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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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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• Shell ignores calls for moratorium on drilling
• Company says world needs 27bn barrel resource

Tim Webb: Tuesday 18 May 2010 19.13 BST

By Sarah Arnott

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

Shell will become the latest major corporation to face investor questions about tar sands developments at its annual general meeting (AGM) today.

Demonstrations outside the meeting in The Hague will be calling for an end to tar sands exploitation, while inside the hall the Anglo-Dutch group’s executives will be quizzed by shareholders on the financial risks.

Some 142 investors have backed a special resolution calling on Shell to give more details on the financial, environmental and human rights risks of tar sand, which make up a third of the major’s resource portfolio.

The responsible investment charity FairPensions, which co-ordinated the action, was behind a similar special resolution put to rival BP’s AGM last month, garnering support or abstention from 15 per cent of voting shareholders. Royal Bank of Scotland has also come under pressure from environmental groups for underwriting tar sands projects.

Shell has already responded to the tabling of the resolution, engaging in a “sustained dialogue” with shareholders about the risk assumptions of its tar sands plans, according to FairPensions. But investors want more.

So far Shell’s tar sand projects, at Athabasca in Canada, involve open cast mining. But the majority of its undeveloped resources will require the more controversial “in situ” method, where steam is injected down deeply drilled wells to boil the bitumen out of the ground. The technique leaves less of an immediate scar on the landscape, but has a much higher carbon footprint because it is so much more energy intensive.

Shell is tight-lipped about the in situ projects and investors backing the resolution are calling for “substantive disclosures” on the plans.

The resolution will be formally proposed today by the Co-operative Asset Management. “Oil and gas companies go to extraordinary lengths – and endure formidable risks – to satisfy our demand for a fuel [which] must diminish if we are to stay within acceptable levels of global temperature increase,” Niall O’Shea, the group’s head of responsible investing, said. “We appreciate Shell’s willingness to enter into dialogue and we agree there are no perfect solutions – but continued success as a company will depend on the providence of their investments.”

The campaigners hope the sight of BP still battling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will underline their concerns about the financial risk of unconventional oil. “The Gulf of Mexico spill has proved that environmental and social risks are also financial risks, and has made the need for shareholders to carefully scrutinise the risk management strategies of oil majors abundantly clear,” Catherine Howarth, the chief executive of FairPensions, said. “Shell’s AGM will provide one of the first opportunities for investors to act on this responsibility.”

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The Sunday Telegraph: BP is expected to say this week that profits almost doubled in the first quarter, as it investigates the circumstances surrounding the explosion of a drilling rig it had hired in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The oil titan is set to encounter protests over a controversial £4.8m severance deal for its former gas and power chief Linda Cook, a leading institutional shareholder told the Mail.”

By Sam Fleming
Last updated at 11:24 PM on 13th April 2010

Royal Dutch Shell faces another turbulent annual general meeting next month after failing to assuage all of its investors’ concerns about director pay.

The oil titan is set to encounter protests over a controversial £4.8m severance deal for its former gas and power chief Linda Cook, a leading institutional shareholder told the Mail.

Discontent is also simmering after chief financial officer Simon Henry moved to a Dutch employment contract, which will ensure more generous rights. And a hearty compensation package handed to former chief executive Jeroen van der Veer remains a bone of contention.

Shell suffered the humiliation of having its pay report voted down last year after discontent over the generosity of its awards emerged. Remuneration committee chief Sir Peter Job subsequently resigned.

Shell has since embarked on an intensive charm offensive as it sought to heal the rift. A long-term shareholder told the Mail: ‘There is unlikely to be a revolt on the scale of last year’s AGM, but there are still concerns about remuneration.’

The glittering deal given to Cook after she lost out in the battle to succeed Van der Veer has attracted particular attention, the shareholder said.

In addition to a £914,000 salary for 2009 and a £977,000 bonus, Cook was given a £4.8m severance payment and walked away with a pension worth £16.2m.

Shell defended Cook’s severance deal, however, saying it was calculated on a ‘standard formula’ in accordance with laws in the Netherlands, which is where the company is headquartered. Simon Henry’s contract will be covered by Dutch law following his ascent to the main board.

A spokesman said: ‘ Following 2009, we have had extensive consultation with major shareholders. Base salaries have been frozen since July 2008, except on promotion. As a result, chief executive officer and chief financial officer salaries are 20pc lower than (those of) the previous CEO and CFO.’

However, Shell is also likely to be hit by shareholder protests over its controversial oil sands exploration.

Shareholders including Cooperative Asset Management are planning to vote in favour of a resolution calling for greater transparency over its activities in the area.

Canadian oil sands are a tarlike substance that are mined at huge environmental cost. Shell’s arch-rival BP is also braced for protests over its oil sands ambitions and executive remuneration.

Shell’s ‘A’ shares slipped 7p to 1,966.5p, while BP lost 0.4p to 640.7p.

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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.

Ian Lyall, Daily Mail
16 March 2010, 9:52pm

He said he was ‘energised’ and up for the fight. But as he stood at the podium to deliver the company’s annual strategy review, Shell boss Peter Voser (right) looked anything but.

His audience of a hundred or so British and foreign journalists listened with an air of resignation rather than in rapt attention.

Voser isn’t a natural orator. His clipped Swiss accent and the dry delivery may work well around the boardroom table, but his style is hardly inspirational.

Which is a pity. Because his message was an uplifting one for Shell investors, and addressed the concerns of the critics who dismiss the Anglo-Dutch giant as low growth, bureaucratic and bloated.

Voser’s trick was to come up with a fairly punchy production target and spice it with a subtle change of direction and emphasis.

And it seemed to work, with the company’s London-listed A shares rising 27.5p to close the day at 2920p.

The briefing re- capped the impact Voser has made in his short tenure. Since becoming chief executive in the summer of last year, he has spearheaded an impressive $2bn cost cutting drive that has seen the loss off 5,000 jobs, mostly mid-ranking managerial posts.

An extension to that programme was unveiled yesterday. It will save another $1bn by cutting a further 1,000 roles, though the workforce still numbers more than 100,000.

But what grabbed the analysts’ attention was his plans to have Shell pumping around 3.5m barrels of oil a day by 2012.

This implies an annual growth rate of 3.5%, which is well ahead of the rather pedestrian performance of rival BP at around 1.5%.

Shell even seems to have raised its game in finding new oil and gas fields, with its reserve replacement rate running at a healthy 288%.

Voser showed he recognised the lingering misgivings of investors, though he was careful to couch the message in diplomatic terms that wouldn’t offend his colleagues and predecessor.

‘When I became chief executive in the middle of last year, I did think the organisation of the company was working against us,’ he told the meeting at a central London hotel.

‘Shell had become too complicated, and slower than I’d like, and working on too many areas and options.’

The simplification of Shell, which has many moving parts, is borne out of necessity.

With the oil price hovering at, or close to, $80 a barrel, more investment is going into exploration and production.

For recession-hit refining, in the middle of the worst slump in 20 years, the pendulum has swung the other way. Capacity is set to be cut by around 15%, with plants sold or even shut down.

And the marketing operation, which owns the company’s filling stations and also sells motor oil and jet fuel, is also undergoing a shake-up. It is focusing on fewer markets to improve profitability.

Only one of the laggards seems to have been spared the Voser treatment: Shell’s gas business.

It has been hit by the downturn but is deemed to be a fundamentally sound business.

Voser trumpeted a series of exploration success stories that tell a tale of a growing conservatism, so we heard about the company’s strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, Australia and North America.

Relatively expensive regions in which to work, they do have the upside of being politically stable and incredibly easy places to do business.

Air-brushed from the literature were the likes of Nigeria and Russia.

It was only when prodded that Voser commented on the war-torn African nation, where the oil reserves are plentiful, but the region is a mess of infighting and instability: ‘In the past, as I have said many times, Shell has depended a lot on the growth of Nigeria. In today’s situation, we still have the same growth potential in Nigeria. But we have seeded plenty of projects in other parts of the world where we also can achieve growth.’

Hardly a ringing endorsement of the country’s prospects.

Some analysts, such as Collins Stewart’s Gordon Grey, see Voser’s latest strategy pronouncement as ‘an important turning point operationally’ for Shell.

The respected and experienced Richard Griffith of Evolution has been following the company for far too long to be totally convinced: ‘It’s a positive statement, but there is still plenty to be delivered.’