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Sir Mark Moody-Stuart

Saudi Arabia’s Giant & Secretive Oil Company, Saudi Aramco

Jan 8th, 2016
by John Donovan.
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By John Donovan

Interesting to read the news today that the repressive and barbaric Saudi regime is considering publicly listing the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. 

The headline on one such article is: “Saudi Arabia’s Giant & Secretive Oil Company May Go For IPO“

It is ironical under the circumstances that retired Royal Dutch Shell Chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the long-time claimed champion of transparency and ethics, is a member of the Saudi Aramco board. 

His late brother George Moody-Stuart was the highly respected Chairman of Transparency International.  read more

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Shell’s Former Chairman Made a Startling Comment About Climate Change

Jun 5th, 2015
by John Donovan.
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Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 21.18.34

Chris Matthews/Fortune

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Screen Shot 2015-06-05 at 21.29.09Sir Mark Moody-Stuart calls for divestment in fossil-fuel companies

When the oilmen themselves are arguing for stronger action to fight climate change, it’s probably time to start acting.

Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the former chairman of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, said that the lack of progress the world has made on climate change is, “distressing,” and that it was “rational” for investors to start divesting their money from companies that extract fossil fuels, according to a report in The Guardian.

According to the paper, “His striking remarks are the most supportive of divestment made by any senior figure in the fossil fuel business.” read more

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Fossil fuel divestment is rational, says former Shell chairman

Jun 4th, 2015
by John Donovan.
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Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 22.10.00

Screen Shot 2015-06-04 at 12.24.56Fossil fuel divestment is rational, says former Shell chairman read more

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Working for Shell didn’t stop me having morals or accepting climate change, says Mark Moody-Stuart

Mar 6th, 2015
by John Donovan.
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By John Donovan

The Guardian has published another article by former Royal Dutch Shell Group Chairman, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart.

He is apparently attempting to deal with the recent suggestion by Jonathan Porritt  that oil company employees should conducer quitting their jobs on moral grounds.

Sir Mark says that working for Shell didn’t stop him from having morals or accepting climate change.

He clearly holds himself in high esteem.

Surprising, since all manner of unethical activity took place during his time at the top of Shell, including: read more

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Mark Moody-Stuart a critic of Shell crash diet

May 8th, 2014
by John Donovan.
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Sir Mark Moody Stuart. Photo: Frank Baron of the Guardian

Retired Shell Chairman Sir Mark Moody Stuart

Extracts from a Reuters article by Alex Lawler and Dmitry Zhdannikov published 7 May 2014 under the headline: “After crash diet, oil majors may need new growth”

LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) – The global oil majors’ crash diets may be going too far. That at least is the view of a small number of critics who believe sweeping programmes of asset sales and the trimming of investment plans risk doing longer-term damage. Such projects are important both for the companies’ future, a retired top executive said, as well as the wider world. “It would be a pity if they got put off the larger projects,” said Mark Moody-Stuart, who was Shell chairman from 1998 to 2001. “They are capable of doing it and the world in supply terms needs large projects.” Moody-Stuart is also questioning the reasoning behind the sale of mature oil and gas fields by the majors. “I can see there are some assets you should probably dispose of in order to concentrate your capital, but I would be cautious of divesting oneself of fields whose ultimate recovery can probably be increased by technology,” he said. read more

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Little known key role of Michiel Brandjes in Shell reserves scandal

Mar 10th, 2014
by John Donovan.
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Screen Shot 2014-03-09 at 23.42.12However, unbeknown to Van de Vijver, Michiel Brandjes (right), who was alarmed by the findings of the report, sent a copy to a New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. This meant that events were no longer in the control of Shell. Instead, Shell’s most sensitive issue since its close association with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis several decades ago, had been disclosed to an outside firm, that had to consider and protect its own reputation.

By John Donovan

In May 2003, Frank Coopman, the then Chief Financial Officer of Shell EP, delivered bad news about Shell’s operations in Nigeria to the Chief Executive of Shell EP, Walter van de Vijver.

Van de Vijver sent Coopman back to Nigeria to investigate further.

The subsequent findings, set out in a status report, were even more devastating, revealing an overstatement of 1.1 billion boe.

Van de Vijver had instructed a team led by Coopman to work on the reserves issues.

The team included a top Shell lawyer, Michiel Brandjes, the then Company Secretary of Royal Dutch Petroleum. read more

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Royal Dutch Shell: Reminiscences of an old EP hand

Jan 23rd, 2014
by John Donovan.
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Screen Shot 2013-10-01 at 07.56.54Then came the roaring 90s. Everything had to be done faster, shareholder value, bonuses, do like ENRON etc etc. This led to an influx of fast talking americans with me first, rest later attitude and the contractor will fix it. Scandals like the Tejas Gas disaster (carefully kept away from the press) and other bad things emerged (just check out the Donovan website). And the fast talking americans then swarmed out over Shell International and changed the culture. Me first, screw the rest. The rest is history…..

Comment “From an old EP hand” posted on Jan 23rd, 2014 at 11:33 

@relieved
Until the early 90s Shell Oil had many great designers and other top professionals. They were second to none when it came to HPHT welldesigns (and offshore development, geophysics etc). Also very pragmatic and hands-on experience.

I remember Leo Broussard, genuine good old boy. He could smoke a big cigar and drink whiskey without taking the cigar from his mouth. But he knew more about well and completion design than anyone else in the world. And he was always willing to share his knowledge. Just not interested in making a career, his passion was designing complicated completions! read more

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Simon Henry and the reserves time bomb

Jan 21st, 2013
by John Donovan.
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Were they aware that Simon Henry was a key player, as Head of Global Investor Relations, in dealing with the reserves data and actually had responsibility to ensure the quality/accuracy of the data before it was disclosed to analysts and investors? As we all know, it turned out that some of the data was not only inaccurate, but fraudulent. He had been warned that a Gorgon 600 million BOE reserves booking was an IR time bomb.

Introduction: A draft of the article below was supplied to Shell in advance, namely to Mr Michiel Brandjes, the Company Secretary & General Counsel Corporate of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and the CFO, Mr. Simon Henry. We invited Shell to point out any factual inaccuracy and/or supply comment for unedited publication with the article. No response other than an automated message has been received.

ARTICLE

By John Donovan

On 13 March 2009, the Financial Times published an article about Simon Henry, who was about to become Chief Financial Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. It said that he had survived the reserves misreporting scandal with his reputation intact. I wonder how much investigation of the facts was undertaken before arriving at that conclusion? read more

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Short list of praiseworthy senior Royal Dutch Shell executives

Jan 18th, 2013
by John Donovan.
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Now we have his equally scandal tainted successor, Peter Voser, Chairman of the UBS Audit Committee at the time when UBS was engaged in all kinds of criminal activity.

Posting on Shell Blog by LondonLad on Jan 17th, 2013 at 19:56

In all honesty can the Donovan’s kindly list some of the past and present senior executives of Royal Dutch Shell that they would support for their good work, honesty, ability to abide by country HSE requirements, etc. etc. More and more it seems that if you work for RDS at a (very) senior level they’ll get shafted via real AND tabloid reporting on this website, Greenpeace (dick-heads), and other tree hugging websites. We (the countries around the world) need to advance, risks need to be taken as a result…. read more

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Jeroen van der Veer exit from Shell

Dec 13th, 2012
by John Donovan.
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I am only surprised that an ex CEO of Shell leaves the board at a young age. Is Jeroen washing his hands in innocence or trying to put light between him and Shell?? In the past they used to hang in there for long periods until they had to get up too often to take a pee during shareholders meetings. But in recent times Herkstroter left premature, so did Moody-Stuart. And Watts sought salvation…

13/12/2012

Royal Dutch Shell plc has announced today that Mr Gerrit Zalm has been appointed a Non-executive Director of the Company with effect from January 1, 2013. Mr Zalm is the Chairman of the Board of Management of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., a position he has held since February 2009. Prior to that Mr Zalm was the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands from 1994-2002 and from 2003-2007. Mr Zalm will seek re-appointment by shareholders at the next Annual General Meeting (AGM), scheduled to be held in May 2013. (information taken from Shell website) read more

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SHELL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES – GENUINE OR CON TRICK?

Dec 5th, 2012
by John Donovan.
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By John Donovan

Shell has for many years supposedly operated within an ethical code which, according to its current shell.com webpage on the subject, was first published in 1976.

This does not tally with the relevant pages in “A HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL, Volume 3,” about the history of the code – known in the 1990’s as the Shell Statement of General Business Principles.

Apparently they were first drafted in 1962, restated and first published in 1976, made freely available to the public from 1981 and reformulated in 1997, for the first time including human rights. read more

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Editorial Integrity of “A History of Royal Dutch Shell”

Nov 15th, 2012
by John Donovan.
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“In fact all three Shell members of the editorial committee, Watts, Van der Veer and Munsiff, had form in the culture of corporate cover-up and were therefore ideal from the standpoint of Shell to have editorial influence over inclusion (or non-inclusion) of the dark side of Shell’s history and how that information was treated (spun?)“

By John Donovan

The official history of Royal Dutch Shell published in three volumes in 2007 was commissioned by the company and authored by historians associated with Utrecht University who were given unrestricted access to Royal Dutch Shell archives.

The relevant historians, who describe themselves as the researchers and authors of the work, say that none of them are Shell employees and claim that the work is “the fruit of our independent research” with their progress “monitored by an editorial committee, with an equal number of economic historians and company representatives.” read more

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How Shell’s Move To Revamp Culture Ended in Scandal

Nov 14th, 2012
by John Donovan.
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FROM OUR NOVEMBER 2004 SHELL NEWS ARCHIVE

How Shell’s Move To Revamp Culture Ended in Scandal: “The root of the problem, however, goes significantly further back than Sir Philip’s reign, which began in 2001”: “These deeper roots are significant because the company has yet to make a full break with its past. Mr. van der Veer is a longtime Shell executive who sat on the committee that received — and dallied over — warnings about the accounting problems.”: “In addition to its ambitious plans to discover new oil and gas cheaply, Shell under Sir Mark was redefining how it counted existing reserves.”: “Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, chairman from 1998 to 2001, remains on the board of Shell’s English parent… He declined to comment about reserves issues. And Shell still can’t seem to get a handle on its reserves.”

As New-Age Style Came In,
Geology Skills Lost Out;
Imitating Jerry Springer
Oilmen at a Rainy Playground

By CHIP CUMMINS and ALMAR LATOUR Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

November 2, 2004; Page A1

In late 2000, the head of the Dutch exploration unit at Royal Dutch/Shell Group asked his planners to deliver five-minute skits pitching ideas for discovering oil and gas.

In one skit, a naked employee ran on stage to catch the boss’s attention, say two people who attended. Another featured a mock episode of the Jerry Springer show, the incendiary daytime TV talk program. A third, after a bit of fun and games, promised to extract large quantities of natural gas cheaply from seemingly declining Dutch fields. read more

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Watchdog’s bark far worse than its bite

Nov 7th, 2012
by John Donovan.
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From our November 2005 Shell News Archive

The Times: Watchdog’s bark far worse than its bite

“In the Shell case, the FSA had plenty of evidence of a conspiracy at the highest level against the interests of shareholders. The company’s own investigation unearthed compelling e-mail evidence, not least former exploration director Walter van de Vijver’s infamous complaint that he was “becoming sick and tired about lying about the extent of our reserves issues”.: “…it looks downright embarrassing that the FSA official who fought Sir Philip, former acting enforcement head David Mayhew, will later this month wave goodbye to the FSA and walk straight into a highly paid job at Herbert Smith — the firm advising Sir Philip.”

Posted Friday 11 Nov 2005

SHELL, we were told by the Financial Services Authority last summer, was guilty of “unprecedented misconduct”. For five years, from 1998 to 2003, the company had repeatedly misled shareholders over its oil and gas reserves. It was so culpable that the regulator felt it had no choice but to fine it a then-record £17 million.

Yet we are now asked to believe that no one running the company at the time was actually to blame. The FSA yesterday dropped its investigation into and proceedings against the former chairman, Sir Philip Watts, and other unnamed individuals. After an 18-month inquiry the regulator’s enforcement arm had assembled a case against the individuals. But its Regulatory Decisions Committee, which makes the final judgment, was unconvinced. Or was it simply unwilling? For years the FSA has banged the drum about how it would hold senior figures to account when companies broke the rules. Yet time and again, the FSA finds companies guilty of serious offences while failing to secure individual scalps. The Citigroup bond trading scandal ended with all the traders who had been involved reinstated and no senior figure so much as formally reprimanded by the authorities. read more

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How Shell’s Move To Revamp Culture Ended in Scandal

Nov 3rd, 2012
by John Donovan.
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FROM OUR NOVEMBER 2004 SHELL NEWS ARCHIVE

How Shell’s Move To Revamp Culture Ended in Scandal

Paddy Briggs, a retired Shell communications executive, recalls one event where he and about 40 executives were issued shovels and pick-axes and dispatched to a Dutch village to help it restore an old playground. The oilmen gave up around lunchtime amid heavy rain. Such gimmicks became the butt of jokes, “but nobody said, ‘Hey, have we lost our minds here?’ “says Mr. Briggs.

As New-Age Style Came In,
Geology Skills Lost Out;
Imitating Jerry Springer
Oilmen at a Rainy Playground

By CHIP CUMMINS and ALMAR LATOUR

Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

November 2, 2004; Page A1

In late 2000, the head of the Dutch exploration unit at Royal Dutch/Shell Group asked his planners to deliver five-minute skits pitching ideas for discovering oil and gas.

In one skit, a naked employee ran on stage to catch the boss’s attention, say two people who attended. Another featured a mock episode of the Jerry Springer show, the incendiary daytime TV talk program. A third, after a bit of fun and games, promised to extract large quantities of natural gas cheaply from seemingly declining Dutch fields. 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.

A DREADFUL DAY FOR SHELL SHAREHOLDERS, ESPECIALLY UK SHELL SHAREHOLDERS

Oct 29th, 2012
by John Donovan.
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FROM OUR OCTOBER 2004 SHELL NEWS ARCHIVE

Friday 29 October, 2004 – A DREADFUL DAY FOR SHAREHOLDERS IN SHELL TRANSPORT AND TRADING COMPANY PLC

The Times (UK): The Hague for head office: “ALTHOUGH it maintains otherwise, Shell is effectively going Dutch…”: “From May, the big decisions will be taken by a new board in The Hague, which has seven Dutch members and only four Britons.”: “…from 2006 it will hold AGMs only in The Hague.”

The Times (UK): Fear of new Shell reserves downgrade: “ROYAL Dutch/Shell yesterday raised fears that it may have to write down its reserves by more than 1.5 billion barrels…”: “With less than 60 per cent of its reservoir audit completed, Shell was unable yesterday to put a ceiling on the potential downgrade of its reserves…”

Daily Telegraph (UK): Dutch chiefs take helm of merged Shell: “The radical move, which needs to be approved by shareholders, is likely to be seen as a Dutch takeover of the energy giant…”: “The news was overshadowed by yet more revelations about the company’s “proven” reserves…” read more

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