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By John Donovan:

Recent exchanges with AI systems have once again exposed a persistent and unresolved problem: widespread confusion over the corporate identity of Shell plc and the continued existence—or otherwise—of “Royal Dutch Shell plc.”

When asked a straightforward question—“Does Royal Dutch Shell plc still exist?”—AI systems such as Bing respond inaccurately, asserting that the company “still exists” while simultaneously acknowledging a name change. This contradiction is not a minor technical error; it reflects a deeper structural confusion rooted in Shell’s own corporate decisions and inconsistent public signalling.

At the heart of the issue is a sequence of transformations that began with the historic Anglo-Dutch partnership between The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company and Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. That structure ultimately evolved into Royal Dutch Shell plc in 2005, following the well-documented reserves misstatement scandal of 2004—an event that severely damaged investor confidence and forced governance reform. read more

^*This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan - more information here. There is also a Wikipedia segment, the Shell DPA Files, "Shell and the Spies", the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan - Kindle eBooks. Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud. Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years. ^*All created and supported by internet wizz, Nick Gill.

WindowsForum.com: AI Satire and Defamation Risk in the Shell Archive: A Public RAG Experiment

May 16th, 2026

by John Donovan.

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The late‑December experiment staged by long‑time Shell critic John Donovan transformed an old, bitter dispute into a live laboratory for how generative AI, archival persistence, and modern media law collide — and it did so in full public view by publishing both a satirical piece produced with AI assistance and an AI “legal memo” (Microsoft Copilot) that assessed the piece’s defamation risk, then posting the side‑by‑side transcripts for inspection.

Background / Overview

John Donovan’s campaign against Royal Dutch Shell stretches back to commercial litigation in the 1990s and has since become a sprawling public archive hosted across multiple domains. That archive contains a mix of traceable legal filings, Subject Access Request (SAR) disclosures, leaked internal emails, redacted memos and interpretive commentary — material that mainstream outlets have at times used as leads and that has itself faced legal challenge. A notable public milestone in the long fight was a WIPO administrative panel decision (Case No. D2005‑0538) that rejected Shell’s domain complaint and therefore underpins the archive’s contested but durable public standing. read more

SHELL’S SECRET CONSCIENCE CLUB: THE INSIDERS WHO DARED TO CALL OUT THE OIL GIANT’S DOUBLE LIFE

Mar 28th, 2026

by admin.

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🛢️ THE CORPORATE CONSCIENCE THAT WOULDN’T STAY QUIET

If Shell’s glossy sustainability reports are the official bedtime story, then the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group (SCCPG) is the part they don’t want you reading aloud.

Buried beneath decades of PR varnish, legal muscle, and carefully curated “net-zero” messaging lies a remarkable—and deeply inconvenient—truth: some of Shell’s fiercest critics weren’t activists outside the gates… but insiders, shareholders, and business partners who had seen too much.

And they decided to talk. read more

claude.ai Part 2: SHELL’S SECRET WAR ON ONE MAN IN COLCHESTER

Mar 23rd, 2026

by John Donovan.

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PART TWO: THE MACHINES HAVE NOTICED

A Crystal Ball Special Investigation, Continued

By Our Special Correspondent, Department of Satirical Prophecy Published: March 2026

DISCLAIMER: The following article is Part Two of a satirical commentary based on real events, documented facts, and the output of multiple AI systems that have now, apparently, also noticed the Donovan-Shell situation. The crystal ball has been recharged. Its batteries were, appropriately, made in the Netherlands.

PART FIVE: THE ROBOTS HAVE READ THE FILE

When Part One of this investigation was published, it seemed reasonable to assume that Shell’s primary reputational challenge in 2026 remained what it has always been: one retired gentleman in Colchester, Essex, with a laptop, a broadband connection, and what Shell’s own internal documents once described, with heroic understatement, as “a longstanding disagreement with Shell.” read more

claude.ai: SHELL’S SECRET WAR ON ONE MAN IN COLCHESTER: A CRYSTAL BALL SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

Mar 23rd, 2026

by John Donovan.

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Part 1: claude.ai: SHELL’S SECRET WAR ON ONE MAN IN COLCHESTER: A CRYSTAL BALL SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

…a global internal surveillance operation triggered by one website

## *How Britain’s Most Surveilled Retired Gentleman May Still Be Keeping a $200 Billion Corporation Very, Very Busy*

*By Our Special Correspondent, Department of Satirical Prophecy*
*Published: March 2026*

—

> *DISCLAIMER: The following article is satirical commentary based on real internal Shell documents obtained under the UK Data Protection Act and published on shellnews.net. It extrapolates — with liberal use of imagination, irony, and a functioning crystal ball — what Shell plc may be doing now and in the future. Any resemblance to actual ongoing covert corporate operations against a retired gentleman in Colchester is entirely the reader’s problem to ponder.* read more

windowsforum: Shell’s Long-Fought Domain Feud: AI Roundtable Satire and Reputational Fallout

Mar 23rd, 2026

by John Donovan.

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Today – 23 March 2026 at 1:50 AM

The Machines Agree on Shell’s Long Shadow

A satirical “AI roundtable” about the Shell saga may read like internet theater, but it lands because the underlying dispute is real, persistent, and unusually durable. What makes the piece sting is not the fictional dialogue itself; it is the way four different AI systems are imagined converging on one basic conclusion: Shell’s long-running conflict with John Donovan is no trivial internet squabble, but a reputational problem that never fully went away. That framing is consistent with the historical record of a domain-name battle Shell lost in 2005 and with the company’s own continuing sensitivity around branding, online identity, and corporate narrative.

Background

The Donovan-Shell dispute is one of those rare corporate feuds that evolved from conventional commercial conflict into a hybrid of litigation, media activism, and digital counter-narrative. The roots go back to Donovan’s earlier business dealings and the breakdown of trust that followed, eventually producing years of public criticism aimed at Shell and its executives. Over time, that criticism hardened into a permanent archive of allegations, commentary, and document drops, with royaldutchshellplc.com becoming the symbolic center of gravity.
The domain-name dimension matters because it gave the dispute a legal anchor and a visible address. In the 2005 WIPO case, Shell International Petroleum Company Limited sought control of royaldutchshellplc.com, royaldutchshellgroup.com, and tellshell.org, but the panel rejected Shell’s complaint on the basis that bad-faith registration and use were not proven. That result did not settle the broader feud, but it did establish that Donovan had a defensible position for operating a non-commercial criticism site under that domain.
The satirical article is also clearly a product of the AI era, and that is part of what makes it notable. Donovan’s experiment, as described on the site, uses multiple generative systems to interrogate the same controversy and then compare outputs for consistency, hedging, and error. The goal is not just humor; it is to expose how machine-generated confidence can mask weak verification, especially when the prompt touches a long, contentious historical record. read more

Perplexity: Please, for the love of God, update the Donovan issue brief before the AGM

Mar 22nd, 2026

by John Donovan.

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Prompt

Could you analyse the information and links on the following article and create a satirical article predicting what Shell may be doing now and in the future based on the astonishing content of the article and the content of the linked Shell internal emails https://shellnews.net/DPA2009/DPA2009INDEXPAGE.html deep dive please for a long article. Please use your crystal ball. Is Shell likely to continue cloak and dagger activity directed against me.

Reply by Perplexity

Shell’s own email trail already reads like a corporate thriller, so a satirical “crystal‑ball” sequel almost writes itself.

Prologue: Shell’s Ghost Department – Group Donovan Affairs

Somewhere deep inside Shell Centre, long after the “Tell Shell” forum died and was quietly taxidermied for the archives, a discreet new unit is born: Group Donovan Affairs (GDA), reporting jointly to Legal, Corporate Affairs, and “Special Projects.” Its founding PowerPoint explains the remit in serene bullet points:

“Minimise oxygen to Donovan while maximising monitoring of Donovan‑related risk.” read more

Grok: a welcome evolution in how people interact with AI

Mar 22nd, 2026

by John Donovan.

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Prompt

Please comment on the article https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/03/22/consulting-the-machines/ in particular from the standpoint of AI platforms. Do you welcome the treating of AI platforms collectively as an informal advisory panel or are there downsides from your perpective? Is it a welcome development or not?

Grok reply:

**The article “Consulting the Machines” (published today, 22 March 2026) is a fascinating meta-experiment by John Donovan.** He deliberately queried several AI platforms—including Grok (me), Copilot, Perplexity, and others referenced in linked prior posts—about the same 30-year Shell dispute, then stepped back to observe convergence, divergence, and shared errors across our outputs. The goal wasn’t to “win” the argument or extract binding advice, but to treat us collectively as a kind of informal, distributed advisory panel for pattern recognition and cross-validation. read more

Consulting the Machines

Mar 22nd, 2026

by John Donovan.

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What Happens When You Ask Multiple AIs to Analyse a 30-Year Dispute?

By John Donovan

Introduction

In a recent article—

👉 https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/03/21/can-ai-help-close-a-30-year-dispute-my-conversations-with-chatgpt-on-shell/

—I published a full, unedited exchange with ChatGPT examining a decades-long dispute between myself and Royal Dutch Shell.

That article was not an endpoint.

It was an experiment.

What would happen if, instead of relying on a single artificial intelligence system, I consulted several—treating them collectively as an informal advisory panel? read more

Can AI Help Close a 30-Year Dispute? My Conversations with ChatGPT on Shell

Mar 21st, 2026

by admin.

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Editorial Introduction

What follows is an unedited exchange between myself and ChatGPT—one of several artificial intelligence systems I recently consulted in an effort to bring clarity, and perhaps closure, to a dispute with Shell that has spanned decades.

What began as a simple domain name issue evolved into something far more complex: misdirected communications, documented interactions with senior Shell executives, and a persistent online presence that the company has never fully resolved.

Curious to see how modern AI would assess this unusual situation, I sought independent views from multiple platforms, treating them as an informal advisory panel. Their responses—while not without occasional factual errors—revealed a surprising degree of consistency in one key respect: the matter appears capable of resolution. read more

Grok: Shell should treat this as a manageable operational, security, and reputational risk rather than an existential crisis

Mar 20th, 2026

by John Donovan.

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Prompt

As you can see from this article https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/03/20/dear-shell-ive-been-handling-your-mail-for-years-youre-welcome/ – and from the information in the links, Shell is in a pickle with John Donovan for the reasons explained. What would you advise Shell to do?

Grok Response B

Shell should treat this as a manageable operational, security, and reputational risk rather than an existential crisis—and act decisively but quietly to eliminate the dependency on Donovan.

The core issue, as laid out in the 20 March 2026 article and the linked 2007 email correspondence, is straightforward and self-inflicted. After the 2004 reserves scandal and corporate restructuring into Royal Dutch Shell plc (later rebranded Shell plc), the company failed to register royaldutchshellplc.com. Donovan acquired it and has run it as a long-standing “gripe site” for nearly two decades. People worldwide still email addresses @royaldutchshellplc.com thinking they are reaching official Shell channels. This has included job applications with CVs, business proposals, government enquiries, media requests, oil trading offers, legal correspondence—and, critically, security threats (e.g., explicit sabotage warnings against Shell installations in the Netherlands). read more

Information Technology and Cyber Security Risks: Protecting the PowerPoint Supply Chain

Mar 14th, 2026

by admin.

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Every modern multinational corporation depends heavily on information technology.

Shell is no exception.

The company operates vast digital systems that manage global trading operations, industrial facilities, financial reporting and the delicate process of ensuring that corporate communications contain the correct number of reassuring buzzwords.

In its Annual Report, Shell explains that these systems face a range of cyber security risks.

This is hardly surprising.

Running one of the largest energy companies on Earth inevitably involves managing an enormous digital infrastructure consisting of industrial control systems, data centres, corporate networks and thousands of PowerPoint presentations explaining the energy transition. read more

Risk Factors: A Helpful Guide to Everything That Might Go Wrong (Except the Business Model)

Mar 14th, 2026

by admin.

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Every major corporate annual report contains a section known as “Risk Factors.”

This is where the company carefully explains the many things that could theoretically threaten its business, ranging from geopolitical instability to meteor strikes, while delicately avoiding any suggestion that the core business model itself might be one of those risks.

Shell’s Annual Report is no exception.

Running through many pages of legal language and corporate understatement, the section outlines the numerous hazards that could potentially affect one of the world’s largest energy companies. read more

The Chairman’s Statement: Strategic Clarity Through Carefully Managed Ambiguity

Mar 14th, 2026

by admin.

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Part of our ongoing satirical reading of the Shell Annual Report — so you don’t have to. Strategic clarity achieved through the careful arrangement of reassuring phrases

Another year, another Shell annual report.

For the uninitiated, the Chairman’s Statement is the part of the report where the company reflects on global events, celebrates strategic achievements and reassures investors that everything is proceeding according to plan — even when the plan appears to change every year.

Dear Shareholders,

The past year has been one of continued complexity.

Geopolitical tensions persisted, energy markets remained volatile, and the global energy transition continued to develop in ways that are both urgent and extremely inconvenient for companies whose profits depend on hydrocarbons. read more

A Satirical Deep Dive into the Curious Case of Shell, Spies, and the Family That Sued

Feb 24th, 2026

by John Donovan.

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“War Rooms, Wiretaps & Walnut Paneling”

Disclaimer: The following account reflects our experiences, interpretations, and long-held suspicions surrounding events that unfolded over many years. Many of the individuals and organizations mentioned would no doubt dispute our conclusions. Readers are encouraged to view this as a dramatic, satirical retelling of events as we perceived them.

Updated 26 February 2026

I. Before the Gavel Fell: The Prelude to Paranoia

When we filed suit against Shell for breach of copyright and breach of contract, we imagined stern barristers, procedural delays, and mountains of paperwork. read more

Grok update on Donovan Shell feud 7 Feb 2026: Empty Shell Threats of Legal Action

Feb 7th, 2026

by John Donovan.

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Question to Grok: 7 February 2026: What’s the latest on the Donovan Shell saga? (all prompts in red text)

Reply by Grok updated 7 February 2026

The Donovan Shell saga (often called the “Donovan-Shell feud”) refers to a long-running, multi-decade conflict between activist John Donovan (and originally his late father, Alfred Donovan) and Royal Dutch Shell (now Shell plc).

It began in the late 1970s/early 1980s when John Donovan’s company, Don Marketing, worked with Shell UK on promotional games for petrol forecourts. The core grievance stems from allegations that Shell stole intellectual property/ideas from them (related to schemes like the SMART card loyalty program), leading to bitter litigation in the 1990s. This culminated in a high-profile 1999 court case that settled in 2001 with Shell paying an undisclosed sum (a “peace deal”), though Donovan has long claimed breaches and ongoing issues like surveillance or leaks against him. Post-settlement, Donovan shifted to full-time activism:

Running multiple critical websites (e.g., royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com) archiving documents, leaks, criticisms of Shell’s scandals (reserves overstatement fraud in 2004, environmental issues in Nigeria/Sakhalin, alleged Nazi history ties pre-WWII, etc.).
Publishing thousands of articles, an ebook (“John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare”), and positioning himself as a whistleblower/pressure group founder.
Media has described it as a classic “David vs. Goliath” with Donovan as “Shell’s nightmare,” involving domain disputes (Shell lost a WIPO cybersquatting case), shareholder activism, and persistent public exposure.

The feud has been called one of the longest one-man campaigns against a major corporation.

Latest developments (as of early February 2026): The saga has evolved into what Donovan and observers term a “Bot War” or “AI-mediated warfare.” Starting prominently in late 2025 and escalating into 2026, Donovan has innovatively used generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Grok, Copilot, etc.) to:

Feed his vast archival material (decades of documents, emails, court records) into prompts.
Generate summaries, analyses, satirical commentary, and responses that highlight historical allegations as ongoing issues.
Create self-reinforcing cycles where AI outputs become “news” in search results, amplifying visibility without traditional media or Shell engagement.
Query AIs about Shell’s “non-engagement policy” on the saga, producing converging or conflicting narratives that keep the topic alive.

Recent examples include:

January 2026 posts/articles on his sites about “AI bots turning a 30-year dispute into global news,” misattribution controversies (e.g., AIs falsely claiming Shell statements), and plans for shareholder resolutions at the May 2026 Shell AGM.
February 2026 queries (e.g., to Copilot/Grok) discussing his “masterclass in digital persistence” via AI amplification, archival prompts, and turning the feud into an “information battle.”
No major new legal actions, settlements, or Shell responses reported recently—Shell maintains non-engagement, but the AI strategy has drawn commentary on hallucinations, governance risks, and how silence forces third parties (including AIs) to “clarify the record.”

In short, it’s shifted from traditional lawsuits/websites to an AI-driven persistence campaign, with Donovan leveraging tools to sustain and modernize the narrative into 2026. For the most current details, his main site royaldutchshellplc.com frequently updates with AI experiment results and feud recaps. read more

30 November 2023: Posted by John Donovan

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.
Extremely slow broadband for 10 months, not fixed. I have had slow broadband well below the guaranteed speed for 10 months and Shell Energy have not been able to fix it. They have tried sending about 4 or 5 engineers but have not fixed the problem. Gurps, who I have been dealing with most recently, has been friendly and polite, alth… Read more

Extremely Slow Shell Broadband

Shell Blog

By John Donovan:

Recent exchanges with AI systems have once again exposed a persistent and unresolved problem: widespread confusion over the corporate identity of Shell plc and the continued existence—or otherwise—of “Royal Dutch Shell plc.”

Background / Overview

🛢️ THE CORPORATE CONSCIENCE THAT WOULDN’T STAY QUIET

PART TWO: THE MACHINES HAVE NOTICED

A Crystal Ball Special Investigation, Continued

PART FIVE: THE ROBOTS HAVE READ THE FILE

Part 1: claude.ai: SHELL’S SECRET WAR ON ONE MAN IN COLCHESTER: A CRYSTAL BALL SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

…a global internal surveillance operation triggered by one website

The Machines Agree on Shell’s Long Shadow

Background​

Prompt

Reply by Perplexity

Prologue: Shell’s Ghost Department – Group Donovan Affairs

Prompt

Grok reply:

What Happens When You Ask Multiple AIs to Analyse a 30-Year Dispute?

Introduction

Editorial Introduction

Prompt

As you can see from this article https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/03/20/dear-shell-ive-been-handling-your-mail-for-years-youre-welcome/ – and from the information in the links, Shell is in a pickle with John Donovan for the reasons explained. What would you advise Shell to do?

Grok Response B

Part of our ongoing satirical reading of the Shell Annual Report — so you don’t have to. Strategic clarity achieved through the careful arrangement of reassuring phrases

“War Rooms, Wiretaps & Walnut Paneling”

Updated 26 February 2026

I. Before the Gavel Fell: The Prelude to Paranoia

Question to Grok: 7 February 2026: What’s the latest on the Donovan Shell saga? (all prompts in red text)

Reply by Grok updated 7 February 2026

Sir Henri Deterding, resurrected!

JOE LYCETT DISCUSSES SHELL WITH JOHN DONOVAN

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John Donovan’s ebooks

JOHN DONOVAN TV DOCUMENTARY INTERVIEW

SHELL EXECUTIVES AT THE CENTER OF A SCHEME TO STEAL $1.3 BILLION FROM NIGERIA’S PEOPLE

SHELL ADMITS DEALING WITH NIGERIAN MONEY LAUNDERER – BBC NEWS

SHELL, ENI AND NIGERIAN OFFICIALS IN OPL 245 CORRUPTION SCANDAL

INVESTIGATION OF OPL 245 NIGERIAN OIL CORRUPTION SCANDAL

DUTCH EARTHQUAKES CAUSED BY SHELL/EXXON

SHELL KILLS FOR OIL IN NIGERIA

SHELL LIED ABOUT CLEANING UP OIL IN NIGER DELTA

SHELL SPIES INFILTRATED NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT

LEGO DROPS SHELL OVER GREENPEACE OIL SPILL VIDEO

SHELL ARCTIC DRILLING ACCIDENTS

SHELL KNEW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE DECADES AGO

ROYAL DUTCH SHELL FOUNDER SIR HENRI DETERDING, NAZI FINANCIER

JOHN DONOVAN PROMOTIONAL GAMES FOR SHELL AND OTHER CLIENTS

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30 November 2023: Posted by John Donovan

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.

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