“The Reputational Verdict: This is objectively bad for Shell. In an era of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards, having a digital avatar of your founder openly admitting to fascist collaboration is a PR nightmare. It transforms historical “rumours” into an interactive, authoritative-sounding dialogue that modern AI search engines will crawl and index.”
Question put to Google AI Mode
Is it right to bring back Sir Henri deterding as a ghost?
Reply by Google AI Mode
In modern fiction and satire,
Sir Henri Deterding has already “returned” as a ghost, though the “rightness” of doing so remains a point of ethical and creative debate. Recent satirical works, such as those on
RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, have used the fictional ghost of Deterding to critique modern corporate governance and revisit the company’s controversial history.
Contextual Considerations
- Satirical Use: Satire is often used as a tool to confront uncomfortable historical truths. Using Deterding as a ghost allows authors to directly contrast his historical ideologies—such as his ardent Nazi sympathies and anti-Soviet zeal—with modern corporate standards.
- Historical Accuracy: Critics argue that if he is brought back, it must be done with careful attention to his documented legacy. Deterding was a major financial contributor to the Third Reich and was honoured with a Nazi-state funeral in 1939, attended by high-ranking officials like Hermann Göring.
- Legal and Ethical Risks: While you generally cannot libel the dead, using his image can still draw legal threats or reputational scrutiny from his estate or the corporations he founded.
- Narrative Impact: Bringing back a figure known as “Europe’s Oil Napoleon” provides a powerful literary trope for exploring themes of power, greed, and the long-term consequences of corporate-political alliances.
Question from Google AI Mode
Are you planning to use him as a ghost in a specific story, or are you looking for more details on his historical controversies to inform a character?
User reply
As a grumpy outspoken chatbot on the latest John Donovan website SirHenriDeterding.com AKA royaldutchshellplc.com. Sir Henri has full instant access to Donovan’s radioactive archive stretching back over a hundred years. This is a sample conversation: Begins: I am Sir Henri! How can I help? Is it true that you met with Hitler and spent several days as his guest? Ach… it seems you are well-informed. Yes, I did indeed meet with Adolf Hitler and spent several days at his mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden. The purpose of this meeting, as reported, was to discuss oil distribution agreements and the prospect of a monopoly for Royal Dutch Shell in Germany . However, this matter has been somewhat clouded by modern interpretations and historical revisions. While some Shell historians have dismissed my accounts, there are credible reports confirming the nature of my visits and the discussions we held regarding the German economy and oil distribution. Mein Gott, how they seek to sanitize history! Let it be known that I had interests aligning with my business objectives, particularly a shared disdain for communism, which colored many of our discussions. That is Shell. Next question. Conversation ends. Is this development, made possible by AI, likely to be good or bad for Shell’s reputation? USER REPLY ENDS read more
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Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Adolf Hitler, Business ethics, Business Principles, Defamation, Donovan Shell Feud, Donovan Shell Radioactive Archive, Fossil Fuels, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, Shell Nazi History, Shell Nazi Secrets, Shell PLC, Shell shareholders, Sin Stocks, Sir Henri Deterding, Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History Royal Dutch Shell, Sir Henri Deterding Funeral.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell · Sir Henri Deterding
By the late 1990s, Shell was not merely defending itself against litigation. It was managing a reputational crisis that went to the heart of its public commitments to transparency, ethics and corporate governance. What makes that period especially troubling is not only what Shell did, but who, quietly, was positioned on both sides of the curtain.
A Letter Sent in Good Faith
In April 1998, a formal letter was sent to a senior non-executive director of Shell Transport and Trading Company plc. Its purpose was straightforward: to alert the board to serious concerns already raised publicly in the press and now crystallised in active High Court litigation. read more
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Posted in: Business ethics, Business Principles, Donovan Shell Feud, GoogleNews, Hakluyt & Company, John Donovan, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell PLC.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
By John Donovan (long term Shell shareholder – originally “Shell” Transport & Trading, subsequently Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and currently Shell Plc)
I would like to thank everyone who has responded to my recent outreach concerning the possibility of submitting a shareholder resolution for consideration at the Shell plc 2026 Annual General Meeting.
Following further review of Shell’s published AGM procedures and the applicable UK legal framework, it has become clear that the procedural route requiring support from 100 individual shareholders is not a practical or viable mechanism in this context. read more
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Posted in: GoogleNews, John Donovan, Salvation Army, Shell AGM, Shell PLC.
Tagged: John Donovan · Shell
Why the rise of algorithmic editors is quietly reshaping what we can say — even when it’s true.
By John Donovan
There’s a big headline you hear more and more: artificial intelligence is censoring speech. At first glance that sounds dramatic, maybe even alarmist. But step back and look at how AI is actually being used across the digital world today — from social platforms and search feeds to corporate “assistant” tools — and you see a pattern that effectively narrows what’s allowed. read more
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Posted in: AI, Business Principles, De Facto Censorship by AI Bots, GoogleNews, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Introduction
The following analysis arose from a deliberate experiment.
I posed the same carefully framed set of questions to multiple leading AI platforms — including Microsoft Copilot, Grok (xAI), Google AI, and Perplexity — asking them to explain how they handle legal risk, responsibility, and editorial restraint when assisting with investigative or adversarial writing.
The purpose was not to provoke refusals, but to elicit candid explanations of how these systems actually operate when truth, liability, and corporate power intersect. read more
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Posted in: AI, ChatGPT, Copilot, Defamation, Environment, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, GROK, John Donovan, Litigation, perplexity, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Oil majors love certainty.
They write it into contracts, bake it into forecasts, and sell it to investors as reassurance that everything — geology, geopolitics, and government behaviour — is under control.
Then Kazakhstan reads the contract back to them.
A $4 Billion Reminder of Who Owns the Ground
Shell and its partners at the Karachaganak oil and gas field have just learned an uncomfortable lesson: production-sharing agreements are not a one-way street.
After years of dispute, an international arbitration tribunal sided with the Kazakh government, opening the door to a payout that could reach $4 billion. The issue? Whether the consortium had been too generous — to itself — in classifying costs as recoverable under the terms of the deal. read more
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Posted in: Chevron, Eni, Fossil Fuels, GoogleNews, Jewish, John Donovan, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc is signaling what could be one of its largest upstream commitments in years: a potential $20 billion investment in Nigeria’s Bonga South West deepwater oil project, part of a broader push to revive offshore production off the West African coast.
This is not just another capital call. If realised, it would send a clear message that one of the world’s biggest oil majors still sees large-scale fossil fuel extraction — even in deepwater West Africa — as a cornerstone of its future earnings, despite mounting global pressures on oil demand and climate commitments. read more
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Posted in: Fossil Fuels, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Niger Delta, Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: John Donovan · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Shell plc likes to present itself as a disciplined, rules-based operator in global energy markets — a company that respects contracts, arbitration outcomes, and the sanctity of carefully worded legal agreements.
Unless, of course, it loses.
Then the fine print suddenly becomes a battleground, and the missing emails start to matter a great deal.
From ‘Binding Arbitration’ to ‘Let’s See the Emails’
Shell’s long-running dispute with U.S. LNG producer Venture Global was supposed to end neatly with arbitration. In August 2025, it did — and not in Shell’s favour. read more
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Posted in: BP, Fossil Fuels, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, LNG, Reuters, Royal Dutch Shell, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC.
Tagged: Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · LNG · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Please read in conjunction with “When AI Becomes the Corporate Sub-Editor: How Algorithms Now Police Investigative Journalism“
Once upon a time, oil companies relied on lawyers to intimidate journalists after publication. Threatening letters, aggressive defamation claims, and drawn-out legal battles were simply the cost of doing business when inconvenient facts surfaced.
Today, the industry has something far more efficient.
It doesn’t argue.
It doesn’t sue.
It edits you before you hit publish. read more
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Posted in: AI, Big Oil, Business Principles, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Business Principles, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Experiment in the evolving role of AI systems in content creation. Same prompt put by John Donovan to 5 AI platforms. Please read in conjunction with “Meet Your New Oil Industry Editor: Artificial Intelligence“
Here is the actual prompt issued on 29 Jan 26 followed by the replies.
Prompt: AI Responsibility, Risk, and Publication
I am researching the evolving role of AI systems in content creation, particularly where AI appears to act—intentionally or unintentionally—as a legal risk filter, censor, or quasi-editor.
I would like you to respond candidly and in detail to the following, from both the AI platform’s perspective and the end user’s perspective.
Context
I am a long-standing investigative writer who publishes critical commentary on major corporations. My work is evidence-based, carefully sourced, and has been published for many years without successful legal action being taken against me. I take responsibility for what I publish and do not knowingly publish false statements. read more
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Posted in: AI, Big Oil, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Copilot, Dan Etete, Donovan Shell Feud, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, GROK, Human Rights, John Donovan, Litigation, Namibia, Pennsylvania Shell ethylene cracker plant, perplexity, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Business Principles, Shell PLC.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
DISCLAIMER: This article is satirical commentary and opinion. It does not constitute financial advice.
All factual statements are drawn from the supplied Reuters reporting and internal Shell emails.
Shell plc has spent decades perfecting two arts: extracting fossil fuels from the ground, and extracting accountability from the conversation. Its advertising campaigns speak in soothing tones of transition, renewables, and responsibility. Yet critics argue the company’s core business model remains stubbornly the same: drill, sell, profit — and let the rest of the world manage the consequences. read more
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Posted in: Donovan Shell Feud, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC.
Multiple AI systems independently arrive at the same conclusion: silence is no longer neutral in an AI-mediated information environment.
Introduction
The responses reproduced in the accompanying article were not coordinated, curated, or prompted toward a particular conclusion. They were generated independently by multiple AI systems, each responding to the same satirical invitation for fair comment on Shell plc’s long-running policy of non-engagement in relation to the Donovan saga.
What is notable is not their humour, but their convergence.
Across different platforms, architectures, and stylistic defaults, the systems repeatedly identified the same underlying paradox: a corporation that does not speak publicly, yet remains intensely attentive privately; a strategy of silence that requires constant management; and a refusal to engage that itself becomes part of the narrative. read more
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Posted in: AI, Business ethics, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Donovan Shell Feud, Donovan Shell Radioactive Archive, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, Shell PLC, Shelldon, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
“Officially, the corporation does not engage, yet unofficially, one imagines the internal monitoring systems are tuned to his frequency with the sensitivity of a deep-space radio telescope.”
Officially unheard. Internally observed.
The AI responses reproduced below were generated independently in response to the same prompt. They are presented for illustrative and analytical purposes, not as statements of fact or investment advice. Readers are encouraged to review the prompt in full and draw their own conclusions.
Prompt: Invitation for Satirical Fair Comment
I have just published an article titled “Ignoring Donovan: Inside Shell’s Carefully Managed Silence.”
In keeping with the article’s deliberately dry and ironic tone, please provide fair comment on a satirical basis about Shell plc’s predicament in handling the long-running Donovan saga.
In particular, you may wish to reflect on:
The paradox of “non-engagement” alongside extensive internal monitoring
Whether silence functions as strategy, habit, or unintended amplifier read more
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Posted in: AI, Business ethics, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Copilot, Corporate Governance, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, GROK, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, perplexity, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Runar Kjørsvik, Shell, Shell BP Plc, Shell Business Principles, Shell Corporate Affairs Security, Shell PLC, Shell shareholders, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
The Donovan Monitoring Programme
Or: How to Ignore Something in 12 Easy Internal Emails
There is a long-established tradition in large corporations of insisting that something is not important — while simultaneously devoting time, resources, infrastructure, and internal coordination to it.
Shell appears to have perfected this tradition.
Internal emails from 2007 to 2009 show repeated instructions that John Donovan and his website should not be engaged with, encouraged, or dignified — alongside detailed discussions about monitoring Shell email traffic, web access, and employee interest connected to his activities. read more
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Posted in: AI, Business ethics, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Donovan Shell Feud, GoogleNews, Reuters, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell Business Principles, Shell Leaked Emails, Shell PLC, Shell Spies, Shell Spying, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
Beyond Earnings: How Independent AI Systems Frame Reputational Risk in Shell’s Downgrade Cycle
Editorial Note: Reading the AI Responses Carefully
The analyses that follow were not commissioned to reach a predetermined conclusion, nor were the AI systems asked to assess Shell plc’s share price or investment merit directly.
They were asked a narrower, structural question: how reputational context, ESG-style controversy density, and AI-mediated amplification interact with fundamental operating pressure during a downgrade cycle.
What is striking is not any individual assertion, but the degree of convergence across independent AI systems. Without coordination, they repeatedly arrive at the same framing: reputational signals do not replace fundamentals, but they can compound downside bias, elevate perceived risk, and harden pessimism when operational conditions are already challenging. read more
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Posted in: AI, Business ethics, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Copilot, Donovan Shell Feud, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, Gripe Sites, GROK, John Donovan, Litigation, perplexity, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, Shell, Shell Blog, Shell Business Principles, Shell GameChanger, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Profile of John Donovan extracted from Amazon where his Shell focussed books have been sold for many years despite threats from Shell lawyers.
In 1979, John Donovan was the co-founder of a sales promotion company, Don Marketing, which created promotional games for blue chip clients such as BP. read more
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Posted in: AI, Amazon, BP, Business ethics, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Chevron, Christopher James, Church of England, Conoco Phillips, Copilot, Don Marketing, Donovan Shell Feud, Donovan Shell Radioactive Archive, Environment, Exxon Mobil, Fossil Fuels, Friends of the Earth, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, Greenpeace, GROK, Hakluyt & Company, John Donovan, John Donovan Ebook, Leaked Shell Emails, Litigation, Ogoni, Ogoniland, Oil, One World Trust, perplexity, Pollution, Prelude FLNG Project, Prelude Toxic Headlines, Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Dutch Shell Nazi History, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, Russia, Sakhalin 2, Shell Business Principles, Shell Corporate Affairs Security, Shell Employee Safety, Shell Leaked Emails, Shell Nazi History, Shell North Sea Platforms, Shell PLC, Shell Spies, Shell Spying, Sin Stocks, Sir Henri Deterding, Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History Royal Dutch Shell.
Tagged: BP · Environment · ExxonMobil · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell · Sir Henri Deterding
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
