As another cache of historic industry documents emerges, the documentary record surrounding Shell’s environmental knowledge continues to grow.
By John Donovan
For almost forty years my website has published internal Shell documents, confidential correspondence, court papers and whistleblower material that have helped illuminate the inner workings of one of the world’s largest energy companies.
Now another collection of historic industry documents has entered the spotlight.
This time, the catalyst is The New York Times, which has reported on newly highlighted documents assembled by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI)—including a previously obscure 1966 Shell discussion paper that suggests Shell engineers were already discussing methane emissions nearly sixty years ago.
The article, by veteran environmental journalist Hiroko Tabuchi, is another reminder that the history of the oil and gas industry is increasingly being reconstructed from its own documentary record.
The 1966 Shell Document
At the centre of the story is a discussion paper produced by a Shell study group at Shell Centre in London on 25 October 1966.
According to The New York Times and the Center for Climate Integrity, notes from the study group indicated that natural gas was being released in “embarrassingly large quantities” at oil fields, often through flaring or venting.
At the time, methane was not yet at the centre of public debate over climate change.
Today it is recognised as one of the most potent greenhouse gases, with a warming effect many times greater than carbon dioxide over a twenty-year period.
The significance of the document therefore lies not simply in its age, but in the evidence that engineers within the industry were discussing methane losses decades before the issue became widely understood outside specialist circles.
A Wider Archive
The Shell paper is only one document among many examined by the Center for Climate Integrity.
According to its report, industry archives contain evidence stretching back to the 1960s and 1970s showing that oil and gas organisations were studying methane emissions while publicly promoting natural gas as a comparatively clean fuel.
Among the documents cited are:
- a 1968 American Petroleum Institute report concluding that methane in the atmosphere was likely coming, at least in part, from gas fields;
- a 1979 American Gas Association study suggesting emissions from major gas fields were substantially higher than official estimates;
- internal public relations material showing efforts to present natural gas as an environmentally friendly energy source while concerns about methane leakage remained under discussion.
Taken together, the documents form part of a growing historical archive examining what the industry knew, when it knew it, and how that knowledge was communicated publicly.
The New York Times Investigation
The significance of this story is heightened by the fact that it has been reported not by a campaigning organisation but by The New York Times, one of the world’s most influential newspapers.
Its report carefully distinguishes between the claims made by the Center for Climate Integrity and the responses from the industry.
The newspaper also places the newly highlighted documents within decades of subsequent scientific research that ultimately confirmed methane as a major contributor to global warming.
Shell Responds
Shell rejected the suggestion that the Center for Climate Integrity’s report fairly represented the company’s actions or intentions.
A Shell spokeswoman told The New York Times that the report “mischaracterized Shell’s actions and intent.”
Shell also stated that it has become a leader in reducing methane emissions and is working towards achieving near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
BP similarly said methane emissions remain an important issue and that the company continues working to measure and reduce them across its operations.
Another Chapter in a Much Larger Story
Viewed in isolation, a single memorandum from 1966 proves relatively little.
Companies routinely commission technical studies exploring issues that may never become corporate policy.
What makes this story noteworthy is the cumulative picture.
Over recent years, journalists, academics, NGOs and researchers have uncovered:
- early Shell climate studies;
- internal planning papers;
- confidential transfer-pricing documents;
- historical engineering reports;
- environmental risk assessments;
- and now historic methane discussions dating back to the mid-1960s.
Each discovery adds another piece to an increasingly detailed documentary history of the modern energy industry.
The Documentary Record Continues to Expand
One of the recurring themes of The Shell Leaks Files has been that Shell’s corporate history is increasingly being written not solely through annual reports or official company histories, but through internal documents that continue to emerge from archives around the world.
Some originate from court proceedings.
Others come from whistleblowers.
Others still emerge from university libraries or historical collections that have remained largely unnoticed for decades.
The newly highlighted 1966 methane study belongs firmly in that category.
The Bottom Line
The New York Times article does not claim that one forgotten Shell discussion paper settles the long-running debate over what the oil industry knew about climate change.
Nor should it.
Instead, it highlights something arguably more important.
The documentary record continues to grow.
Each newly uncovered report, memorandum and engineering study adds another piece to the historical puzzle.
Whether those documents ultimately reinforce existing conclusions or prompt new ones, they deserve careful examination on their own merits.
As this website has argued for many years, history is often written not by press releases, but by the documents that survive them.
Sources
- The New York Times, “Oil Firms Knew for Decades of Methane’s Danger to Planet, Documents Suggest”, Hiroko Tabuchi, 21 July 2026.
- Center for Climate Integrity: Gaslighting the Public: How the Gas Industry Concealed the Methane Threat.
- 25 October 1966 Shell discussion paper: Discussion on Possible Uses of Methane (DocumentCloud).
