News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
How has the culture of Shell changed since the reserve scandals of 2004?
A: Jeroen van der Veer:
Absolutely. The unification of Royal Dutch and Shell Transport in 2005 has simplified our governance structure. Accountabilities are now absolutely clear. We have a single chief executive. We have a single board. And it is a board where there is true dialogue! So were in very good shape on that front.
The fragility of the wind power business was highlighted recently when Shell pulled out of the world’s biggest offshore wind farm – the London Array, off Kent – because of spiralling costs associated with planning delays.
In February, its parent company, Royal Dutch Shell, said it would maintain a broad portfolio of renewable resources including biofuels, hydrogen, solar, wind and nuclear power. That came after company chief executive officer Jeroen van der Veer said in January that supplies of easy-to-access oil and natural gas would fail to meet global demand for such after 2015.
A Royal Dutch Shell executive said there’s “plenty of oil in the world,” but whoever restricts supply — read Saudi Arabia, Venezuela et al — are in fact spurring alternatives such as wind, solar and nuclear energy and Canadian tar sands.
There’s “plenty of oil in the world,” Shell’s Scenario Team said today on a Webcast led by Global Business Environment Vice President Jeremy Bentham. “The important moment is actually not a possible peak of oil production;” it’s when demand exceeds supply, which may “come well before a peak” in output.
Shell co-owns a wind farm in Lamar and is involved in 11 wind projects in the U.S. and Europe.
This week the shape of the global energy crisis came into its sharpest focus yet. The world needs renewable energy fast, but as BP and Shell announced record profits, they also demonstrated that they are in essence retreating from renewables, perhaps with the exception of biofuels. They intend to focus their record billions on expanding production of what remains of traditional oil and gas, plus tar sands and liquid fuels from coal – ruinous in their effect on the climate.
Following the government’s recent re-embrace of nationalisation, and Shell’s decision to withdraw from the London Array project (Shell ditches renewables stake, May 1), how about bringing Shell’s share into public ownership, financed by an appropriate levy on Shell’s rapidly increasing profits? Dr Martin Thomas Faversham, Kent http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/may/03/5
Shell may have been concerned by the rising price of offshore wind, but it is seriously misguided if it thinks that concentrating its efforts on extracting the remaining fossil fuels is a better bet than renewables in the medium or long term.
: This is amazing. This story is getting exactly zero coverage in the mainstream press of the United States. While I am not exactly surprised it is just one more incidence of keeping Americans ignorant of the true nature of the oil world. Thanks for your efforts to inform and educate. All the best. (ASSUME THIS COMMENT BY SAMOU RELATES TO THE SHELL TOX STORY)
: Executive pay. Dear Anon, I happen to have been around when Linda Cook was the token woman in Shell. Let me tell you one more time: she did NOT make any clever decisions. She behaved like a czarina. Her meetings were something to be seen, she had more testosterone and hate in herself than most other male directors. Her presentations where completely pre-cooked. Never seen so many yellow stickers on the plastic viewgraphs. She did all the management things that she read in a management book: walking up and down in front of the audience. Smiling all the time. Not wanting to be interrupted with questions since this would disturb the flow. And every question was answered with ' that is a very good question but unfortunately I cannot answer it now since I did not read the plan (or some other lame excuse). And when she got stuck, up popped Lew Watts or another slave of hers and answered it eloquently. And then the time was up and she had to leave. Busy, busy, busy. I would not be surprised if she shagged Phil Watts, they were never more than a few meters apart and adored each other. I asked many americans who knew her career in the US what was so special. There has been zero response, they simply did not know. She did make a promise (which was broken of course) that exploration costs would remain low forever and EP would grow forever. This is what Phil Watts (sorry, SIR Philip) wanted to hear. She was simply a social climber, making full use of the fact that Shell wanted some token women. All clever work was done by others, she just did not have the brain to do it. And nice projects you mention, both came in 4-6x the projected cost and are only saved by the high oilprice..... Good riddance of her, bonus for the guys who decided she had to go.
: Marvin Odum has consistently had one of the worst safety records in Shell. How does he continue to get by ? Firing your Health, Safety and Environment Managers does not fix the safety culture, nor does "making a scene" when folks do not use handrails on the way to the cafeteria. Good safety practices should be followed EVERYWHERE !
: One year on and I wonder how much longer Marvin will wait for his safety record to improve. Will Denise follow Libby?
: The oil companies are right to flare off gas - it's very cheap to do so. Apparently because it's cheap makes it right for them to right? A dictator was right to commit mass murder and plunder the economy because it was easy for him to? (I will resist all temptations to name you appropriately for making such a nonsensical argument). I find your line of reasoning absurd: The people of the Niger delta asked for it by welcoming Alamaesigha in their number? What has that got to do with anything? I agree that the people of the Niger Delta are responsible mostly for what is going on now. The major misfortune of the Niger Delta is the failure of its present leaders and those of it's recent past. Here are some things to consider: They were conveniently ignored during the decades of Scholarships Abroad from FG (believe me, there were a multitude of school cert holders who were willing but who had to make do with little jobs in Lagos). The culture of Looking out for your tribal brother didn't help the idea of federalism. What I am trying to say is that the level of illiteracy in the Niger delta hasn't been entirely without cause. Try to think Here is really the question I want to ask: Is it the responsibility of the Niger Delta citizens to negotiate with oil companies issues about pollution, environmental regulations? Does the government not owe that duty of care? Isn't it the government's duty to insist on cleaner technology? If the Niger delta is expected to take care of itself in this sense, shouldn't it as well be self governing? I know fully well that The Federal Government will rather have the oil companies pay the fat penalty for not meeting up to standard, which also is cheaper for the company which would rather not invest in costly cleaner technology. Lastly: There are no affirmation actions or free rides to Federal universities for people of the Niger delta. No such things exist. Scholarships are being claimed and used. And the universities there are flooded with students, as badly maintained as they may be.I wish we had time for facts, numbers, so we are more empirical instead of all the unnecessary emotion. I am not denying the senselessness of the Niger delta politician (thieves all of them). Or that illiteracy is rife and poverty too. Nice breeding ground for crime, gangs etc. Niger delta people need to get off their lazy asses and stop crying victim. Yar'adua needs to know what he is doing. And you need to try to understand first. We all the need to ask the right questions before we can get right answers. Else we all end up with wayward results. Plus Ken Saro-Wiwa was something of a literary giant and intellectual. Many young people of the Niger Delta will join that list. You watch and see.
: i want to thank everyone of you who has been iettresend in this our struggle with shell.i want to say it here that we are not only demanding these that is already on the news but i want to personally see that shell nigeria and international is brought to an international court to bring shell to justice and make them pay for the destruction of our ecosystem.gas flaring,Oil spills and every other environment pollution due to their oil exploration and exploitation we need help and all the links to take shell to court especial a court in the USA..as shell has been made to pay the ogonis so i did want shell to pay us .your support and links will help us to take shell to court in a foreign..shell dont obey court rulings in nigeria this is why we desire to have them prosecuted in a court in the US if you are willing to help us in this please feel free to contact me.PASTOR RANAMI AFAGHA.EMAIL:pastorranami@aol.com PHONE: +2348083743386, +2347061127571.THANKS
: It is totally uelvbienable that a world highly respected organisation such as the UNEP could collude with Shell and the Nigerian government to condemn the natural owners of the resources that has sustained the country for over 50 years. I think that Mr Mike Cowing should re-examine his position rather than planning to take more money from Shell and the Nigerian government to do the remediation work. The UNEP claim with destroy stakeholder trust instead of building good relationship with the communities that has been persecuted for their resources. The Ogoni people are calling on the international community and all people of goodwill to come to their aid to stop their being stigmatised as polluters of their own environment. Oil operation started in the Ogoni area in about 1956 and the campaign that Mr Ken Saro-Wiwa wages against oil pollution could not have been caused by Ogoni people. the so-called oil bunkering started only about 5 years ago and every investigation carried out by Ogonis and the authorities have revealed that these bunkerings are supported by the same cabal who have always being in-charge of spending or mis-managing the national resources.
: I doubt the letter is genuine. The excerpts that were published makes it sound as though it was written by an activist group. Shell employs thousands of people in Nigeria, and it is unlikely that the only people who know the truths as to what Shell is doing in Nigeria are a few activist groups, Shell’s brutal management elite, and nobody else.
: So the title of this somewhat misleading article (“Shell admits funding Niger Delta warlords”) was NOT made by you but by Ben Amunwa? REPLY BY JOHN: The headline came with the article. It was not made by me. Just click on "SOURCE".
: “Shell admits funding Niger Delta warlords” – yet again this is tabloid titillation Donovan and not what Sunmonu said!! All he states (in your reprinted article) is prefaced by “could have”. Yet again an expansion of the facts to suit the objective of this website. As an add on Donovan, I am sure you (and probably a large percentage of the UK population) have inadvertently contributed in some way to causes that are illegal, dodgy or unliked. By using the word “could have” the person is being honest and realistic. Your reporting at times with these tabloid add-ons is not honest. REPLY BY JOHN: You see to be getting over-excited again. I am not the author of the article in question. I have not changed a single word of what the author stated. I have not added a single word to the article. Only a link to a related article. The author is careful in what he has stated and provided links to a video containing what he describes as an "admission". Visitors are able to watch the video and draw their own conclusions.
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