Listen and read proof in audio and transcript form of Shell CEO Ben van Beurden’s cover-up tactics in the OPL 245 Nigerian corruption scandal. Instruction given by him in the covertly recorded call to CFO Simon Henry was at odds with Shell’s claimed core business principles. Cover-up and obstruction, instead of transparency and integrity, says Shell critic John Donovan

Article from Tempo newspaper Nigeria published 2 Jan 1996, page 16, under the headline: “View From Abroad -Shell And Nigeria”. Basically a reprint of an article published by The New York Times under the headline: Shell Game in Nigeria. 

View From Abroad

Shell And Nigeria

Royal Dutch/Shell, the world’s largest oil company, suggests that it is merely a benign bystander to the tyrannical rule of Nigeria. After the indefensible execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the minority Ogoni tribe, Shell’s position is untenable. If the company is determined to remain in Nigeria, it must use its considerable influence there to restrain the Government.

Since the hanging of Mr. Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni dissidents last month, Shell has proceeded with plans to build a $4 billion natural gas project in partnership with Nigeria’s ruling generals. As protests swelled, Shell, normally reticent, replied with a flurry of press releases and paid advertisements. Shell insists that it pleaded quietly for the dissidents’ lives and that pulling out of the gas project would punish all Nigerians. read more

By AFP News: 10/16/19 AT 10:34 AM

Germany said Wednesday it had called a special meeting of international partners this week to pressure Royal Dutch Shell to remove old rigs containing crude oil in the North Sea.

An environment ministry spokesman said Berlin had convened signatory countries of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) on Friday in London.

“Germany finds it absolutely unacceptable that these crude oil quantities remain in these structures,” said the spokesman, Stephan Gabriel Haufe, citing a “danger for the environment”. read more

BY EWAN PALMER ON 10/15/19 AT 12:15 PM EDT

The chief executive of Shell said the company will not bow down to pressure from environmental advocates by abandoning its investment in fossil fuels over climate change fears, as there is still an opportunity to make money in the forthcoming years.

Speaking to Reuters, Ben van Beurden said the company has “no choice” but to invest in long-term gas and oil projects, dismissing what he described as the “demonization” and “unjustified” concerns about the energy company’s future business model. read more

Shell has been dealt with a safety notice after failing to properly ensure workers would be protected during an emergency on a North Sea platform.

by Allister Thomas: 16/10/2019, 12:30 pmUpdated: 16/10/2019, 12:43 pm

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued the improvement notice following an inspection of the Gannet Alpha installation, around 112miles east of Aberdeen, in August.

The inspector said the operator “failed to, ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the Temporary Refuges on the Gannet Alpha Installation is capable of remaining effective in an emergency”.

Temporary Refuge areas are where workers can take cover during an emergency or evacuation procedures get underway, protecting them from flames and toxic gases. read more

Severin Carrell Scotland editor

Tue 15 Oct 2019 16.32 BST

Scottish ministers have been criticised for accepting £5m from Shell to help fund a tree-planting programme as part of its climate strategy.

The oil company said it would give the government agency Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) the money to plant or regenerate 1m trees in Scotland to help offset about 20% of its petrol and diesel sales at UK service stations.

The Scottish Green party said Shell’s pledge raised challenging questions about the Scottish government’s commitments to tackling the climate emergency, after Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, promised the country would cut its carbon emissions to net zero by 2045. read more

Ron Bousso, Dmitry Zhdannikov: OCTOBER 15, 2019 LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) still sees abundant opportunity to make money from oil and gas in coming decades even as investors and governments increase pressure on energy companies over climate change, its chief executive said.

But in an interview with Reuters, Ben van Beurden expressed concern that some shareholders could abandon the world’s second-largest listed energy company due partly to what he called the “demonisation” of oil and gas and “unjustified” worries that its business model was unsustainable.

The 61-year-old Dutch executive in recent years became one of the sector’s most prominent voices advocating action over global warming in the wake of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Shell, which supplies around 3% of the world’s energy, set out in 2017 a plan to halve the intensity of its greenhouse emissions by the middle of the century, based in large part on building one of the world’s biggest power businesses. read more

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Greenpeace in ‘peaceful protest’ on Shell’s Brent platforms

Greenpeace has announced it is carrying out “peaceful protests” at Shell’s Brent field in the UK North Sea.

by Allister Thomas: 14/10/2019

Activists from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are protesting on two platforms in the field, around 115 miles north-east of Shetland – brandishing signs of “Shell, clean up your mess”.

It comes as a special meeting of Ospar, an agreement between 15 governments to protect Europe’s marine environment, takes place in London on Friday.

Some countries have lodged objections to Shell’s plans to leave the legs of three of the platforms – Bravo, Charlie and Delta – in the sea, with concerns around the contents of oil storage cells within them deteriorating. read more

By HENRY MARTIN and PHOEBE ECKERSLEY FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:47, 12 October 2019 | UPDATED: 22:15, 12 October 2019

• Extinction Rebellion activists entered the sixth day of their ongoing demonstration in London today   
• More than 100 healthcare professionals gathered outside Shell HQ to highlight deaths caused by air pollution
• Climate change activists are also marching in a funeral procession down Oxford Street in a ‘grief march’ 
• Police announced there have been 1,290 arrests in connection with the ongoing protests across London

Doctors and nurses joined Extinction Rebellion protesters today as ‘stretched’ police call in backup from Scotland – and warn that protests are impeding their ability to attend to other crime.

More than 100 healthcare professionals have joined the sixth day of climate change protests in London. Doctors, nurses and medical students were among those demonstrating at Jubilee Gardens, near oil giant Shell’s London HQ, on Saturday in the ‘Health March for the Planet’. read more

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By Vivienne Walt: October 11, 2019

Even for a company the size of JPMorgan Chase, it might to be hard to miss a sum of $1.1 billion zipping across a client’s account. That’s the argument currently winding its way through U.K. courts in London, where the government of Nigeria is suing the biggest U.S. bank, arguing that oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and the Italian company Eni paid that amount to allegedly corrupt Nigerian officials in 2011 for a license to drill in a hugely rich offshore oil block—and that JPMorgan ought to have blocked the deposits. read more

Message sent to all members of the Guardian newspaper

This week we are running a powerful new series called The polluters, in which The Guardian’s team of environmental journalists around the world have investigated the impact of the fossil fuel industry — as well as the structures behind it — which are driving the climate emergency.

The reporting reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era. In a video explainer, the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, details how these firms have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry’s devastating impact on the planet since at least the 1950s, and this excellent timeline shows the shocking levels of denial. read more

The Dutch government wants Shell to clean up the foundations of three oil and gas platforms in the British part of the North Sea, infrastructure minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen has told MPs.

The minister’s comments follow the publication of a report on the decommissioning operation which recommends the clean up be carried out as agreed over 20 years ago in international treaties.

The licence request ‘does not sufficiently support’ the claim that leaving the foundations and storage units, which contain polluted material, is the best option from an environmental or safety point of view, the minister told MPs. read more

OCTOBER 10, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday it would offset the carbon dioxide emissions of around 1.5 million road users in Britain starting later this month under a loyalty scheme.

Shell, like other oil companies, has come under pressure from shareholders to show how it plans to reduce its carbon footprint and help cut greenhouse gas emissions, a major cause of global warming.

Britons are increasingly concerned about their environmental impact, with thousands of students striking earlier this year and green group Extinction Rebellion carrying out civil disobedience to push for more ambition on climate change. read more

Greenpeace activists took to the stage at the Oil and Money conference last night

by Allister Thomas:09/10/2019, 7:48 am Updated: 09/10/2019, 9:55 am

Climate activists halted an awards ceremony involving the chief executives of oil majors BP and Shell at a major industry conference last night.

Greenpeace protestors entered the annual Oil and Money conference dinner brandishing a banner describing the two firms as “climate criminals”.

They took to the stage as the Executive of the Year award was due to pass from BP CEO Bob Dudley to Shell’s Ben van Beurden.

In the lead up to the conference, protests were also staged outside the Intercontinental London Park Lane where it was held, describing the event as a “climate crime scene”.

It comes after the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre ended their partnerships with BP and Shell respectively last week. read more

PODCAST LINK

In 1995, the Nigerian government executed the Ogoni Nine – environmental activists who were trying to fight Shell’s exploitation of their homeland. Now, four widows are taking the oil company to court. And: Dan Sabbagh on the ramifications of Trump’s shock decision to withdraw from the Turkish-Syrian border

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Presented by Rachel Humphreys with Kate Hodal, Esther Kiobel, Channa Samkalden and Dan Sabbagh, produced by Gary Marshall; executive producers Nicole Jackson and Phil Maynard read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Ben van Beurden Reuters: Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla: October 9, 2019

LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive took aim beyond the energy sector to call on leaders of other industries including aviation, shipping and steel to jointly draw up plans to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

Ben van Beurden also warned on Wednesday that energy companies that do not collaborate in the fight against climate under the 2015 Paris agreement risk going out of business.

“Climate change is the biggest challenge facing the energy industry, but the energy industry isn’t the biggest challenge for the world trying to tackle climate change,” van Beurden told the Oil & Money conference. read more

By Ellen Milligan: 8 October 2019, 14:39 BST

Two Royal Dutch Shell Plc units were sued over their involvement in one of the largest oil spills in Nigeria’s history.

Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Co. and Shell International Trading & Shipping Co. allegedly undermined the emergency response to the spill eight years ago and made inadequate efforts to contain it, according to lawyers for the Oil Spill Victims Vanguard.

“That oil, which has never properly been cleaned up, continues to blight the claimants, their environments, livelihoods and communities to this day,” lawyer Graham Dunning said in court documents. read more