Shell announces Executive Committee changes

21 MAR 2023

After 33 years of service with Shell, Harry Brekelmans will step down from his role as Projects & Technology Director, a position he has held for almost nine years, effective 30 June 2023. Robin Mooldijk, currently Executive Vice President (EVP) Chemicals & Products, will be appointed Projects & Technology Director, effective 1 July 2023.

And following more than 33 years of service with Shell, Donny Ching will step down from his role as Legal Director, a position he has held for just over nine years, effective 30 June 2023. Philippa Bounds, currently General Counsel, Trading & Supply, will be appointed Legal Director, effective 1 July 2023. read more

Will Shell have to abandon the Prelude experiment?

From John Donovan: 8 Jan 2022

Dear Mr Andrew Smith

I have copied the email to Shell Legal Director Mr Donny Ching and Shell CEO Mr Ben van Beurden because the subject is a matter of great importance. Namely the lives and well-being of Shell employees and contractors working on the Prelude experiment. read more

POLICE INSPECTOR DEMANDS INFORMATION FROM SHELL?

By John Donovan: 31 Dec 2021

I have received emails purportedly sent to me and others by a police inspector from Sama Police Station in Vadodara City, India.

The emails contain serious allegations against Shell.

The emails may be fake or genuine.

The irate police inspector in question, N.H. Brambhatt seems keen to get into contact with Shell. He seems to have reached the conclusion that Shell is frustrating the progress of his enquiries.

Earlier today I sent the following email to Mr Donny Ching, the Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (but not for much longer). read more

Allegations and Litigation Relating to Spymasters in Shell’s Corporate Security Department

By John Donovan

See below a self-explanatory email I sent yesterday to named senior executives at Shell.

It mentions the current momentous events at Royal Dutch Shell, although that is not the subject of the email. In that connection, I have not spotted any reference in current news coverage to the Dutch police raid at Shell’s current HQ in The Hague.

That astonishing development may have fuelled a growing feeling that the Dutch government has turned anti-Shell by allowing Nigerian and climate change litigation against Shell to proceed in the Dutch courts and tightening up Dutch tax regulations affecting Shell. read more

By John Donovan

The jab or be sacked dilemma is not an easy issue for Shell senior management to grapple with.

There is a valid concern expressed in the recently leaked Shell internal information, that mandating covid jabs for employees and contractors risks violating Shell’s business principles. 

That, in turn, might damage Shell’s reputation if that’s possible, bearing in mind that Shell is already held in low esteem as a polluting member of Big Oil.  

Shell senior management had hoped to make its deliberations in private. read more

Damaging leak involving Shell VP James WD Hall, until recently Head of Shell Global Security

CONTENT OF AN EMAIL SENT 8 SEPT 2021 BY JOHN DONOVAN TO DONNY CHING, LEGAL DIRECTOR OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC

Dear Mr Ching

Printed below is a draft article about a pressing global issue as it relates to Shell. 

Please let me know by 7 pm UK time today if you challenge the authenticity of the extracts from source Shell internal comms, including a related attachment circulated at the highest levels of Royal Dutch Shell Plc on 1st Sept 2021.  read more

REUTERS

In Practice: How Shell maximizes the value of its legal operations function

Rose Ors: August 10, 20217:17 PM BST

Donny Ching is the visionary leader of Shell’s Global Law Department, which totals 1,000 professionals in 45 countries…

Donny Ching: We used to have hundreds of lawyers, some very senior, drafting thousands of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) a year. Today, we are migrating to an easy-to-use tech tool that will allow most of our NDAs to be quickly generated by our business colleagues.

FULL ARTICLE

Comment by John Donovan.

I have the highest regard for Reuters. Over the years I have been a contributing source of information for many Reuters articles about Shell. This is the first Reuters article I have ever seen that reads more like a PR piece for a paying client, rather than an independent Reuters news report. There is a disclaimer. See “Opinions expressed are those of the author.’ read more

1995

Shell first took issue with my Shell-focused Internet activity in March 1995. Shell’s rabid false allegations about my late father and me resulted in a libel action and other litigation (IP theft) all subsequently settled in our favour by Shell.

2000

In November 2000, DJ Freeman, solicitors acting for Shell, sent a threatening letter to a server hosting company for www.nuclear-crimes.com AKA Shell’s Nuclear Crimes. DJ Freeman boasted in their letter that the website in question had already been removed from the Internet by a previous hosting company, Easyspace after DJ Freeman sent a threatening letter on behalf of Shell. read more

By John Donovan

Displayed below is a letter dated 16 October 2020 addressed to the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. 

The letter is from attorneys representing specified Nigerian OML17 Host Communities and specified local government areas of Rivers State.

It contains extremely serious allegations against Shell, including systematic genocide and catastrophic damage to the environment. 

As can be seen, reasonable demands are made. 

I am aware that Shell CEO Ben van Beurden and Shell’s legal boss Donny Ching have copies of the letter. read more

By John Donovan

Richard Hill has been appointed as General Counsel for Shell downstream. Richard was hitherto Shell General Counsel for Global litigation, a role being taken by Kimberly Phillips, previously Houston based Shell Associate General Counsel of global litigation for the Americas.

Richard Hill will fill the role currently occupied by Martin Bambridge who is leaving on health grounds.

Shell legal director Donny Ching says:

“I am delighted to welcome Kimberly to the Shell Legal Leadership Team, and Richard to his new role. Both will play a critical role in enabling legal to continue partnering with Shell’s businesses to deliver our strategy and navigate the opportunities and risks of the unfolding energy transition. “I am also very grateful to Martin for bringing his deep experience, insight, humour and great leadership to the legal leadership team table while Legal went through considerable change over the past few years.” read more

• Merijn Rengers
• Carola Wood Room
• October 25, 2019

Justice is investigating bribery by Shell in Nigeria.

Oil company Shell cannot hide behind the professional secrecy of employees of its legal department in corruption and fraud investigations. The Rotterdam court reached that conclusion in a judgment published Friday afternoon.

The court sweeps the floor with Shell’s argument that the fifteen lawyers who are employed by the oil company in the Netherlands can invoke their professional secrecy. The reason for the judgment, which can have far-reaching consequences for major criminal cases, is a judicial investigation into bribery by Shell in Nigeria. read more

Use your browser to enlarge image.

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Royal Dutch Shell

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the insider, Andrew Brown, for €1.7m worth of shares, at about €27.85 per share. So what is clear is that an insider saw fit to sell at around the current price of €27.07. We generally don’t like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it’s not too bad (but it’s still not a positive). The only individual insider seller over the last year was Andrew Brown. read more

Emails exchanged between senior Shell staff including John Copleston and Guy Colegate show they knew a massive payment would go to convicted money launderer and former oil minister Dan Etete.

UPDATED SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2018

By John Donovan

During a wiretapped telephone conversation held on 17 February 2016 between Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden and Simon Henry, his then CFO, BvB made reference to what he described as “really unhelpful emails” relating to the Shell/Eni Nigerian corruption scandal.

The call took place hours after Shell’s HQ building in The Hague was raided by authorities investigating the OPL 245 Nigerian oil deal. Two middle men have already been found guilty of involvement in the $1.3 billion corruption scandal. read more

The Premium Times report (below) on the MALABU SCANDAL mentions a Shell internal memo from Donny Ching that John Donovan recently supplied to Reuters, who confirmed its authenticity with Shell. 

MALABU SCANDAL: Shell, Eni officials’ trial continues as anti-corruption group head appears before court: Premium Times: 19 Oct 2018

National Gallery loses Shell funding after protests: The Times: 20 Oct 2018

Shell ends National Gallery sponsorship – to delight of campaigners: The Guardian: 19 Oct 2018

Shell Picks a Digital Platform to Build Its AI Future Upon: Journal of Petroleum Technology: 19 Oct 2018

Shell to invest up to $2 bln annually to explore, produce oil in Brazil through 2025 -report read more

Shell Legal Director Donny Ching (above) effectively outlaws internal discussion among Shell staff of the first chilling verdicts in the OPL 245 trial.

It is a heavyweight ask directed at all Shell staff, effectively outlawing internal discussion of the OPL 245 litigation, when the ask in question comes from the Legal Director and board member of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Who would dare, under the circumstances, to discuss such a self-evidently taboo subject with colleagues? 

RELATED REUTERS ARTICLE

By John Donovan

Printed below is a leaked Shell internal memo sent to all Shell staff by Donny Ching, Legal Director of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

It provides proof of the understandable great sensitivity attached to the criminal trials in Milan Italy stemming from the Nigerian OPL 245 corruption scandal.

The two middlemen defendants in the fast-track OPL 245 trial cited by Mr Ching have already been found guilty and sent to jail for four years.

In his message to all Shell staff, Mr Ching asks them not to engage in speculation on the verdicts on middlemen Emeka Obi and Gianluca di Nardo and how they might relate to the trial involving Shell and four of Shell’s “former employees.” Two of them being former MI6 people hired by Shell, as confirmed by RDS CEO Ben van Beurden. read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA are going to trial in Italy over bribery charges involving an oil field in Nigeria. Two things are unusual about the case. One is the sheer scale of the sum involved — $1.1 billion. The other is that the defendants include Eni’s Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi, the company’s former CEO and a former top executive at Shell. The trial begins Monday in Milan.

1. What was the $1.1 billion for?

It was paid by the companies to the Nigerian government in 2011 for a license to drill in deep waters off the Nigerian coast. The license had been in dispute for years. It had originally been awarded in 1998 by the country’s military dictator, Sani Abacha, to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd., a Lagos-based company connected to then-Petroleum Minister Dan Etete. Under successive governments, the license was canceled, awarded to Shell, and then awarded to Malabu again before the 2011 deal. Shell and Eni also paid the government about $200 million as a signature bonus — a onetime fee charged by some oil-producing nations. read more