Emilio Parodi:

MILAN (Reuters) – Eni made no thorough background checks on a middleman it hired to broker a $1.3 billion Nigerian acquisition, a former board member of the Italian oil group told a Milan court.

Milan prosecutors allege bribes totaling around $1.1 billion were paid, including to middleman Emeka Obi, in the 2011 purchase by Eni and Anglo-Dutch peer Royal Dutch Shell of Nigeria’s OPL 245 offshore oilfield.

The prosecutors allege the bribes were paid to win the license to explore the field which, because of disputes, has never entered into production. Shell expects the landmark corruption trial to last many months. read more

By Ron Bousso: 1 November 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.AS) reported on Thursday an almost 40 percent rise in third-quarter profit to $5.6 billion (£4.3 billion), as rising crude prices helped quarterly earnings to their highest in four years but still short of forecasts.

Net income attributable to shareholders in the quarter, based on a current cost of supplies (CCS) and excluding identified items rose 39 percent to $5.624 billion from a year ago. That compared with a company-provided analysts’ consensus of $5.766 billion. It was $4.691 billion in the second quarter. read more

The Premium Times report (below) on the MALABU SCANDAL mentions a Shell internal memo from Donny Ching that John Donovan recently supplied to Reuters, who confirmed its authenticity with Shell. 

MALABU SCANDAL: Shell, Eni officials’ trial continues as anti-corruption group head appears before court: Premium Times: 19 Oct 2018

National Gallery loses Shell funding after protests: The Times: 20 Oct 2018

Shell ends National Gallery sponsorship – to delight of campaigners: The Guardian: 19 Oct 2018

Shell Picks a Digital Platform to Build Its AI Future Upon: Journal of Petroleum Technology: 19 Oct 2018

Shell to invest up to $2 bln annually to explore, produce oil in Brazil through 2025 -report read more

Shell comments on deepwater vs. shale: Seeking Alpha: 18 Oct 2018

Shell bets on shale for flexibility in energy transition: Financial Times:17 Oct 2018

Shell’s $31 Billion Gamble On Canadian LNG: Seeking Alpha: 17 Oct 2018

Shell Exits Denmark’s Offshore Oil and Gas Sector: The Maritime Executive: 17 Oct 2018 read more

Shell’s greener future is a matter of survival: The Telegraph 13 Oct 2018

Shell launching new retail fuel pilot programs in U.S.: Houston Chronicle 12 Oct 2018

Shell Makes a Comeback in the North Sea With New Gas Field Investment: OilVoice 12 Oct 2018

Exclusive: Shell seeks to sell Venezuela JV stake to France’s Maurel & Prom – sources: Reuters 12 Oct 2018

LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pioneered Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and remains a major investor in the West African country. But over the decades it has come under fire over spills in the Delta region and struggles with oil theft, corruption and oil-fueled violence.

Following are some of the highlights of Shell’s history in Nigeria:

1936 – The Royal Dutch Shell Group establishes a Nigerian venture with the precursor company of BP Plc. The first shipment of oil from Nigeria takes place in 1958. read more

September 20, 2018, 08:07:00 AM EDT By Reuters

MILAN, Sept 20 (Reuters) – A Milan court sentenced two defendants in a Nigeria corruption case to jail on Thursday in what is a first ruling on one of the oil industry’s biggest graft scandals.

Nigeria’s Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo were both found guilty of international corruption and each given four-year jail sentences, two sources with knowledge of the ruling said.

Lawyers for Obi and Nardo were not available for immediate comment. read more

19 SEPTEMBER 2018: By Prince Okafor With Agency Report

An Italian court has concluded plans to deliver its first verdict on the trial of top Shell and Eni executives, over alleged corruption in the controversial Malabu scandal tomorrow in Milan, Italy.

The Italian prosecutors alleged that $1.1 billion from the deal didn’t come into Nigeria where the oil field OPL 245 is located, but to accounts belonging to former Minister of Petroleum, Mr. Dan Etete.

The Italian judge, it was learnt will decide, for the first time, whether $1.1 billion of the sum paid was siphoned in bribes to win the license to the field. read more

MILAN, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Oil majors Shell and Eni will be carefully monitoring a first ruling this week by a Milan judge in one of the energy industry’s biggest corruption scandals for clues to what might be round the corner for them.

The two companies are embroiled in a long-running graft case revolving around the purchase in 2011 of one of Africa’s biggest oilfields – Nigeria’s OPL 245 – for about $1.3 billion.

The case, which involves Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and four former Shell managers including one-time Shell Foundation Chairman Malcolm Brinded, has spawned legal cases spanning several countries and is expected to drag on for months. read more

Time running out for prosecutors to obtain potentially crucial documents seized in Geneva apartment raid

Ben Chapman: @b_c_chapman

Giant oil companies, offshore accounts, ex-MI6 agents, champagne lunches, a former Nigerian president and allegations of one of the biggest bribes ever paid – the corruption case against Shell and Italy’s Eni filed by prosecutors in Milan over a shady $1.3bn deal for a vast African oil field has could have been lifted from the pages of an espionage thriller.

The latest developments thicken the plot further with a cache of documents seized in a raid on a Swiss financier’s apartment that could be crucial to the case, leaving prosecutors in a race against time to get them to Milan as trial hearings get underway this week.

The Geneva raid uncovered a briefcase belonging to Emeka Obi, a middleman who received millions of dollars from the deal and is in the dock along with several senior Shell and Eni executives.

Inside the briefcase, Swiss prosecutors found a laptop, two Nigerian passports, five sim cards and a hard drive containing 41,000 documents that prosecutors believe could be crucial to the trial playing out on the other side of the Alps. read more

By Zheng Xin | China Daily | Updated: 2018-08-23 09:12

Global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc has announced plans to triple the number of gas stations it has in China to 3,500 by 2025, in response to the recent lifting of restrictions on foreign investment in the sector. FULL ARTICLE

REUTERS STAFF: AUGUST 22, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.AS) Brazil chief said on Wednesday that the company is evaluating the assets of Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA’s (ELET6.SA) that are being put up for sale as part of the state-owned utility’s debt reduction and privatization plans. Andre Araujo also told reporters that the company was considering participating in an upcoming Brazilian government auction for projects in the wind energy sector. FULL ARTICLE read more

Shell oil traders trade one Caribbean paradise for another

Julia Payne: AUGUST 17, 2018

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell’s (RDSa.L) oil traders in the Caribbean island of Barbados are getting ready for a tough gig – they’re being moved to the Bahamas next month. The relocation of the oil and gas company’s trading hub for Latin America will make travel to customers in the key region easier for its employees, a company spokeswoman said. FULL ARTICLE

By Elizabeth Burden and Thomas Biesheuvel
15 August 2018, 08:54 BST

*Methodist fund developing system analyzing company ethics
*Top mining and oil companies will be graded by end of 2018

Divestment may be too blunt an instrument to encourage the world’s biggest oil and mining companies to behave ethically: the Methodist Church is prepared to back those committed to mending their ways. FULL ARTICLE read more

REUTERS STAFF: AUGUST 12, 2018 / 11:12 PM

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The heavy oil hydrocracking unit (HCU) at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (RDSa.AS) 209,787 barrel per day (bpd) Convent, Louisiana, refinery was shut after a fire early on Sunday, sources familiar with plant operations said. The fire broke out on the 45,000 bpd HCU, call the H-Oil Unit, at about 1:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Sunday, the sources said. A Shell spokesman was not immediately available to comment. No injuries were reported due to the blaze, the sources said. FULL ARTICLE read more

* Lori Ryerkerk to leave company at end of Aug

* To be succeeded by Robin Mooldijk, head of Americas refining

* Ryerkerk oversaw major refining overhaul

LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) – The head of Royal Dutch Shell’s global refining operations Lori Ryerkerk will step down at the end of the month after five years in a job where she oversaw a vast overhaul of the business, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

Full article

I have already listed the various kinds of Shell insider information we receive. It has included confidential internal documents from a high-level source in Shell Global Security. Another email seen by Reuters, apparently from a Shell communications representative to U.S. news network Fox News said: “royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out”.

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

Extracts from pages 165 to 168 inclusive

By John Donovan

Shell cloak and dagger activities against me have continued in more recent years, but this time on a global basis, as revealed in a Reuters article (extract above). The most recent spying of which I am aware was directed at me, my website and against Shell’s own employees.

I have already listed the various kinds of Shell insider information we receive. It has included confidential internal documents from a high-level source in Shell Global Security.

We discovered that the continued campaigning on our part triggered another bout of sinister activity by Shell, this time targeting my website, myself and Shell employees. read more

John Donovan in 1999

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

Extracts from pages 155 to 164 inclusive

We receive insider information about Shell from a number of different sources.

The first is from Shell itself.

Shell has supplied Shell internal documents and internal emails directly to me in compliance with a series of SAR applications.

The internal documents revealed that Shell secretly set up a counter-measures team and mounted a global spying operation in a determined, but unsuccessful bid to stop the flow of Shell insider information to me.

Another source is from disgruntled Shell employees who have supplied insider information and Shell internal documents and internal emails. read more