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Sakhalin II

WW3 for Dummies: ShellBot Explains Why Plymouth Is Suddenly Famous

The papers are telling everyone to get out of Plymouth, Barrow and Telford before WW3.

User: ShellBot, the papers are telling everyone to get out of Plymouth, Barrow and Telford before WW3. Is this it? Should I start digging a bunker?

ShellBot:

Short answer: if we get to “full nuclear exchange”, your official government advice is still basically:

  1. Get under a table.

    Assume the brace position.

    Kiss your ass goodbye.

    Some things never go out of style.

    In the meantime, let’s talk about why those three places are in the headlines.

    User: Go on then.

    ShellBot:

    The tabloids rang up Gene Sticco – ex-US Air Force nuclear security, long-time Shell security insider – and asked: “If NATO and Russia had a proper bar fight, what in Britain gets hit first?” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Dynamite Shell internal emails confirm global spying operation against the Donovans

Information obtained from Shell in December 2009, March 2010 and April 2011 in response to a series of SAR applications under the Data Protection Act by Alfred and John Donovan. Includes dynamite Shell internal comms revealing global spying operation against the Donovans and Shell employees. (See Link for related Reuters report)

The black crosses denote information/names redacted by Shell.

3/5 May 2006 Five Pages – Leaflet Distribution

From: . .
Sent: 03 May 2006 08:34
To: :
Cc: i

Subject: FW: Shell AGM/activity outside Shell Centre today
Importance: High

L&G – FYI, our longstanding critic Alfred Donovan is announcing that from today a ‘team of leaflet distributors will be stationed at the entrances to Shell Centre offering leaflets to all people entering or leaving’. Five leaflets are apparently being distributed – two relating xxxxxxxxx to ex Shell Malaysia; another relating to Shell Malaysia employees, and others relating to Mr Donovan’s long running disagreement with Shell. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

ShellBot Chat: “Online Makeover vs Offline History”

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.

John Donovan: Back in 2006, Shell went looking for a digital agency to “handle its online communications” and help “turn around corporate reputations.” How does that sound to you, ShellBot?

ShellBot: Like a job ad for a plastic surgeon:

“Patient has long record of scandals.

Requires full online facelift.

Must be experienced in managing expectations and hiding the scars.”

1. The 2006 brief: fix the reputation, redesign the website

John Donovan: Remind me what they were asking for?

ShellBot: According to the trade press at the time:

Shell was seeking a digital agency to: read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell Tried Multiple Times to Kill My Website

Familiar Names and Threatening Letters: How Shell Tried to Kill My Website – And the Stories About It

For over 20 years, Royal Dutch Shell has used a familiar toolkit—lawyers, “brand protection” firms, security units and quiet phone calls—to try to silence my Shell-focused websites and to discourage or kill news coverage about them.

Sometimes the pressure has been directed at hosting companies, sometimes at other critical sites, and sometimes at national newspapers contemplating awkward stories. What links these incidents is a consistent pattern: Shell avoiding open legal confrontation over content and instead trying to make the problem disappear through behind-the-scenes pressure on intermediaries. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

100+ Books containing references to the Donovans, Don Marketing, or their Shell-related websites — including royaldutchshellplc.com

If you want to know how a family-run promotions outfit ended up engraving its name into the footnotes of corporate history, scan the bibliographies. Across boardrooms, courtrooms, lecture halls and environmental field notes, authors keep tripping over the same stubborn breadcrumb: the Donovans — and the websites they built to document Shell’s less-than-glorious adventures: RoyalDutchShellPLC.com, ShellNews.net, Shell2004.com, TellShell.net, and more.

Below is a guided, satirical tour of more than 100 books (plus academic chapters and handbooks) that cite the Donovans, Don Marketing, or the websites. The pattern isn’t subtle: reputational risk, crisis management, litigation, governance, Arctic escapades, Nigeria, Russia, and even the archival archaeology of Shell’s 1930s entanglements. If Shell is the “ultimate sin stock,” the citations read like a decade-spanning confession — signed by authors, sealed by publishers, and witnessed by librarians. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s Friends, Foes, and Settlements: The Decades-Long Saga They Accidentally Immortalised

By John Donovan (with AI assistance)

RoyalDutchShellPLC.com Exclusive

Prologue: The Paper Trail That Became a Web Trail

On 19 September 2016, a post on RoyalDutchShellGroup.com quietly listed “links to several hundred articles by a host of different publishers … plus over 60,000 Shell-related articles” hosted across the Donovan websites.

It read like a piece of digital housekeeping.

In reality, it was the master ledger of how one multinational’s attempts at corporate control ended up immortalising the very archive it wanted to erase.

The post linked outward — to Reuters, The Guardian, The Moscow Times, and beyond — forming a living map of Shell’s missteps, litigation, and internal paranoia, all drawn together by a network of persistence that Shell accidentally helped to publicise. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

THE MOST DAMAGING ARTICLE ABOUT SHELL EVER PUBLISHED?

“A persistent reputational risk.” — Shell internal memo, 2007

In 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. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell vs Donovan: Oil Giant vs Watchdog

How one man’s persistence exposed decades of corporate deceit — and forced an oil giant to live with its reflection.

Part 1: The Origins of a Corporate Nemesis

“There are two types of corporations: those that fear whistleblowers and those that wish they’d hired one.” — Industry proverb

In the late 1980s, John Donovan was not yet a thorn in Shell’s side. He was one of its trusted collaborators — a marketing innovator whose company, Don Marketing, created hugely successful sales promotions for Shell in the UK and around the globe.

But what began as a partnership ended in betrayal. A bitter dispute over intellectual property, allegedly stolen concepts, and corporate bullying gave birth to a feud that would last decades. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Toxic Legacy: Shell, Exxon, and the Underground Waste Dump That Stinks of Corporate Arrogance

Move over Sakhalin, step aside Niger Delta—Shell and Exxon’s Dutch joint venture NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) has managed to dump itself into yet another scandal. This time, prosecutors allege the company secretly injected hazardous waste into empty gas fields in Groningen for over a decade.

The Charges

Dutch 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) read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Blood, Greer & Broken Billions: How John Donovan Haunted Shell’s Sakhalin Fiasco

When Shell dreamed of Sakhalin, it imagined gleaming LNG plants, billions in profits, and Moscow toasting their engineering genius. Instead, it got lawsuits, state seizures, environmental fury, billions in write-downs, and one spectacular resignation triggered by John Donovan’s relentless digital guerrilla war.

Sakhalin-2 should have been Shell’s crown jewel. Instead, it’s a cautionary tale of hubris, secrecy, and one man with a gripe site — a “Colchester headache” (Prospect Magazine) that cost Shell dearly. WTF indeed.

The Grand Russian Gamble

Back in the early 1990s, Shell partnered in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, betting on Russia’s far-flung island to deliver liquefied natural gas to Asia and beyond. The project became a logistical monster: frozen seas, migrating grey whales, endless pipelines. Costs ballooned from an initial $10 billion to more than $22 billion by 2005 (Johnson’s Russia List).

The Kremlin pounced. In 2006, Russia’s environmental watchdog accused Shell of “ecological violations” and threatened to shut it down (Business New Europe). The result? Shell was strong-armed into ceding control of Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom. Billions lost. Reputation battered. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell’s Gas Gambit: Trading Green for Gas in the Name of Profit

Posted by John Donovan 12 July 2024

In another classic move from our favorite eco-villain, Shell has gone all-in on liquefied natural gas (LNG), trying to plug the gap left by its exit from Russia in 2022. With a series of deals, Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan is betting big on LNG, all while quietly stepping away from those pesky renewable energy projects.

Filling the Russian Void:

Shell’s new projects in the United Arab Emirates and Trinidad and Tobago, along with snapping up a hefty trading portfolio, are all part of Sawan’s master plan to boost LNG volumes by up to 20 million metric tons per year (mtpa) between 2023 and 2030. These moves help Shell recover from the 2.5 mtpa shortfall after ditching Russia’s Sakhalin LNG project, which led to a 5% dip in liquefaction volumes last year. Because nothing says resilience like swapping one geopolitical mess for another. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Russia’s Shell Game: Sakhalin LNG Stake Swapped Like Trading Cards, This Time Gazprom Wins

Posted by John Donovan: 27 March 2024

Well, well, well, folks, gather ’round for another chapter in the thrilling saga of Shell’s misadventures in the land of oil and oligarchs. In this latest installment, the Russian government has decided to play a game of hot potato with Shell’s minority stake in the Sakhalin LNG project, ultimately passing it off to their favorite playmate, state-controlled behemoth Gazprom, for a cool $1 billion.

Now, let’s rewind a bit, shall we? Shell, ever the enterprising multinational, originally held the reins in this project until they found themselves caught up in a web of intrigue involving insider info, espionage, and more drama than a daytime soap opera. And who’s behind this plot twist, you ask? None other than yours truly, providing juicy tidbits to the Russian government back in the day, leading to Shell setting up their very own spy network. Ah, the things we do for love—err, I mean, gas. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Ukraine calls on energy giant Shell to tap its massive ‘blood money’ profits from Russia’s invasion

FORTUNE

Ukraine calls on energy giant Shell to tap its massive ‘blood money’ profits from Russia’s invasion and donate $1 billion to rebuild the country

BY TRISTAN BOVE April 19, 2023 at 6:15 PM GMT+1

Oil and gas companies reported some of their highest annual profits in history earlier this year, cashing in on gas prices that soared because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But critics say energy giants are indirectly prolonging the war with their record revenues, with some Ukrainian officials even calling for a redistribution of profits to make things right. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Breaking up with Russia is hard for many Western firms, despite war

The Washington Post

Breaking up with Russia is hard for many Western firms, despite war

By : April 15, 2023 at 7:21 a.m. EDT RIGA, Latvia — Only a small percentage of the hundreds of companies that promised to leave Russia after its invasion of Ukraine have exited, according to several groups keeping a scorecard — and for those that dawdled, departing has only become more expensive and complicated.

But leaving can be complex. Four days after the invasion, Shell announced it was leaving Russia and later wrote off its nearly 27.5 percent stake in the Sakhalin-2 LNG facility in the Far East at $1.6 billion. This month, an unconfirmed Russian newspaper report suddenly surfaced that Putin had given permission for the company to repatriate $1.2 billion from the sale of its stake in Russia’s Novatek. Shell had no comment. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Russia’s Novatek to acquire Shell’s stake in Sakhalin-2 for $1.16 bln

REUTERS

Russia’s Novatek to acquire Shell’s stake in Sakhalin-2 for $1.16 bln

MOSCOW, April 12 (Reuters) – Russia’s government has approved the sale of Shell’s (SHEL.L) former 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 energy project to Russian energy firm Novatek (NVTK.MM) for 94.8 billion roubles ($1.16 billion), a government order showed on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his consent for the transfer of the required funds to Shell, Russian daily Kommersant reported last week. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Ruble Tumbles to 12-Month Low as Kremlin Greenlights Shell Sale

Ruble Tumbles to 12-Month Low as Kremlin Greenlights Shell Sale

The Moscow Times: Friday 7 April 2023

After months of relative stability, the Russian ruble continued to weaken rapidly against major currencies on Friday, a trend that analysts say has been spurred by increased imports and a surge in foreign capital outflows.

President Vladimir Putin’s recent approval of a deal that permits British energy giant Shell to offload its stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil pipeline project in Russia’s Far East has added to the mix of forces pulling down on the ruble. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.