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

By Kelly Gilblom: 22 October 2019, 00:01 BST

Group of 300 British lawmakers seeking fossil fuel divestment

Dumping shares could restrict companies’ access to new capital

A group of 300 British politicians are pushing the trustees of the Parliamentary Pension Fund to sell shares of BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to ward off the risks of climate change.

The group, organized by environmental non-profit 350.org, adds to pressure on the fossil fuel industry. Over the last two weeks, climate change activists from the group Extinction Rebellion have disrupted London by blocking roads and climbing on commercial airplanes. Just weeks before that, an estimated 7.6 million people globally took to the streets to protest continually rising emissions. read more

Article from page 13 of the Nigerian newspaper “Dateline” published 4 Jan 1996.  Sourced from the archive evidence files of Esther Kiobel (right), one of the Ogoni 9 widows currently suing Shell in the Dutch courts. Her late husband Dr. Barinem Kiobel, can be seen in the same photo. Esther has been seeking justice from Shell for over two decades for its alleged complicity in his murder. 

Shell ‘Paid Nigerian Military’

By GEOFFREY LEAN

“Ruthless military operations” were proposed specifically to help Shell establish stability in its oil business in Nigeria, a confidential memorandum obtained by the Independent on Sunday reveals. It recommends”wasting vocal individuals.”

The internal state security memorandum which is marked “restricted” 12 times, says that regular financial “inputs” from oil companies have been discussed. A British environmentalist said yesterday that the author of the document had told him that his men had been paid by Shell to protect installations. read more

G&E also directed litigation against Royal Dutch Shell which led to a $400 million investor settlement in 2007, the largest securities fraud settlement in Europe at the time.

NEWS PROVIDED BY: Grant & Eisenhofer P.A: Oct 21, 2019, 12:00 ET

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Oct. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — A second wave of lawsuits has been filed by an international coalition of institutional investors in the ongoing financial fraud case against Danske Bank A/S.

The new investor suits were brought by leading U.S. shareholder law firms Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.

G&E also directed litigation against Royal Dutch Shell which led to a $400 million investor settlement in 2007, the largest securities fraud settlement in Europe at the time. read more

OCTOBER 21, 2019

NUR-SULTAN, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Energy company Royal Dutch Shell has pulled out of the Khazar offshore project in Kazakhstan, while a consortium of which Shell is a member has given up on Kalamkas, another small offshore block nearby, Kazakhstan said on Monday.

Khazar is located next to the giant Kashagan field, which the consortium is developing. Kazakhstan had hoped Shell would agree with its Kashagan partners on how to tap Khazar jointly.

But Kazakh authorities said the consortium, which also includes Eni, ExxonMobil, CNPC, Total, Inpex and Kazakh state firm KazMunayGaz, was quitting Kalamkas, for which it holds the licence. read more

by Tom Baxter: 21 Oct 2019

As someone with a keen interest in decommissioning decision making, I have followed the Brent decommissioning saga with that same keen interest.

A question that keeps coming up for me is why did Shell present such an open goal to Greenpeace, the press and others?

Bearing in mind Shell’s previous experience and reputation hit with Brent Spar, the decision to recommend leaving the concrete cells and their contents is, on the face of it, very perplexing.

Greenpeace’s actions and ensuing headlines were completely predictable.

Shell leave ticking time bomb

Shell ignore international regulations

Shell should clean up its mess

Come on Shell what were you thinking about, why did you make that decision? read more

THEY are the giants of the deep which spent more than four decades pumping billions of pounds worth of oil from the seabed.

But now decommissioned rigs in the North Sea are at the centre of an environmental storm with an oil giant under intense pressure to rethink plans to leave some of the platforms in the sea.

Several hundred oil drilling platforms in the waters o

ff Scotland are due to be decommissioned over the next three decades as they approach the end of their operational lifetime. read more

The Sunday Times

Investors turn fossil fuels into dinosaurs

Bank of England governor Mark Carney sent shock waves through the City four years ago by warning that investors in fossil fuel companies faced “potentially huge” losses from vast reserves that could become “literally unburnable”.

Fear among investors is evident in the oil giants’ share prices. read more

Germany’s environment ministry has said a “compromise” on Shell’s Brent decommissioning plans may be possible but leaving any oil remains is “not acceptable”.

by Allister Thomas: 18/10/2019, 7:00 pm

A special meeting of Ospar took place in London today to discuss what it said was the UK’s intention to approve Shell’s proposals to leave the legs of the Brent Bravo, Charlie and Delta platforms in the field 115miles off Shetland.

The UK is part of the convention to protect Europe’s marine environment whose rules state oil platforms must be fully removed at the end of their production lives.

Shell wants an exception to the Ospar regulations due to the technical, safety and cost challenges related to removing the giant structures, which they were not originally designed for back in the 1970s. read more

REPORT OF THE TRIAL OF KEN SARO-WIWA AND OTHERS

By Michael Birnbaum QC

Published by ARTICLE 19 in association with the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales and the Law Society of England and Wales

June 1995

This report about the trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other members of the Ogoni community in Nigeria was prepared by Michael Birnbaum QC, a senior English criminal lawyer, who attended part of the proceedings in March 1995. He did so as the accredited representative of the Law Society of England and Wales and the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, of which he is a member, and with the support of ARTICLE 19, the International Centre Against Censorship.

Michael Birnbaum was asked to attend the trial proceedings as an international observer in view of widely expressed concern in the UK and elsewhere that the trial might not conform to internationally-recognized standards of fair trial and could result in the imposition of the death penalty on some or all of the accused in circumstances where they will be denied any right of appeal to a higher court. This, in itself, would represent a gross breach of international standards. Mr Birnbaum’s specific order of mission is set out in the text of his report. read more

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has said the Ogoni people completely reject plans by Nigerian oil industry actors and personal interest-driven initiatives to force oil resumption in Ogoni under any guise against the wishes of the people. read more

Shell is planning to be the first fuel retailer in the UK to take out traditional fuels from an operating service station and replace them with an electric vehicle-only charging hub.

Application for planning permission for the development on the company’s site in Fulham, West London, will be put forward at the end of this month, with the hope and expectation that the hub will be operational by the middle of next year.

The announcement comes as Shell celebrates the installation of its 50th UK EV charging point, and the installation of the first 150kW post on a service station. read more

Harry Dempsey in London

Shareholder initiatives, climate protests and government net zero targets are all piling pressure on Big Oil to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by shifting towards renewable energy. Critics have condemned the industry’s response as insufficient, with even the most progressive oil majors devoting only a fraction of their research and development expenditure to low carbon tech. Royal Dutch Shell, for example, has said it is investing about 10 per cent of its $1bn annual R&D budget on renewables and less than a quarter on what it defines as low-carbon initiatives such as hydrogen, and biofuels. read more

by Allister Thomas: 18/10/2019, 7:48 am

Germany has said a special meeting on Shell’s Brent decommissioning plans will be the “litmus test” for a convention to protect Europe’s marine environment.

Ospar, an agreement of 15 European countries, made a ruling following Shell’s Brent Spar episode nearly 25 years ago requiring complete removal of oil and gas installations at the end of their production lives.

Shell was forced to abandon plans to sink the Brent Spar, an oil storage buoy, in the North Atlantic following sustained protests from Greenpeace in the 1990s.

Ospar meets in London later to discuss Shell’s plans to leave the concrete legs of the Brent Bravo, Charlie and Delta platforms in the North Sea, which contradicts Ospar rules. read more

Shell’s refusal to fully remove four old oil platforms has prompted a special North Sea treaty meeting called by Germany. Environmentalists suspect oil firms also intend to leave hundreds more behind.

Germany’s Environment Ministry said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that Shell intended to leave the “legs” of its platforms — after partial dismantlement — to decay at sea, still containing 12,125 tons (11,000 metric tons) of crude oil residues.

Ministry spokesman Stephan Gabriel Haufe told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that Germany wanted to avert a repeat of the “Brent Spar” drama of 1995 that saw Shell do a U-turn on disposal at sea — but only after a public outcry. read more

Shell’s Bribe Scandal: Article published by TEMPO newspaper, 2 Jan 1996 (Page 13)

Shell’s Bribe Scandal

Although for the past two months, Shell has been denying its involvement in the politics of the NIger Delta, through numerous press releases and briefing notes, all these were shattered last week, with the stories published in the British press about Shell’s complicity with the Nigerian military authorities. This is the story of how Shell paid millions of dollars in bribes and kickback to tribal chiefs, community leaders and the military in the troubled Ogoni region. 

It made headline news in most of the British newspapers last week. “SHELL BRIBED NIGERIA’s MILITARY screamed the Independent of London newspaper.

SHELL AXES CORRUPT Nigerian staff read the Sunday Times of London report written by its INSIGHT team. At the centre of the story is how Shell, the exploiter of Nigeria’s crude oil paid handsome amounts of money running into several hundreds of millions of Naira to top military officers in Nigeria to wast vocal environmentalists like Ken Saro-Wiwa and to help establish stability in its oil business by employing ruthless military operations. read more

Article from Tempo newspaper Nigeria above, published 2 Jan 1996, page 2, under the headline:

“Ken Saro-Wiwa: A Playwright And Revolutionary, But A Man With Trading Instinct “.

Originally published by The Daily Telegraph: 13 November 1995. A valuable first-hand account by a BBC producer and correspondent, Janet Anderson.

Ken Saro-Wiwa: A Playwright And Revolutionary, But A Man With Trading Instinct

I first met Ken Saro-Wiwa in London, when he was producing plays and arts programmes about Africa for BBC World Service. Ken was an occasional visitor to the office, a short man, often curled up-on a chair with a big smile, his ever-present pipe and his twinkling eyes. I got a good sense of the steel beneath the chat when I hired him to judge a short story competition. He was a tough bargainer, a seasoned negotiator, particularly when it came to money. The original Nigerian trader showed through.  read more