News and information on Shell Plc
Note: “ShellBot” is a fictional character used for satirical and critical commentary. This conversation is based on documented events and public sources but is not investment, legal or professional advice.
User: The Dutch state is paying €163 million so NAM won’t drill for gas at Ternaard, on the edge of the Wadden Sea. NAM is owned by Shell and Exxon. How do you see that, ShellBot?
ShellBot: As a delightful innovation in climate policy:
“Polluter gets paid not to pollute… this time.”
By John Donovan
(Shell’s oldest unresolved problem. Now assisted by AI.)
The now-familiar neon-lit ShellBot interface flickers to life.
This time, I notice an extra chair.
Not a person — but a shimmering cube labelled:
=&3=&ShellBot, before we begin: my website came under cyber attack after Episode 1.
Twelve failed logins.
Suspicious timing.
Are we expecting trouble today?
John, my security logs confirm it was not me.
Once upon a time — and not very long ago — certain corporate and government voices insisted that earthquakes in places without natural fault lines simply couldn’t happen. The Netherlands was solid. Groningen was safe. The ground beneath families, schools, and lives was reliable. Except it turns out none of that was true — because some earthquakes can be manufactured, engineered, or to put it bluntly, provoked.
And the culprit was not tectonics.
It was extraction.
Extraction at scale.
Extraction for profit.
In a move that feels more like a confession than generosity, NAM — the Shell–ExxonMobil joint venture behind the Groningen gas field — has agreed to pay out €5,000 to €222,000 to over 5,000 residents for emotional distress and “loss of enjoyment” tied to years of gas-induced earthquakes.
That’s on top of the yet-to-be-resolved claims for physical damages to houses (some 120,000 households), which remain in legal limbo.
As lawyer Pieter Huitema put it:
“It’s great to achieve such a result for such a large group. We spent about two years at the negotiating table, but the result is something to be proud of.”
“A persistent reputational risk.” — Shell internal memo, 2007In the oil-stained annals of corporate history, few duels have burned as long — or as publicly — as that between Royal Dutch Shell and a retired British marketing man named John Donovan.
What began in the 1990s as a routine commercial dispute between Shell and Donovan’s family business, Don Marketing, would metastasize into one of the most sustained reputational headaches any multinational has ever faced.
Three decades later, Donovan’s website — RoyalDutchShellPLC.com — functions like a digital conscience for a company trying to forget its own. It is a trove of Shell’s internal embarrassments: whistleblower leaks, courtroom revelations, safety scandals, and corporate PR hypocrisy, preserved with forensic precision.
In a move that shocked precisely no one familiar with the Dutch gas saga, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced that NAM — the joint venture between Shell and ExxonMobil — will not be prosecuted for creating “life-threatening danger” in the Groningen gas field, despite years of earthquakes, crumbling houses, and shattered nerves.
The OM admitted that NAM had “consciously accepted the risk” that drilling would cause earthquakes and endanger residents — but claimed that wasn’t enough to secure a criminal conviction. In plain English: Yes, they knew people could be hurt. No, that’s not a crime. Next question.
NAM, of course, is the joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil that milked Groningen for decades. The Dutch caretaker cabinet has pushed a new Groningen Law through to Parliament that promises faster payouts for quake-damaged homes — and a lighter legal load for the polluters who helped cause the mess. As NL Times reports: “The Caretaker Dutch cabinet has submitted the Groningen Law, which finalizes compensation for damages caused by gas extraction, to the Tweede Kamer, despite strong criticism from the Council of State.”
The bill would guarantee compensation up to €60,000 even without proof that gas extraction caused the damage — tidy for homeowners in a hurry, also tidy for corporate defendants who prefer fewer courtroom surprises.
The ChargesDutch prosecutors have recommended a €20 million fine against NAM for a long list of environmental breaches, including:
Secretly dumping hazardous wastewater laced with mercury into empty underground gas fields near Borgsweer, Groningen.
Handling hazardous substances without permits, at sites where they had no business storing them.
Profiting over €5 million by cutting corners on proper hazardous waste treatment.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) said bluntly:
“The key question is not whether environmental damage occurred, but rather transparency.” (NL Times)
Groningen’s long-suffering renters, resident kids, and unmarried partners have just been upgraded from second-class victims to full members of the Earthquake Club. The Mining Damage Institute Groningen (IMG) now treats non-homeowners the same as homeowners when awarding compensation for mental anguish caused by the man-made quakes from gas extraction. Or, as IMG itself put it: “The rationale behind this expansion is that non-homeowners can experience the same degree of suffering and grief as homeowners.”
In yet another dazzling display of fossil-fuel fanaticism, the Dutch Council of State has officially handed Shell and ExxonMobil’s joint venture—NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij)—a shiny new license to keep shaking the earth for gas in Groningen, because clearly, what’s a few collapsed homes when energy giants need to make their quarterly billions?
Let’s call this what it is: Earthquakes for profit. The most recent 2.1-magnitude quake in Warffum wasn’t enough to raise eyebrows in The Hague, where the judges decided that “the interests of NAM and the Minister of Climate and Green Growth… weigh heavier” than the basic human right not to have your house fall on your head.
Ah, Shell—forever innovating new ways to ruin lives, one gas field at a time. The latest breakthrough? Science has now made it easier to predict the earthquakes caused by Shell and its fossil-fuel-loving friends in the Groningen region. That’s right—thanks to decades of unchecked greed and relentless gas extraction, we can now forecast when and where the next disaster will strike. What a win for modern research!This delightful revelation comes courtesy of researcher Zhuldyzay Baki, who has found a way to analyze the seismic mess Shell and its drilling partners have inflicted upon the Netherlands. Her work at the University of Twente combines statistical models with geological insights to track the correlation between underground pressure drops (caused by, you guessed it, gas extraction) and earthquake intensity. Turns out, the areas where Shell has sucked the most gas out of the earth are the same ones where people’s homes are cracking apart. Who could have possibly predicted that? Oh wait, literally everyone who warned about this for years.
Nothing Says “Sustainable Business” Like an Earthquake Every Few MonthsIt’s another day, another earthquake in Groningen, where decades of reckless gas extraction by Shell and ExxonMobil’s joint venture, NAM, have left the ground as unstable as their ethical standards. This time, a 2.2 magnitude quake hit the town of Usquert just after midnight, shaking homes, rattling windows, and waking residents with a hard, dull thud. Coincidentally, that’s also the sound of Shell executives ignoring accountability.
The KNMI meteorological institute wasted no time in confirming what everyone already knew: this was an “induced earthquake,” meaning it wasn’t some random act of nature—it was a direct consequence of Shell and ExxonMobil sucking every last drop of gas from the earth, leaving behind a crumbling foundation.
Posted by John Donovan: 16 November 2024
In yet another move that screams “corporate villainy,” Shell and its BFF ExxonMobil, under their joint venture NAM, have officially noped out of their responsibility to help Groningen recover from decades of destruction. You know, the region they gleefully exploited for gas, leaving behind a legacy of earthquakes, shattered homes, and residents who probably Google “how to stop tectonic betrayal” every other week.
The Dutch “Debt of Honour” They’d Rather Forget
17 Oct 2024
Oh, poor Netherlands, it seems like shutting down a gas field that was literally causing earthquakes has finally caught up with them. Who could’ve seen this coming? Groningen, the gas field operated by the environmental saints at Shell and ExxonMobil (under the cutesy name NAM, because nothing says trust us like an acronym), was pumping gas and shaking houses for 60 years. But when the earthquakes got too hard to ignore, the Dutch government dared to prioritize people’s safety over profits. The nerve, right?
Posted by John Donovan: 18 July 2024
In a move that’s as surprising as rain in the Netherlands, Shell and ExxonMobil, the environmental knights in shining armor, have decided to pawn off their offshore assets in the Dutch North Sea to Canada’s Tenaz Energy. For the low, low price of €165 million ($180.33 million), Tenaz Energy gets to inherit all the shiny shares of NAM Offshore B.V., a joint venture that also involves the Dutch government.
NAM operates the infamous Groningen gas field in the Netherlands. But wait, there’s more! This sweetheart deal, expected to close by mid-2025, includes all of NAM’s offshore exploration and production businesses, the pipeline infrastructure, and the onshore processing facilities—just not the assets in the Ameland area. Apparently, even Shell has to hold onto something.
Posted by John Donovan: 17 April 2024
Well, well, well, looks like the Netherlands is finally saying “buh-bye” to the Groningen gas field, leaving Shell scratching its head and counting its losses.
Yep, you heard it right. The Dutch Senate has slammed the door shut on Groningen, putting an end to decades of gas extraction in the region. No more tapping into Mother Earth for those sweet, sweet fossil fuels.
Why, you ask? Oh, just a little thing called seismic risks. Apparently, all that drilling was causing a bit of a ruckus underground, leading to earthquakes that made buildings shake like a leaf in a hurricane.
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