-sect/cinema-showings/
thanks a million, Richie (by the way have you seen it yet, send me your address and I’ll post you one)

20/05/11   Crediton Arts Centre, Devon    20:00
20/05/11   Phoenix Square Cinema, Leicester    18:15 Q&A
21/05/11    Shetlands Museum & Archive    19:30
21/05/11    Shortwave Cinema, Bermondsey, London Q&A
22/05/11    Glasgow Film Theatre    12:15
22/05/11    Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, London    17:30 Q&A
25/05/11    Southampton Solent University
27/05/11    Glasgow
27-30 May    Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh Q&A (28th)
29/05/11    Dundee Contemporary Arts (Q&A)
30/05/11    Eden Court, Inverness (Q&A)
31/05/11    Belmont Theatre, Aberdeen
30/06/11    Picturehouse Cinema, Bath (Q&A)
04/06/11    Lighthouse Centre, Poole (Q&A)
07/06/11    Stratford East, London (Q&A with Paddy Briggs)
11/06/11    Seven Arts Centre, Chapel Allerton, Leeds
17/06/11    Friends of the Earth AGM, Isle of Man

‘The Pipe’ coming to cinemas in the UK

Documentary charting the battle between the tiny village of Rossport and the Oil Giant Shell is coming to UK screens. Having playing to packed houses in Toronto, New York, Boston, Amsterdam and Berlin, and won critical acclaim internationally, this controversial new documentary by first time filmmaker Risteard Ó Domhnaill will screen at a number of selected cinemas around the UK in late May/early June.

The film follows this small fishing community in the West of Ireland, as it is torn apart by a proposed Shell pipeline which could bring economic prosperity or destroy a way of life shared for generations. As pressure from the Irish government and Shell mounts, five local men go to jail, the community descends into infighting over, the local headmistress goes on hunger strike and only one lone fisherman is all that stands between the worlds largest pipelaying ship – The Solitaire – and a way of life shared for generations. Variety calls the film “first rate”, Screen Daily says it is “engrossing and provocative…a fascinating and challenging film”.

Indywire: The premise is reminiscent of Bill Forsyth’s 1983 comedy “Local Hero,” in which an American oil company faces cultural clashes with the inhabitants of a Scottish village. In “Local Hero” the dynamics could be played for laughs, but in “The Pipe” the real-life stakes have dire consequences. The film plunges us into violent clashes between protesters and police. As tensions mount, the community divides over how to confront Shell. The conflict widens to draw in Catholic priests and even the Irish political leader, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. http://www.indiewire.com/film/the_pipe/

We have won the Irish Film and Television Awards, the Celtic Media Festival, CIRCOM (association of European Regional Broadcasters (300 in all), Galway International Film Fleadh (best doc), Foyle film Festival (best doc), Boston Irish Film Festival (best doc), Wurzburg Film Festival & Arizona Film Festival (best doc), International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (honorable mention).

http://www.thepipethefilm.com/

May 15, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)–A joint venture of Petroliam Nasional Bhd.’s upstream unit and units of ConocoPhillips (COP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB.LN) will develop the Kebabangan gas field located offshore Sabah in East Malaysia, the company said Monday.

Kebabangan Petroleum Operating Co. is 40% owned by Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd., while ConocoPhillips Sabah Gas Ltd. and Shell Energy Asia Ltd. own 30% each.

The field is located in water depths of 100-400 meters and is included in the Kebabangan Cluster Production Sharing Contract.

The project will include a 12-well, two-phase drilling campaign and the fabrication and installation of an integrated drilling and production platform with living quarters, the company said.

-By K.P. Lee, Dow Jones Newswires; (603) 2026 1233; kwan-por.lee@dowjones.com

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