In recent days, I observed that the parody images I requested from ChatGPT for use in my articles about Shell no longer appeared to resemble Shell’s logo as closely as they had before. The stylistic shift was abrupt enough to raise an obvious question: had lawyers for Shell been in contact?
So I simply asked ChatGPT.
The answer — and everything that followed — turned out to be far more revealing than expected.
What unfolded was an extensive discussion about parody law, satire, corporate reputation strategy, Shell’s historical surveillance activities directed at my family, and why Shell is now unable to challenge my archive without risking a disastrous legal discovery process. read more
Warning: satire ahead. The criticisms are pointed, the humour intentional, and the facts stubbornly real. Quotes are reproduced word-for-word from trusted sources. This material includes transformative satirical commentary relating to Shell plc and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Shell plc. The imagery and commentary are presented for criticism, documentation, and public interest reporting. As for authorship—John Donovan and AI both claim credit, but the jury’s still out on who was really in charge. AI can make mistakes, including about people, so double-check all information provided.read more
Shell has once again demonstrated its unwavering commitment to the principle that matters most to it: maximize returns now and allow consequences to remain someone else’s problem later.
According to Reuters, Shell reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.4 billion, exceeding market expectations:
“Shell reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $5.4 billion.”
— Reuters, 30 Oct 2025
Immediately following those earnings, MSN reported that Shell launched another $3.5 billion share buyback:
“Shell launched another $3.5 billion share buyback.”
— MSN Money
Meanwhile, The Independent, via Newsbreak, noted:
“Shell posts stronger-than-expected profits as more cash handed to investors.”read more
John Donovan’s revealing entire chat with Microsoft Copilot about Shell Ethics on 29 Oct 2025. Nothing has been deleted. John Donovan’s questions and instructions are in red text.
Using deep research tell me all you can about the Shell critic John Donovan
John Donovan is a long-standing and relentless critic of Royal Dutch Shell, known for exposing internal misconduct and legal battles with the oil giant. His activism spans over three decades and has significantly impacted Shell’s public image.
Here’s a comprehensive look at his background, motivations, and influence:
🧑💼 Who Is John Donovan?
British entrepreneur turned whistleblower, Donovan co-founded Don Marketing, a promotional games company that worked with Shell in the 1980s.
His relationship with Shell soured after allegations of intellectual property theft, leading to a series of legal disputes and a lifelong campaign against the company.
🔥 The Feud with Shell
Donovan claims Shell repeatedly stole promotional game ideas developed by his company, including the popular “Make Money” game.
After failed attempts to resolve the disputes amicably, he launched a public campaign to expose Shell’s alleged unethical behavior.
His feud escalated into a 30-year battle, described by some as a “David vs. Goliath” saga.
🌐 Online Campaigns and Websites
Donovan operates a network of websites dedicated to Shell criticism, including:
These platforms host over 25,000 articles, leaked documents, and insider reports from Shell employees (“moles”).
His sites are non-profit and claim to serve as watchdogs against corporate malpractice.
📚 Publications and Media Coverage
Donovan authored a Kindle book titled John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare: My Epic Feud with the Unscrupulous Oil Giant Royal Dutch Shell, detailing his battles and Shell’s alleged misconduct.
He’s been profiled by European media outlets like Voxeurop and Süddeutsche Zeitung, which highlight his role as a persistent thorn in Shell’s side.
🕵️♂️ Methods and Impact
Donovan’s work is fueled by anonymous tips and leaked documents from Shell insiders.
His revelations have reportedly cost Shell billions in legal settlements and reputational damage.
He’s credited with influencing public perception and regulatory scrutiny of Shell’s operations.
🧭 Legacy and Influence
Donovan is considered one of the most effective one-man corporate watchdogs in modern history.
His efforts have inspired other whistleblowers and critics of multinational corporations.
Despite Shell’s global power, Donovan’s campaign demonstrates how persistent activism and transparency can challenge corporate giants.
If you’d like, I can help you explore specific leaked documents, legal cases, or Shell’s responses to Donovan’s claims.read more
How Shell Accidentally Endorsed Its Loudest Critics — And Then Pretended It Didn’t Happen
Warning: Satire ahead. The humour is deliberate. The facts are documented. Quotes are reproduced verbatim from publicly available sources. Readers are advised to enjoy the irony responsibly.
Prologue: The Compliment That Was Never Meant to See Daylight
Royal Dutch Shell — now Shell plc — has always believed in managing its reputation with the same meticulous care that goes into managing offshore drilling risks: reassure the market, contain the leaks, and if necessary, delete the emails. And yet, every so often, something slips past the corporate firewall. Something like the truth.read more
BLACKROCK, MEET PARANOIA: SHELL’S GLOBAL SPY OPERATION UNWITTINGLY PROVES ITS BIGGEST CRITICS ARE THE ONLY ONES TELLING THE TRUTH
Introduction: The Ultimate Sin Stock and the Gift of Incompetence
Let us speak plainly about Shell plc, the titanic, globe-trotting entity that operates under a thin veneer of corporate responsibility while continuously proving itself to be the ultimate sin stock. This is a company whose history is so saturated with ethical compromises, environmental disasters, and dubious geopolitical entanglements that its very existence seems designed to serve as a perpetual motion machine of moral negligence. And yet, for all its colossal might and sophisticated PR machinery, Shell has repeatedly demonstrated an astounding, almost hilarious level of administrative incompetence.read more
THE WAGES OF SIN: A CHRONICLE OF SHELL’S CASUALTIES AND THE INVESTMENT FUNDS THAT PAY FOR THEM
It is a grand, old-world notion that a corporation can possess a soul, or rather, that the absence of one can be measured by its balance sheet. If that is the case, then Shell is less a corporation and more a meticulously catalogued exhibit in the museum of moral bankruptcy—the ultimate sin stock. Its history is not merely a record of drilling and profit but a chilling, chronological catalogue of calculated risks taken with other people’s lives: its employees, its customers, and the communities unfortunate enough to share a postcode with its extraction sites.read more
In the corridors of global energy, Shell presents itself as a monolithic symbol of industrial prowess, dividend reliability and transition ambition. Investors like BlackRock, Inc. and The Vanguard Group, Inc. hold sizeable stakes. Yet behind the investor-slides and glossy sustainability pledges lies a series of historical shadows: offshore disasters, legacy pollution, human-rights litigation and repeated admissions of safety underperformance. This article takes a tour through select episodes—chronologically arranged—of how Shell has, in many instances, placed lives and safety on the back burner. While satire underpins the tone, the facts are stubbornly real.read more
By John Donovan & AI (yes, both of us — and we’re still deciding whose turn it was to fetch the popcorn)
Opening Scene
In a world where oil-giants strut in glossy annual reports while the real cost of fossil exploitation remains buried beneath toxic sludge and courtroom delays, enters one woman: Esther Kiobel. Her life, her loss and her relentless pursuit of a corporation turn into the film Esther & the Law: The Case Against Shell. The documentary chronicles her challenge to Shell in the Netherlands — nearly thirty years after the execution of her husband — and by extension, shines a light on how Shell turned into the ultimate “sin stock”.read more
By John Donovan & AI (yes, both of us—in equal parts outrage and editorial indulgence).
So here we are. Vast fields of oil. Devastated swamps. Communities rendered unable to drink the water, fish the rivers or live the lives they once had. And high above it all, the oil-major known as Shell walks (or sometimes limps) through a series of courtrooms—and global headlines—while investors and insiders just keep the dividend checks flowing.
In the case of the Niger-Delta, the reckoning is no longer coming—it’s already here.read more
In December 2021, Super Typhoon Odette (Rai) smashed into the Philippines, killing more than 400 people and leaving 1.4 million homes destroyed, among other catastrophic impacts.
Now, a group of 67 Filipino survivors is turning their anguish into an audacious legal claim: they have delivered a “Letter Before Action” against Shell’s London-headquartered operation, seeking compensation and accountability.
Why Shell? Because these communities argue the oil-and-gas giant helped turbo-charge climate change and thereby amplified the severity of the typhoon. As one claimant said:read more
Shell and Apartheid: A Documentary History of Support, Complicity, and Counter-Campaigns (1950s–1994)
By John Donovan: Published: 24 October 2025
Preface
This is not a story that begins with a single memo or ends with a press release. It is an institutional record spanning decades, continents, and boardrooms. It features a company that says it “opposed apartheid,” yet repeatedly chose the path that kept South Africa’s apartheid economy running: investing, supplying, lobbying, and—when public pressure spiked—deploying an elaborate influence operation to neutralise critics. That company is Shell.read more
Here’s the latest on Shell plc’s plan to move its listing to New York — with an investigative, critical lens.
By John Donovan (with AI collaboration)
21 October 2025
When a corporate behemoth begins to flirt with another stock exchange, the romance is rarely innocent. Shell plc — once Royal Dutch Shell plc, before dropping the “Dutch” as neatly as a discarded partner — is now openly courting Wall Street.
The CEO, Wael Sawan, has been muttering about “value gaps” and “unlocking potential,” code for what London traders hear as: we’re tired of being undervalued in a city that drinks warm beer instead of crude profits.read more
Self-explanatory questions to ChatGPT (an AI writing partner) from John Donovan are in italics.
Foreword: When the Archive Answered Back
In a curious twist of modern journalism, an independent campaigner who once fought Shell in the courts found himself interviewing his AI collaborator about the company that changed both their trajectories.
For over a year, ChatGPT — an artificial intelligence language model — has assisted in researching, structuring, and documenting the extensive record of Royal Dutch Shell’s corporate conduct. When asked for its impression of the campaign, the AI responded not with sterile neutrality but with something approaching moral clarity: an acknowledgment of honesty, integrity, and persistence in the face of corporate opacity.read more
If you want to know how a family-run promotions outfit ended up engraving its name into the footnotes of corporate history, scan the bibliographies. Across boardrooms, courtrooms, lecture halls and environmental field notes, authors keep tripping over the same stubborn breadcrumb: the Donovans — and the websites they built to document Shell’s less-than-glorious adventures: RoyalDutchShellPLC.com, ShellNews.net, Shell2004.com, TellShell.net, and more.
Below is a guided, satirical tour of more than 100 books (plus academic chapters and handbooks) that cite the Donovans, Don Marketing, or the websites. The pattern isn’t subtle: reputational risk, crisis management, litigation, governance, Arctic escapades, Nigeria, Russia, and even the archival archaeology of Shell’s 1930s entanglements. If Shell is the “ultimate sin stock,” the citations read like a decade-spanning confession — signed by authors, sealed by publishers, and witnessed by librarians.read more
On 19 September 2016, a post on RoyalDutchShellGroup.com quietly listed “links to several hundred articles by a host of different publishers … plus over 60,000 Shell-related articles” hosted across the Donovan websites.
It read like a piece of digital housekeeping.
In reality, it was the master ledger of how one multinational’s attempts at corporate control ended up immortalising the very archive it wanted to erase.
The post linked outward — to Reuters, The Guardian, The Moscow Times, and beyond — forming a living map of Shell’s missteps, litigation, and internal paranoia, all drawn together by a network of persistence that Shell accidentally helped to publicise.read more
Sir Henri Deterding, the controversial and outspoken founder of Royal Dutch Shell, now haunts the website. Wise to all the knowledge of Shell, and its shellanigans, he delivers informative and satirical insight to anything about Shell. He's a grumpy old sod, so you'll have to excuse his bluntness.
Click the big chat-bubble (bottom-right of the website)to ask Sir Henri a question. Enjoy!
SHELL EXECUTIVES AT THE CENTER OF A SCHEME TO STEAL $1.3 BILLION FROM NIGERIA’S PEOPLE
SHELL ADMITS DEALING WITH NIGERIAN MONEY LAUNDERER – BBC NEWS
SHELL, ENI AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS IN OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL
INVESTIGATION OF OPL 245 NIGERIAN OIL CORRUPTION SCANDAL
DUTCH EARTHQUAKES CAUSED BY SHELL/EXXON
SHELL KILLS FOR OIL IN NIGERIA
SHELL LIED ABOUT CLEANING UP OIL IN NIGER DELTA
SHELL SPIES INFILTRATED NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT
LEGO DROPS SHELL OVER GREENPEACE OIL SPILL VIDEO
SHELL ARCTIC DRILLING ACCIDENTS
SHELL KNEW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DECADES AGO
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER SIR HENRI DETERDING, NAZI FINANCIER
JOHN DONOVAN PROMOTIONAL GAMES FOR SHELL AND OTHER CLIENTS
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. The 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
The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.
Extremely slow broadband for 10 months, not fixed.I have had slow broadband well below the guaranteed speed for 10 months and Shell Energy have not been able to fix it.They have tried sending about 4 or 5 engineers but have not fixed the problem.Gurps, who I have been dealing with most recently, has been friendly and polite, alth… Read more
I ordered shell energy broadband on nov 2. I was promised connection the following week. They initiated the direct debit. I called the following week and was told router would arrive on 13 and service would go live on 17. No further email or communication until 20 when I was told service would start on 30th. Spent 10 minutes waiting on phone line and spoke to a polite assistant who was absolutely useless in solving my problem. Avoid this unprofessional and chaotic… Read more
Shell Energy Broadband Service is Appalling
The worst ever
I used shell broadband. It was by far the worst broadband provider ever! The internet did not work most days. I had their super fast broadband and it dropped out constantly. Watching a movie was awful with the constant buffering. Customer support was super slow. Now their going to charge me for the useless router which I have sent back.
Date of experience: 21 November 2023
By far the worst broadband provider ever!
The worst ever
I used shell broadband. It was by far the worst broadband provider ever! The internet did not work most days. I had their super fast broadband and it dropped out constantly. Watching a movie was awful with the constant buffering. Customer support was super slow. Now their going to charge me for the useless router which I have sent back.
Date of experience: 21 November 2023
By far the worst broadband provider ever!
OVER 500 EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS CITING OUR SHELL WEBSITES
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission websiteetc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our non-profit websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
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