7 December 2018

Dow Chemical Co and Shell Oil Co have been hit with a lawsuit by the city of Arcadia, California accusing the companies of contaminating the city’s drinking water with a toxic chemical found in pesticides the companies once made.

Filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, the lawsuit said the companies knew or should have known that the chemical, known as 1,2,3-trichloropropane, or TCP is toxic and renders drinking water unsafe.

The companies still manufactured and marketed pesticides containing the chemical for years, the lawsuit said. read more

One of the listed articles focussed on allegations that Shell was spying on its own employees. Runar Kjørsvik, a whistleblower from the Shell Nyhamna Gas Plant, had discovered to his shock and horror that Shell was in possession of surveillance photographs of him taken by persons unknown. He alleges that Shell used undercover agents to spy on him.

Norske Shell whistleblower, Runar Kjørsvik

By John Donovan

Nearly two years ago, I published an extraordinary series of articles about the sinister conduct at Norske Shell, the Norwegian subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Links are provided below in date order.

A translated example of one of the news articles published in Norway in the late few days is printed below. They reveal the pressure being put on the Norwegian government over the involvement of “external investigators” in so-called fact-finding surveys used in proceedings against employees. read more

Even after his arrest, Kiobel bravely campaigned to improve conditions in his home area, writing to Komo to appeal for a military withdrawal from Gokana (in Ogoniland) because of “indiscriminate shootings, killing of innocent persons.” 

Extracts from pages 35 & 36 of an Amnesty International document entitled: “A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s”

Ken Saro-Wiwa: Before launching MOSOP, Ken Saro-Wiwa, from Bane in Ogoniland, was a successful writer. From 1985-90, some 30 million Nigerians tuned in every week to Basi and Company, a comedy-drama he wrote for Nigerian TV.152 Several of his books won international acclaim, including Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, and On a Darkling Plain.153 The prosecution accused Ken Saro-Wiwa of inciting his supporters to kill the four chiefs meeting at Giokoo. It claimed that shortly before the attacks, he told a group of supporters “to deal with the “vultures.”154 The only witnesses to allege this, Charles Danwi and Nayone Akpa, subsequently signed alleging that the government and Shell had bribed them to make false statements (see above.)155 Ken Saro-Wiwa denied the accusation.156 read more

From: John Donovan
Subject: Next Email to Parliamentarians
Date: 1 October 2018 at 21:00:35 BST
To: [email protected]
Cc: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>, William Campbell

Dear Mr Thomson

Printed below is a draft of my next email to Parliamentarians. Usual invitation: Shell is welcome to point out for rectification any inaccurate information. Shell is also invited to provide comment for unedited inclusion alongside the article in a prominent form. If I receive no response by Wednesday noon I will assume Shell does not wish to take up these invitations. More time will happily be given for Shell to provide any such substantive response if so requested before the deadline. Accuracy of stated facts is far more important than any rush to publication. I am sure Mr. Campbell will let me know if he spots any error in regard to matters known by him. If Shell does not want to have advance sight of future such emails, then please advise accordingly and I will comply with that request. Yours sincerely John Donovan

DRAFT

EMAIL TO ALL MP’s AND PROMINENT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: ROYAL DUTCH SHELL LAWYERS HAVE HAD ADVANCE SIGHT OF WHAT YOU ARE HOPEFULLY ABOUT TO READ.

SHELL NORTH SEA PLATFORM WORKER DEATHS DESERVING A PUBLIC INQUIRY

Just how bad does has a company have to be before the Church of England withdraws investment on ethical grounds?

You may have seen the email I recently sent to over around 1,000 parliamentarians, including senior clergy and the former Scottish Energy Minister Baroness Liddell, who has a Shell connection. The email was about the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Church of England’s significant investment in Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Many thanks for all the responses received.

Today I would like to bring to your attention just one of the many scandals rattling around in Shell’s corporate cupboard. read more

Brinded’s reaction to the devastating findings and recommendations of the Campbell led review was to shoot the messenger, namely, Bill Campbell. Brinded chose to ignore the stunning findings by the audit team and the recommendations made by its leader Mr. Campbell in relation to the Asset Manager. Instead, Brinded supported the mentally unhinged “foaming at the mouth” Asset Manager who was able to return to his tyrannical TFA regime shortly thereafter, despite his instability. Compared with him, Captain Bligh was a sweetie. The inevitable fatal outcome accurately foretold in the review, resulted from the ruthless, unprincipled criminal decision by Brinded to put production before safety. Astonishing stuff bearing in mind that the Asset Manager repeatedly blamed “his master” Brinded, who he colourfully described as a “bastard”

SHELL HAD ADVANCE SIGHT OF THIS ARTICLE AND ATTACHMENT, AND THEREFORE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION TO PREVENT PUBLICATION. THE SAME APPLIES TO BARONESS HELEN LIDDELL 

LINK: THE PLATFORM SAFETY MANAGEMENT “STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL” REVIEW NOTES IN WHICH ALL OF THE INFORMATION BELOW, AND MUCH MORE, CAN BE SEEN IN JAW-DROPPING CONTEXT

By John Donovan

In November last year the brother of Keith Moncrieff, one of two workers who in 2003 tragically died in an accident on the Shell Brent Bravo North Sea oil platform, sent a heart-rending letter to Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chairman Charles Holliday.

He pleaded for help in bringing “these evil men to justice” – a reference to the Shell executives and officials he now knows were responsible for what the Scottish courts determined were “avoidable deaths“.  As far as I am aware, no reply was forthcoming. Not even the courtesy of an acknowledgment. (UPDATED 3 Oct 2018 PM: IN FACT MR HOLLIDAY DID REPLY AND DID OFFER HIS CONDOLENCES – SEE THE BOLD BLUE TEXT FURTHER DOWN) read more

In Ogoniland, Shell has polluted the land, turning it into a wasteland, destroying the people’s livelihoods and insisting on not compensating the people for the losses.

By Fegalo Nsuke

It’s barely two months to the twenty third memorial of nine Ogonis killed for Shell by the Nigerian authorities on November 10, 1995. This evil Enterprise we call Shell has stopped at nothing to push forward it’s brutally against the Ogoni people.

A few weeks ago, we – the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) called for investigations into the cases of harassment against Ogoni women in Gokana by soldiers attached to Shell workers currently laying pipelines in Ogoniland. And more recently, the cases of Doodealo and Dr Nwosu, both researchers who were brutally manhandled by the same soldiers while they attempted to take samples for soil tests in Ogoniland. At this moment, the Nigerian authorities have not acted in any way to protect our women from further abuses nor have they commissioned any probe into these cases. In their response to the harassment of women, Shell claimed that the soldiers do not take instructions from them. But the fact remains that Shell invited the soldiers in their desperation to return to oil production in Ogoniland without any broad-based discussions with the people and therefore cannot deny responsibility for the crimes. Shell in Nigeria is inhuman and a Shame. Its conduct in Nigeria is despicable and an ugly representation of today’s business community. With her overwhelming influence on the Nigerian government, Shell has taken advantage of our country to inflict monumental pain on our people, abusing citizen’s rights and has also devised a way of evading justice for the people. In Ogoniland, Shell has polluted the land, turning it into a wasteland, destroying the people’s livelihoods and insisting on not compensating the people for the losses. Fully aware of the discriminatory laws under which Nigeria operates, the very laws that threaten the existence of resource-based communities like the Ogoni, Shell has completely abandoned their social responsibilities and has instead divided the people against each other just to maintain it’s dominance and deprive the people of every voice that can announce their oppression to the knowledge of the world. Shell has prosecuted the war on Ogoni with every resource available to it, exploiting the people’s weaknesses especially the discriminatory laws that has deprived the Ogoni people their rightful place in our country. Rather than helping to build a progressive and prosperous host Community, Shell is comfortable with the current system that allows the company do what it dares not to do in Europe. After taking over 100 billion dollars worth of oil from Ogoni, a company like Shell which doesn’t use her conscience continues to act indifferently even as it’s Pollutions in Ogoni sadly and currently kills over 200 Ogonis every week. Shell does not feel bothered that people’s livelihoods have been destroyed and they deserve to be compensated. Shell cannot claim to be ignorant about the fact that their cannot be remediation without compensation for damages. But Shell must pay for her crimes in Ogoniland. It does not matter the strength of the Nigerian armies, Ogoni will not surrender to murderers like Shell nor shall we surrender to the discriminatory laws of Nigeria which threaten our survival. We demand justice for the Ogoni people of Nigeria. We demand political rights to self determination, we demand the rights to a respectable and dignified living. These rights are currently enjoyed by other groups in Nigeria who take away Ogoni resources and share among themselves leaving Ogoni with nothing but the pain and sad consequences of revenue generation; we demand the review of the death sentences passed on nine innocent Ogonis during the regime of General Sani Abacha in 1995; we demand the payment of compensation by Shell for the destruction of livelihoods by oil spills from the company’s reckless oil mining business in Ogoniland since 1958, and an adequate funding for the cleanup and restoration of Ogoniland. These demands are justifiable, legitimate and do conform with the ideals of the founding fathers of our country. We state categorically that as a people, we shall not compromise on our rights nor shall we relent on our demands for fairness and justice as contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights. This post is written by Fegalo Nsuke, publicly secretary of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). He wrote from Bori, Ogoniland.

Disclaimer

The views, information, allegations or opinions expressed above are those of the author/originator of the article. They have not been substantiated by the publisher of this website and may not represent the publishers views. read more

LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pioneered Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and remains a major investor in the West African country. But over the decades it has come under fire over spills in the Delta region and struggles with oil theft, corruption and oil-fueled violence.

Following are some of the highlights of Shell’s history in Nigeria:

1936 – The Royal Dutch Shell Group establishes a Nigerian venture with the precursor company of BP Plc. The first shipment of oil from Nigeria takes place in 1958. read more

EMAIL BEING SENT THIS WEEKEND TO EVERY UK MP. 

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Hypocrisy

Justin Welby is in hot water again. He has criticised another controversial company, last time Wonga and this time the tax-shy Amazon. Both later embarrassingly revealed to be businesses in which the Church of England is an investor. 

BBC Newsnight aired a package on Friday 14 Sept drawing attention to the subject and the Church of England’s numerous questionable investments. In particular, its holdings in BP and Shell, both described as being toxic. 

I can speak with some authority in relation to the toxicity of Shell. read more

The NAM, for example, had the reputation of being an exemplary company that neatly arranged its affairs for its citizens. That picture is different now. Allegations that the risks of gas extraction from small fields are not so, are no longer believed.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad. NAM is the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and consequential potential bill for untold billions to deal with damaged residences.

Gas is now a dirty word outside of Groningen

Bas Knoop

The earthquake trauma of the Groningers now also causes unrest among citizens living near smaller gas fields. From Steenwijkerland to Waalwijk: more and more places are brewing resistance. Together with local authorities, citizens make gas extraction the subject of a political and legal battle with The Hague. read more

Royal Dutch Shell should apologise for antisemitic conduct and Nazi support

By John Donovan

I strongly believe that Royal Dutch Shell should be held accountable for its outrageous antisemitic actions against its own employees, which cost some of them their lives. The same applies to Shell’s huge financial support for Nazi Germany that contributed to the deaths of some 50 million victims in WW2 including those poor souls who perished in the Holocaust. Shell’s leader, Sir Henri Deterding, was an ardent Nazi feted by Adolf Hitler. Shell has never apologised or expressed any remorse.  read more

A British criminal lawyer, Michael Birnbaum QC, who observed the trial, concluded that it was deeply unfair. “The judgement of the Tribunal is not merely wrong, illogical or perverse. It is downright dishonest. The Tribunal consistently advanced arguments which no experienced lawyer could possibly believe to be logical or just. I believe that the Tribunal first decided on its verdict and then sought for arguments to justify them. No barrel was too deep to be scraped.”

Extracts from pages 33 & 34 of an Amnesty International document entitled: “A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE? SHELL’S INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN NIGERIA IN THE 1990s”

OGONI 9: UNFAIR TRIAL AND EXECUTION

On 6 February 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Dr Barinem Kiobel and the other prisoners were allowed to see their lawyers for the first time since their arrest in May the previous year.136 They were put on trial by a specially constituted tribunal – The Civil Disturbances Tribunal. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuinen, and Saro-Wiwa’s deputy in MOSOP, Ledum Mitee, were accused of inciting the murders. The other men were accused of carrying them out. They all faced the death penalty and were denied the chance to appeal. read more

…clearly, they cannot absolve themselves of responsibility because they (Shell) brought in the soldiers to Ogoniland…In the last seven days, at least 50 persons excluding children died in Gokana alone… It appears a strategy for Shell to use the fear of death to compel our people to give up on the oil… The company (Shell) has in their racist conduct of business in Ogoniland carted away over $100 billion worth of oil, completely destroyed the environment and now unwilling to cleanup the mess from its operations. read more

By John Donovan

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has refused to reconsider its extraordinary decision barring a Nigerian activist widow Esther Kiobel, from obtaining Royal Dutch Shell discovery documents from a U.S. case, held by Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, for litigation she is pursuing against the oil and gas giant in the Dutch courts.

Her husband, Dr. Barinem Kiobel, was one of the “Ogoni 9,” executed by the then Nigerian military regime on false charges. Esther Kiobel holds Shell complicit in his hanging. read more

By RestCo Principal Christopher Ives

Shell Nigeria recovers 95% spilled oil (Aug 20, 2018)

My colleague Darry MacMahon wrote – Pardon my skepticism, but how would they know? I’m making some assumptions here, based on typical oil industry and pipeline operation practice.

If you come up with a ratio number, like 95%, you need two underlying numbers: the amount recovered and the amount actually spilled.

The people doing the clean-up might have a reasonable number on how much they picked up. That number will likely be a little inflated, as they will also likely have picked up some water and small debris as part of the clean-up. Big vacuum units are not good at discriminating between oil and other things in and around the oil. So, the numerator is likely overstated. read more

Renewal of Shell’s Ogoni Mining Rights: An Insult on our Collective Dignity MOSOP

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has reacted to the news of the renewal of Shell”s mining rights in Ogoni saying it comes as a shock and an insult on the collective dignity of the Ogoni people. read more

Nigerian Government and Shell Should be Ashamed of Ogoni Pollution Rather Than Publicize It – MOSOP

7 AUGUST 2018

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) says the Nigerian government and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited aught to be ashamed of their conduct in Ogoniland rather than speaking of cleanup plans for Ogoni as an achievement.

Nsuke spoke yesterday in Bori, Khana local government area of Rivers State during an interactive session with Ogoni youths. The MOSOP spokesperson said it was absurd to celebrate a shameful conduct like we have seen with Shell in Ogoniland. “Shell polluted the area and denied any wrongdoing, now a scientific report has unveiled the misconduct they hid for over 50 years“. “It is quite unfortunate that after over 50 years of polluting Ogoniland, our government and Shell do not understand that they should be apologizing to the Ogoni People and hurry to restore the land” he said. Nsuke further said “Shell and Nigeria’s conduct over the Ogoni issue is a shame because the government and Shell have watched over the destruction of Ogoniland and now want us to celebrate them because they want to use the cleanup to nichodimously resume oil production in Ogoni”. He maintained that Shell must be brought to justice over the more than 4000 Ogonis that have died from state-sponsored persecution and terminal diseases which now threaten every individual living in Ogoni Nsuke called on the government and Shell to compensate the Ogoni People for their losses, respect the rights of the Ogoni people as outlined in the Ogoni Bill of Rights, decriminalize the 9 innocent Ogonis including Ken Saro-Wiwa whom they hanged on November 10, 1995 and stop further abuses of the Ogoni People.

Disclaimer

The views, information, allegations or opinions expressed above are those of the author of the article. They have not been substantiated by the publisher of this website and may not represent the publishers views. read more