AN INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INVESTIGATION
By the Donovan–Shell Archive
4 November 2026
Researched and drafted with assistance from ChatGPT, drawing upon UK government publications, parliamentary records, Shell corporate disclosures, court documents and contemporaneous reporting.
Britain’s government has introduced legislation designed to end new licences for exploring oil and gas fields in the North Sea. But buried within the same legislative programme is a mechanism intended to permit additional production from areas adjoining existing fields. The government estimates that this could unlock approximately 60 million barrels of oil. For Shell, which jointly owns one of Britain’s largest offshore producers, the distinction between banning new exploration and permitting further development is commercially significant. The documents reveal a regulatory framework that seeks to restrict the geographical expansion of fossil-fuel exploration without bringing existing North Sea production to an abrupt end.
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES — 4 NOVEMBER 2026
Comment from “An Old EP Hand” on the article:
Shell’s latest financial statements reveal a remarkable accounting consequence of the Middle East conflict. While the oil giant reports extraordinary profits, soaring tanker freight rates have triggered billions of dollars in additional shipping-lease liabilities. The figures are non-cash adjustments, not realised losses, but they expose another dimension of Shell’s vulnerability to geopolitical disruption.
By John Donovan — 29 October 2026
By John Donovan — 29 October 2026
Shell has not stopped believing in the energy transition. It simply believes the transition should happen somewhere else, to someone else, and ideally on someone else’s balance sheet.
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES — 24 OCTOBER 2026
