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Paddy Briggs

Shell’s failure to keep its pension promise

Shell’s failure to keep its pension promise

Extensive comment by Paddy Briggs on the posting on a website “Shell’s failure to keep its pension promise appears in the public domain Paddy Briggs”

(EXTRACT FROM THE POSTING: “Shell Shocker. Even with gas gushing like never before at the oil majors, Britain’s largest, Shell, is reluctant to share the spoils with those who have made its profits over the years.”

COMMENT BY Paddy Briggs

The senior management of Shell is used to dealing with criticism – enormous profits, high levels of remuneration for top executives and continuing criticism of their environmental record and plans come with the job. But this story on UK Pensions policy in “Private Eye” on 17th March must have come as an unwelcome surprise.

As a Shell Pensioner and former Trustee of the UK Fund I can confirm that the “Eye” story is substantially true. The “Shell Contributory Pension Fund” (SCPF) is the largest of the two Funds referred to and at a valuation in excess of £17.6bn and a funding level of 117% it is one of the UK’s largest and most secure. The Fund, which is closed to new members, has some 36,750 members of whom less than 3,000 are active. Members in receipt of a pension number just under 27,000 and the total pensions paid in the last reported year was some £500 million. This means that the average Shell pension is around £18,700. 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.

Shell board confronted by pensioner welfare question from Paddy Briggs

RETIRED SHELL EXEC PADDY BRIGGS

Shell board confronted by pensioner welfare question from Paddy Briggs

Regular visitors may recall my article published in December 2016 Shell cost-cutting plan will undermine the welfare of its pensioners. 

It included an extract from a Facebook posting on the subject by retired Shell executive Paddy Briggs (right). Paddy confronted the Shell board on the subject yesterday. As is evident from the response in the transcript below, they seemed ill-prepared for the question, which compared huge sums paid to Shell directors such as Ben van Beurden with welfare cuts being made to Shell pensioners. As a result of his intervention, the board has agreed to review the issue he raised.   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.

BG acquisition offers Shell opportunity for major strategy change

Screen Shot 2015-04-08 at 15.26.21

Screen Shot 2015-04-08 at 08.12.04By Paddy Briggs

As a Shell “lifer” – more than forty years if you include my time as a Director of the Pension  Fund – I cannot recall a bigger strategic shift than the acquisition of BG. It offers the Corporation a unique opportunity to do what Tom Peters called “stick to its knitting” – to concentrate on what it’s really good at.

BG is an “Upstream” company. It only does exploration and production of oil and gas. And that is what Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) is good at too. To the man or woman in the street it is the Shell emblem standing over a Shell petrol station for which it is best known. But over the years this part of the business – never, in truth, that important to the heavies at the top – has declined in importance. The “Downstream” – the refining and marketing of oil, gas and chemicals – is pretty much cast adrift from the Upstream. The engineers, geologists and accountants in the highest echelons of Shell never really understood it anyway! There are no longer any economies of scale from being involved in oil from wellhead to petrol pump, if there ever were.  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.

Great Britain: A lone fighter against Shell

John Donovan at the Shell Centre, 4 April 2012

Professional translation (by OneHourTranslation) of the German narration in the ARD TV Europa Magazine documentary feature: Great Britain: A lone fighter against Shell. Broadcast Saturday 21 April 2012.

Great Britain: A lone fighter against Shell

Next to the London Eye, the Shell Centre stands tall. Its enemy stands at the door.

“You might find that interesting,” says John Donovan. He distributes flyers to inform people about the oil company’s drilling projects.

“Shell destroys communities,” is what the banner says. An older gentleman and a handful of like-minded people are aggravating one of the world’s largest oil giants. 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.

Shell, Ferrari and the controversial 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix

Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) has contractual obligations to Ferrari which it must honour. However there is no reason why Shell  should not take the action I have outlined above in order to protect its reputation…

EMAIL FROM RETIRED ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EXECUTIVE PADDY BRIGGS TO SHELL CEO PETER VOSER

—– Original Message —–
From: Paddy Briggs
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2012 4:22 PM
Subject: Bahrain Grand Prix

Dear Mr Voser

Bahrain Grand Prix

I write this open letter as a private individual, a former long-term employee, a shareholder and a Pensioner of Royal Dutch Shell. I call on Shell to take the following action in respect of the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix:

  1. To instruct Ferrari to remove all Shell branding from their competing cars (and other items) for the duration of this year’s Grand Prix event.
  2. To rescind invitations to customers and other third parties in respect of Corporate Hospitality in the “Formula One Club” and elsewhere at the event.
  3. To withdraw all staff from the event other than those required to fulfil Shell’s contractual obligations to Ferrari.
  4. To remove or otherwise cover up any Shell branding and advertising at the Bahrain Grand Prix circuit.

Rationale

  1. Royal Dutch Shell has made a commitment to Human Rights in the past and has communicated in public its support for the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS of the United Nations.
  2. A recent comprehensive report by Amnesty International documented the continued and flagrant abuses of Human Rights in the Kingdom of Bahrain and by its Government.
  3. The leaders of Formula one, and the teams, have decided to go ahead with the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix despite the fact that the Kingdom of Bahrain oppresses its citizens and denies them the Human Rights to which under the UN Charter they are entitled.
  4. Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) has contractual obligations to Ferrari which it must honour. However there is no reason why Shell  should not take the action I have outlined above in order to protect its reputation and to show its concern about the going ahead of an event which has been strongly condemned by all who take the UN Declaration seriously.

 I hope that you will feel able to take the action I have asked for.

Sincerely

Paddy Briggs 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.

Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser on a Swiss roll…

Introduction by John Donovan

It seems timely, in view of recent postings on our Shell Blog, to republish an article about Shell CEO Peter Voser authored by retired Royal Dutch Shell Executive, Paddy Briggs (right). It was first published on 27 July 2009. Paddy is currently a Member Nominated Trustee of the Shell Contributory Pension Fund.

On a Swiss roll…

By Paddy Briggs

Here’s the story. You are a Swiss accountant with a proven record of ruthlessness and synthetic business acumen. You are comfortable with numbers – that’s what you do – but you know little about the minutiae of the oil business. How can you be – you are not an “oil man” you are a “dollars man”. By guile, good fortune and the Peter Principle you find yourself at the helm of one of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. You know that you will struggle with the difficult things – like creating an organisation that finds, develops, transports, refines and markets hydrocarbons. You know nothing at all about the oil and gas chain from exploration to consumption. You’ve never really worked in it – other than seeing spreadsheets which show you how much it costs. But you are now in charge. So what you do is retreat to the familiar world of numbers. That world where there is certainty – where something that costs “$100m” is only supportable if an adequate ROACE is assured. And where, even though future earnings are always, by definition, unpredictable you find a way of getting bogus certainty where there is none. By appointing more accountants and listening to them.null 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.

Corrib – Ireland’s Last Offshore Development for a Generation

Printed below is an article by Tony Allwright, a retired Irish Shell EP manager. (SOURCE ARTICLE)

26 November 2011

Protests – overwhelmingly unfounded and politically unchallenged –
have trebled the cost of developing Ireland’s offshore Corrib gasfield.
This huge “
political risk” will deter further such investments for a generation.

Many years ago, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a Dutch company with an Irish name, Shell Teoranta BV, whose raison d’être was to seek and hopefully find oil offshore Ireland (“Teoranta” is Irish for ““Limited”).  It drilled a number of wells – for  example, on 19th December 1979, the Irish Times featured a photo of a jack-up rig drilling an exploration well just offshore Dublin – but to no avail.  All the holes were dry.  Concluding that Ireland was a lost cause, Shell Teoranta packed its bags and shut up shop, though not before claiming a huge write-off from the Dutch taxpayer for all its futile Irish expenditure, a provision of Netherlands law which explains why Shell Teoranta was registered there. Shell reckoned it had better uses for its shareholders’ money than to fritter it away on the ultra-long-shots of Irish exploration. 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.

Obama is not being anti-British over BP

The British media and commentariat is working itself into a frenzy over President Obama’s attack on BP. The Mayor of London, the patrician Boris Johnson, has said ‘I do think there’s something slightly worrying about the anti-British rhetoric that seems to be permeating from America … when you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on the airwaves.” Much of the press comment has been in the same vein – but it is nearly all uninformed, xenophobic and self-righteous. 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.

Shell decides to “stick to its knitting”

Posting by former Shell Executive Paddy Briggs on the article “Shell defends continued focus on fossil fuel-paper“: Mar 2nd, 2010 at 11:20 am

Tom Peters seminal book “In Scarce of Excellence” was first published in 1982 and in it there were eight themes for success in business one of was “Stick to the knitting” – i.e. stay with the business that you know. It has taken Shell quite a while to acknowledge Tom Peters’ truism – ironically as there is no major corporation which has made more of a mess of diversification than Shell. Along the way there have been failed ventures in Coal, Mining, Nuclear Power, Electricity Generation, Forestry, Wind Power, Solar, Convenience Stores, Home insulation… 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.

Shell says former Shell exec Paddy Briggs should choose his friends more carefully

A SHELL INTERNAL EMAIL DATED 25 JUNE 2007 SUPPLIED TO JOHN DONOVAN UNDER DATA PROTECTION ACT LAW

From:
Sent: 25 June 2007 13:57
To:
Subject: RE: DONOVAN – WEBSITE

FYI, xxxxxs latest contribution – I think he should choose his friends more carefully….

In the absence of “Tell Shell” I think that this is possibly the best forum for those of us who care about Shell and have informed opinions about the company to share with others. The Donovans perfume (subsequently corrected!) a very useful function and, whilst I don’t always agree with them, I do admire them and certainly do not question their motives or their integrity. 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.

Paddy Briggs elected as a Trustee of Shell Contributory Pension Fund

It has come to our attention that former Shell executive Paddy Briggs (above) has been elected to serve the thirty-three thousand Shell pensioners in the UK as a Trustee of the Shell Contributory Pension Fund for four years commencing January 2010. In addition to the elected members, the Board of Trustees has seven Shell appointees, including UK country chairman James Smith and Clive Mather, the Chairman of the Board.

The manifesto on which Paddy Briggs was elected was:

“I joined Shell Mex and B.P. in 1964 and retired from Shell in 2002 having worked in Shell UK Ltd, Shell International and operating companies in The Netherlands, Hong Kong and Dubai. The Shell that most of us once worked for is long gone – as the “reserves” scandal and the recent furore over top executive remuneration have shown. Such events, coupled with the deteriorating financial position of many pensioners (which was exacerbated this year by a derisory 0.9% annual pension increase) illustrate the extent of the changes in Shell and confirm the urgent need for a strong defence of SCPF member interests by the one elected MNT Trustee directors. I was “First reserve” in the elections in 2007 and hope to go one better this time around. If elected I will do my upmost robustly to represent the interests of the Pensioner constituency and all other beneficiaries of the fund.” 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.

Arch-critic emails over 400 Shell senior execs

Richard Wiseman, Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer (Photo supplied by him for display on this website)

EMAIL MESSAGE SENT BY JOHN DONOVAN TO OVER 400 SENIOR SHELL EXECUTIVES

Congratulations!

I am writing to offer our best wishes on your appointment/new title, as announced on our website royaldutchshellplc.com within the lists of Shell senior executive appointments we published on 22 June and 3 August.

The unauthorised publication of leaked Shell confidential information on our site has become a news event in its own right, regularly reported by The Wall Street Journal and other news organisations. 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.

Time to reflect on the integrity of Shell Chairman, Jorma Ollila

By Paddy Briggs

Time to reflect on the integrity of Jorma Ollila (above), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. In his time as Chairman it seems, if we judge from the actions of Shell’s new CEO Peter Voser, he has allowed Shell to become an over-staffed, unfocused, top heavy bureaucracy. A company that requires urgent and invasive surgery. A Company that no longer has confidence in its staff at the top to the extent that it makes them re-apply for jobs…and so on. 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.

Former Shell Exec Paddy Briggs comments on Linda Cook departure

By Paddy Briggs

Cook’s departure is ego-driven. She lost out – so she walks away in a huff. But then that’s what you do when the only thing that matters is self-aggrandisement. What charecterises Shell head honchos in recent times is that it is all about self. Power, position, perks and obscenely inflated bonuses and rewards – and to hell with the business or the tradition or the history of this once great company and once respected brand. And to hell with the stakeholders as well. Suppliers, Partners, local communities, employees, pensioners and society at large are the disposable small fry in the selfish and self-centered world of Van Der Veer, Cook, Brinded and the rest. 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.

Shell’s institutionalised delusion

Comment by former Shell Exec Paddy Briggs on: “Climate change summit hijacked by world’s biggest polluter Shell, critics claim”

Paddy Briggs

on May 25th, 2009 at 9:36 am 

Another example of Shell’s institutionalised delusion that they are a player in the debate on the global energy future. At its most venal this was characterised by the dysfunctional and disingenuous corporate advertising of recent times that tried to suggest that Shell really cared about the energy mix and supported the development of renewable sources. Shell’s inevitable and predictable recent withdrawal from her Renewables business showed what a farce this was. 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.

How will Shell respond to the threat of an ExxonMobil takeover?

Given the likely horror in London and The Hague and the equal dismay in Brussels we can expect some swift defensive manoeuvres to be soon under discussion. Prime amongst these has to be the oft trumpeted merger of Shell and BP into one seriously big and European managed corporation.

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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