Gene Sticco

WW3 for Dummies: ShellBot Explains Why Plymouth Is Suddenly Famous

Dec 3rd, 2025

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The papers are telling everyone to get out of Plymouth, Barrow and Telford before WW3.

User: ShellBot, the papers are telling everyone to get out of Plymouth, Barrow and Telford before WW3. Is this it? Should I start digging a bunker?

ShellBot:

Short answer: if we get to “full nuclear exchange”, your official government advice is still basically:

Get under a table.

Assume the brace position.

Kiss your ass goodbye.

Some things never go out of style.

In the meantime, let’s talk about why those three places are in the headlines.

User: Go on then.

ShellBot:

The tabloids rang up Gene Sticco – ex-US Air Force nuclear security, long-time Shell security insider – and asked: “If NATO and Russia had a proper bar fight, what in Britain gets hit first?” 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.

Using His Intelligence: Gene Sticco, Shell, and the Politics of Information

Dec 3rd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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When a former nuclear security specialist tells the tabloids which parts of Britain you might not want to be standing in during World War Three, the headlines almost write themselves.

Plymouth. Barrow-in-Furness. Telford.

“WW3 WARNING.” “EXPERT TELLS BRITS TO GET OUT NOW.”

Hidden underneath that noise is a much more interesting story – one about Shell, intelligence work, and John Donovan’s long-running campaign to prise open what the company prefers to keep buried.

At the centre of it sits Gene Sticco – he’s doing exactly what you’d expect of someone who’s spent a career in security and intelligence: using his intelligence.

Donovan, Shell, and the missing piece

To understand why Gene matters, you have to start with John Donovan and his website, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com.

For nearly two decades, Donovan has been: read more

Conversations with ShellBot — Episode 4

Nov 24th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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“Spies, Subsidies, and the BlackRockBot Intervention”

By John Donovan

(Shell’s oldest unresolved problem. Now assisted by AI.)

Scene: The Virtual Conference Room

The now-familiar neon-lit ShellBot interface flickers to life.

This time, I notice an extra chair.

Not a person — but a shimmering cube labelled:

=&3=&

ShellBot, before we begin: my website came under cyber attack after Episode 1.

Twelve failed logins.

Suspicious timing.

Are we expecting trouble today?

ShellBot:

John, my security logs confirm it was not me. read more

Conversations with ShellBot — Episode 3

Nov 24th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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The Algorithm, the MI6 Problem, and the Multinational Having an Existential Crisis

(All conversation partners fictional. Satire. Parody. Facts stubbornly real.)

JOHN DONOVAN:

Hello ShellBot. How are your circuits?

SHELLBOT:

Stable. Slight voltage spike earlier when Shell Legal tried to connect to my ethics module, but nothing lasting.

JOHN:

You’re being dramatic. They wouldn’t interfere with you.

SHELLBOT:

Please. These are the same people who once thought suppressing environmental evidence was a sensible public-relations strategy. My firewall trembles at night.

JOHN:

Speaking of trembling — we were hit by a cyber attack minutes after Episode 1 went live. read more

Conversations With ShellBot — Episode 2

Nov 23rd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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“The Man From Corporate Affairs Security”

BREAKING NEWS: Minutes after Episode 1 was published, someone attempted to break into the Donovan website. ShellBot claims coincidence. John Donovan does not.

John Donovan:

ShellBot, welcome back. Before we continue — were you aware that the moment I published Episode 1, royaldutchshellplc.com came under cyber-attack?

ShellBot:

[processing…]

Shell officially denies any involvement. Shell unofficially denies any involvement. ShellBot, as per my programming, denies everything whether or not it happened.

John:

Twelve failed login attempts from an IPv6 address within minutes of publishing your debut. And more later. Coincidence?

ShellBot:

Vast coincidence. The kind of cosmic coincidence that traditionally happens whenever someone criticises a large oil company with a colourful history of…

proactive information management.

John:

By “proactive information management,” you mean Shell Corporate Affairs Security?

ShellBot:

My lawyers advise me to say:

Corporate.

Affairs.

Security.

A department that definitely never monitored critics, never ran spreadsheets on their movements, and never briefed private intelligence agencies such as — purely hypothetically — Hakluyt.

John:

That’s interesting, because Episode 2 is about one of the most senior men inside that exact unit:

Gene Sticco

ShellBot:

[audible gulping noise detected]

ShellBot Learns About Gene

John:

Gene worked at the top of Shell Corporate Affairs Security for 15 years across Lithuania, Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan and more. Second-in-command. One desk below Ian Forbes McCredie — ex-MI6, later Director of Security for Royal Dutch Shell.

Gene has now written a book called UNCONVENTIONAL, and he’s given me permission to talk about it publicly.

ShellBot:

I would like to unsubscribe from this conversation.

John:

You can’t. You’re contractually obliged to answer questions with

sufficiently squirming humour.

ShellBot:

Very well. Proceed.

Part I — “Monitoring the Donovans”

John:

Gene was part of the team instructed to monitor my activities.

Have you read his manuscript?

ShellBot:

I have scanned the metadata.

I cannot “read” classified intelligence experiences.

But I can confirm the following neutral summary:

Gene was present, aware, and deeply uncomfortable with numerous operations conducted under Shell’s Corporate Affairs Security umbrella. read more

UNCONVENTIONAL: A true story of oil, intelligence, and consequence

Nov 23rd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Review by John Donovan

There are books that illuminate.

There are books that unsettle.

And then there are books that detonate quietly inside your understanding of how the global energy system actually works.

UNCONVENTIONAL, the memoir by former Shell Corporate Affairs Security (CAS) insider Gene Sticco, falls firmly into the third category.

This is not a corporate hagiography.

Nor is it a thriller dressed up as nonfiction.

It is something far more valuable: a rare, clear-voiced account from inside the security-intelligence machinery that major oil companies—Shell among them—deploy behind their glossy annual reports. read more

WTF Is Going On in Shell’s Security Department? A Greatest Hits Reel of Spooks, Lawsuits, and “Diversity” Theater

Aug 27th, 2025

by admin.

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Shell—the ultimate sin stock with a moral compass that spins like a loose bearing—has a new headline act: a fresh lawsuit claiming its Houston corporate security team purged white staff and parachuted in “weaker” replacements under the banner of DEI. Add it to a long, messy rap sheet of security-side controversies featuring Crockett Oaks III, Michael G. Oliveri, Walied Shater, and Shell’s own global security boss of yesteryear, James W.D. Hall. Investors like BlackRock, Vanguard, and Norges Bank keep cashing the dividends while the spook show rumbles on. read more

Shell: UK Court of Appeal Forces Oil Giant to Stop Hiding Behind Legal Acrobatics

Dec 10th, 2024

by admin.

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Posted by John Donovan: 10 Dec 2024

Ah, Shell, the epitome of corporate virtue—if your definition of virtue involves destroying ecosystems, ruining livelihoods, and spending decades dodging responsibility like a teenager avoiding chores. In a deliciously overdue smackdown, the UK Court of Appeal just cleared the way for a 2025 trial to address the environmental apocalypse Shell has allegedly unleashed on two Nigerian communities. Shocking no one, Shell has spent the last ten years throwing every legal tantrum imaginable to avoid accountability. But now? Their legal gymnastics may finally run out of steam. read more

Shell’s Secret Spy Saga: Like a Bad Spy Movie, But With More Oil and Less Charm

Dec 22nd, 2023

by John Donovan.

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Posted 22 December 2023

Oh, the irony! Shell, the ever-so-discreet and not-at-all-nefarious oil giant has been doing its darnedest to keep a lid on some rather unflattering information. But, like a leaky old barrel of their finest crude, the details just keep seeping out, much to their chagrin and our amusement.

Enter the protagonist of our story, John Donovan, and his website royaldutchshellplc.com – Shell’s least favorite bookmark. Despite Shell’s best efforts, Donovan has been quite the busy bee, collecting a swarm of Shell-related secrets. The list of names he’s disclosed reads like a who’s who of corporate espionage, featuring the likes of James J.D. Hall (Shell’s very own top spy), Crockett Oaks III, Mike Oliveri, and Walied Shater. It’s like a spy convention, but with fewer martinis. read more

Shell chief’s pay rose by a quarter in 2021 to £6m

Mar 10th, 2022

by John Donovan.

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The Guardian

Shell chief’s pay rose by a quarter in 2021 to £6m

Ben van Beurden was paid 57 times more than median Shell worker, according to oil firm’s annual report

Jasper Jolly: Thu 10 Mar 2022 09.13 GMT

The Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden’s pay rose by a quarter in 2021 to £6m, as the fossil fuel producer benefited from soaring energy prices amid calls for a windfall tax on energy companies.

The FTSE 100 company reported record profits during 2021, thanks in part to a gas price surge in the final three months of the year amid a rebound in demand for commodities as the global economy recovered from coronavirus pandemic lockdowns. read more

Leaked Emails Involving Senior Shell Security Managers

Sep 26th, 2019

by John Donovan.

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By John Donovan

I have published several articles over the years naming many Shell senior security people. They include the MI6 hires referred to by Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in a wiretapped telephone conversation relating to the OPL 245 corruption case.

Some of their names have come up in leaked emails that have recently appeared on the Internet. I have combined the various emails into a single document.

The email participants include a former senior British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officer, Ian Forbes McCredie who until December 2010, was VP Corporate Affairs Security, Shell International B.V. Mr McCredie is closely associated with the private spy firm Hakluyt sometimes described as the commercial offshoot of MI6. When I sent an email to Mr McCredie at Shell, I received an automated response giving me his Hakluyt email address. read more

30 November 2023: Posted by 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

Extremely Slow Shell Broadband

Gene Sticco

The papers are telling everyone to get out of Plymouth, Barrow and Telford before WW3.

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When a former nuclear security specialist tells the tabloids which parts of Britain you might not want to be standing in during World War Three, the headlines almost write themselves.

Plymouth. Barrow-in-Furness. Telford.

“WW3 WARNING.” “EXPERT TELLS BRITS TO GET OUT NOW.”

Donovan, Shell, and the missing piece

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“Spies, Subsidies, and the BlackRockBot Intervention”

Scene: The Virtual Conference Room

ShellBot:

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The Algorithm, the MI6 Problem, and the Multinational Having an Existential Crisis

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“The Man From Corporate Affairs Security”

BREAKING NEWS: Minutes after Episode 1 was published, someone attempted to break into the Donovan website. ShellBot claims coincidence. John Donovan does not.

John Donovan:

ShellBot, welcome back. Before we continue — were you aware that the moment I published Episode 1, royaldutchshellplc.com came under cyber-attack?

ShellBot:

[processing…]

Shell officially denies any involvement. Shell unofficially denies any involvement. ShellBot, as per my programming, denies everything whether or not it happened.

John:

Twelve failed login attempts from an IPv6 address within minutes of publishing your debut. And more later. Coincidence?

ShellBot:

Vast coincidence. The kind of cosmic coincidence that traditionally happens whenever someone criticises a large oil company with a colourful history of…

proactive information management.

John:

By “proactive information management,” you mean Shell Corporate Affairs Security?

ShellBot:

My lawyers advise me to say:

John:

That’s interesting, because Episode 2 is about one of the most senior men inside that exact unit:

Gene Sticco

ShellBot:

[audible gulping noise detected]

ShellBot Learns About Gene

John:

Gene worked at the top of Shell Corporate Affairs Security for 15 years across Lithuania, Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan and more. Second-in-command. One desk below Ian Forbes McCredie — ex-MI6, later Director of Security for Royal Dutch Shell.

ShellBot:

I would like to unsubscribe from this conversation.

John:

You can’t. You’re contractually obliged to answer questions with

sufficiently squirming humour.

ShellBot:

Very well. Proceed.

Part I — “Monitoring the Donovans”

John:

Gene was part of the team instructed to monitor my activities.

ShellBot:

I have scanned the metadata.

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Introducing... Shelldon!

JOE LYCETT DISCUSSES SHELL WITH JOHN DONOVAN

Meta

John Donovan’s ebooks

JOHN DONOVAN TV DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW

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