On Thursday, the UK House of Commons passed the Bribery Bill, which would make it illegal for companies doing business in the U.K. to bribe government officials.

The U.K. measure goes further than the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because the legislation, if passed by the House of Lords, will make it illegal to request or accept a bribe. Companies could also face prosecution for failure to prevent bribery by employees.

This development will be of interest to Shell in view of its key involvement in the so called “Scandal of the Century“, for which BAE Systems has recently paid nearly $500 million in fines.

The BAE Systems bribery scandal shamed the UK. Over 15 years, the British defense firm, which is the largest manufacturer in the U.K., allegedly provided Saudi royals with cash, cars, prostitutes and houses in exchange for lucrative defense contracts. The most infamous of these dealings was the so-called al-Yamamah deal that Margret Thatcher negotiated with Prince Bandar, the son of the Saudi defense minister, in the 1980s.

Much of the above information is taken directly from an article by Christopher M. Matthews: “U.K. Parliament Passes Bribery Bill” (which makes no reference to Shell).

The developing anti-corruption and bribery laws will hopefully give Shell senior management pause for thought bearing in mind its track record of supporting and encouraging corrupt predatory practices by Shell executives.

To our certain knowledge, unsuspecting companies have been enticed, under false pretenses, into Shell confidentiality agreements allowing the oil giant to steal intellectual property. Companies were deliberately enticed into participation in a rigged tender for a major contract eventfully awarded to a company which did not participate in the tender – a company that had a close relationship with a Shell executive on the make who, in connivance with other Shell senior managers, rigged the tender.

Richard Wiseman, the current Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc gave his full endorsement to the thoroughly dishonest Shell executive in question, as did Malcolm Brinded, an equally discredited Shell executive director.

As we have said many times, it is deeds, not words (Shell’s sham Business Principles), which count.

I suggest that we from now on start every speech or statement of Brinded with “Once upon a time, long ago…..”

SHELL BLOG COMMENT BY Guest1 on the article Shell International Upstream to Power Growth….

Adding 600,000 bopd sounds a lot but will not be sufficient to bring back the production level from 3 to 3.5 mln bopd. The reason is very simple: the current production declines by 10-15% per annum, so in 2012 the existing fields will produce (optimistically speaking, we are all followers of Brinded) not more than 2.4 mln bopd. Adding 600,000 therefore merely keeps the production level constant. We all know that Brinded is so smart he thinks he can defeat laws of nature. But oilfields are very stubborn and may not do what Brinded wants them to do… So, he better starts adding a lot more bopd if he wants to reach his earlier stated goal of 5-6 mln bopd in 2013. Time is running out fast.

I suggest that we from now on start every speech or statement of Brinded with “Once upon a time, long ago…..”. Lawyers will like that too.

By Anthony Dipaola

March 29 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc is still in talks on a final agreement to develop natural gas in Iraq, the Middle East vice president for new business said.

“Iraq will become a regional player in the gas sector and an exporter to the region and the world,” Mounir Bouaziz said at a conference in Abu Dhabi today. “Iraq is losing $50 a second by flaring gas.” The country, which flares more than 1 billion cubic feet a day, has the potential to export 20 billion cubic meters a year of gas, Bouaziz said.

Shell is developing a plan to capture and market about 700 million cubic feet a day of natural gas in southern Iraq that is currently burnt off and not used. The company agreed with the Iraqi government in September 2008 to develop the project with the aim of eventually exporting fuel in liquefied form or via pipeline.

The first facilities in the project already collect 135 million cubic feet of gas a day and process it into 500 tons of liquid petroleum gas daily, Malcolm Brinded, Shell’s executive director for international production and exploration, said Nov. 24.

The project may require as much as $10 billion in investment to produce 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas a day, Ahmed Al-Shamma, Iraq’s deputy oil minister for downstream operations, said in September.

Mitsubishi Corp., Japan’s largest trading house, said Aug. 25 it will join the Shell-led project by acquiring a 5 percent stake in the joint venture company that will run the project. An Iraqi state-run company will own 51 percent in the venture, with Shell holding the rest.

–With assistance from Ayesha Daya in Dubai. Editors: Stephen Cunningham, Will Kennedy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Dipaola in Dubai at adipaola@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

Business Week Article

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

By SHAI OSTER

BEIJING — China National Petroleum Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC Tuesday announced plans to jointly develop and produce natural gas in China’s Sichuan basin, the Anglo-Dutch giant’s second gas venture in China.

In a statement, Shell said the companies have submitted a production sharing contract to the Chinese government for approval.

The agreement comes more than a year after Shell began discussing with CNPC a production sharing contract for the Jinqiu gas field. CNPC is China’s largest oil and gas company by output.

A person familiar with the matter said in April last year that securing CNPC’s blessing for the PSC for Jinqiu was a key motivation for Shell to discuss a possible joint bid with China’s biggest oil company for oil fields in Iraq.

Under the 30-year contract, Shell and CNPC would appraise and potentially develop tight gas reservoirs in an area of approximately 4,000 square kilometers in the Jinqiu block of central Sichuan Province, the statement said.

Tight gas is natural gas contained in rock that must be fractured or broken open before it can flow easily to production wells.

“This is another step forward for Shell’s worldwide tight gas strategy, building on our technology and production track record in China and elsewhere,” said Malcolm Brinded, executive director of Shell’s Upstream International division. “The agreement will strengthen our partnership with CNPC in developing cleaner energy to meet China’s growing needs.”

Shell already has a China gas project with CNPC, the state-owned parent of Hong Kong-listed PetroChina Co., in Changbei, in Shaanxi province.

Commercial production in Changbei began in March 2007, supplying three billion cubic meters of gas a year to Beijing and other cities in eastern China.

Shell also signed a joint assessment agreement with PetroChina in November 2009 for shale gas cooperation in Sichuan.

Assessment work tin in the Fushun block that covers another area of approximately 4,000 square kilometers started in January this year.

Write to Shai Oster at shai.oster@wsj.com

WSJ SOURCE ARTICLE

By John Donovan

On 31 March, Richard Wiseman, the Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc will be making a speech at a seminar in London: “Best Practice in Combating Corruption Extortion and Bribery“

“The event will examine new developments and tools in fighting corruption and providing practical methods for addressing and investigating extortion and bribery.”

We can only surmise that Mr Wiseman is present on the basis of being a poacher turned gamekeeper.

When he was Legal Director of Shell UK Limited we brought to his attention irrefutable evidence of corrupt practices inside Shell.  A Shell executive on the make had plotted with colleagues on how to deceive companies participating in what they foolishly thought was an honest tender process for a major Shell contract. The companies in question were enticed into confidentiality agreements under false pretenses, so that Shell could steal intellectual property from them and prevent them offering it to rival oil companies.

The contract was eventually given to a company which never took part in the tender. A company with whom the Shell executive had a close personal relationship. Evidence shows that he had an offshore bank account and had recorded in his diary a devious plan to set up his own business inside Shell and then retire from the company at the age of 35.

We also brought the extensive documentary evidence of this ruthless conspiracy to the attention of all directors of Shell UK, Shell Transport and Royal Dutch Petroleum. We invited Malcolm Brinded to disassociate himself from the thoroughly dishonest Shell executive in question. Instead of doing so, Shell senior management, including Wiseman, gave him its full backing.

It is therefore the height of hypocrisy that Wiseman was appointed to his current position and even more outrageous that he has the audacity to make another speech on the subject – unless he is giving tips on predatory conduct against small companies lulled into a false sense of security by sham business principles.

Aberdeen Shell jobs look safe in latest culling

Further 1,000 positions to be shed

By Keith Findlay
Published: 17/03/2010

Daily Telegraph

Royal Dutch Shell has frozen the pay of its top executive directors and imposed new rules on bonuses, as it tries to appease investor anger over excessive remuneration.

By Rowena Mason, City Reporter (Energy)
Published: 9:11AM GMT 16 Feb 2010

Last year, Shell’s board suffered an embarrassing shareholder revolt over their pay packages, which awarded bonuses to executives who had failed to hit their targets.

Since then, the company has been consulting with major shareholders about more appropriate remuneration policies.

In a letter to investors , Hans Wijers, chairman of the remuneration committee, said the move would “better align remuneration policy with shareholder interests and long-term strategy”.

Peter Voser, who took over as chief executive of Shell last year, has already accepted a pay package 20pc below that of his predecessor, in line with other new employees.

He, along with Simon Henry, finance director, and Malcolm Brinded, director of upstream, will not be eligible for a rise until at least January 2011.

A greater proportion of bonus payments will now be in shares, to be vested over a longer period of time, which will tie the money made by directors to performance.

Mr Voser will also have a personal say in how successful his executive directors have been at hitting targets each year. The remuneration committee has also agreed not to award bonuses where directors fail to meet their targets.

It is understood major shareholders are happy with the concessions, which will be presented at the group’s annual meeting in May.

The shareholder revolt last year was one of the largest in UK corporate history, with 59.42pc of shareholders voting against Shell’s pay deal during at fiery meeting at the Hague.

Peter Job, the former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell’s remuneration committee, stepped down in September, five months after the rebellion. He angered investors by recommending that directors take up half their share awards even though Shell missed its target of finishing third in terms of performance against a peer group of five rivals.

Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s former chief executive, received a package worth £9.1m, up 58pc on 2007.

At the time, several investors spoke out. Errol Keyner, from Dutch shareholder association VEB, called the system “sick and in need of fixing”. Guy Jubb, of Standard Life, told the board he was “dismayed” over Mr van der Veer remuneration package.

The rebellion was seen as an indication of increasing activism among institutional shareholders and a sign that anger at bonuses paid to management in the banks had spilled over into other sectors.

TELEGRAPH ARTICLE

The Times
February 17, 2010

Robin Pagnamenta and Robert Lindsay

Royal Dutch Shell said that it would freeze the salaries of its top directors and reform a generous bonus scheme as the oil giant moved to soothe shareholders’ anger over excessive boardroom pay before its annual meeting.

In a letter to investors, Hans Wijers, the new chairman of the Anglo-Dutch company’s remuneration committee, said that the changes were being made after extensive talks with shareholders, 60 per cent of whom voted down the executive pay plans at a stormy annual meeting last year.

The shareholder revolt triggered the resignation of Sir Peter Job, Mr Wijers’s predecessor.

In the letter, Mr Wijers said that Shell would be capping the salaries of its top three executives — Peter Voser, chief executive, Simon Henry, finance director, and Malcolm Brinded, head of exploration — until 2011. He said that Mr Voser had been appointed last July on a salary 20 per cent lower than that of his predecessor, Jeroen van der Veer, who earned $2 million (£1.3 million) in basic pay in 2008 but $15 million in total compensation. Mr Wijers said that Mr Voser and Mr Henry had received pay rises last year but only because they had been promoted to new roles

He also announced plans to scrap a heavily criticised bonus scheme that last year allowed top directors to collect multimillion-pound payouts, even though they failed to meet performance targets.

“I believe it is appropriate in the current economic environment to state up front that no upward discretion will be applied to the Long Term Incentive Plan or Deferred Bonus Plan vesting in 2010. In future, there will be no use of upward discretion in the vesting of these plans without prior shareholder engagement,” Mr Wijers said.

Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move for a global oil group, Mr Wijers unveiled plans to link bonus payouts to Shell’s performance on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which ranks corporate performance using a variety of social and environmental indicators, including cuts to carbon emissions.

From 2010, 10 per cent of the targets used to calculate payouts will be linked to the index, with the remaining 90 per cent related to operational and financial performance as well as the delivery of big projects on time and on budget. The key measure in Shell’s bonus plan remains the group’s performance against its peers — BP, Total, ExxonMobil and Chevron.

In another concession to investors, Mr Wijers said that in future Shell’s chief executive would be obliged to have shares in the company equivalent to three times his basic salary, in order “to provide greater alignment with shareholder interests”. The existing guidelines for executive directors are for a holding of two times salary.

Shell’s 2010 annual meeting will be held on May 18.

TIMES ARTICLE

16.02.10

Shell today bowed to shareholder anger over its senior staff pay by announcing it was freezing the salaries of its three top directors this year.

Chief executive Peter Voser and chief financial officer Simon Henry, whose salaries are 20 per cent lower than previous pay for their positions, will not get a rise until 2011. The international exploration boss, Malcolm Brinded, will also be affected by the freeze.

Shell also said it was preventing bonuses from rising this year and told shareholders of its decision. Last May, shareholders owning almost 60 per cent of the business voted against directors’ pay deals.

It said the new pay policies “demonstrate appropriate restraint in the current economic environment” and increased the alignment between executive and shareholder interests. Shell said the changes had been made after detailed negotiations with major shareholders.

SOURCE ARTICLE

EMAIL RECEIVED FROM RICHARD WISEMAN, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC: FRIDAY 12 FEB 2010

From: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Date: 12 February 2010 08:30:20 GMT
To: john@shellnews.net
Cc: michiel.brandjes@shell.com, Peter.P.Voser@shell.com
Subject: RE: Shell Global Address Book

Dear Mr Donovan

Regards
Richard Wiseman

Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer
Royal Dutch Shell plc
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA

Registered in England and Wales number 4366849
Registered Office:  Shell Centre, London, SE1
Headquarters: Carel van Bylandtlaan 30, 2596 HR
The Hague, The Netherlands

Email: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com

RESPONSE FROM JOHN DONOVAN

From: John Donovan <john@shellnews.net>
Date: 12 February 2010 09:53:24 GMT
To: richard.wiseman@shell.com
Cc: michiel.brandjes@shell.com, peter.p.voser@shell.com
Subject: Re: Shell Global Address Book

Dear Mr Wiseman

Regards
John Donovan