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Why I Have Been Confronting Shell for 30+ Years

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How Shell Accidentally Endorsed Its Loudest Critics — And Then Pretended It Didn’t Happen

Warning: Satire ahead. The humour is deliberate. The facts are documented. Quotes are reproduced verbatim from publicly available sources. Readers are advised to enjoy the irony responsibly.

Prologue: The Compliment That Was Never Meant to See Daylight

Royal Dutch Shell — now Shell plc — has always believed in managing its reputation with the same meticulous care that goes into managing offshore drilling risks: reassure the market, contain the leaks, and if necessary, delete the emails. And yet, every so often, something slips past the corporate firewall. Something like the truth. 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 Quiet Architect Behind Shell’s Biggest Online Headache

Oct 14th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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How a teenage “internet whizz” helped create the website Shell tried — and failed — to silence for three decades.

A Phantom Web Whizz Became Shell’s Digital Nemesis

In the mid-1990s, when the Internet still seemed like a passing fad and oil companies still lectured the world about “responsible energy,” a quiet digital operator answered a newspaper advertisement from John Donovan, the former Shell promotions partner turned corporate adversary.

The ad sought an “Internet whizz.”

What Shell got was something far worse—a digital insurgency that would haunt its reputation for decades.

By 1998, even the Evening Standard took notice: a small website run from Colchester had become a major reputational threat to one of the world’s largest corporations. That website—eventually mirrored as RoyalDutchShellPLC.com and ShellNews.net—would become Shell’s digital nemesis, archiving leaks, lawsuits, and internal documents that chronicled the oil giant’s ethical, environmental, and legal missteps. read more

How a gripe website kicked the world’s greediest oil giant where it hurts

Sep 6th, 2025

by admin.

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How a gripe website kicked the world’s greediest oil giant where it hurts: the Donovan playbook that helped expose Shell’s 2004 reserves fraud

Royal Dutch Shell’s 2004 reserves scandal was not just a numbers fiasco; it was a morality play in hard hats. Shell—ultimate sin stock and serial planet-frier—admitted it had been boasting about barrels it didn’t actually have. Regulators pounced, executives walked (some under escort), investors sued worldwide, and a pesky website run by John Donovan became an improbable clearinghouse for witnesses, whistleblowers, and the lead shareholder who fronted a global class action.

The fraud in one line (Shell’s own regulators said it)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission put it starkly: Shell overstated proved reserves “by 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or approximately 23%.” Shell paid a $120 million civil penalty to settle. That’s not commentary, that’s the government. read more

The Shell reserves scandal: A deep dive into corporate deception

Aug 13th, 2025

by admin.

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Imagine a world where the most valuable asset of a global powerhouse wasn’t real. This was the reality of Shell’s reserves scandal, a story of inflated oil reserves, executive resignations, and a company brought to its knees by its own ambition and deceit.

Shell, one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies, confessed to a bombshell revelation: it had overstated its “proven” oil and gas reserves by a staggering 3.9 billion barrels, approximately 20% of its previously declared holdings. read more

The Day Security Escorted a disgraced Shell Group Chairman out of Shell’s HQ

Aug 13th, 2025

by admin.

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Let me tell you a story (with the assistance of ChatGBT5)—about barrels that weren’t and a blue-chip oil giant that treated “truth” like a rounding error.

In January 2004, Shell detonated its own credibility by admitting it had been wildly overstating what matters most in the oil game: proved reserves. How wildly? It began with a 3.9 billion-barrel “recategorisation” on 9 January 2004—about 20% of previously claimed reserves—and kept spiraling across multiple follow-ups until 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) (≈23%) had been pushed out of the “proved” column by May 24, 2004.

The U.S. SEC later said Shell also overstated its standardized future cash flows by about $6.6 billion and juiced a key KPI—its reserves replacement ratio—from a real 80% to an advertised 100% for 1998–2002. read more

Shell & BP’s “Capital-Light” Climate Hustle: Why Save the Planet When You Can Trade Around It?

Mar 26th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Hold onto your lungs, folks—Shell and BP are back at it with their latest climate cosplay. Yes, the world’s favorite carbon barons have decided they still kinda want a piece of the “clean energy” pie—not to save the planet, of course, but because it gives them a juicy trading advantage. Welcome to the age of “capital-light” climate action, where you don’t have to build anything meaningful—you just trade electrons and slap a green label on it.

Shell, that bastion of environmental virtue (ahem), is now leaning into what CEO Wael Sawan proudly calls a “capital-light business model” for renewables. Translation: we’ll let other people build the stuff while we swoop in to make money off the volatility. Shell will “make use of project financing where it makes sense and work with partners,” said Sawan at the New York Stock Exchange, presumably while clutching a reusable water bottle for ESG optics. read more

Shell CEO Bravely Warns That Doing More Deals Might Distract From Already Destroying the Planet Efficiently

Mar 26th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Ah yes, Shell, the beloved oil-soaked darling of Vanguard and BlackRock, has once again graced us with its unshakable moral compass—pointing steadily toward short-term shareholder returns and long-term planetary combustion.

This week, Shell CEO Wael Sawan, live from the hallowed halls of the New York Stock Exchange (because nothing screams “saving the Earth” like ringing the bell on Wall Street), solemnly declared that while Shell is always hunting for acquisitions like a fossil-fueled velociraptor, going for a big one—say, cough, BP—might be a “distraction.” read more

Shell to Britain: “Give Us BP or We’re Moving to Wall Street”

Mar 24th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Nothing screams patriotic corporate loyalty like threatening to ditch your home country for better tax breaks and oil-soaked handshakes in Trump’s America.

Shell — global climate villain and gold medalist in greenwashing — is once again proving that when you’re Europe’s biggest oil giant, the only thing more bloated than your balance sheet is your ego.

The company is now considering (read: publicly dangling) the idea of delisting from the London Stock Exchange and fleeing to the New York Stock Exchange, where oil executives are still treated like gods instead of environmental pariahs.

Shell CEO Wael Sawan, whose idea of energy transition is “less wind, more gas,” is apparently sick and tired of those pesky British investors not worshipping Shell’s “financial performance” — i.e. record profits extracted from the overheating planet. read more

Shell to Wall Street: “Drill, Baby, Drill — Climate Be Damned”

Mar 24th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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CEO Wael Sawan heads to New York to reassure investors that Shell’s only green priority is cash.

Mark your calendars, folks: on March 25th, Shell — the crown jewel of climate hypocrisy — will grace New York with its Capital Markets Day. Not London. Not The Hague. But New York, that bastion of fossil-friendly finance, where oil execs are still treated like visionaries rather than villains.

Shell CEO Wael Sawan, deep into what he lovingly calls his two-year “sprint,” will present the company’s not-so-new strategy: double down on gas, keep drilling for oil, and toss clean energy in the bin marked ‘marketing phase 2020–2022.’ read more

Shell + BP: The UK’s Favorite Oil Villains and Their Spying Side Hustle

Mar 19th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Ah, the latest thrilling instalment in the saga of the UK’s most ruthless polluters—Shell and BP! This time, the British government might need one villain to rescue the other. Because when your country’s energy strategy revolves around two corporate behemoths that specialise in environmental destruction, economic extortion, and good old-fashioned espionage (hi, Hakluyt!), what could possibly go wrong?

Let’s start with BP—currently flailing like a fish on an oil-slicked shoreline. After its spectacular failure to pivot from fossil fuels to renewables (who could’ve guessed that wasn’t done in good faith?), BP’s stock is circling the drain. CEO Murray Auchincloss’s brilliant plan to double down on oil and gas has failed to excite investors, and hedge fund shark Elliott Management now holds a 5% stake, sniffing around for a board shake-up and even more brutal cost-cutting.

Meanwhile, rumours abound that BP could be scooped up by an American oil giant or a Gulf national oil company. Because, sure, when a British corporation becomes a liability, the logical move is to sell it to the highest international bidder. And why not? BP still has prime assets worldwide—shale basins in the U.S., Gulf of Mexico drilling, operations in Brazil, the North Sea, and the Middle East, not to mention its trading business and retail brand. Last year, it cranked out 2.36 million barrels of oil per day, generating a cool $8.9 billion in net profit. What’s not to love? read more

BP + Shell: A Marriage Made in Climate Hell

Feb 17th, 2025

by admin.

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A Reunion of Greed, Pollution, and Corporate Self-Destruction: Investors are openly salivating over a Shell takeover.

Move over, environmental concerns—the oil industry’s biggest villains are plotting a reunion tour. If BP and Shell merge, they’ll be reviving the spirit of Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, their old joint venture that ended in 1975. But this time, instead of just selling oil, they’re going full supervillain mode, consolidating power, wrecking the planet, and probably running off to Wall Street for good measure.

BP’s Identity Crisis: From Greenwashing to Giving Up Entirely

BP is falling apart at the seams. Just a few years ago, it was busy pretending to care about renewable energy, net-zero emissions, and a climate-friendly future. Former CEO Bernard Looney promised BP would cut oil and gas production by 40% by 2030 while investing billions in wind and solar. Investors were “jazzed,” and for a moment, it looked like BP might actually be trying to reform itself. read more

BP + Shell: The Mega-Merger That Would Create a Greedy, Climate-Wrecking Monster

Feb 16th, 2025

by admin.

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Because One Oil Giant Destroying the Planet Isn’t Enough!

The City is in meltdown mode over an unfolding crisis: corporate giants abandoning London like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

First, Unilever’s ice-cream business ditches the UK for Amsterdam, and now the vultures are circling BP and Shell for the mother of all oil mergers.

A National Champion or Just a Bigger Corporate Menace?

Shell’s CEO, Wael Sawan, has been whining that his company’s London-listed shares are “undervalued”, strongly hinting that the UK isn’t good enough for him. And now, the talk of the town is whether a merged BP-Shell mega-corp would keep its listing in London—or pack its bags for the land of unchecked corporate greed: Wall Street.

Would a combined BP-Shell keep its primary listing in the UK or move to the US? Well, what do you think? read more

Shell Considers Ditching London for New York

Feb 1st, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Posted by John Donovan: 1 Feb 2025

In their never-ending quest for more profit and less accountability, Shell is once again flirting with the idea of moving its stock market listing from London to New York. But don’t worry—it’s not a “live discussion” right now, according to CEO Wael Sawan. Because, you know, they’re just too busy “unleashing the full potential” of their planet-wrecking empire.

After announcing a laughable 16% drop in full-year earnings—from $28.3 billion to a measly $23.7 billion—Sawan was asked if Shell was still considering the move to the land of ExxonMobil and friends. His response? Shell is “always reviewing headquarters listings,” but hey, no need to panic yet. Priorities, people! read more

From Pensions to Profits: Is BP and Shell’s DB Scheme Exit Paving the Way for a Merger and New York Retreat?

Jan 9th, 2025

by admin.

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Article below by a contributor, posted 9 Jan 2025

Shell US have divested their Defined Benefit Pension (DB) Scheme to Prudential.

Shell UK have ceased paying the discretionary element of the Shell Contributory Pension Fund (SCPF) DB pension.

BP have ceased paying the discretionary element of their DB pension.

Both Funds are in surplus.

The Board of BP have closed ranks on why the discretionary element has ceased.

Dame Amanda Blanc, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aviva, is a Non Executive Director (NED) on BP’s Board. read more

Shell’s Latest Greenwashing Circus: EV Charging Chaos Wrapped in Corporate Greed

Jan 3rd, 2025

by admin.

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Posted by John Donovan: 3rd Jan 2025

Oh, Shell. The planet’s favourite oil-slicked villain has once again shown us just how committed it is to “cleaner mobility” (wink wink). In a move that’s equal parts farcical and revealing, Shell Recharge Solutions is throwing its charging business into a blender—shutting down software services, offloading responsibilities, and pretending it’s all part of some grand strategy for a greener future. What’s really happening? Let’s dive into the shameless absurdity read more

Shell’s Great Sprint to Nowhere: A Love Letter to Greed, Pollution, and Abandoning London

Jan 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Posted by John Donovan: 2 Jan 2025

Oh, Shell. The benevolent overlord of oil spills, climate denial, and corporate greed is at it again. In what might be the least surprising development of the century, Shell’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, has announced that the company is considering ditching its London listing for the bright, deregulated allure of New York. Because, apparently, £152 billion isn’t enough for this juggernaut of destruction—they need more, damn it.

According to Sawan, Shell is on a “sprint” to boost its valuation and close the gap with American giants ExxonMobil and Chevron. Yes, those paragons of climate responsibility. And if London can’t fluff their valuation numbers to sufficiently stroke Shell’s ego by the end of 2025, they’re threatening to pack up their toys and play in the States. It’s like the corporate version of “if you don’t love me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best”—except it’s Shell, and their “best” is spewing carbon and pocketing record profits. 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 Centre London

How Shell Accidentally Endorsed Its Loudest Critics — And Then Pretended It Didn’t Happen

Prologue: The Compliment That Was Never Meant to See Daylight

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How a teenage “internet whizz” helped create the website Shell tried — and failed — to silence for three decades.

A Phantom Web Whizz Became Shell’s Digital Nemesis

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How a gripe website kicked the world’s greediest oil giant where it hurts: the Donovan playbook that helped expose Shell’s 2004 reserves fraud

The fraud in one line (Shell’s own regulators said it)

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Let me tell you a story (with the assistance of ChatGBT5)—about barrels that weren’t and a blue-chip oil giant that treated “truth” like a rounding error.

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Nothing screams patriotic corporate loyalty like threatening to ditch your home country for better tax breaks and oil-soaked handshakes in Trump’s America.

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CEO Wael Sawan heads to New York to reassure investors that Shell’s only green priority is cash.

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A Reunion of Greed, Pollution, and Corporate Self-Destruction: Investors are openly salivating over a Shell takeover.

BP’s Identity Crisis: From Greenwashing to Giving Up Entirely

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Because One Oil Giant Destroying the Planet Isn’t Enough!

The City is in meltdown mode over an unfolding crisis: corporate giants abandoning London like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

A National Champion or Just a Bigger Corporate Menace?

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