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Greenpeace protests against Shell plans to pollute North Sea

Aug 26th, 2020
by John Donovan.
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North Sea – WEBWIRE – Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Today Greenpeace activists from Germany have launched a protest in the North Sea to call out Shell’s plans to abandon an estimated 11,000 tonnes of oil in the sea.[1] The Greenpeace ship Esperanza approached the 500m exclusion zone of Shell’s platforms in the Brent oil field, off the Shetland Islands, with protestors on board waving banners calling on Shell to clean up its mess. Today’s protest also highlights how Shell is failing to take responsibility for its harmful impact on the environment. read more

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Brent Spar: The sea is not a dustbin

Sep 24th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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Blogpost by Rex Weyler – 23 September 2016

In August 2016, Prestel Books published Photos That Changed the World, including this image of the Greenpeace Brent Spar campaign, captured by David Sims on 16 June 1995.

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The story begins in the 1950s, when Royal Dutch Shell found oil near Groningen, in Permian sandstone linked to North Sea formations. By 1971, Shell had located the giant Brent oilfield in the North Sea, 220km east of Shetland, England. The Brent field produced a valuable, low sulphur crude, and set the standard for the European, or “Brent”, oil price. read more

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

UK Unions intent on sinking Shell’s Nazi ship, The Pieter Schelte

Feb 3rd, 2015
by John Donovan.
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Screen Shot 2015-01-26 at 19.09.50By John Donovan

Scottish TV news is reporting that the UK National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, and its sister unions, are outraged by the fact that Shell has awarded the Brent oilfield decommissioning contract to a ship with a Nazi name, The Pieter Schelte.

The unions intend to take coordinated action to stop the continued use of the scandalous Nazi linked name on the high seas.

Numerous articles have been published today as a result of a PR campaign by Shell in which it ironically claims to have learnt the lessons from the Brent Spar debacle. The STV story is the first to mention the Nazi name controversy. read more

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

Reputational damage from Shell Brent Spar episode

Mar 26th, 2014
by John Donovan.
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Extracts from an article by Dr Roger Barker published 26 March 2014 by realbusiness.co.uk under the headline: How to balance your director duties with stakeholder management

…the pursuit of “corporate wealth” should not be about generating a “fast buck” for shareholders but should also take into account the impact of a business’s activities on other relevant stakeholders. It promotes a sustainable business model that eschews short-termism, stock market pressures or short-term bonus cultures and seeks to make the board focus on longer-term goals. 

The consequences of ignoring these principles tend to catch up with companies after a while, both in terms of commercial and reputational impact. Witness the drubbing that Shell Oil received a few years ago when it decided to sink the Brent Spar oil platform in the North Sea – while this was later demonstrated to be the best way to dispose of the platform in terms of the environmental impact, Shell had failed to put enough energy into dialogue with potential critics before taking the decision, and their reputation suffered. read more

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

Shell’s Lawsuit Against Environmental Organizations Courts Disaster

Mar 22nd, 2012
by John Donovan.
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…Shell also settled a case charging them with collaborating with the Niger military to kill environmental activists who led the protests.

Shell is suing 12 environmental organizations to preempt legal challenges to exploration in the Arctic Ocean. The environmental groups include, among others, the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Audubon Society, Oceana (full disclosure: Oceana is a source for CSRHub ratings) and the Sierra Club. Crazy isn’t it, Shell, a $378 billion company, attacking the National Audubon Society? It’s a bully image that can only hurt, and Shell should know better because it’s happened to them over and over again. read more

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

Corrib – Ireland’s Last Offshore Development for a Generation

Nov 28th, 2011
by John Donovan.
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Printed below is an article by Tony Allwright, a retired Irish Shell EP manager. (SOURCE ARTICLE)

26 November 2011

Protests – overwhelmingly unfounded and politically unchallenged –
have trebled the cost of developing Ireland’s offshore Corrib gasfield.
This huge “political risk” will deter further such investments for a generation.

Many years ago, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a Dutch company with an Irish name, Shell Teoranta BV, whose raison d’être was to seek and hopefully find oil offshore Ireland (“Teoranta” is Irish for ““Limited”).  It drilled a number of wells – for  example, on 19th December 1979, the Irish Times featured a photo of a jack-up rig drilling an exploration well just offshore Dublin – but to no avail.  All the holes were dry.  Concluding that Ireland was a lost cause, Shell Teoranta packed its bags and shut up shop, though not before claiming a huge write-off from the Dutch taxpayer for all its futile Irish expenditure, a provision of Netherlands law which explains why Shell Teoranta was registered there. Shell reckoned it had better uses for its shareholders’ money than to fritter it away on the ultra-long-shots of Irish exploration. read more

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

Shifts in corporate philanthropy

Jan 17th, 2009
by John Donovan.
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Early manifestations of the change included the mauling handed out to Royal Dutch Shell over its plans to dispose of the Brent Spar oil platform in the North Sea...

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

Bad publicity can be trigger for change

Nov 14th, 2008
by John Donovan.
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Headline disasters, from Shell and its plans to dispose of the Brent Spar oil storage facility, to the outbreak of bird flu at a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in 2007, have forced companies to look at the social and environmental implications of their actions and to develop an approach to reduce their impact.

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

In the wake of Shell “lies corruption, despoliation and death”: Andrew Rowell in his remarkable article “Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil”

Jun 5th, 2008
by John Donovan.
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In view of the overnight news from Nigeria it seems an appropriate time to publish for the first time on the Internet the most dramatic masterpiece about Shell and its atrocious track record, especially in Nigeria, that we have ever seen. Authored by Andrew Rowell, it was published by The Guardian over 10 years ago on 15 November 1997 under the title: Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil.

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

Perils that lie in risk management

Oct 15th, 2004
by John Donovan.
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London Evening Standard: Perils that lie in risk management

“…it is less than 10 years since Shell was vilified for its environmentally sensible proposal to sink the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic, and thereby introduced the world to reputational risk.”: “Regulators, auditors, ratings agencies and even businessmen speak of little else these days. A whole new science has grown up to meet the need.”

Anthony Hilton,

15 October 2004

IT hardly bears thinking about but it is still less than 10 years since Nick Leeson brought down Barings bank and introduced the world to the concept of operational risk.

Similarly, it is less than 10 years since Shell was vilified for its environmentally sensible proposal to sink the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic, and thereby introduced the world to reputational risk. In that age of innocence, no one talked about risk control.

Regulators, auditors, ratings agencies and even businessmen speak of little else these days. A whole new science has grown up to meet the need. read more

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