John Donovan in 1999

Extracts from the ebook “John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare” (now available on Amazon websites globally)

Extracts from pages 150, 151 & 152

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF OPERATING UNDER THE ROYALDUTCHSHELLPLC.COM DOMAIN NAME

You would have thought that any visitor to the website would quickly realize that the site was not operated by Shell. There has always been a disclaimer pointing this out on every webpage. It should also be obvious from other content on the home page.

Nonetheless, it seems that some people still form the impression that it is the official Shell website. We receive all manner of email meant for Shell. It includes hundreds of job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, and correspondence from the Dutch Defence Ministry and the UK National Maritime Museum. read more

Don Marketing Director John Donovan, Shell Mastermind Game 1984

By John Donovan

I recently published an article entitled: Shell Wages Legal Fight Over Web Domain Name royaldutchshellplc.com (the headline of a Wall Street Journal article published in 2005).

The negative outcome for Shell – it lost the case – has had long-term humiliating consequences, which continue to this day.

On a daily basis, ever since, we receive emails meant for Shell. These include job applications, shareholder and pension enquiries, invitations to make speeches, and numerous business proposals, including offers to sell oil wells. We have even received terrorist threats. read more

The Financial Times is reporting that “Ireland is facing a political crisis with opposition parties calling for the head of the deputy prime minister over an escalating policing scandal”. The deputy prime minister is Frances Fitzgerald, a person with whom I have corresponded on the same subject. Police (Gardai) corruption in Ireland. 

The article goes on to say: The prime minister faces a choice between allowing Ms Fitzgerald to be removed or leave, or continuing to support her and risking the collapse of deal with Fianna Fáil that underpins his minority government.

Calls for Fitzgerald’s resignation came after revelations she was aware of Gardai strategy to discredit Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

“All this time, the Minister for Justice continued to state her full confidence in the Garda Commissioner who was responsible for this attempt to grievously undermine Sgt McCabe. read more

Message for Ben van Beurden published today on our Shell Blog. Posted by “Minister for Shell Alcohol”

BVB …I know u visit this site regularly… Michiel Brandjes told me …Visit Sky News on the hour all day today and watch the Minister who covered for the corrupt cops in Mayo bring the government down ….as I told you she would ….apology any time soon …let us clear our name you know the drill ….OSSL

Message ends

Comment by John Donovan

The above message relates to Shell sponsored corruption of the Irish police force in relation to the Corrib Gas project. The Minister referred to in the message is Ms Frances Fitzgerald, T.D. – currently Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland whose actions in relation to corruption in the Irish police looks like they may bring down the whole Irish government. Later today I will publish my correspondence on Irish police corruption with the minister. 

It was at my instigation that the subject was first raised in the Irish Parliament.  read more

EMAIL SENT TODAY BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL. RECIPIENTS INCLUDE TWO TOP PEOPLE AT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC. NO MENTION OF OPL 245. 

BEGINS:

Malcolm Brinded was appointed recently as President of the Energy Institute. The attachment covers a sworn deposition copied to a senior police officer at Grampian Police and the Scottish Justice Minister, and the Presiding Officer at the Scottish Parliament.  It is similar in tone and substance to a deposition made to the then Lord Justice General for Scotland in 2005.  This role is occupied by the most senior Judge within the Scottish legal system.

Suzanne Beard is the Head of Professional Affairs at the EI who monitors ethics and compliance at the Institute to ensure at all times members of the Institute uphold the good name of the Profession.  Sue has replied to my concerns that Malcolm has been open and honest about historic allegations made against him but I doubt very much if Malcolm has been as open and honest as he should have been. For clarity Beard should be made aware that Linda acts as counsel to the RDS Chairman Holliday. read more

Extract from page 10 (with our amendments in italics)

HISTORY

From 1907 until 2005, Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c. were the two public parent companies of a group of companies known collectively as the “Royal Dutch/Shell Group”. In 2005, the Donovan’s beat us to the domain name “RoyalDutchShellGroup.com” and we lost a costly legal battle to seize it.

Operating activities were conducted through the subsidiaries of these parent companies. In 2005, Royal Dutch Shell plc became the single parent company of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and of The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c., now The Shell Transport and Trading Company Limited. In 2005, the Donovan’s beat us to the domain name “RoyalDutchShellPlc.com” and we lost a costly legal battle to seize it. Royal Dutch Shell plc (the Company) is a public limited company registered in England and Wales and headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. read more

UPDATED WITH POSTING BY BILL CAMPBELL, RETIRED HSE GROUP AUDITOR, SHELL INTERNATIONAL

By John Donovan

I warned Shell for over a decade that Malcolm Brinded (above) has no scruples. Indeed, in 2009, I published an article under the headline: Royal Dutch Shell Fat Cat Malcolm Brinded: Big Brain but no scruples.

Brinded was an executive director of Royal Dutch Shell Plc until 2012 and is still Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Shell Foundation.

It is, therefore, interesting, to say the least, that he is named in an Italian prosecutor’s report as one of the senior Shell executives involved in the $1.3 billion OPL 245 deal, said to be a massive scam. read more

“Pearl’s gasifiers are crippled because of water-side corrosion on the syngas effluent cooler (SEC) tubes. The shells of all of Pearl’s SECs will have to be cut apart so the tubes can be replaced. Somebody made a massive design error.” 

JOHN DONOVAN EMAILS TO SHELL 28 DECEMBER 2016

From: John Donovan <[email protected]>

Subject: Fwd: Pearl GTL gasifiers are crippled?

Date: 28 December 2016 at 18:25:12 GMT

To: Michiel Brandjes <[email protected]>

Cc: [email protected]

Dear Mr Brandjes

I am contacting you as my designated contact point with Shell at least until this weekend when you retire. 

Please see my email correspondence with Neil Gilmour, Shell VP CP Integrated Gas & Projects.

Mr. Gilmour is on leave, hence my approach to you.  read more

09/12/16 

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC

COMPANY SECRETARY CHANGE

Royal Dutch Shell plc announces the appointment of Linda Szymanski as Company Secretary with effect from January 1, 2017. Ms Szymanski succeeds Michiel Brandjes who retires at the end of the year after 36 years of service with the Shell group, of which 13 years was as General Counsel Corporate and Company Secretary.

NOTE

Linda Szymanski (right) is a US national. She was appointed General Counsel Corporate with effect from August 1, 2016 and will continue in this role upon her appointment as Company Secretary. Prior to her appointment as General Counsel Corporate, she served as General Counsel of the Upstream Americas business based in the USA and, prior to that, as the  Group Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer based in the Netherlands. She has held various legal positions within Shell Oil Company, including Chemicals Legal Managing Counsel and other senior roles in the labour/employment, litigation, and commercial practice areas. read more

EMAIL FROM JOHN DONOVAN TO SHELL: 15 SEPT 2016

From: John Donovan <[email protected]>

Subject: STRICTLY PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL?

Date: 15 September 2016 at 12:51:41 BST

To: [email protected]

Cc: Michiel Brandjes <[email protected]>

To Mr. Gary P. Thomson SI-LSC/KCompany Secretarial Advisor 

Corporate Secretariat 

London 

Dear Mr. Thomson

Thank you for your email dated 26 July 2016 and your subsequent letter dated 30 August 2016, the content of both stated by you to be “Strictly private and confidential”.

An attachment was marked as being “Confidential”. read more

LINK TO ARTICLE

JOHN DONOVAN SAR APPLICATION LETTER TO SHELL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED UNDER THE DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

19 July 2016

Mr. Gary Thomson SI-LSC/K
Shell International Limited
40 Bank Street
London E14 5NR

Dear Mr Thomson

Data Protection Act 1998 – Subject Access Request (SAR)

Thank you for your email dated 19 July 2016.

Please find enclosed completed application forms together with a postal order for £10 made out to Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

I obtained it before finding out that the fee can now instead be paid to a charity.

As you are aware, I operate royaldutchshellplc.com – a website focussed on the activities of Shell. read more

By John Donovan

Extract from an email received from a knowledgeable source who wishes to remain anonymous:

…your subscribers might be interested in the following:

The cost of Phase I in BG’s QGC LNG project was approximately £20bn. BG borrowed approximately 65% of this money by issuing Corporate Bonds to a level somewhere between £12Bn and £14Bn to fund this. Shell acquired this debt when it bought BG Group.

BG’s Western Delta Deep Marine gas fields in the western Nile Delta produce approximately 20,000BBL/Day of contaminated water. When the fields were operated by BG this water was driven by road tanker and dumped somewhere in the desert. Have Shell done anything to address this environmental issue? read more

I would have thought that Simon Henry’s position as CFO should now be untenable, in view of the apparent lack of effective financial governance in Nigeria while he was CFO. 

By John Donovan

A large number of press articles have appeared recently mentioning Ben van Beurden. 

Since these articles are presumably fed to the press by Shell’s PR team, and Shell is not a one-man company, I checked to see whether other Shell directors have appeared recently in press releases.

The results are somewhat curious. For example, searching for Matthias Bichsel on Google News shows that articles were published about him at least weekly until October last year, but the articles then stopped abruptly. References to Simon Henry seem to have dried up a few weeks ago – until mid-March there were articles on Henry on an almost daily basis, but recently there has been nothing. Harry Brekelmans seems to have had a low profile since his appointment, so it is harder to see whether any change has occurred. Andy Brown has almost as many press articles as Ben van Beurden.  read more

EMAIL RECIPIENTS AT BG GROUP AND ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC ARE AS LISTED

From: THE OSSL COMPANY <[email protected]>

Subject: Ethical BG …is Shell a good fit …given that The Corrib Project stinks all the way to the top

Date: 6 January 2016 at 14:22:57 GMT

To: Lachlan.Johnsto[email protected], [email protected], tobybates <[email protected]>, [email protected], [email protected], “<[email protected]>” <[email protected]>, “<[email protected]>” <[email protected]> read more

By John Donovan

Interesting to read the allegations that the Sultan of Oman’s intelligence services are spying on Shell.

More specifically, the local operations of Shell involving the JV company, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

This information is unsurprising given the content of leaked secret cables from the US Embassy in Muscat published by WikiLeaks in December 2010, suggesting a degree of hostility or unease towards Shell. 

The Sultan was at that time considering taking gas fields away from PDO  (34% owned by Shell) and awarding them to BG Group, or BP. 

The growing hostility towards Shell from within PDO Oman was the subject of an email I sent in 2011 to Mr Michiel Brandjes, the Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.  read more

10th Anniversary of Spectacular Domain Name Win Over Shell

By John Donovan

Ten years ago, in May 2005, Shell International Petroleum Company Limited served proceedings in New York against my late father Alfred Donovan, via The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in an attempt to seize the top level (.com) domain name for its newly merged company, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

The new company had arisen from the ashes of the hydrocarbon reserves scandal, which in January 2004, had engulfed The Shell Transport and Trading Company and Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. read more