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June 2nd, 2013:

Shell company DNA: price-rigging, tax dodging, flawed wonder fuels and a cover-up culture

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It seems that it is not only price-rigging that is in the DNA of Royal Dutch Shell, but also tax avoidance, flawed wonder fuels, and a cover-up mentality whenever embroiled in yet another scandal. Shell is at it again currently, having been caught red-handed in an incredible scandal coming to the boil behind the scenes and shortly to become breaking news that will further damage Shell’s already busted reputation. You could not make it up. 

Posting by LondonLad (Musaint) on our Shell Blog

So what if Shell (or any other oil company) moved an oil rig for the purposes of reducing tax payments? Is that really that big a deal in the grander scheme of things? I would expect that 99% of the readers / contributors to this website make sure that they minimize their tax payments (if not then they are rather stupid). As an RDS share holder I believe their actions are absolutely correct. However, running aground was not really advantageous and only allowed tabloid websites such as this to pontificate. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Frantic but failed effort left Kulluk on the rocks

Screen Shot 2013-01-11 at 20.09.51Around Dec. 7, Shell made the decision to leave that month, weather permitting, Churchfield said. The timing stemmed from concerns Shell had about the prospect of millions in state property taxes that could be assessed if the Kulluk were in Alaska at the first of the year, Churchfield told the panel. But the decision to go in December put the Kulluk and Aiviq into a fierce storm.

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Published: June 1, 2013

— [email protected]

Over nine days of testimony that wrapped up last week in Anchorage, witnesses told a Coast Guard panel investigating the Dec. 31 grounding of a Shell drilling rig about equipment failures, fuel problems and human error during the troubled voyage and frantic but failed effort to save the Kulluk. Now it will be up to the Coast Guard panel to determine just what caused the Kulluk to crash onto the rocks south of Kodiak Island.

In the hearing, part of a broader formal marine casualty investigation, boat captains, Royal Dutch Shell executives, a Coast Guard officer and others involved in the troubled tow of the Kulluk added new dimension and detail, along with informed theories, to what’s already known about the near-disaster. Some described how it could have been much worse. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bonga: 19 new oil wells may gulp N1.96tn

Indications emerged on Friday that Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited will spend $12.35bn (about N1.96tn) on the planned drilling of 19 new oil wells as part of the expansion of Bonga deep water oil field.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

OPINION: We told you so

Screen Shot 2013-01-11 at 20.09.51Anyone who has followed development like this for any length of time will not be shocked that Shell officials lied to cover their interests following the grounding of the Kulluk. But this blatantly obvious situation should motivate elected officials and the Coast Guard to require more oversight. We’ve been handed a gift with the Kulluk grounding, the gift of time and perspective. Hopefully, Alaska will make good use of it.

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May 31st 2:53 pm | Carey Restino

Last week, the operations manager for Royal Dutch Shell told Coast Guard investigators that the end-of-the year tax liability was a primary consideration in the decision to move the Royal Dutch Shell contracted rig the Kulluk from Unalaska before the end of the year.

That’s what Alaska Media reporter Jim Paulin reported back when the Kulluk went aground. He’d followed up on a tip that he’d heard long before things went awry in Shell’s world and the response he got back from a Shell spokesman was very clear – taxes were a factor, and a frustration to the company. No one said for sure how much liability Shell faced for the Kulluk but the term “millions” was floated around. Some news agencies came up with $6 million based on general assumptions about the value of the rig. Alaska taxes 2 percent of the value of property used in oil and gas exploration, and properties are assessed on Jan. 1. The state tax examiner later said that because the oil exploration conducted by Shell occurred outside state waters, the rig was not liable for taxes. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Costly Risk In New Oil Exploration

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Over the past few years, the large Western oil majors have been plagued by projects running substantially over budget, and taking much longer to complete than initially estimated. These hurdles are part of the broader challenge facing oil companies — how to cope with the end of the era of “easy oil.” Let’s take a closer look at one project — the Kashagan oil field — that epitomizes these challenges.

A primer on Kashagan
Kashagan is a vast untapped oil field in Kazakhstan with massive hydrocarbon potential. Yet, despite its operators — a consortium of companies including ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM  ) , Eni, and Royal Dutch Shell – having plowed more than $30 billion into the project over the past decade, the field has yet to produce a single drop of oil. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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