USE YOUR BROWSER TO ENLARGE IMAGE

Facts 

In support of his claim, Curless relied on a leaked email from April 2018 sent by Shell’s managing counsel, Alex Ward, to Curless’s manager. In this email, Ward explained that Shell could use a planned reorganisation of its in-house legal team in order to terminate Curless’s employment. Ward added that this approach was worth considering so as to avoid the risk of “impasse and proceedings with ongoing employment with no obvious resolution”. Curless alleged that the emails showed that Shell’s redundancy process was a sham used to terminate his employment, and that he had been made redundant because he had raised his grievances internally about his disability discrimination and brought a claim in the Employment Tribunal. 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

We are judged by how we act: our reputation is upheld by how we put into practice our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people. These values underpin our Shell General Business Principles and the Shell Code of Conduct. Our Global Helpline allows employees and stakeholders to raise concerns and report instances of potential non-compliance with our values and principles.

The Shell Global Helpline is not for customer complaints or enquiries.

• Please contact your local Shell office for customer service related issues.
• Find out how to react to suspected fraudulent job offers, prize awards and business propositions.
• Please find the responsible disclosure policy for cyber security

What is the Shell Global Helpline?

The Global Helpline enables Shell employees and others to raise concerns or dilemmas, or to seek advice on a matter related to compliance with the law and our business principles (SGBP) and Code of Conduct, in full confidence and without fear of retaliation. read more

Too Bad for a Minority

“Dance, my people, dance the guns to silence”  – Ken Saro-Wiwa

By OSA DIRECTOR

Article published by Dateline Magazine: Page 5, Jan 4, 1996

Ken Saro-Wiwa, renowned author, playwright, committed environmentalist, social crusader, and intellectual humorist even in moments of terror, tribulation and humiliation, refuses to lose his wit candour and deep-seated enthusiasm to ensure justice for his people and redefine the unjust Nigeria federation, as depicted in the above quote from his last interview with TELL in the Bori military detention camp. Even though diminutive in stature, he was a cerebral colossus, with immense courage, verve and resolute determination. read more

Rejoinder: Ken Saro-Wiwa: A Playwright And Revolutionary, But A Man With Trading Instinct

Dear Editor,

Please see and publish the article below with above headline.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Ben Ikari, author of Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP: The Story and Revelation; Rights and Environmental Justice Advocate.

Dear Janet Anderson:

Thank you for taking the time to write these good words credited to you about Ken Saro-Wiwa in the headline above. It was reportedly published in the Tempo Newspaper Nigeria, on Jan. 2, 1996 though originally printed in the Daily Telegraph of Nov. 13, 1995.  Saro-Wiwa was, of course, the foremost minority rights crusader of Africa. He was a prolific and accomplished writer who authored more than 27 books. He also had several newspaper publications and position papers to his name; a non-violent and peaceful, intelligent, smart and witty world’s environmental martyr he was. He was truly altruistic. read more

USE BROWSER TO ENLARGE IMAGE

Says the decriminalization of the Ogoni martyrs has become a key demand of the Ogonis

Calls for an End to Ogoni Killings

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has hinted of a roadmap to Ogoni development. MOSOP leader, Fegalo Nsuke gave the hint on Sunday at a commemorative church service at the Methodist Church, Wesley Cathedral in Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni people, to mark the 24th anniversary of Ogoni martyrs day, a day set aside to honor the fallen heroes of the Ogoni struggle including renowned author and environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa..

Nsuke did not give details of the roadmap but while addressing the church service hinted that “if we can have a Niger Delta Development Commission, a Niger Delta Basic Development Authority, then we can also have an Ogoni Development Authority” read more

Use browser to enlarge image

Esther Kiobel expresses her sincere thanks to Amnesty International and other parties supporting her Dutch lawsuit against Shell

A heartfelt message of thanks from Esther Kiobel

It has been a very hard road and long, long journey in the fight for fundamental rights of my late husband, Honorable Dr. Barinem Nubari Kiobel and other distinguished Ogonis who have suffered the most horrific abuses or murdered by the former Nigerian junta to help their exclusive collaborators. Shell Oil Corporation continue the exploitation of Nigerian crude oil resources under the most reckless human rights abuses ever imagined. read more

Court blocks use of pub chat and leaked email in Shell unfair dismissal claim

 by Allister Thomas: 06/11/2019, 7:30 am

A former senior lawyer at Shell cannot use a leaked email or an overheard pub conversation in his discrimination claim, a court has ruled.

Michael Curless was senior legal counsel for the energy giant from 1990 until his termination in 2017, which Shell said was by reason of redundancy.

However Mr Curless, who suffers from obstructive sleep apnoea and type 2 diabetes, made an employment tribunal claim that he was the subject of “disability discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal” which Shell denies.

He also alleged that Shell used the planned reorganisation of its in-house legal department following its 2016 takeover of BG Group as a pretext for terminating his employment. read more

Shell floating wind deal ‘sensible’ but won’t herald investment revolution, analyst says

by David McPhee: 06/11/2019, 7:15 am Updated: 06/11/2019, 7:35 am

The timing of oil giant Shell’s decision to acquire French floating wind firm Eolfi is “very sensible”, but isn’t likely to herald a revolution in how it invests its money, according to a top energy expert.

Adam Forsyth, head analyst at Longspur Research, said that while he considers the move to be a wise investment for Shell, he’s not entirely convinced that a great number of super-majors will follow.

He said: “It seems very sensible for Shell to be making this acquisition. read more

Hakluyt is known as a retirement home for ex-MI6 officers…

Hakluyt (now Holdingham Group Ltd) a private MI6 outfit, that met with …

Hakluyt, a UK-US corporate intelligence arm and offshoot to MI6

Created by former MI6 British Secret Service agents, Hakluyt is an ultra secretive firm whose client list reads like a who’s who of the business world…

The ensuing scandal catapulted Hakluyt to mainstream notoriety, and led several MPs to accuse MI6 of using the firm as a front for its own operations. read more

Shell has given £6m to fund the work of the university’s magnetic resonance research group amid a concerted campaign by students and staff to persuade the university to sever its links with extractive industries.

Cambridge University has accepted a multimillion-pound donation from Shell to fund a team researching oil extraction technology, even as it publicly positions itself as part of the transition to a sustainable future.

Shell has given £6m to fund the work of the university’s magnetic resonance research group amid a concerted campaign by students and staff to persuade the university to sever its links with extractive industries.

Sinead Lynch, the chair of Shell UK, has been invited to join the panel at a policy-making workshop on Monday. Environmental campaigners at Cambridge have raised questions about potential links between the donation and the invitation. read more

The Hague, Netherlands — The Dutch Advertising Code Commission reprimanded Shell on appeal for its misleading advertising at Shell’s Generation Discover 2018 children’s festival.

The Board of Appeals ruled that Shell misled children between the ages of 8 and 14 by suggesting its Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) technology would contribute to a better environment and to attaining UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Board strongly recommended that Shell “no longer make advertisement campaigns in this manner.” read more

Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden made an unplanned intervention midway through his company’s earnings conference call in an attempt to lessen the damage from its warning it may fall short of a share buyback target. The move only invited confusion and the shares slid.

Shell positioned itself as the sector’s cash king over the past two years after major projects came on stream and commodity prices rebounded from the crash.

But with weaker economic growth threatening oil demand and crude supplies surging, Europe’s biggest oil company warned that it may not finish a $25 billion buyback program by the end of next year as planned. read more

The Archbishop of York has called for urgent action to stop the oil spills that are devastating communities in Nigeria’s Bayelsa state.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC ahead of the interim report of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission, which he chairs, the archbishop said that a slow environmental genocide is taking place.

Bayelsa is the region where oil was first discovered in the country in the 1950s. There are hundreds of oil spills each year in Nigeria, some caused by equipment failure – others by sabotage. 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

• Merijn Rengers
• Carola Wood Room
• September 30, 2019

The mysterious suitcase can finally be opened. For years prosecutors in the Netherlands and Italy have been waiting for a suitcase full of potentially incriminating documents about the involvement of the Shell and Italian oil companies Eni in a corrupt oil deal in Nigeria. The suitcase was seized by accident in Geneva in April 2016 and has since been the subject of a large number of legal proceedings.

They are now over, according to a judgment published this week by the federal court in Geneva. Both the Italians and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service therefore have access to the case, the Swiss public prosecutor tells NRC . read more