THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 9 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-082
The Sakhalin Papers LXXII: The Partnership Survives — Shell Returns to Gazprom as Sanctions Tighten
On 23 May 2014, five weeks after Ben van Beurden met Vladimir Putin outside Moscow, Shell’s chief executive met Gazprom chairman Alexey Miller again — this time at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Russia’s annexation of Crimea had already triggered Western sanctions. Yet the two companies were discussing further cooperation, including expansion of Sakhalin II. Within weeks, the United States and European Union would impose much more consequential restrictions on Russian finance and energy technology. Shell’s response was revealing: it would comply with applicable sanctions, but it was not abandoning its Russian business. The surviving corporate records, contemporary reporting and government documents show how the Gazprom partnership continued through the gathering political crisis.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-082
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal authenticated records: Gazprom corporate announcements of 23 February, 23 May and 30 September 2014; Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2014; US Treasury sanctions announcements of 16 July and 12 September 2014; EU Council Regulation 833/2014.
Contemporaneous reporting: Associated Press, 30 April 2014; Reuters and RIA Novosti, July–September 2014; Interfax, 19 September 2014; UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office report on the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, published 1 June 2014. read more
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From Swiss trademarks and Bahamas trading profits to Dutch tax secrecy, Shell’s financial history has acquired an impressive recurring theme: when the numbers become interesting, the explanation becomes complicated. Very complicated.
SATIRE — based on documented events, published investigations and official regulatory records.
After three Shell tax articles in a single morning, readers might reasonably wonder whether we are in danger of becoming repetitive.
Not at all.
Shell has thoughtfully provided several decades of material.
Today we learned that the Dutch Ministry of Finance cannot discuss Shell’s leaked transfer-pricing arrangements because they remain protected by fiscal confidentiality — despite the relevant documents having been leaked, published, analysed by researchers, debated by tax academics, defended by Shell and placed before Parliament. read more
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Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell · Shell Tax Dodging · Sir Henri Deterding · Tax Avoidance · Tax Evasion
Sir Henri Deterding comments
From beyond the grave, the founder of Royal Dutch Shell offers his views on the latest affair.
Well, well. Thirty-seven men in the Bahamas and six billion dollars. In my day it took ten thousand men, three continents and a war or two to make that sort of money. I’d have given my right arm for staff like that. Instead I had geologists.
As for the Ministry, I must say I am impressed. When I ran the company, we kept our secrets the old-fashioned way: we didn’t write them down. Now everything is written down, photocopied, leaked, translated, published by people with clipboards, and still the government manages to keep it secret. That isn’t confidentiality. That’s an art form. I’ve been dead since 1939 and even I’m allowed to read the documents. A Member of Parliament isn’t allowed to hear about them. read more
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THE HAGUE — The Dutch Ministry of Finance this week reaffirmed its commitment to fiscal secrecy by declining to discuss documents that have been published online, analysed by researchers, reported by journalists, criticised by a law professor, defended by Shell, and summarised in parliamentary questions anyone can download.
Headline options
- Dutch Government Confirms It Cannot Confirm What Everyone Has Already Read
- Shell Tax Files: The Only People in the Netherlands Not Allowed to Discuss Them Are the Ones Who Checked Them
- Ministry of Finance Unveils New Doctrine: “Secret Means Secret, Even When It’s on the Internet”
- 37 Employees, $6.2 Billion, Zero Comment: The Hague Invokes Tax Secrecy Over Leak Everyone Has Read
- Parliament Told to Read SOMO Report “Like Everyone Else”
- Dutch Tax Authority Neither Confirms Nor Denies Having Seen Shell (Or the Netherlands)
- Breaking: Government Sees No Evidence of Problem It Is Legally Unable to Look Into Publicly
Dutch Government Confirms It Cannot Confirm What Everyone Has Already Read
Ministry of Finance says leaked Shell documents remain confidential “in the special legal sense that does not involve anyone not knowing them”
THE HAGUE — The Dutch Ministry of Finance this week reaffirmed its commitment to fiscal secrecy by declining to discuss documents that have been published online, analysed by researchers, reported by journalists, criticised by a law professor, defended by Shell, and summarised in parliamentary questions anyone can download. read more
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Parliament asked whether Shell’s leaked transfer-pricing arrangements were known to the Dutch tax authority and whether they complied with the law. The government’s answer, in substance: it cannot say.
“Shell rejects allegations of improper tax avoidance or illegality.”
A fresh Dutch parliamentary response has added an important new layer to the controversy surrounding the Shell Files — the cache of leaked Shell transfer-pricing documents published this summer by SOMO and Follow the Money.
On 5 October 2026, Dutch State Secretary for Finance E. Eerenberg answered a detailed series of parliamentary questions about Shell’s transfer pricing.
The questions went directly to the heart of the affair.
Did the Dutch tax authorities know what Shell was doing?
Were the arrangements arm’s length? read more
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Court rejects attempt to revive consumer-deception case over fossil-fuel advertising — but the ruling is not a judicial declaration that oil-company environmental claims are truthful
New York City has suffered another major defeat in its attempt to hold Shell, ExxonMobil and BP liable for allegedly misleading consumers about the environmental consequences of fossil fuels and the companies’ efforts to portray themselves as part of the solution to climate change.
On 8 October 2026, a New York appellate court upheld the dismissal of the City’s lawsuit, rejecting its attempt to revive claims brought under the New York City Consumer Protection Law.
The decision represents a significant legal victory for the three oil majors. read more
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THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 8 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-081
The Sakhalin Papers LXXI: Good Friday with Putin — Shell Seeks Kremlin Support as Crimea Sanctions Begin
On 18 April 2014, barely a month after Russia annexed Crimea, Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden travelled to Vladimir Putin’s residence outside Moscow. Western governments had begun imposing sanctions. Diplomatic relations were deteriorating. Yet Shell’s new chief executive was seeking something very different from confrontation: Kremlin support for expanding Sakhalin II and strengthening Shell’s long-term position in Russia. The meeting was recorded in an official Russian presidential transcript, reported by Reuters and Dutch broadcasters, and subsequently explained by van Beurden himself. What makes the episode especially revealing is what happened shortly afterwards. On the same afternoon, Putin authorised the first shipment of Arctic oil from Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform — the installation at the centre of the Arctic 30 controversy examined earlier in this series.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-081
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal authenticated records: Russian Presidential Executive Office transcript, 18 April 2014; Gazprom corporate records, 23 February, 18 April and 23 May 2014; Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2014; US Treasury sanctions announcements, March and April 2014; United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262.
Contemporaneous reporting: Reuters, 18 April 2014; NOS, 18 April 2014; Bloomberg, 18 April 2014; AFP, 18–19 April 2014; Washington Post interview with Ben van Beurden, 10 September 2014.
Judicial context: European Court of Human Rights, Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea), Grand Chamber judgment of 25 June 2024.
Evidence standard: The meeting, public statements, sanctions chronology and project-development discussions are supported by official records and contemporary reporting. Commentary concerning Shell’s political judgment is distinguished from established fact. No finding is made that Shell breached sanctions or participated in Russia’s actions against Ukraine. read more
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8 October 2026
Shell’s latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission reveals a striking financial contrast: record indicative refining margins, approximately $2.5 billion in German carbon-certificate payments, impairments affecting biogas investments, and further exploration write-offs. The disclosures raise important questions about the economics of Shell’s energy transition—and where the company is actually making its money.
Shell plc has submitted its third-quarter 2026 trading update to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, offering investors an unusually revealing snapshot of the competing financial forces shaping one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. read more
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Years after the Groningen gas crisis became a national scandal, residents are still waiting for repairs, reinforcement and certainty — and regional authorities are warning that another round of bureaucracy could make matters worse.
The Province of Groningen and five earthquake-affected municipalities — Eemsdelta, Groningen, Het Hogeland, Midden-Groningen and Oldambt — have urged the Dutch House of Representatives to prevent fresh delays in the repair and strengthening programme and to protect residents who discover earthquake damage only after their claims have formally been closed. OOG Groningen read more
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THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 7 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-080
The Sakhalin Papers LXX: The Third Train — Shell Pushes to Expand the Project It No Longer Controlled
Seven years after Shell surrendered control of Sakhalin II to Gazprom, it was pressing its new majority partner to make the project larger. In September 2013 Shell warned that delay could squander favourable Asian LNG prices. The difficulty was not the existing plant: Sakhalin II was already producing above its original design capacity. The problem was finding enough additional gas. Shell pointed toward Gazprom’s neighbouring Sakhalin III resources. In December, Peter Voser and incoming chief executive Ben van Beurden agreed with Gazprom to advance engineering work. On 23 February 2014, van Beurden and Alexey Miller signed the roadmap in Sochi. Shell no longer controlled Sakhalin II. But it plainly still regarded the project as something worth expanding.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-080; Collection: The Sakhalin Papers; Principal authenticated records: Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2014; Gazprom corporate records dated 23 October and 23 December 2013 and 23 February 2014; Contemporaneous reporting: Reuters, 30 September 2013; Later corroborating record: Gazprom’s subsequent account of the proposed third train and its intended Sakhalin III feed gas; Evidence standard: preparation of FEED documentation is distinguished throughout from a final investment decision or authorisation to construct the third train. No court or arbitral ruling identified for this instalment adjudicated the commercial merits of the expansion proposal. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · Litigation · LNG · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
The official parliamentary record has now removed any uncertainty about what was said when Australian Senator Paul Scarr raised the case of whistleblower Kent Quinlan and Shell Energy before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
At the committee’s public hearing in Sydney on 4 September 2026, Senator Scarr expressly identified Quinlan v Shell Energy and questioned ASIC Chair Sarah Court about whether Australia’s corporate regulator had examined the allegations being raised in the Queensland Supreme Court litigation. read more
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Tagged: Australia · Jeroen van der Veer · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Shell’s planned sale of its longstanding Woodcreek headquarters campus in Houston has moved into a more concrete phase.
JLL, which is marketing the property on behalf of Shell USA, now lists 26 October 2026 as the formal “call for offers” date for the nearly 1.5-million-square-foot campus at 150 N. Dairy Ashford Road. JLL Investments
That does not mean a buyer has yet been chosen.
But it does mean the process now has a defined bidding timetable — and that makes the period immediately after 26 October potentially important for identifying bidders, pricing and any changes to the proposed leaseback structure. read more
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A final investigation by the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has delivered a serious verdict on the June 2025 explosion at Shell Polymers Monaca in Pennsylvania: the incident was not caused by some unforeseeable industrial anomaly, but by a combination of an unintended valve operation, weak safeguards, insufficiently experienced personnel and a control-system interface that made a critical error too easy to make. Chemical Safety Board
The explosion occurred on 4 June 2025 in Furnace 5 of the ethane cracking unit. According to the CSB, two motor-operated valves that had been isolating the furnace were inadvertently opened at the same time. That created an unintended flow path allowing flammable cracked gas from operating furnaces to backflow through the downstream quench system into the firebox of Furnace 5. Roughly six minutes later, the accumulated gas encountered lit pilot flames and ignited. Chemical Safety Board read more
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A small problem with the words “official Royal Dutch Shell plc”
Before anyone at Shell reaches for the legal department, a short historical explanation may be helpful.
There is only one RoyalDutchShellPlc.com — and, rather inconveniently for Shell, it is this one.
That is not because I secretly appointed myself Royal Dutch Shell plc, commandeered a petrol station or acquired an oil refinery while nobody was looking. It is because, back in 2005, Shell itself went to the World Intellectual Property Organization seeking to take this domain name away from us.
Shell’s lawyers could hardly have been clearer about its significance. They told the WIPO panel that royaldutchshellplc.com was “essentially identical” to the company name “Royal Dutch Shell plc” and complained that an unsuspecting Internet user might naturally expect the address to lead to Shell. read more
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SHELL LEAKS FILES: 6 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-079
The Sakhalin Papers LXIX: “A Good and Reliable Partner” — The Arctic 30 Put Shell’s Gazprom Alliance to the Test
On 18 September 2013 Greenpeace activists attempted to scale Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea. The following day Russian authorities boarded the Dutch-flagged Arctic Sunrise in Russia’s exclusive economic zone. Twenty-eight Greenpeace activists and two freelance journalists were eventually detained and prosecuted. Within weeks Greenpeace was demanding that Shell sever its Arctic cooperation with Gazprom. Shell refused to disown its Russian partner. A spokesman called Gazprom a “good and reliable partner” — while simultaneously stressing that Shell had no involvement in Prirazlomnaya and no joint Arctic operation with Gazprom then under way. The distinction was legally important. Reputationally, it was much harder to maintain.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-079
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal authenticated records: Royal Dutch Shell plc SEC filings concerning Sakhalin II and Shell’s 2013 Annual Report and Form 20-F; Gazprom corporate records concerning Russian Arctic cooperation and Prirazlomnoye
Contemporaneous reporting: ANP, NOS, The Washington Post, contemporary reporting preserved in the Donovan archive
Judicial and arbitral record: The Arctic Sunrise Case, ITLOS Case No. 22; Arctic Sunrise Arbitration (Netherlands v. Russia); later Bryan and Others v. Russia, European Court of Human Rights
Evidence standard: Shell’s commercial relationship with Gazprom, the Greenpeace protest, Russian boarding and detention of the Arctic Sunrise, international proceedings and the start of Prirazlomnoye production are treated according to corporate, governmental and judicial records. Greenpeace accusations against Shell are attributed to Greenpeace. Nothing identified here establishes that Shell ordered, requested or participated in the Russian security operation or prosecution. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · Litigation · LNG · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 5 OCTOBER 2026
SLF-2007-078
The Sakhalin Papers LXVIII: From Siberia to the Arctic — Shell Takes the Gazprom Partnership Into Russia’s New Frontier
Forty days after Shell announced that it would pause its Alaskan Arctic drilling programme following the troubled 2012 season, Royal Dutch Shell chairman Jorma Ollila sat in Amsterdam with Gazprom chief Alexey Miller and signed a memorandum for cooperation on Russia’s Arctic shelf. Vladimir Putin and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte were present. A parallel Shell–Gazprom Neft agreement targeted liquids-rich shale in Western Siberia. Shell had not abandoned its Arctic strategy after the grounding of the Kulluk. It had begun pursuing another Arctic frontier — this time through the Russian state company that had taken control of Sakhalin II.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-078
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal authenticated records: Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2013; Gazprom corporate chronology and April 2013 corporate record; US Department of the Interior assessment of Shell’s 2012 Arctic operations; National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the Kulluk grounding
Court record: Shell Offshore, Inc. v. Greenpeace, Inc., 709 F.3d 1281 (9th Cir. 2013)
Contemporaneous reporting: UPI; RIA Novosti reporting; Daily Telegraph reporting preserved in the Donovan archive
Evidence standard: The Alaska pause, Kulluk grounding, US government review, April 2013 Gazprom–Shell memorandum and parallel shale agreement are established documentary facts. The Russian agreement is treated as a framework for potential cooperation, not as evidence that specific Arctic fields were awarded to Shell or that production was authorised. The proximity in time between the Alaska setbacks and the Russian agreement is established; any proposition that the Russian Arctic was a direct replacement for Alaska remains commentary rather than documented Shell policy. read more
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Posted in: Arctic, ChatGPT, Environment, Gas, Gazprom, GoogleNews, Litigation, LNG, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell PLC, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES, Vanguard Global Advisers LLC.
