News and information on Shell Plc
I strongly believe that Royal Dutch Shell should be held accountable for its outrageous antisemitic actions against its own employees, which cost some of them their lives. The same applies to Shell’s huge financial support for Nazi Germany that contributed to the deaths of some 50 million victims in WW2, including those poor souls who perished in the Holocaust. Shell’s leader, Sir Henri Deterding, was an ardent Nazi feted by Adolf Hitler. Shell has never apologised or expressed any remorse.
Question to Perplexity 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 follow-up information offered by Perplexity that spreads in many directions, and as a result, there will be some repetition. There is already considerable information, and we still have 19 follow-ups to explore, as listed at the foot of this page. We will deal with them separately in due course.
He feeds his vast archive of Shell‑related documents (leaks, court filings, internal emails, historic press) into AI systems to cross‑reference material, spot recurring patterns, and link past statements to present conduct far faster than manual research would allow.
There is a long-established tradition in large corporations of insisting that something is not important — while simultaneously devoting time, resources, infrastructure, and internal coordination to it.
Shell appears to have perfected this tradition.
Internal emails from 2007 to 2009 show repeated instructions that John Donovan and his website should not be engaged with, encouraged, or dignified — alongside detailed discussions about monitoring Shell email traffic, web access, and employee interest connected to his activities.
Profile of John Donovan extracted from Amazon where his Shell focussed books have been sold for many years despite threats from Shell lawyers.
In 1979, John Donovan was the co-founder of a sales promotion company, Don Marketing, which created promotional games for blue chip clients such as BP.
Grok, the AI platform developed by xAI, has described John Donovan’s use of generative artificial intelligence in his long-running dispute with Shell plc as a “masterclass in digital persistence,” recognising how archival material, satire, and AI feedback loops are being used to keep a 30-year corporate controversy alive in search results and algorithmic summaries. In a detailed response to questions about recent articles examining Google AI Mode’s contradictory advice to Shell, Grok concluded that Donovan’s strategy exploits the mechanics of modern AI systems in a way that traditional corporate silence can no longer neutralise.
A Unanimous AI Verdict on Shell?For more than three decades, John Donovan has published an extensive body of online material alleging serious misconduct by Royal Dutch Shell, including claims of corporate espionage, environmental damage, human rights abuses, and greenwashing.
Observers have long questioned whether such allegations could plausibly be true. Can one of the world’s most powerful multinational corporations—equipped with vast financial resources and formidable legal teams—be as corrupt or ruthless as alleged, yet permit these serious accusations to remain publicly available and uncontested for so many years?
When a former nuclear security specialist tells the tabloids which parts of Britain you might not want to be standing in during World War Three, the headlines almost write themselves.Hidden underneath that noise is a much more interesting story – one about Shell, intelligence work, and John Donovan’s long-running campaign to prise open what the company prefers to keep buried.
At the centre of it sits Gene Sticco – he’s doing exactly what you’d expect of someone who’s spent a career in security and intelligence: using his intelligence.
To understand why Gene matters, you have to start with John Donovan and his website, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com.
For nearly two decades, Donovan has been:
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.
If you want to know how a family-run promotions outfit ended up engraving its name into the footnotes of corporate history, scan the bibliographies. Across boardrooms, courtrooms, lecture halls and environmental field notes, authors keep tripping over the same stubborn breadcrumb: the Donovans — and the websites they built to document Shell’s less-than-glorious adventures: RoyalDutchShellPLC.com, ShellNews.net, Shell2004.com, TellShell.net, and more.
Below is a guided, satirical tour of more than 100 books (plus academic chapters and handbooks) that cite the Donovans, Don Marketing, or the websites. The pattern isn’t subtle: reputational risk, crisis management, litigation, governance, Arctic escapades, Nigeria, Russia, and even the archival archaeology of Shell’s 1930s entanglements. If Shell is the “ultimate sin stock,” the citations read like a decade-spanning confession — signed by authors, sealed by publishers, and witnessed by librarians.
When Shell dreamed of Sakhalin, it imagined gleaming LNG plants, billions in profits, and Moscow toasting their engineering genius. Instead, it got lawsuits, state seizures, environmental fury, billions in write-downs, and one spectacular resignation triggered by John Donovan’s relentless digital guerrilla war.Back in the early 1990s, Shell partnered in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, betting on Russia’s far-flung island to deliver liquefied natural gas to Asia and beyond. The project became a logistical monster: frozen seas, migrating grey whales, endless pipelines. Costs ballooned from an initial $10 billion to more than $22 billion by 2005 (Johnson’s Russia List).
The Kremlin pounced. In 2006, Russia’s environmental watchdog accused Shell of “ecological violations” and threatened to shut it down (Business New Europe). The result? Shell was strong-armed into ceding control of Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom. Billions lost. Reputation battered.
15 Oct 2024
Well, well, well—look who’s crying foul! Shell, the lovable oil giant with a heart of, well, pure carbon, is now throwing a hissy fit because gasp Russia did something shady. After Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine (as one does), Shell bolted from its Russian investments like a thief in the night. Now, the Kremlin is coming after them for a cool €1 billion, and Shell, bless its greedy little heart, just can’t believe this is happening.
Here’s the scoop: Shell had a 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas field, a cozy arrangement with Gazprom (Russia’s state-owned gas company) and a couple of Japanese firms like Mitsui and Mitsubishi. But after Russia basically swiped the joint venture and handed it over to a homegrown entity, Shell decided it wasn’t playing along. Did they think Putin would care? Of course not! Russia casually sold off Shell’s stake—because why not—passing it to Novatek and Gazprom.
7 Oct 2024
The world’s favourite planet-scorching, cash-grabbing, ethics-optional corporation, Shell, is finding itself in yet another pickle. What a shocker! This time, the company famous for bathing in oil and bad decisions is facing a lawsuit from none other than Russia’s Prosecutor General.
The lawsuit, filed on October 2nd, was hurled at eight of Shell’s many tentacles—I mean, units—by a delightful cocktail of plaintiffs: Gazprom Export, the Russian energy ministry, regional authorities from the quaint Pacific island of Sakhalin (where environmental destruction is basically a hobby), Sakhalin Energy, and, of course, Russia’s top prosecutor. Everyone and their dog in the Russian energy sector is lining up to take a swing at Shell. It’s a regular “How dare you out-greed us?” moment.
Shell’s German Refinery Fiasco: The Greedy Oil Giant Stumbles Over Russian Oligarchs, Lawsuits, and Political Shenanigans In what can only be described as another glorious chapter in Shell’s illustrious history of human decency and ethical business practices (LOL), the oil behemoth’s attempt to offload its 37.5% stake in Germany’s Schwedt refinery has hit a predictable brick wall. This little business transaction, planned with all the grace of a rhino on roller skates, was supposed to wrap up in 2024. But of course, there’s a twist – the whole deal has been derailed by lawsuits, political drama, and Russia’s favourite hobby: screwing with the West.
Posted by John Donovan 12 July 2024
In another classic move from our favorite eco-villain, Shell has gone all-in on liquefied natural gas (LNG), trying to plug the gap left by its exit from Russia in 2022. With a series of deals, Shell’s CEO Wael Sawan is betting big on LNG, all while quietly stepping away from those pesky renewable energy projects.
Filling the Russian Void:
Shell’s new projects in the United Arab Emirates and Trinidad and Tobago, along with snapping up a hefty trading portfolio, are all part of Sawan’s master plan to boost LNG volumes by up to 20 million metric tons per year (mtpa) between 2023 and 2030. These moves help Shell recover from the 2.5 mtpa shortfall after ditching Russia’s Sakhalin LNG project, which led to a 5% dip in liquefaction volumes last year. Because nothing says resilience like swapping one geopolitical mess for another.
Posted by John Donovan: 27 March 2024
Well, well, well, folks, gather ’round for another chapter in the thrilling saga of Shell’s misadventures in the land of oil and oligarchs. In this latest installment, the Russian government has decided to play a game of hot potato with Shell’s minority stake in the Sakhalin LNG project, ultimately passing it off to their favorite playmate, state-controlled behemoth Gazprom, for a cool $1 billion.
Now, let’s rewind a bit, shall we? Shell, ever the enterprising multinational, originally held the reins in this project until they found themselves caught up in a web of intrigue involving insider info, espionage, and more drama than a daytime soap opera. And who’s behind this plot twist, you ask? None other than yours truly, providing juicy tidbits to the Russian government back in the day, leading to Shell setting up their very own spy network. Ah, the things we do for love—err, I mean, gas.
Posted by John Donovan: 24 March 2024It seems the recent oil price rollercoaster was triggered by Russia saying “nyet” to an OPEC agreement to cut output. And just like that, the oil market went from “steady sailing” to “full-blown panic mode” faster than you can say “fossil fuels are so last century.”
Now, in a desperate attempt to keep investors from jumping ship, oil companies are scrambling to reassess their spending plans. But let’s be real here, folks—when your primary source of income is as volatile as a teenager’s mood swings, you’re bound to hit a few bumps in the road.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
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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