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

Its employees — there are 180,000 around the world — have reported that customers accuse them of “working for Nazis.” There have been boycott threats…

By John Donovan

A New York Times article published on 14 June 2019 reveals that billionaire descendants of a family who control a company which owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Pret A Manger and a number of other famous brands are grappling with the exposure of an unspeakable secret – a Nazi history. 

Extracts:

Decades after World War II, Benckiser evolved into one of the largest consumer goods conglomerates on the planet. Known today as JAB Holding Company…

For decades, they say, they did not know about their father’s Nazism and the abuses that took place at the company they inherited: read more

Miles Costello: June 14 2019

An energy provider set up to challenge the dominance of the Big Six and now owned by Shell has agreed to compensate thousands of customers after breaching the government’s price cap.

Ofgem has ordered the former First Utility — known since last year as Shell Energy Retail, after it was taken over by the oil and gas group — to repay 8,800 individual customers who were overcharged after the cap came into force in January.

It must also pay tens of thousands in compensation and contribute £200,000 to the regulator’s fund to help vulnerable gas and electricity customers. read more

(Reuters) – Shell Energy Retail’s top boss apologised to customers after Britain’s energy regulator ordered the utility to compensate around 12,000 customers it overcharged on default tariffs after a price cap was introduced this year.

Shell Energy Retail Ltd, previously known as First Utility, will pay 200,000 pounds ($253,520) in addition to the refund to its consumer redress fund, bringing the total payment to 390,000 pounds.

This is the first such action against a company for overcharging since the price cap on default energy bills came into force on Jan. 1. read more

The utility company overcharged 12,000 customers on its default tariffs after the energy price cap was introduced on 1 January

By Wale Azeez, business reporter: Friday 14 June 2019 09:24, UK

Shell Energy Retail has been forced to pay £390,000 compensation and refunds after overcharging customers.

Energy watchdog Ofgem made the ruling after the supplier overcharged some 12,000 customers on its default tariffs when the energy price cap was introduced in January.

Ofgem’s price cap monitoring found that in the three months to March 2019, around 12,000 electricity and gas customer accounts were charged a total of £100,736.63 above the price cap. read more

Parliamentarians voted on Tuesday to establish an expert commission to examine how to make taxing multinationals “more fair” after Netherlands-based Shell recently acknowledged it had paid virtually no Dutch corporation tax in 2018. Royal Dutch Shell refused to release details of its unique advance tax ruling with the Dutch government at a recent hearing of a parliamentary panel on taxation.

By Reuters• last updated: 12/06/2019 – 14:40: Dutch lawmakers step up tax demands on multinationals

By John O’Donnell and Toby Sterling

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Dutch lawmakers have launched an inquiry into how to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax, after public criticism that government reforms do not go far enough.

Scores of multinationals use the Netherlands to pare their tax bills but the Dutch, who bore tax hikes after the financial crisis, are growing increasingly hostile to minimising company tax, which is legal and has gone unchallenged for decades.

Parliamentarians voted on Tuesday to establish an expert commission to examine how to make taxing multinationals “more fair” after Netherlands-based Shell recently acknowledged it had paid virtually no Dutch corporation tax in 2018. Royal Dutch Shell refused to release details of its unique advance tax ruling with the Dutch government at a recent hearing of a parliamentary panel on taxation. read more

The screenshot Information about James W.D. Hall, Head of Royal Dutch Shell Global Corporate Security was downloaded on 11 June 2019 and assumed to be correct and current at that time. He is in charge of over 250 Shell security supervisory staff worldwide. Is he yet another Shell MI6 hire, as per his predecessor, Ian Forbes McCredie? The selection of authentic high-level Shell internal emails below provides some indication of the character and ethics of senior Shell executives and Shell’s hired spooks. More court exhibits will be added on a regular basis until further notice.  

SOURCE

Related article: Spectacular falling out of ‘Security Professionals’ at the top of Shell

Extract from the 80-page legal complaint (recommended read to understand why Shell could not let the case go to trial)

Mr. Hall’s own e-mails and statements clearly prove that he violated Section 3.4 of Shell’s Code of Conduct, which states, in relevant part, that “[w]hen making employment decisions, including hiring, evaluation, promotion, training, development, discipline, compensation and termination, you must base them solely on objective factors, including merit, qualifications, performance and business considerations. . . . [Y]ou should understand the value of diversity and must not discriminate in any way based on race, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, ethnic origin or nationality.” read more

By Energy Reporters  | 11.06.2019

European oil giants, including Royal Dutch Shell and OMV, have signed cooperation deals with Russian energy companies during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, despite risks of potential new western sanctions.

Since the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions, Russian oil firms have operated with limited access to western financing and limits on production technology. 

Multinational oil firms have wound down cooperation that could be in breach of sanctions but work on conventional hydrocarbons projects continues to grow. Deals signed this week included Shell, Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of the state-run gas giant, and Spain’s Repsol agreeing to jointly develop fossil-fuel projects in the melting Russian Arctic.  read more

FOUR DIFFERENT ARTICLES REPORTING ON FIRST PRELUDE LNG CARGO: TUESDAY 11 JUNE 2019 

Sonali Paul: 11 JUNE 2019

* Prelude seals Australia as world’s top LNG exporter

* Prelude marks last of Australia’s $200 bln LNG construction boom

* Start-up comes amid glut in LNG market

* Rival Ichthys LNG could sap some Prelude gas reserves (Adds comment on Prelude gas sources)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE, June 11 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell on Monday shipped the long-awaited first cargo of liquefied natural gas from its massive Prelude floating LNG plant off northwest Australia, sealing the nation’s position as the world’s top exporter of the fuel. read more

Printed below is a translation of an article published this weekend by the Dutch broadcaster NRC. It is about the Shell internal communications and documents relating to the OPL 245 Nigerian oil deal corruption case seized during a raid carried out by the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) at Shell HQ in the Hague in 2016. In a controversial move, Shell lawyers are resorting to legal machinations to frustrate the progress of the Dutch proceedings. On this occasion by claiming legal privilege and secrecy over the seized evidence. Criminal proceedings relating to the same massively corrupt oil deal are moving forward quickly in Italy (but at a snail’s pace in the Netherlands, Shell’s home country). A related tapped telephone conversation involving Shell CEO Ben van Beurden when he ordered that no documents should be volunteered to the investigators carrying out the raid can be heard here. Undisputably, another Shell cover-up tactic. So much for Shell’s claimed business principles from a company that seems to employ more MI6 people than MI6. Listen to the taped call. 

Dutch corruption case against Shell is, according to lawyers, inevitably delayed

Professional secrecy

Call for OM to simplify procedures related to non-disclosure law encounters astonishment among lawyers and scientists

By our editors Carola Houtekamer and Merijn Rengers: Amsterdam.

Shell and the Public Prosecution Service were honest about it on Thursday. Yes, they clash over the internal Shell documents that were seized by the FIOD investigation service at the head office in The Hague during the beginning of 2016. They deal with the corruption case involving OPL245, a mega-oil field off the coast of Nigeria. read more

Leslie Hook, environment and clean energy correspondent

Taken together, these lawsuits amount to a legal onslaught that climate activists hope will have a profound financial impact on oil and gas producers, by imposing huge penalties.

Most lawsuits name the biggest producers — such as Exxon, BP, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron — as defendants, though the number of companies named ranges from five to 37.

FULL FT ARTICLE

Alarming Facts About Shell Prelude Problems Emerge in Official Australian GOVERNMENT Report – Notifiable Incident 

Extracts from official report…

Dangerous Occurrence

Summary

Operator advised the offload tanker (LNGC Gallina) was alongside the facility. At 1940hrs during routine checks in preparation for the connection of the loading arms it was identified that one of the forward mooring lines had parted. At 1950hrs following further checks, concerns were raised over the condition of other forward mooring lines. At 1958hrs a decision was made to carry out a controlled release of the vessel. At 2015hrs the vessel left the facility and returned to the holding area. An investigation will be conducted of the matter. Cronin tried to return the operators call but could not get through or leave a message. read more

PLEASE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH FURTHER EXPERT COMMENT AND THE INVESTIGATIVE RESULT DOCUMENT AT THE FOOT OF THIS ARTICLE…

• AuthorEric Yep
• EditorJames Burgess
• CommodityLNG,  Natural Gas
• 07 Jun 2019

Singapore — The 97,730 dwt LNG tanker Valencia Knutsen has been circling near Shell’s Prelude FLNG vessel to load the first LNG cargo from the facility in Western Australia, according to Platts trade flow software cFlow.

The Spanish-flagged Valencia Knutsen departed the port of Darwin on June 2 and has been in the vicinity of Prelude FLNG since June 3, Platts cFlow showed.

The loading of the first LNG cargo will mark the startup of exports from one of the world’s most anticipated LNG projects, also the world’s largest floating LNG platform, adding to Australia’s LNG export capacity. read more

Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden speaks at a full year results conference in London on January 31, 2019. – Royal Dutch Shell today said that net profit surged 80 percent to $23.4 billion in 2018, thanks to higher oil prices and cost: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Fifteen years later, peak oil is still talked about by some, but most industry insiders pay it no heed. Instead, over the last few years, the increasingly popular concept has been peak demand. Peak demand is the idea that the demand for oil will reach an apex and then start to decrease, especially as government regulations require more use of alternative energies and as battery-powered machines, like electric vehicles, will presumably become more popular.

Peak demand may or may come to pass—that is not the concern here. What we do know is that if the peak demand idea continues to gain popularity it will lead to a shortage of oil in the coming years and decades. The idea of peak demand threatens the global oil supply because it incentivizes and even excuses oil companies to stop exploring for and producing (E&P) more oil. read more

By Fortune Amadi

A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Thursday adjourned until June 19, hearing in a debt recovery suit filed by the federal government against Shell Western Supply & Trading Ltd, over an alleged $406.7 million shortfall in crude oil shipment.

The suit numbered FHC/L/CS/336/16 was filed by FG’s counsel, Fabian Ajogwu, a professor and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

It has as defendants, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd and its subsidiary, Shell Western Supply & Trading Ltd. read more

FURTHER EXPERT SPECULATION ON THE ARTICLE: Shell’s giant floating LNG facility Prelude set to ship first cargo when mooring issues resolved

The mooring failures are indeed a concern but it is very doubtful they were the main contributor to the startup delay even if they are “shoehorned” into a very congested construction.

The process design is a well proven, a design in use in many of the LNG plants in many countries. read more

The article below was brought to my attention by industry experts, one of whom made the following comment:

XXXXX was shocked when he read this as the damage to the mooring system was much worse than he originally thought from reports, it appears it may have been the mooring system that has caused delays not so much the process.

The giant Prelude floating LNG facility is close to exporting its first LNG, almost two years after it arrived in Australian waters from Korea during which it has had several problems bringing vessels alongside.

Shell director of gas and new energies Maarten Wetselaar yesterday told investors that Prelude had been producing LNG for more than a week and the first shipment of LNG was imminent.

The Spanish LNG carrier Valencia Knutsen, which was moored off Darwin for some days, yesterday moved to the vicinity of Prelude, 475km north-east of Broome, according to vessel tracking site Marine Traffic. read more