English translation of an article published 4 July 220 by the FD: Bert van Dijk

Shell is considering moving its head office

It is uncertain whether Shell wants to keep its headquarters in the Netherlands, now that a controversial plan by the cabinet to abolish dividend tax has been definitively off the table. That says Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in an interview with the FD.

The energy giant is a British company, but has its headquarters in The Hague. Shell chose this construction on the assumption that dividend tax would be abolished, says Van Beurden. In October 2018, the government withdrew this intention after public pressure. As a result, Shell looks at its current British-Dutch structure with different eyes, according to the CEO. read more

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is not ruling out moving its headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain, the oil company’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said in a Dutch newspaper interview published on Saturday.

Anglo-Dutch consumer products giant Unilever said last month it plans to ditch its dual Anglo-Dutch legal structure and create a single entity in Britain.

Van Beurden did not explicitly say Shell wants to move its headquarters, het Financieele Dagblad said.

“You always need to keep thinking,” Shell’s Van Beurden told the newspaper. “Nothing is permanent and of course we will look at the business climate. But moving your headquarters is not a trivial measure. You cannot think too lightly about that.” read more

By John Donovan

I wonder if the American Ballet Theatre is aware of the sinister background of its new benefactor, Hakluyt & Co – the corporate intelligence agency sometimes described as the commercial offshoot of MI6.

Titled Shell directors, the late Sir Peter Holmes, and Sir William Purves, were also directors, major shareholders and spymasters of Hakluyt & Company, a UK corporate espionage firm founded by former senior MI6 officers. BP directors were also involved. 

Shell used Hakluyt to engage in cloak and dagger operations against its perceived enemies, including Greenpeace, as exposed in a Sunday Times front-page lead article “MI6 ‘firm’ spied on green groups”. Continuing on to an inside page feature headlined “How agent Camus sunk Greenpeace oil protests”.  read more

Dutch gas production at Groningen set to drop to 9.3 bcm next year

AMSTERDAM, June 19 (Reuters) – Gas production at the vast Groningen field in the Netherlands is set to drop to 9.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the year through October 2021, the Dutch gas sector regulator said on Friday.

Production at the field, operated by a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, is capped at 11.8 bcm for the year ending October 2020, although the government has said that level will probably not be reached. read more

“Shell extracts a lot of oil and gas from Nigerian soil, and that is associated with pollution, sabotage, tax lawsuits, protests from the local population and suspected corruption.”

English translation of a Dutch article by nrc.nl

Dutch ambassador leaked information to Shell

Nigeria Robert Petri, the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria, had been in post for less than a year and a half. He did not have a good relationship with his staff. And above all: wasn’t he too close to Shell?

Prime Minister Mark Rutte (l) and Shell chairman Ben van Beurden (r) visiting President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, autumn 2019. Photo Bart Maat / ANP read more

English translation of an article published by nrc.nl

OPL 245: Shell was tipped off in advance about a pending visit to Nigeria by officers from a Dutch criminal investigative agency “about an extensive corruption investigation into Shell the oil company itself.”

Ambassador leaked to Shell

• Merijn Rengers
• Carola Houtekamer

3 juni 2020 om 22:54

Nigeria In 2017, the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria shared confidential information about a visit from the FIOD with the local Shell director.

At the end of 2017, the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria leaked confidential information about an extensive corruption investigation into Shell to the oil company itself. This was revealed in an integrity investigation into Robert Petri, who was prematurely replaced as ambassador to the Nigerian capital Abuja in early 2019. read more

The ambassador warned Shell that it was under investigation over bribery allegations. (OPL 245)

By Janene Pieters on June 4, 2020 – 09:34

In 2017 the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria, Robert Petri, leaked confidential information about an extensive corruption investigation into Shell to the oil company itself, NRC reports based on information revealed in an integrity investigation into Petri. The ambassador warned Shell that it was under investigation over bribery allegations.

Petri was prematurely replaced as ambassador to the Nigerian capital of Abuja in early 2019 and brought back to the Netherlands. According to NRC, this happened after an integrity investigation into Petri at the end of 2018, and a subsequent investigation into the working climate at the Dutch embassy in Nigeria early in 2019. read more

120,000 home owners in Groningen to get compensation for quake property value cut

(Information added by John Donovan: NAM is the Shell/Exxon Joint Venture company responsible along with the Dutch government for the earthquake blighted Groningen Gas Field and the consequential bill for dealing with 120,000 damaged residences.)

May 27, 2020

Some 120,000 home owners in Groningen province are entitled to financial compensation because the value of their property has gone down due to the earthquakes, the institute set up to assess the damage says. read more

The Syrian Job: Uncovering the Oil Industry’s Radioactive Secret

By Justin Nobel • Wednesday, April 29, 2020 – 10:38

Cancerous lesions have developed across Keith MacDonald’s body and his son is dead from leukemia. His life has disintegrated, and in his eyes fault lies with the third richest company on earth. It is headquartered in the Netherlands, incorporated in the United Kingdom, and is an entity (thanks to the Parliamentary Pension Fund) that every single British MP has a stake in — Royal Dutch Shell.

The story of how MacDonald got here is a tale of adventure and tragedy fit for a Hollywood thriller, only it is real. Even with many unknowns, MacDonald’s case unearths a shocking part of the world’s most powerful industry that somehow has remained hidden for generations. read more

By Tsvetana Paraskova – May 22, 2020, 12:30 PM CDT

A UK judge dismissed on Friday a lawsuit against Eni and Shell brought by the Nigerian government alleging that the oil and gas supermajors knew about US$1.1 billion in bribes given to secure an oil license in Nigeria nearly a decade ago.

The judge in London dismissed the case on the grounds that the UK has no jurisdiction to try the lawsuit that is basically the same for which Shell and Eni are currently under trial in Italy, Bloomberg reported. read more

Shell/Exxon (NAM) Starts Groningen Closedown

The first of the giant field’s wells are to be cleaned up by August.

The operator of the giant Dutch Groningen gas field, NAM, has begun the work of removing the ten gas wells from the Uiterburen site, marking the start of the decommissioning process, it said April 20. It said the Uiterburen site would be the first to see the wells closed and cleared out permanently.

The field, the cornerstone of Europe’s gas industry since its discovery by the Shell-ExxonMobil joint venture, has been brought to an early closure as the production of gas damaged buildings in the vicinity. Gas worth tens of billions of euros will be left in the ground when the field is put out of action in a couple of years. read more

English translation of an article published today by the Dutch FT. Seems something is lost in the Google translation of the second sentence of the first paragraph (highlighted in red text)?

Shell Pernis takes more time for major maintenance

By Frank Gersdorf: 20 April 2020

The first factory that Shell Pernis is working on is under construction. Photo Bas Czerwinski for the FD

• Major maintenance in the petrochemical industry is risky in the corona crisis, because it requires a lot of extra personnel.
• Shell nevertheless continues the renovation plans for three factories in the Botlek.
• Shell Pernis thinks it can work safely and is afraid that if maintenance is delayed, it will soon be can’t get the right people.

Maintenance technicians still like to smoke. They prefer to run a bitch. And that’s why Shell Pernis has come up with something to let the hundreds of employees who will be working on giving three factories a major overhaul in the next six weeks without them gathering together and thereby breaking the corona rules.

Shell has new smoking spots outside that are made of scaffolding tubes. The construction forces each smoker into their own loft. ‘It’s working. The smokers remain at a safe distance from each other and can still talk to each other, ‘says Jan van IJperen during a bicycle tour past Shell’s petrochemical installations in the Botlek. As an event manager, Van IJperen is responsible for the turnarounds, which is jargon for major maintenance. read more

3.3 THE “OPL 245” BRIBERY CASE

In 2018, Italian prosecutors brought a criminal case over the alleged involvement of Shell, and the Italian oil multinational Eni, in a 1.3 billion US dollar bribery scheme linked to the license of OPL 245. This is the name of one of Nigeria’s most valuable offshore oil blocks.

Thirteen individuals, including some current and former senior managers of Shell and the Italian oil company Eni, are currently on trial in Italy relating to how the two companies acquired the block in 2011.80 The defendants include both companies, a former Royal Dutch Shell Executive Board Member and two former MI6 agents who worked for Shell.81 read more

Esther Kiobel and Victoria Bera sit with their lawyer as a Dutch court hears the first arguments in an historic case against Shell, in which the oil giant stands accused of instigating a raft of horrifying human rights violations committed by the Nigerian government against the Ogoni people in the 1990s, on February 12, 2019 in The Hague, Netherlands. © Pierre Crom/Getty Images

 KIOBEL AND OTHERS V SHELL

Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta were first, and most effectively, put under the spotlight in the 1990s by Ken Saro-Wiwa, an acclaimed Nigerian writer. Saro-Wiwa led a community organisation in his home area, Ogoniland, called the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). MOSOP said that while outsiders had grown rich on the oil that was pumped from under their soil, pollution from oil spills and gas flaring had, “led to the complete degradation of the Ogoni environment, turning our homeland into an ecological disaster.”10 read more

EXTRACTS FROM AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF AN ARTICLE AUTHORED BY INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS BAS VAN BEEK, ALEXANDER BEUNDER, JILLES MAST AND MEREL DE BUCK.

This article is part of the Shell Papers, a joint research project conducted by Platform Authentieke Journalistiek and Follow the Money, into the ties between the Dutch government and the oil giant. In April 2019, we filed a total of 17 FOIA requests, demanding copies of all Shell-related documents from nine ministries, three provinces and five municipalities. As of March 2020, the FOIA procedures are still ongoing. You can track their progress here: read more

English translation of an article published 23 Feb 2020 by the Dutch Financial Times (FD)

Dutch industry funded climate skeptic Frits Böttcher

From our editor

According to FTM, Shell is one of the companies that Böttcher financed. Photo: ANP

In brief

• Climate skeptic Frits Böttcher received at least one million guilders fom the Dutch business community in the 1990s.
• At the request of donors, he wrote activist papers in which he denied the existence of the greenhouse effect.
• Partly due to his work, there was little support for sustainable climate policy at the end of the last decade.

Between 1989 and 1998, Frits Böttcher received at least one million guilders (€ 450,000) from 24 Dutch companies, including Shell, NAM, AkzoNobel and DSM. With that money he set up an international network of climate skeptics. At the request of the donors, he also wrote activist papers and articles in which he denied the existence of the greenhouse effect. This is the result of research by Follow the Money (FTM) and the Authentic Journalism Platform (PAJ), who have access to the personal archive of Böttcher, who died in 2008. read more