By John Donovan

Our applications compelling Shell to supply us with Shell internal documents in which we are mentioned, has generated some very revealing information, especially in regards to Shell bullying and manipulating the news media.

We have previously published articles revealing Shell’s intent to “kill” a half-page story about this website that The Sunday Times was on the brink of publishing.

The story was killed.

In 2007 Shell lawyers and media specialists in the USA and Europe were frantic about thwarting our contact with Fox News. As is evident from repetitive fragmented Shell internal correspondence, Shell was panicked about the prospect of Bill O’Reilly taking up our suggestion of Americans boycotting Shell, because of its continued links with the fanatical Iranian regime.
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By John Donovan

This is the first story arising from the 2010 crop of Shell internal communications Shell was legally obliged to supply to us following a further application under the Data Protection Act.

It provides evidence of Shell’s intent to lean on a major newspaper publisher in connection with an article published on this website: royaldutchshellplc.com.

Previous Shell internal emails provided proof of Shell’s intent to pressurize The Sunday Times to “kill” a story about us and our website. The half-page article which revealed how our intervention in the Sakhalin2 project had cost Shell £11 billion was read to me over the telephone by the Sunday Times journalist, but the story was killed hours before publication It contained an interview with the so-called Kremlin Attack dog, Oleg Mitvol, who confirmed our pivotal role and made a most unflattering comment about Shell management.
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The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the US oil industry, has written to member companies asking them to "move aggressively" to stage up to 22 public meetings, similar to the recent protests against President Barack Obama's healthcare plans.

Royal Dutch Shell is building the 140,000b/d Pearl GTL complex at a cost of more than $18bn.

Although BP and Shell have pulled out of the UK offshore market, others such as Masdar, the Abu Dhabi government's investment vehicle for sustainable energy, moved to fill the gap. Masdar acquired a 20 per cent stake in in the £2bn London Array offshore wind project after Shell walked away.

The development of the Salym field in western Siberia, a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell, has been a huge success, taking Sibir's production to 76,700 barrels of oil per day last month, a very respectable amount for an independent. It has proved and tested reserves, under Russian definition, of 491m barrels of oil. An often-rumoured deal with Shell has so far come to nothing. But the reserves remain a valuable asset and the best hope for shareholders is that some way can be found to realise that value.

Meanwhile, Denmark has attracted the likes of ExxonMobil and Chevron, the two biggest US energy groups, along with several smaller players, to explore off the western coast of Greenland, its semi-autonomous territory. And earlier this year Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest energy group, won the right to explore the remote part of Alaska’s Arctic North Slope.

Last week Shell and service player Amec were each fined £150,000 ($230,000) after an Amec worker died during operations at Clipper. An inspector with the UK's Health & Safety Executive said in a report accident had been caused by the two companies “failing to manage well-known and readily foreseeable hazards”, and said that, had adequate risk assessments been carried out, the “accident could have been avoided”.

Shell said: "We are deeply saddened by these losses. Of these fatalities, 17 happened in our upstream business, mainly on the roads, or at high-risk locations like Nigeria, where two lives were lost due to assaults and a third died as a result of a fire caused by criminals stealing oil from a pipeline."

A deal for Nexen could spark a wave of mergers and acquisitions, analysts said, pointing out that several US companies, such as Anadarko, Marathon and the UK's BG were being eyed by companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and other larger rivals.