In brief

*The number of accidents per man-hour worked has risen again for the first time in a long time last year.

*A series of incidents, criminal investigations and warnings from regulators are damaging Shell’s safety image.

*Shell CEO Van Beurden himself is also not satisfied and wants to do more to guarantee safety.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.

Beeld: Getty Images/ bewerking: FD Studio

Shells gas leaks, fires and accidents

Bert van Dijk: 13 March 2019

Last year the number of accidents per hour worked increased at the oil company. Supervisors warn that Shell needs to do more about safety.

In December 2017, during regular maintenance work, a lifeboat suddenly came loose on the Shell platform Brent Alpha in the North Sea. The lifeboat fell into the sea and was recovered a day later. Although no one is injured, it was not the first time. In 2008, it was discovered that two lifeboats on another nearby Shell platform, Brent Bravo, were technically in such poor condition that they had to be replaced. And in 2007 a rescue boat on another Shell platform broke loose and collapsed into the sea. read more

By John Donovan

Shell internal email correspondence relating to the OPL 245 oil deal has been very revealing and may seal the fate of defendants in the Italian trial, including the former MI6 people hired by Shell. Their names, Guy Colgate and John Copleston, appeared on the emails. read more

By John Donovan

Printed below are extracts from Shell’s Annual Report and Form 20-F 2016 relating to the OPL 245 corruption scandal. Shell confirmed that authorities “in various countries” are investigating its investment in Nigerian Oil Block OPL 245. 

Page 15

Authorities in various countries are investigating our investment in Nigerian oil block OPL 245 and the 2011 settlement of litigation pertaining to that block. On January 27, 2017, the Nigeria Federal High Court issued an Interim Order of Attachment for oil block OPL 245, pending the conclusion of the investigation. Shell has applied to discharge this order on constitutional and procedural grounds. On February 14, 2017, we received notice of the request of indictment from the Italian prosecution office in Milan with respect to this matter. read more

Between November 2015 and January 2016, 380 kilos of the carcinogenic substance ethylene oxide went into the air every day. Justice now states that Shell has not taken enough measures to prevent such accidents: “By acting in this way they have put workers and people in the environment in danger,” according to the Public Prosecution Service.

English translation of an article published in Dutch by nrc.nl earlier today

Justice summons Shell for explosion and leakage in Moerdijk

In 2014, two people were injured in a fire. Two years later, a Shell plant leaked carcinogens.

Maartje Geels: 1 March 2019

The fire in 2014 at a Shell complex on an industrial estate in Moerdijk was then seen in Rotterdam. Photo GinoPress / ANP

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is suing Shell for an explosion and a leak at a complex of the oil and gas company in Moerdijk. This confirms justice Friday in response to reports from Het FD. Earlier on Friday, it was also announced that Shell is being prosecuted for corruption in Nigeria. read more

BY JOHN DONOVAN

I am interested in contacting the author of the buyer review below by a verified purchaser of my EBook available on Amazon.com and many other Amazon sites. The five-star review has only just been brought to my attention.

I would like to know more about the background to the serious allegations made against Shell Oil Company.

BUYER REVIEW OF MY EBOOK

Very Interesting Read. Highly Recommend!

This company’s unsafe practices caused the explosion and death of my father that left a total of 10 children without fathers. They used fraud, coverup, lies and deception and even refused to pay my family Workers Compensation or my father’s funeral. This book has let me know that Shell Oil Company has ruined so many other people’s lives and has no limit on how far they will go to save money and hurt people. read more

REUTERS REPORT ON ROYALDUTCHSHELLPLC.COM WEBSITE

The website, which Donovan said receives 2 million hits a month, has also featured attacks on Shell’s safety and environmental record.

Most of the vast reams of information and news reports on the site is unflattering about Shell, whose market capitalisation tops $182 billion.

Another email seen by Reuters, apparently from a Shell communications representative to U.S. news network Fox News said: “royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out”. read more

Former Shell CEO Peter Voser is an unlucky man. He had the incredible misfortune to be in charge of the bad guys at both corporate giants, Shell and UBS Bank simultaneously, while presumably being personally innocent of any criminal acts? What are the chances of that happening? The question of managerial negligence, twice-over, must surely be another matter?

By John Donovan

Printed below is an article published yesterday by BBC News reporting that the “Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €3.7bn (£3.2bn; $4.2bn) in a French tax fraud case.”

The article goes on to say that “Following similar cases in the US in 2009 and Germany in 2014, the bank accepted large fines.”

During the period of criminal activity the then Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc – Peter Voser – was paid millions of Swiss francs in his role as a director of UBS AG. He was also a member of the governance and nominating committee and of the strategy committee. read more

Esther Kiobel poses with a picture of her late husband, one of nine men executed by Nigeria’s military government after a peaceful uprising against Shell in 1995. Photograph: Amnesty International

By John Donovan

I heard from a major news organisation that Esther Kiobel brought up my name several times during an interview at the Dutch court hearing yesterday, kindly expressing her thanks for my help.

Esther approached me after the US Supreme Court decision that thwarted on jurisdiction grounds her attempts to sue Shell in the USA for complicity in the murder of her husband, Dr Barinem Kiobel. It took over a decade of litigation to arrive at that decision. read more

By John Donovan

I became aware today of a letter (see below) which a director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre sent to Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden on 5 February 2015. The communication stemmed from my campaigning activities that ended with Allseas renaming the worlds largest ship. I will shortly be supplying the Simon Wiesenthal Centre with a trove of evidence about Shell’s Nazi history including its close partnership in Nazi Germany with IG Farben, the chemical giant which manufactured the gas used to exterminate several million Jewish people in the Holocaust. Dutch Directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group including Sir Henri Deterding helped finance Hitler and the Nazi Party.

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE – EUROPE

Tel. +33-147237637 – Fax: +33-147208401

E-mail: [email protected]

“Annul Shell’s dealings with Allseas – a company which apparently celebrates Nazi crimes by glorifying a perpetrator”

“It is interesting to note on the Shell portals’ list of associated countries, the conspicuous absence of Israel”

Paris, 5 February 2015

In a letter to Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Ben van Beurdon, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted, “Shell has contracted from the Swiss-based offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction company, Allseas Group, their crane-ship Pieter Schelte, to service Brent oil platforms on the British continental shelf.” read more

IMAGE INSERTED BY JOHN DONOVAN

By Janene Pieters on February 12, 2019 – 15:30

Four Nigerian women are suing Shell in the court in The Hague. They’re demanding apologies and compensation from the Dutch oil and gas giant for the execution of their husbands in Nigeria in 1995. According to the widows, and Amnesty International who is supporting them, Shell encouraged the then military regime to unlawfully arrest and detain their husbands because they were critical of Shell and the regime, RTL Nieuws reports. read more

12 February 2019, 00:01 UTC

A Dutch court will today hear the first arguments in a historic case against Shell, in which the oil giant stands accused of instigating a raft of horrifying human rights violations committed by the Nigerian government against the Ogoni people in the 1990s. Esther Kiobel, Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula are suing Shell over what they say is its role in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian military, following a brutal crackdown on Ogoni protests against Shell’s devastating pollution of the region.

Amnesty International, which is supporting the plaintiffs and legal team bringing the case, has independently documented Shell’s role in killings, rape and torture carried out by the Nigerian government in its effort to crush protests. Barinem Kiobel, Baribor Bera, Nordu Eawo and Paul Levula were hanged in 1995 after a sham trial. Their widows are now demanding compensation and a public apology from Shell. Five other men, including protest leader Ken Saro-Wiwa, were executed alongside them and they have become collectively known as the Ogoni Nine. read more

The ugly truth behind the deaths – criminal negligence, corruption, falsification of safety records, conducted under a brutal, mentally unbalanced Asset Manager operating a Touch F*** All regime, supported by Malcolm Brinded, has been covered up by Shell for almost two decades. Shell got away with manslaughter. 

By John Donovan

Printed below are emails and attachments sent last month to the named parties by Bill Campbell. Where indicated, the recipients included Trade Unions and the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee. Mr Campbell is a retired global safety guru for Royal Dutch Shell. I have redacted personal email addresses. read more

Reading between the lines, Dublin’s own assessment is that the outcome from a no-deal Brexit could actually bring about what they fear most – the return of a hard border.

Irish backstop farce engineered by Irish PM Leo Varadkar and his deputy Simon Coveney (above)

By John Donovan

The duo representing Ireland in the Brexit negotiations have consistently insisted on the need for a backstop in the EU/UK Brexit withdrawal agreement to prevent any return to a hard border between the UK and the Irish Republic.

Irish PM Leo Varadkar and his deputy Simon Coveney have persuaded all other remaining EU member countries to insist on the inclusion of a backstop in any Brexit withdrawal agreement.

Britain has consistently stated that there will be no return on its account to a hard border.

Although the backstop issue is the main block to the withdrawal agreement being approved by the UK Parliament, the Irish have continued to insist on a cast iron backstop mechanism with no time limit.

It is only in recent days that alarm bells have started to ring in Dublin and elsewhere about how the EU intransigent on the backstop could spectacularly backfire. Matters that Coveney would prefer to keep secret have begun to seep out.

Extract from Irish Times Article

…when Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told the daily press briefing in Brussels yesterday that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, “you will have a hard border” in Ireland, alarm bells sounded in Dublin.

Extract from The Guardian

The warning came a day after Irish police chiefs denied they had drawn up secret plans to send 600 officers to beef up border security if Britain crashes out of the EU on 29 March without an agreement.

Extracts end

Varadkar is now nervously warning about the prospect of British police and army checkpoints reappearing on the border in the event of a no-deal scenario.

Varadkar warns of army checkpoints on border after a no-deal Brexit

Chaotic Brexit could see uniformed border police, says Irish PM

Brexit: Soldiers may return to Irish Border, Varadkar warns

Reading between the lines, Dublin’s own assessment is that the outcome from a no-deal Brexit could actually bring about what they fear most – the return of a hard border.

This time with a mostly hostile population on the UK side of the border pissed off by Irish government unhelpful mischief in the exploitation of Brexit. How would that help those who dream of a United Ireland?

Varaskar has made plain his disdain for the democratic Brexit referendum vote and is trying to thwart the outcome. A reckless gamble that could indeed backfire badly, irrespective of the nationality of police or soldiers on the border.

If it ends up with forces in place on either side of the border, who knows what might happen, bearing in mind that terrorists could deliberately create an incident that could ignite a war. A potentially very dangerous scenario that could happen.

MORE RELATED INFORMATION

Extract from “Hundreds of gardai to patrol border in Ireland if UK crashes out of EU“

Hundreds of gardai to patrol border in Ireland if UK crashes out of EU“Abandoned from across the Channel and from across the Atlantic by the two great allies who in the previous century saved it twice from suicide; vulnerable to the increasingly overt manipulations of the master of the Kremlin, Europe as an idea, as will and representation, is coming apart before our eyes,”

EXTRACTS FROM RELATED ARTICLES

Europe ‘coming apart before our eyes’, say 30 top intellectuals

“Abandoned from across the Channel and from across the Atlantic by the two great allies who in the previous century saved it twice from suicide; vulnerable to the increasingly overt manipulations of the master of the Kremlin, Europe as an idea, as will and representation, is coming apart before our eyes,”

The backstop has backfired

• The EU’s unacceptable insurance policy could bring about the very hard border it was designed to prevent

•  The EU is risking no deal to defend a backstop designed to ensure free trade on the island of Ireland

•  Barnier and Varadkar risk being caught in their own Irish border trap

Newton Emerson: The backstop has completely backfired for Ireland

Provision has poisoned relations and muddied understanding of Belfast Agreement

The backstop strategy is in danger of backfiring 

BREXIT BACKFIRE: Dublin’s border gamble could end in DISASTER admits Irish professor

Emotions running high in Ireland as Brexit stirs up horrific and not-so-distant memories

Fighting between the two was only brought to a halt in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, which drew to a close a disturbing modern period of ethno-nationalist warfare known as The Troubles.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal — which almost cost her leadership this week — is so controversial among Brexit supporters in the UK specifically because it avoids the reintroduction of a so-called “hard” Irish border, which many fear would stir up violence.

Sunday Times article 27 Jan 2019: Bombers vow to exploit troubles over Irish border and backstop

Extract: Republicans are gearing up for violence as a key part of the EU deal threatens to bring about the outcome it was meant to prevent

**********************************************************

Irish TV: Tonight Show: “This BS backstop has backfired in our face” -Hermann Kelly on Anglo-Irish relations over Brexit

The Irish Times 5 March 2019: Taoiseach denies more gardaí being sent to border region due to Brexit

Extracts

Mr Varadkar was responding to a number of Opposition TDs reacting to an Irish Independent report about armed units being sent to the border in anticipation of the fallout from a hard Brexit.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin asked why Ireland was “the only EU member that has not said what will happen on its borders in a no-deal scenario”, while it was reported that armed units were being sent to the border in anticipation of a no-deal Brexit. read more

By John Donovan

Printed below is a self-explanatory email sent last month to the named Trade Union parties and the Scottish Government Justice Committee by Bill Campbell, retired global safety guru for Royal Dutch Shell Plc. I have redacted personal email addresses.

It was also copied to a family member Susan Moncrieff of one of the deceased Brent Bravo platform workers, Keith Moncrieff.

From: Bill Campbell
Subject: Technical Notes
Date: 18 December 2018 at 12:23:19 GMT
To: [email protected], [email protected]
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] read more

Oaks refused to countenance a policy of illegal discrimination insisted upon by his boss James W.D. Hall, Vice President of Corporate Security, located at Royal Dutch Shell plc’s Global Headquarters in the Netherlands. Hall, a mysterious British Citizen, is the alleged Mr Nasty in this matter. He is described in the Complaint as “the top executive in Shell’s entire Corporate Security Organization…”

Doc 1- Michael Oliveri Complaint against Shell Oil Company dated 27 June 2017. 72 pages with lots of revealing high-level Shell internal emails as exhibits.

Court Order on Oliveri Case 15 Jan 2019

By John Donovan

Former FBI Special Agent Crockett Oaks III joined Shell in 2003 and until two years ago was paid over $325,000 per year as head of Shell Security in the Americas. He has a military background currently holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Oaks was for some time involved in Shell’s murky Nigerian operations as Shell Head of Business Integrity in Nigeria. A little matter called OPL 245, along with other Shell sponsored corruption, was also going on at the time.

He was wrongfully dismissed on an unrelated matter. Oaks refused to countenance a policy of illegal discrimination insisted upon by his boss James W.D. Hall, Vice President of Corporate Security, located at Royal Dutch Shell plc’s Global Headquarters in the Netherlands.

Hall, a mysterious British Citizen, is the alleged Mr Nasty in this matter. He is described in the Complaint as “the top executive in Shell’s entire Corporate Security Organization…”

The Complaint states:

Shell had many opportunities to intervene in this matter and correct the illegal and wrongful actions of James W.D. Hall, that were in violation of Shell’s Code of Conduct and the laws of the United States. Instead, Shell leadership at the highest levels of the Company chose to rally behind the discriminatory actions of Mr. Hall, and erect a facade designed to try to cover up Mr. Hall’s illegal discrimination.

Crockett Oaks III was accused of allegedly hiding a Conflict of Interest by hiring a friend, Mike Oliveri – another senior officer from the same U.S. Army Reserve Unit. Oaks supplied copious evidence proving the allegation was unfounded.

The heated dispute ended up in the U.S. courts. (The link to my article 12 April 2017 from which part of the above text is taken.

I published a further article on 17 August 2017

Extracts

The falling out was over the hiring of another recruit to Shell’s corporate security Mike Oliveri, another guy with a senior military/security affairs background.

Shell picked on the wrong guys to upset, Crockett Oaks III and Mike Oliveri.

Crockett Oaks III sued Shell for a “systemic pattern and practice of intended discrimination at Shell and its parent company, Royal Dutch Shell plc”.  Basically, discrimination and retaliation.

He had the goods on Shell, which quickly settled for big bucks. The secret details, juicy quotes and revealing Shell internal emails were sealed into a confidentiality agreement. Fortunately, I have an excellent US source.

Now Mike Oliveri is suing Shell on pretty much the same grounds, perhaps salivating at the prospect of a similar big bucks settlement to buy his silence. He knows all about Shell’s wrong-headed support for James W.D. Hall despite the blatant disregard by Mr Hall of Shell’s claimed business principles and his underhanded retaliation against Oaks and Oliveri when they stood up against his ill-treatment of them.

The Court Order issued a few days ago dismisses Shell’s attempt to seek a Summary Judgment rejecting the claim of alleged discrimination.

“For the foregoing reasons, the court concludes that there is a genuine issue of material fact such that a reasonable jury could find the actions taken by Shell against the Plaintiff constituted discrimination…”

Although Michael Oliveri’s battle against Shell continues, the back history is so embarrassing for Shell that it is unlikely Shell will want the witnesses and related toxic testimony and evidence paraded in open court.

Shell is therefore likely to settle out-of-court with Mr Oliveri as it wisely did with Mr Crockett Oaks III and with me on several occasions.

CURRENT/FORMER SHELL PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE CASE, AS INDICATED IN COURT DOCS

Bruce Culpepper, Shell’s then US Country Chairman and Shell Oil Company President

James W.D. Hall, Vice President of Corporate Security, located at Royal Dutch Shell plc’s Global Headquarters in the Netherlands. read more

EMAIL COMMENT RECEIVED FROM BILL CAMPBELL FOLLOWING PUBLICATION OF THE ARTICLE Royal Dutch Shell lied to thousands of its employees over offshore death

From: William Campbell
Subject: Re: Brent Bravo
Date: 17 January 2019 at 12:29:50 GMT
To: John Donovan <[email protected]>

John, thanks

I hope that this indisputable evidence from a governmental report will quell the abusive comments etc made about you on the website, just poison etc.

I am absolutely sure that Holliday fully understands the rottenness of the organisation he joined but is trapped like Ollila and Brandjes were trapped by the corruption disease emanating from MB. Corruption is like the Spanish Flu, it effects everyone it comes into contact with.

The significance of the HSE report cannot be overstated, the chronology is also important, this opinion of the HSE was reached on 18 November 2004 a year before the FAI and purposefully withheld from the FAI, this can no longer be disputed by anyone.

Bill

EXTRACT FROM A COMMENT RECEIVED FROM A SHELL RELATED SOURCE

I like your english understatement. ‘Shell not happy’. 👍😁

Some people would love to have you killed but there is nothing they can do. They must be so frustrated.  Could not have happened to nicer people.

And I admire Bill, he is like a pitbull that does not let go. read more