Below is a translation of a news brief issued today 7 Nov 2019 – by NAM, the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field. And also for the consequential potential bill for untold billions to deal with damaged residences like the example in the photograph. Someone forget to mention in the news brief the shocking reason why the Dutch government ordered the closure. The word “earthquake” does not appear anywhere.

TRANSLATION

Close gas field Groningen started in Ten Post

It seems only a signature, but it marks the start of the closure of the Groningen field. At the end of October, NAM transferred the Ten Post gas extraction site to Meuva.  This company will start cleaning up the location around 11 November. 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

A court in Rotterdam, Netherlands, has ruled against Shell’s attempt to prevent certain documents seized from its headquarters in 2016 from been used against it in a trial over its purchase of Oil Prospecting License (OPL 245).

Under Dutch rule, documents that have been examined by a lawyer and used to make internal recommendations in an organisation cannot be tendered in a trial against that firm based on a professional secrecy law.

Shell had tried to argue that its 15 internal lawyers had viewed the documents in question and deserve the professional secrecy cover. 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

GRONINGEN, the Netherlands — Driving through fields of low-lying Dutch farmland you pass an occasional odd cluster of silvery pipes and tanks. They are the only visible sign that deep below this northeast corner of the Netherlands is one of the world’s largest natural gas fields.

Unless you stop by one of the nearby farmhouses weakened by earthquakes linked to gas extraction. At her handsome home in the village of Appingedam, Nicole van Eijkern pointed to sagging external walls and cracked ceilings. Heavy beams buttress her house, inside and out, and it is scheduled to be torn down. read more

Article from page 13 of the Nigerian newspaper “Dateline” published 4 Jan 1996.  Sourced from the archive evidence files of Esther Kiobel (right), one of the Ogoni 9 widows currently suing Shell in the Dutch courts. Her late husband Dr. Barinem Kiobel, can be seen in the same photo. Esther has been seeking justice from Shell for over two decades for its alleged complicity in his murder. 

Shell ‘Paid Nigerian Military’

By GEOFFREY LEAN

“Ruthless military operations” were proposed specifically to help Shell establish stability in its oil business in Nigeria, a confidential memorandum obtained by the Independent on Sunday reveals. It recommends”wasting vocal individuals.”

The internal state security memorandum which is marked “restricted” 12 times, says that regular financial “inputs” from oil companies have been discussed. A British environmentalist said yesterday that the author of the document had told him that his men had been paid by Shell to protect installations. read more

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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

The Dutch government wants Shell to clean up the foundations of three oil and gas platforms in the British part of the North Sea, infrastructure minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen has told MPs.

The minister’s comments follow the publication of a report on the decommissioning operation which recommends the clean up be carried out as agreed over 20 years ago in international treaties.

The licence request ‘does not sufficiently support’ the claim that leaving the foundations and storage units, which contain polluted material, is the best option from an environmental or safety point of view, the minister told MPs. read more

PODCAST LINK

In 1995, the Nigerian government executed the Ogoni Nine – environmental activists who were trying to fight Shell’s exploitation of their homeland. Now, four widows are taking the oil company to court. And: Dan Sabbagh on the ramifications of Trump’s shock decision to withdraw from the Turkish-Syrian border

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Presented by Rachel Humphreys with Kate Hodal, Esther Kiobel, Channa Samkalden and Dan Sabbagh, produced by Gary Marshall; executive producers Nicole Jackson and Phil Maynard read more

FD Dutch News: Shell, Justice, KLM and hundreds of others internal network ‘wide open’ for months

The internal network of hundreds of companies, including Shell, KLM and Schiphol, has been ‘wide open’ for months because of serious vulnerabilities in their VPN connection. De Volkskrant writes this on Saturday based on its own research.

A VPN is a security connection between the user and the internal network, often used when people want to work at home on their corporate network. One of the four most important VPN providers in the world, Pulse Secure, suffered a leak that was discovered in March. The leak was resolved in April, but this required companies to update the system themselves. Some companies did not do this until the end of August. read more

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The photograph shows Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)

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

Associated Press: NEWS Sept 17, 2019
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS —

The Dutch government said Tuesday it plans to reform a business tax rule that allows wealthy multinationals to reduce the amount of tax they pay on their profits.

The government said the plan, which has to be passed by parliament, will generate 265 million euros ($292 million) per year in new income.

The announcement follows public outrage at revelations this year that some multinationals paid little or no tax on their profits.

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed in May that it paid no tax in the Netherlands last year on its profits, apart from at a natural gas joint venture, because it was able to offset profits with losses and costs made elsewhere in the world. 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