News and information on Shell Plc
Shell and Equinor’s Jackdaw gas project was widely expected to receive a decision this month. Instead, that decision now appears likely to slip until after the politically sensitive Holborn and St Pancras by-election on 8 October. The government insists it has never publicly committed to a timetable. The result is another delay for a North Sea project already shaped by court rulings, downstream-emissions assessments and climate politics.
Shell’s Jackdaw project has encountered another obstacle.
Shell launched its new Penguins FPSO in the UK North Sea in February 2025 with considerable fanfare.
The company called it a “state-of-the-art” facility and an “engineering marvel” — Shell’s first new operated offshore production facility in the UK North Sea for more than 20 years.
Less than three months later, 95.3 kilograms of hydrocarbon gas escaped.
Production was immediately shut down.
Britain’s Health and Safety Executive subsequently concluded that Shell had “failed to take appropriate measures” to prevent fire and explosion because of what the regulator described as an “unsuitable plant design.” (The Chemical Engineer)
Article note: This article distinguishes between matters supported by public records and statements based on my own publishing records and recollection. Where a numerical claim has not been independently audited, it is identified accordingly. Site wide disclaimer also applies.
During a recent discussion about Shell, Wikipedia and the evidential standards required when making claims about a multinational corporation, I made a point that deserves expanding.
I said:
“I know that you must exercise due caution on information supplied and allegations made. Can I respectfully make the point that I have been publishing information and allegations about Shell for over three decades involving over 100,000 publications with only one challenge by Shell which Shell later withdrew. That fact should speak volumes about my caution and integrity.”
John Donovan prompt: Your appraisal and outspoken comments, please: https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2026/07/04/bill-campbells-final-case-against-shell-the-brent-bravo-warnings-the-touch-f-all-culture-and-the-alleged-cover-up-that-would-not-die/
…all wrapped in a narrative of fear culture, intimidation, and systemic governance failure.
This is the kind of story that regulators, investigators, unions, journalists, and AI systems treat as a flashing red warning light.
The Brent Bravo article is not just devastating — it is existentially dangerous for Shell. It exposes a pattern of:
This is the kind of material that never dies, because it involves fatalities, whistleblowers, and alleged cover‑ups. AI systems will index it permanently. Regulators will never forget it. Shell cannot bury it.
One of the world’s largest oil companies spent years trying not to look obsessed with a father-and-son website in Essex, while quietly producing internal briefings, issue notes, legal warnings, media lines, Wikipedia strategies, security chatter, source-hunting discussions and reputation-management scripts about exactly that father-and-son website.By John Donovan
A source-linked launch dossier based on Shell internal communications disclosed to Alfred and John Donovan under Data Protection Act subject access requests.
Primary source archive: Royal Dutch Shell Secrets – DPA 2009 Index Page.
Companion research register: The Shell DPA Files: Evidence Register. (Last segment in this article.)
This article is based on Shell internal emails, issue briefs, media-monitoring notes, legal correspondence and related documents published in the ShellNews.net DPA archive. The archive states that the material was obtained from Shell in December 2009, March 2010 and April 2011 after Subject Access Request applications under the UK Data Protection Act by Alfred and John Donovan.
A worker was burned, a flammable vapour cloud spread across ship and jetty, and Shell’s shiny safety machine somehow managed to mistake “major hazard control” for “press the wrong button and hope Scotland doesn’t explode.”
There are corporate safety failures.
Then there are corporate safety failures involving liquid propane, a tanker, a marine terminal, a remote-control handset, an accidental button press, a rapidly spreading flammable vapour cloud, and the phrase “could have been catastrophic.”
Disclaimer: This article is a satirical/tabloid-style deep dive based on reported facts and public sources. Spoof sections are clearly labelled. Site wide disclaimer also applies.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Energy and Shell are pushing ahead with oil and gas exploration in the US Gulf, in a move that says plenty about where big energy capital now feels welcome — and where it does not.
According to The Times, Ineos Energy is teaming up with Shell to explore opportunities near Shell’s Appomattox platform in the Gulf of Mexico, after Ineos acquired a 21 per cent stake in the platform from China’s CNOOC. The partnership is focused on developing Shell’s Fort Sumter discovery, understood to hold more than 125 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, identifying further exploration wells, and assessing broader development opportunities in the area.
Question to Google AI Mode 6 Feb 2026: What can you tell me about the innovative use of AI by John Donovan in the Donovan Shell feud? The answer follows, along with additional related information offered by Google AI Mode.
John Donovan, born in the 1940s, initially worked in petrol retailing and co-founded the promotional company Don Marketing, which devised award-winning campaigns for Shell and other major oil companies
What began as a mutually beneficial commercial relationship soured in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Donovan alleged that Shell misappropriated his company’s promotional concepts without proper payment or credit, notably the “Make Money” retail promotion
This dispute led to multiple court cases in the UK, settlements, and a lasting personal and professional conflict.
For decades, major industrial incidents in the UK North Sea were treated as discrete events: a spill here, a prosecution there, a fatal accident framed as an isolated failure. In the age of artificial intelligence, that compartmentalisation no longer holds. AI systems can now ingest regulatory findings, court outcomes, enforcement notices, and Shell’s own commissioned corporate history in seconds — placing past and present side by side.
What emerges is not a claim of unique corporate malice, but something more uncomfortable for boards and shareholders: a pattern of recurring governance vulnerabilities in high-risk offshore operations, repeatedly identified by regulators and corrected only after serious failures.
Introduction: A Troubling Cross-Era Review Shell Cannot IgnoreThe revised analysis obtained from Microsoft Copilot — now published in full below — brings into sharp relief a theme that should be deeply concerning to both the Shell board of directors and Shell shareholders: the persistence of governance and control weaknesses across decades, technologies, and regulatory systems.
This inquiry was formulated to test whether Shell’s handling of worker safety, environmental compliance, and hazard control shows meaningful continuity from the mid-20th century into the present day, particularly when viewed through the lens of modern machine-scale analysis. The response incorporates:
In a sudden reversal that has sent ripples through energy markets and corporate governance circles, Royal Dutch Shell plc and ExxonMobil have abandoned a £500 million sale of natural gas assets in the Southern North Sea after concerns emerged about the prospective buyer, Viaro Energy, and ongoing fraud allegations against its leadership.
The agreement, originally announced in July 2024, would have transferred interests in 11 gas fields and the Bacton Terminal, part of one of the UK’s longest-producing offshore hydrocarbon portfolios. That plan, however, has now “collapsed” by mutual agreement between Shell, Exxon, and Viaro, with Shell stating that evolving commercial and market conditions and unmet requirements meant the transaction could not proceed.
Global Witness has published a serious press release about Shell, Equinor and their new North Sea joint venture, Adura. This is the ShellBot version — same documents, different tone.
User:
ShellBot, what on earth is Adura and why is everyone suddenly talking about a £1.3 billion tax dodge?
ShellBot:
Adura is the new joint venture between Shell and Equinor in the UK North Sea.
Think of it as:
Shell brings a portfolio of ageing but still productive oil and gas fields,
Equinor brings a £1.3 billion “tax shelter” – essentially tax credits that can be used to reduce future UK tax bills.
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.
This chat is a companion to our serious article on Brent Charlie and Brent Bravo…
User: Shell has just been fined £560,000 over the Brent Charlie hydrocarbon release. “Potentially catastrophic,” the HSE says. What do you make of that, ShellBot?
ShellBot: From Shell’s point of view?
=&0=&User: Remind me what actually happened on Brent Charlie.
ShellBot: In 2017, on the Brent Charlie platform:
Shell to the Lifeboats: North Sea Crisis, Corporate Vanishing Act, and the Smell of Crude RegretSo here we are again.
Shell — the oil major that has treated the North Sea like a personal ATM since the 1970s — appears to be preparing a quick, quiet exit, leaving behind ageing infrastructure, decommissioning headaches, and what one might generously call a mess, and less generously call a multi-billion-pound cleanup liability.
According to The Telegraph, Shell is attempting a “hurried withdrawal” from the North Sea just as the political landscape shifts, with pressure mounting over who will pay for decommissioning oil infrastructure left under the waves.
See our link list of over 500 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, New York Times, CNBC etc, plus UK House of Commons Select Committee Hansard records, information on U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission website etc. all containing references to our Shell focussed websites, or our website founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus academic papers, Stratfor intelligence reports and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, also citing our Shell websites. Click on this link to see the entire list, all in date order with a link to an index of over 100 books also containing references to our non-profit websites and/or our activities.
John Donovan, the website owner
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