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September, 2025:

Shearwater Shambles: Shell’s Nitrogen Leak Turns Decking Into Deadfall (and History Repeats Itself)

When you’re Shell—the company that brought you unseaworthy Brent Bravo lifeboats, the Prelude floating gas plant evacuation in Australia, and the occasional oil-for-arms scandal—you’d think safety blunders would be less frequent by now. Think again.

The Incident

On July 12, the Shell-operated Shearwater platform, 140 miles off Aberdeen, sprang a leak of liquid nitrogen. The leak damaged the underside of the deck, sending debris crashing onto a walkway below. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) later confirmed the falling material had the potential to cause a “fatal injury.”

Shell was served an improvement notice on August 4, with the HSE citing six separate breaches of health and safety law, including failures to protect workers from risks tied to “loss of containment events.” The notice must be complied with by September 9. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Bonga Bonanza: Shell Grabs a Bigger Slice of Nigeria’s Deep-Water Pie—And the Liabilities Too

What just happened (and why Shell’s grinning)

Nigeria’s oil regulator has approved a $510 million deal for TotalEnergies to sell its entire 12.5% stake in OML 118 (home of the Bonga deep-water field) to Shell and Agip. Total will offload 10% to Shell for $408m and 2.5% to Agip for $102m. Result: Shell’s stake rises to 67.5%, doubling down on offshore Nigeria after dumping its messy onshore assets to Renaissance. The regulator’s exact words:

SNEPco and NAE have demonstrated both technical and managerial competence to optimally contribute to the upstream operations in OML 118.”  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Toxic Legacy: Shell, Exxon, and the Underground Waste Dump That Stinks of Corporate Arrogance

Move over Sakhalin, step aside Niger Delta—Shell and Exxon’s Dutch joint venture NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) has managed to dump itself into yet another scandal. This time, prosecutors allege the company secretly injected hazardous waste into empty gas fields in Groningen for over a decade.

The Charges

Dutch prosecutors have recommended a €20 million fine against NAM for a long list of environmental breaches, including:

  • Secretly dumping hazardous wastewater laced with mercury into empty underground gas fields near Borgsweer, Groningen.

  • Handling hazardous substances without permits, at sites where they had no business storing them.

  • Profiting over €5 million by cutting corners on proper hazardous waste treatment.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) said bluntly:

“The key question is not whether environmental damage occurred, but rather transparency.” (NL Times) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Exec sick and tired about lying…

Let me tell you a story.

A story of billions—of barrels, of dollars, and of lies.

A story of how one of the most powerful oil companies on Earth, Shell, got caught inflating its most precious asset: oil reserves.

Because in the oil business, reserves aren’t just numbers.

They are everything.

They represent future profits, shareholder confidence, executive bonuses.

They are the oil industry’s currency of credibility.

And Shell? Shell cooked the books.

In January 2004, Shell shocked the financial world by slashing its previously declared “proven” reserves by nearly 4 billion barrels—around 20% of what it had claimed. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Loeb Says Shell is a Frankenstein of Oil, LNG, Renewables & Gas Stations — Time to Chop Off a Limb

Third Point, Shell & the Art of Corporate Pressure

Activist investor Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC hasn’t just been stirring the pot—he’s been threatening to dismantle the entire kitchen. Loeb is sticking to his call that Royal Dutch Shell should break itself apart. Not because Shell’s ambitious, but because its ambition is now a jigsaw puzzle nobody asked for.

As Reuters reported, Loeb “praises Shell moves, sticks by calls for break-up” even as Shell shifts its head office and simplifies its shareholder structure. 

What Loeb’s Proposals Actually Are

Here’s what Third Point wants Shell to do: read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s Malaysian Mess: Court Orders Big Oil’s “Sin Stock” to Pay Up to Petronas

When Shell isn’t busy polluting rivers, spilling oil, or fighting climate lawsuits, it’s apparently stiffing national energy companies on their gas bills.

The Case: Shell vs. Petronas

The Malaysian Court of Appeal has ordered Shell MDS (Malaysia) to pay overdue monthly gas payments to Petronas, overturning a previous High Court injunction that had let Shell skip payments since August 2024.

According to The Edge, the three-judge panel ruled unanimously that Petronas had kept up its end of the bargain, delivering gas throughout the dispute. Shell, meanwhile, argued it was “caught between competing claims” after receiving dual invoices of 80 million ringgit each from Petronas and Petros, Sarawak’s state-owned gas aggregator (Reuters). read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Says Trump Tariffs Are Even More Taxing on Its Future Bets Than Its Supply Chains—Investors, Beware

Shell, Tariffs & That Unraveling Investment Climate

Shell’s President of Projects & Technology, Robin Mooldijk, recently confessed what many were thinking: the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs goes far beyond irritating supply chains—it’s messing with Shell’s appetite to invest. Global economic uncertainty, he says, is doing more damage than just higher costs. 

“The primary effect is on our supply chain. It becomes more expensive and for a company like Shell it’s something that we could actually deal with,” Mooldijk told The Economic Times. “But the bigger (effect) is even on the investments. Does it change the business climate and the supply-demand balance to the extent that—a little bit cheaper or a little bit more expensive project, doesn’t really matter—do we want to do it or not.”  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Oil, Arms & WTF: Shell, BP and the $43bn Al-Yamamah Scandal

When Britain’s largest ever export agreement turns out to be part fighter jets, part oil barrels, and part money-laundering scheme, you know Shell and BP won’t be far from the action. The Al-Yamamah arms deal wasn’t just about Tornados flying to Riyadh. It was also about crude oil flowing to London, and then through Shell and BP into Western banking systems. The real WMD? “Wealth Made Disappear.”

The Basics: What Was Al-Yamamah?

Al-Yamamah (“The Dove”) was the name given to a series of gargantuan arms contracts between the UK and Saudi Arabia starting in 1985. Britain promised Saudi Tornado fighters, Hawk trainers, missiles, ships, and infrastructure. In exchange, the Saudis delivered up to 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day — routed through the British government. BAE Systems (then British Aerospace) was the prime contractor. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Blood, Greer & Broken Billions: How John Donovan Haunted Shell’s Sakhalin Fiasco

When Shell dreamed of Sakhalin, it imagined gleaming LNG plants, billions in profits, and Moscow toasting their engineering genius. Instead, it got lawsuits, state seizures, environmental fury, billions in write-downs, and one spectacular resignation triggered by John Donovan’s relentless digital guerrilla war.

Sakhalin-2 should have been Shell’s crown jewel. Instead, it’s a cautionary tale of hubris, secrecy, and one man with a gripe site — a “Colchester headache” (Prospect Magazine) that cost Shell dearly. WTF indeed.

The Grand Russian Gamble

Back in the early 1990s, Shell partnered in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, betting on Russia’s far-flung island to deliver liquefied natural gas to Asia and beyond. The project became a logistical monster: frozen seas, migrating grey whales, endless pipelines. Costs ballooned from an initial $10 billion to more than $22 billion by 2005 (Johnson’s Russia List).

The Kremlin pounced. In 2006, Russia’s environmental watchdog accused Shell of “ecological violations” and threatened to shut it down (Business New Europe). The result? Shell was strong-armed into ceding control of Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom. Billions lost. Reputation battered. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Hakluyt, Heywood & Shell: The Corporate Spy Novel Nobody Asked For

If you thought Shell’s sins stopped at oil spills and carbon doublespeak, think again. Enter Hakluyt & Co., the boutique spook shop founded by ex-MI6 officers. This article is about  Neil Heywood — a British businessman linked with Hakluyt who died in China under circumstances straight out of a John le Carré plot. WTF indeed.

The Shell–Hakluyt Bromance

Hakluyt doesn’t advertise on billboards. Its pitch is whispered in club lounges: discreet intelligence, political access, and bespoke “market insights.” Critics — most loudly John Donovan — have long accused Shell of being one of Hakluyt’s favourite corporate playmates. When Shell wants “strategic friends,” it doesn’t call McKinsey; it calls the ghosts of MI6.

The connection has been documented in detail for years. In fact, Donovan asked Shell’s General Counsel point-blank if Neil Heywood, via Hakluyt, had been working on Shell’s interests in China. Shell’s reply? Silence. And that silence still echoes louder than a Shell ad campaign. (source) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Hakluyt’s Tentacles: how Shell’s favourite ‘strategic’ friends reach No.10, the Oval Office, and the altar

“I am deeply concerned to discover that the tentacles of an evil and shadowy private spy firm, Hakluyt & Company Limited, reach right into the very heart of the British establishment, the Church of England… Hakluyt’s stock in trade is deception, trickery, betrayal, fabrication, fraud and infiltration by its undercover agents.” 

From Mayfair backrooms to No.10, the Oval Office and even the pews.

If you’ve ever wondered who whispers sweet nothings about “risk” and “stakeholders” into the ears of governments while oil money hums in the background, meet Hakluyt—the discreet fixer founded by ex-MI6 officers, beloved by Shell and , and forever allergic to sunlight. The firm’s recent cameo in the Thames Water crisis wasn’t subtle: “A corporate intelligence company part-owned and formerly run by the prime minister’s business adviser has been paid more than £1m by Thames Water,” the Guardian reported, adding that Hakluyt “claims to have advised almost half of the FTSE 100 and more than three-quarters of the top 20 private equity groups.” And its spokespeople? “We are not a lobbying organisation and do not lobby governments on behalf of clients.”  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Hakluyt’s Tentacles have reached into 10 Downing Street, the White House, even the Church of England

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. Hakluyt is what happens when you build a shadow empire and pray no one turns on the lights. Born from ex-MI6 operatives, this private intelligence outfit has become Shell’s’ go-to for  gathering intel, and keeping critics on a leash. Its tentacles have reached into 10 Downing Street, the White House, and even the Church of England.

What Is Hakluyt, Really?

  • Founded 1995 by Christopher James and Mike Reynolds. Known to hire former spies, journalists, insiders.

    (Wikipedia – Hakluyt & Company)

  • Revenue figure modest as spy-firms go: millions, but influence? Leverage across government, corporations, utilities, and even religious institutions.

    (Wikipedia)

Close Ties: Shell, BP & the Spy Firm

Shell’s relationship with Hakluyt is not “incidental advisory.” Internal sources and whistleblowers (Alfred and John Donovan) collected evidence that Shell directors such as Sir William Purves and Sir Peter Holmes held senior roles in Hakluyt. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Saint, Sinner… or Just Rich? Shell parks $40B of pensions with Goldman while the past keeps knocking

Shell—the greedy, ruthless, polluting oil giant and perennial sin stock—has found a fresh halo to borrow: a $40 billion outsourced pension mandate with Wall Street royalty. As Bloomberg reported, “Goldman Sachs Group Inc. won a $40 billion mandate from Shell Plc to oversee pension assets for the energy company, in one of the biggest outsourced deals of its kind.” That’s not satire; that’s the lede. Bloomberg. 

Goldman’s own one-minute victory lap says the quiet bit proudly: “The appointments mark one of the largest multi-national OCIO mandates awarded to date.” GSAM press page.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Purple Pump, Black Ledger: Shell’s Charity PR Meets Its Dirty Past

Shell — the greedy, ruthless, polluting oil giant and perennial sin stock — is back with its annual feel-good campaign: The Giving Pump. You fill up at a purple pump; money goes to local charities; everyone smiles for Instagram. Shell’s own press release beams: “The Giving Pump goes to show how small choices—like where you fuel up—can add up to meaningful change,” says Barbara Stoyko, SVP for Mobility & Convenience Americas. “The Giving Pump works so well because of our generous retailers. They are the ones selecting the charities benefitted by our purple pumps because they know the causes that matter most to the customers in their communities.” And St. Jude’s ALSAC chimes in: “We are grateful for our friends at Shell… Every small act of kindness… helps St. Jude advance scientific research and treatment…” Lovely words, quoted verbatim from Shell’s 9 Sept 2025 release. Read the release.  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Cut, run, and leave the mess: UN experts call out Shell’s Nigeria ‘experiment’

Cut, run, and leave the mess: UN experts call out Shell’s Nigeria ‘experiment’—and the sin-stock’s biggest backers keep cashing the cheques”

Divestment without detox: when the clean-up plan is ‘exit.’

Shell—the greedy, ruthless, polluting oil giant, otherwise known as the world’s favorite sin stock—has discovered a thrilling new frontier in corporate innovation: sell the onshore assets, skip the proper clean-up, and let someone else hold the bag. Unfortunately for Shell, a phalanx of United Nations human-rights experts just said the quiet part out loud—formally warning that recent asset sell-offs in Nigeria may have breached international human-rights law and “lacked transparency.” The experts expressed “grave concern” and accused the oil majors of using “Nigeria… as an experiment for divestment without clean-up.”  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Deep pockets, deeper waters: Shell’s five-well fling off South Africa meets a wall of salt, science, and small-boat fury

Shell promises ‘energy security’; communities promise court dates.

Shell—the greedy, ruthless, polluting oil giant and perennial sin stock—has a fresh plan to poke holes in the planet: up to five deep-water wells off South Africa’s west coast. Civil society groups and coastal communities have answered with a formal appeal, because someone has to bring a bucket when the world’s richest arsonist shows up with matches.

What Shell just got — and why people are furious

As Reuters reported, “Shell (SHEL.L) has been granted environmental authorisation to drill up to five deep-water wells off South Africa’s west coast, the company said on Friday.” Shell added: “Should viable resources be found offshore, this could significantly contribute to South Africa’s energy security and the government’s economic development programmes.” (Reuters) 

The authorisation covers the Northern Cape Ultra-Deep (NCUD) block, between Port Nolloth and Lamberts Bay, in the Orange Basin—water depths of roughly 2,500–3,200 metres. (Reuters) (Appeal PDF)  read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.