“So is Shell STILL anti-Semitic, or is it simply because doing business with Israel would upset the rulers of Saudi Arabia, yet another tyrannical regime in bed with Shell? One Country swims in oil. The other doesn’t. Perhaps that has something to do with it?”
By John Donovan
In March 2011 we published an article under the headline: Is Royal Dutch Shell STILL anti-Semitic?
SOME EXTRACTS
A Shell insider asked if we were aware that “there is one country in the world that Shell will not do business with?”
This was a reference to Israel. The insider explained events that had led them to ponder the question in our headline.
We suspected that Shell was a racist company. We did not know that it was still anti-Semitic, if that is the case. Israel is not included in the global list of Countries on shell.com where Shell does business. I cannot find any reference by Shell to Israel on Shell’s website. There is no reference to anti-Semitism in its Business Principles. It seems to be a taboo subject?
The paid historians of Shell who supposedly had unrestricted access to Royal Dutch Shell archives revealed that Shell had engaged in anti-Semitic policies against its own employees. This happened while Shell was financially supporting and encouraging Hitler and the Nazis.
So is Shell STILL anti-Semitic, or is it simply because doing business with Israel would upset the rulers of Saudi Arabia, yet another tyrannical regime in bed with Shell? One Country swims in oil. The other doesn’t. Perhaps that has something to do with it?
Today there is further speculation relevant to this taboo subject.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s agreement to acquire a stake in Israel’s largest natural gas field may prompt Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) to sell the rest of its holding in the Perth-based company, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) said.
“We anticipate a sell-down to dispel any perception amongst other Middle Eastern countries that Shell is investing either directly or indirectly in Israel,” considering the geopolitical tension and Shell’s significant investment in the region outside the country, Luke Smith and Lachlan Cuskelly, Sydney-based analysts at CBA, said in a March 27 report.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), Australia’s largest oil and gas producer, is a potential buyer of Woodside, the analysts said. Any sale of the shares would probably occur after Woodside, which agreed in December to buy 30 percent of the Leviathan gas field in Israel for an initial $696 million, considers an investment decision on the proposed Browse liquefied natural gas project in Australia in mid-2013, according to the report.
Shell, which still owns a 23 percent stake valued at A$6.9 billion ($7.2 billion), said last year that the stake didn’t fit in with the company’s long-term plans.Woodside, Australia’s second-largest oil and gas producer, has slumped in Sydney trading since The Hague-based Shell sold 10 percent of the company at A$42.23 a share in November 2010.
Woodside’s shares rose 0.8 percent today to A$36.29 at 10:30 a.m. Sydney time.
Paul Zennaro, a Melbourne-based spokesman for Shell, said the company wouldn’t comment on speculation. Fiona Hadley, a Melbourne-based spokeswoman for BHP, said the company doesn’t comment on market speculation. Laura Lunt, a spokeswoman for Woodside in Perth, wasn’t immediately available for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at [email protected]
Israel Move Could Put Shell’s Woodside Stake in Play
By Ross Kelly: 3 April 2013
A recent move by Australia’s Woodside Petroleum Ltd. to acquire a controlling stake in Israel’s biggest natural gas field has presented its minority owner Royal Dutch Shell PLC with a potential political challenge keeping its Arabic partners on side.
“Given the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Shell’s significant investments in the region outside of Israel, we anticipate a selldown to dispel any perception amongst other Middle Eastern countries that Shell is investing either directly or indirectly in Israel,” said Luke Smith, an analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia .
Israel Investment Gives Oil Giant Shell Cold Feet
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant is interested in selling because the company fears that direct or indirect investment in Israel could strain its relations with Arab nations.
Woodside recently signed a deal to purchase 30 percent of the Leviathan field’s reserves for $1.5 billion. Speaking with the Wall Street Journal, Luke Smith, a senior energy analyst at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said Shell’s direct or indirect investment in Israel could complicate its extensive activities in Arab oil-producing nations.
Some of Shell’s most lucrative investments are in countries with hostile relations to Israel. Most of them do not maintain formal diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
One comment posted on article: “How ironic. Shell was founded by a Jewish man.”
April 6, 2013
THE HAGUE (JTA) – Royal Dutch Shell declined to comment on reports that it will divest its stake in an Australian energy firm because of that firm’s investment in Israel’s gas fields.
According to the RTL Dutch television network, a spokesperson for Shell said on Wednesday that he had no comment on a report by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia which said Shell would likely dump its 23.1-percent stake in Australia’s Woodside Petroleum.
The report said Shell planned the move to avoid the risk of boycott by Arab countries following Woodside’s agreement to purchase a 30-percent interest in Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field. RTL reported that Shell’s stake in Woodside is worth more then $7 billion.
Last year, Shell said that involvement with Woodside was “incompatible” with Shell’s “long-term plans.”
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.
