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By Vivienne Walt: October 11, 2019

Even for a company the size of JPMorgan Chase, it might to be hard to miss a sum of $1.1 billion zipping across a client’s account. That’s the argument currently winding its way through U.K. courts in London, where the government of Nigeria is suing the biggest U.S. bank, arguing that oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and the Italian company Eni paid that amount to allegedly corrupt Nigerian officials in 2011 for a license to drill in a hugely rich offshore oil block—and that JPMorgan ought to have blocked the deposits. read more

By Ellen Milligan: 8 October 2019, 14:39 BST

Two Royal Dutch Shell Plc units were sued over their involvement in one of the largest oil spills in Nigeria’s history.

Shell Nigeria Exploration & Production Co. and Shell International Trading & Shipping Co. allegedly undermined the emergency response to the spill eight years ago and made inadequate efforts to contain it, according to lawyers for the Oil Spill Victims Vanguard.

“That oil, which has never properly been cleaned up, continues to blight the claimants, their environments, livelihoods and communities to this day,” lawyer Graham Dunning said in court documents. read more

A witness hearing examining Shell’s role in the execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s is a key opportunity to hold the oil giant to account over its alleged complicity in human rights abuses, Amnesty International said.

The Kiobel v Shell case resumes at The Hague on 8 October and will for the first time hear accounts from individuals who accuse Shell of offering them bribes to give fake testimonies that led to the ‘Ogoni Nine’ – who included Esther Kiobel’s husband – being sentenced to death and executed. read more

Nigeria/Netherlands: witnesses heard in landmark case scutinising Shell’s role in execution of Ogoni Nine

Shell accused of complicity in execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s

Witness hearing a key chance to hold Shell to account

A witness hearing examining Shell’s role in the execution of nine men in Nigeria in the 1990s is a key opportunity to hold the oil giant to account over its alleged complicity in human rights abuses, Amnesty International said.

The Kiobel v Shell case resumes at The Hague today (8 October) and will for the first time hear accounts from individuals who accuse Shell of offering them bribes to give fake testimonies that led to the ‘Ogoni Nine’ – who included Esther Kiobel’s husband – being sentenced to death and executed.

Esther Kiobel and three other women – Victoria Bera, Blessing Eawo and Charity Levula – accuse Shell of being complicit in the unlawful arrest, detention and execution of their husbands. The men were hanged in 1995 along with renowned activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and four other men after they were convicted in a blatantly unfair trial. read more

OPL 235 related extracts from an article published by THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH on 6 Oct 2019: “The West puts the brakes on dictators’ ill-gotten gains”

By Adrian Blomfield AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: 6 Oct 2019

One case more than any other has galvanised Western action against African corruption. Deepwater OPL245, a 617-square-mile-stretch of territory that contains within it a potential £500 billion fortune, is known as the Eldorado of Africa: an estimated nine billion barrels of recoverable oil buried under the sea off Nigeria’s coastline.

For a country with the highest rates of extreme poverty in the world, it should have been a huge windfall. read more

U.S. DOJ says Eni probe not closed for lack of evidence, could re-open

OCTOBER 2, 2019 / 7:53 PM

MILAN (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice has described as “misleading” any implication that it had closed a probe into alleged corruption by Italian energy major Eni for lack of evidence and said the investigation could be re- opened if circumstances changed.

Eni, the biggest foreign oil and gas producer in Africa, is currently on trial in Milan on graft allegations surrounding the 2011 acquisition of a giant Nigerian oilfield.

It has also been involved in a long-running corruption case involving its previously 43%- owned unit Saipem over alleged bribes paid to win contracts in Algeria. A Milan court acquitted it last year but the decision is subject to appeal. read more

By Julianne Geiger – Oct 02, 2019, 10:00 PM CDT

Royal Dutch Shell and Eni are in the clear as far as the US Department of Justice is concerned, after the DOJ on Wednesday notified the two separately that it was closing its investigation into the OPL 245 oilfield case—also known as the Malabu oil deal–in Nigeria that dates back to 2011.

“The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has notified us that it has closed its inquiry into Shell in relation to OPL 245. We understand that this is based on the facts available to the DoJ, including ongoing legal proceedings in Europe,” Shell said in a statement on Wednesday, as carried by Reuters. read more

Q & A with Esther Kiobel, currently the lead plaintiff in the above Dutch lawsuit against Shell

Q: Who are the Ogoni People?

The Ogoni people are mainly fishermen and farmers who live on the coastal plains in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. With a population now over a million, going by recent estimates, Ogoni people are mainly lovers of peace, lovers of their guests, especially the guests that bring development. However, in recent past, the peaceful disposition of the Ogoni has been abused and pockets of violence deliberately orchestrated by Shell has further rendered the people worse than poor.

Ogonis produce the richest harvest that feeds not just Rivers State, but also parts of Nigeria. This explains why the Ogoni economic mainstay remains farming (agriculture) and fishing. Only a handful of Ogonis are government employees such as academics and other forms of civil service. Others are traders. read more

Directors of an Irish subcontractor, OSSL, testified under oath in an Irish court that OSSL distributed bribes on behalf of Shell, including over €30k in free alcohol to the Irish police. The purpose of the corruption was to smooth the path of the controversial Corrib Gas Project, which had attracted huge public protests in Ireland.

For more information read the Observer/Guardian article: “Strange tale of Shell’s pipeline battle, the Gardaí and £30,000 of booze.”

Published by John Donovan of royaldutchshellplc.com read more

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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

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Alleged Non-Remittance: Environmental Activist Wants EFCC, AGF To Probe Shell: Writ Issued 24 Sept 2019

An environmental activist and legal practitioner Anderson Achilike has in a suit called on the Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami, and the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited.

Achilike in the suit filed on Wednesday at the Federal High Court, Abuja sued Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria limited over alleged non-remittance and under declaration of crude oil exportation and shipment; instigation of acts of pipeline vandalism; oil theft; third party interference in trunk line operations; incessant cases of fire outbreak.

Achilike said he filed the action “as a matter of urgent national importance to save the dwindling economic fortunes of the country from acts capable of undermining the future of Nigeria.” read more

By John Donovan

Esther Kiobel is one of three “Ogoni 9” widows whose collective case against Shell is currently moving forward in the Dutch courts. Esther is the lead plaintiff.

Esther accuses Shell of conspiring with a corrupt Nigerian military dictatorship in the murder of her husband Dr. Barinem Kiobel who, along with other members of the Ogoni 9, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, where all hanged on false charges. 

Esther has asked me to republish a related extensive report by the UNPO – the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization – published in February 1995. read more

• BY DAVID J. MITCHELL | STAFF WRITER
• SEP 17, 2019 – 5:31 AM

PLAQUEMINE — A retired appellate judge appointed to hear a longstanding oil field legacy lawsuit involving the Spanish Lake swamp breathed new life into the landowners’ damage claims this week when he granted them new hearings that keep Shell Oil firmly in the dispute.

Filed in 2010 in Iberville Parish, the lawsuit brought by Spanish Lake Restoration, a wetland mitigation bank holding 4,000 acres of the swamp southwest of Baton Rouge, has never gone to on trial on the merits.

The plaintiffs allege wastes from decades of drilling have contaminated the surface and subsurface under old drilling areas in the St. Gabriel oil field and migrated under Spanish Lake Restoration land, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to hundreds of acres. read more

By John Donovan

For more than a decade, Shell’s reputation has been damaged by this website not by the publication of lies, but by us telling the unvarnished truth.

How can you judge if this claim is true or false?

Logic provides the answer. If we published fake news or falsehoods, Shell would have sued for libel long ago. It dare not do so because fact, not fiction, is a complete defence against libel. Furthermore, Shell does not want its toxic past or current corporate sins ventilated in open court. read more

The anger among Groningers was great after two earthquakes last spring. It fueled the fear of new cracks and subsidence, while in some cases the old damage was not even repaired by the syrupy claim settlement and reinforcement operation.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published 10 Sept 2019 by the Dutch FT, 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.

Saying goodbye to Groningen gas much faster than expected

Bas Knoop In short

The cabinet wants to stop gas extraction in Groningen much faster than planned. Not in 2030, but already in 2022.

Next year gas extraction will fall to 11.8 billion cubic meters, just below the ‘safe’ level of 12 billion cubic meters.

In order to accelerate the gas extraction, nitrogen is added to imported high-calorific gas. Nine large industrial users are no longer allowed to use Groningen gas from October 2022.

Due to the lower gas extraction, the natural gas revenues for the cabinet will fall by €400 million next year. A new gas deal with Shell and ExxonMobil is being prepared. read more