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Sir Phillip Watts

Canada candidate for top Shell job

Financial Times: Canada candidate for top Shell job

By Carola Hoyos in London

Published: May 19 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: May 19 2004 5:00

Royal Dutch/Shell yesterday announced the first promotion to its committee of managing directors since the scandal over its oil and gas reserves cut its members from six to three.

The appointment of Linda Cook, president and chief executive of Shell Canada, requires approval by shareholders at next month’s annual meeting. If it is passed, she will take up her post in August.

She is to run the group’s natural gas and power operations – a position she held before her move to Canada in 2003.
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Shell reputation reserves close to empty

FROM OUR ARCHIVES…

Sydney Morning Herald: Shell reputation reserves close to empty

April 22, 2004

Posted 6 May 2004

The closely guarded reputation of Royal Dutch/Shell was in tatters this week as British newspapers accused the oil giant of lies and a cover-up after an explosive internal report admitted executives knew of problems with reserves more than two years ago.

Amid the clamour on Tuesday, a leading Shell shareholder publicly rejected the company’s claim that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with its structure. Robert Talbut, chief investment officer at fund manager Isis, said: “They have attempted to present this as being down to a couple of bad apples.
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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.

Spaced out at Royal Dutch Shell

”SPACE, VISION AND STRATEGY”: Sir Philip Watts, disgraced Shell Group Chairman who once donned a space suit at a meeting in Maastricht, Netherlands, in 1998 to pump up his troops. Subsequently a defendant in various US class action law suits arising from his role in reserves fraud ,which cost Shell shareholders almost $1 billion in lawsuits and fines. Sir Philip was rewarded with a reported $18 million pension pot/settlement for destroying Shell’s reputation.

Spaced out means to be confused or distracted…

REFLECTIONS OF A SHELL RETIREE

During the Mark Moody-Stuart tenure as Group Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, someone had the brainwave of setting up “hydrocarbon value creation teams”.

The foundations for the reserves scandal were laid.

The company had got (with the explicit knowledge of the top brass) into the hands of people who were only motivated by personal rewards, and who smelled their chance. None of that ‘Enterprise First’ stuff. It was ‘Me first’ and all the snouts were in the trough and nobody wanted to take their snout out of the trough. Anyone complaining or making remarks that things were not right was publicly destroyed and removed. And those with their snouts in the trough started to make promises and ever more ridiculous demands. Explicit instructions to cook the books or ‘err on the high side’ were hardly given in written form or were at least well disguised. It was said and whispered in meetings, conferences and workshops and personal discussions during the annual staff evaluation time. There were clear instructions to aim for the impossible with those stretched targets and anyone who said he could go even further or higher was handsomely rewarded with promotions or fat bonuses. Brinded was a real champion of this, he was #2 and later MD in Shell Expro and I believe they missed their business targets for 7 years in a row under his reign! 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.

Damage still reverberating from Royal Dutch Shell reserves scandal

By John Donovan

The Guardian reports today that several hundred senior scientists employed by Shell at the Thornton Research Centre in Cheshire “will be scattered to other offices” in what is described as a more general retreat by Shell from the UK.

Shell staff, who are said to be “seething,” apparently believe the retreat from the UK is a consequence of the reserves scandal that came to light in 2004.

Shell executive directors including Group Chairman, Sir Phillip Watts (above right), were forced to resign. Basically Shell had repeatably filed false Form 20F returns to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission each year, inflating claimed proven hydrocarbon reserves. 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.

Tainted ‘symbiotic partnership’ between Brunei regime and Shell

His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei meeting Malcolm (TFA) Brinded, Shell’s Executive Director, Upstream International.

By John Donovan

On Sunday 1 January, the Borneo Bulletin published a gushing article under the headline “Oil & Gas continues to shower Brunei with benefits, opportunities“.

It described a claimed lovefest relationship between Royal Dutch Shell and the Brunei Royal family, which the Sultan of Brunei has summed up as: “the extraordinary symbiotic partnership between the Sultanate and the global oil giant… Royal Dutch Shell… 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.

Can BP’s investors give oil giant the time to learn from Shell’s mistakes?

Results clouded by rivals and identity crisis! Titanic court battle looms for oil company! Executives may face charges!

By Rowena Mason: 9:33PM BST 30 Jul 2011

If those headlines were meant for readers in 2011, the subject could be only one sorry corporate story: BP and its $40bn (£24bn) Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

However, the real answer lies six years earlier in another just as painful oil scandal that hit BP’s nearest rival, Royal Dutch Shell. This was the heated reaction to news that Shell had over-stated its oil reserves by a third in the years leading to 2004.

Downgrade after downgrade kept hitting the company’s share price until matters came to a head over an email from Shell’s head of exploration to the chief executive. 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 espionage activities in Nigeria

By John Donovan

A great deal of publicity was generated by the recent WikiLeaks revelations exposing Shell’s infiltration of the supposedly sovereignty government of Nigeria. Secret U.S. Embassy cables reported the boasting by a senior Shell executive that Shell spies are infiltrated throughout the Nigerian government.

WikiLeaks Nigeria: Royal Dutch Shell embedded spies

The news did not come as a surprise to those of us who have closely followed Shell’s sinister activities in Nigeria (and elsewhere) over many years. 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 is very different from Enron

Shell is very different from Enron. We were criticized for that some time ago and I’m glad we have a absolutely rock-solid way we do business. And, if you read our annual report, you read our footnotes and all the details, everything is in there. It’s all completely transparent, as far as Shell is concerned.

Sir Phillip Watts, Group Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell Group

By John Donovan

During a Bloomberg interview in 2002, with the then Group Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, Sir Phillip Watts, reference was made to the core Royal Dutch Shell business principle of complete transparency. 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.

Another Royal Dutch Shell CEO tainted by scandal

By John Donovan

Soon after Sir Phillip Watts was escorted by security guards from the Shell Centre in humiliation and disgrace as a result of his leading role in the Royal Dutch Shell securities fraud, Shell directors appointed Jeroen van der Veer to replace him.

This was despite the fact that van der Veer and fellow Royal Dutch Shell Group Managing Director, Malcolm Brinded, “only narrowly avoided being sacked over their role in the oil giant’s reserves scandal.” Both had signed Form 20F Declarations submitted to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission containing materially false information. Both were subsequently co-defendants in a U.S. class action lawsuit settled by Shell in which Royal Dutch Shell, as part of the multi-million dollar settlement, made a range of commitments about future governance of the oil giant.  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.

Gold-plated retirements

In spite of losing his job, Sir Philip managed to hang on to a not insubstantial annual pension of almost £600,000.

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.

Cook ahead in Shell’s two-horse race

In the minds of some outside the company, Mr Brinded's image is still tarnished by memories of the aftermath of the reserves scandal in 2004.

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.

Reuters: Shell sees board unification completed on July 20

Reuters: Shell sees board unification completed on July 20

Thu May 19, 2005 7:38 AM BST

LONDON (Reuters) – Shell said it expected to complete the unification of its Dutch and UK holding companies on July 20, a move designed to improve corporate governance after a reserves downgrade scandal.

The company said trading in shares in the newly unified group was expected to start on July 20.

Previously, the Anglo-Dutch oil group had a Dutch holding company — Royal Dutch — and a UK equivalent (Shell Transport & Trading) but many investors had said this structure was too complex. 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.

The Independent: Shell moves to plug holes in management board

The Independent: Shell moves to plug holes in management board

By Michael Harrison

19 May 2004

Royal Dutch/Shell, the crisis-torn oil major, moved yesterday to strengthen its board by appointing the head of its Canadian operations to its committee of managing directors.

Linda Cook, the president and chief executive of Shell Canada, will join the board at the beginning of August, assuming responsibility for Shell’s gas and power operations.

She is the first new appointment to Shell’s committee of managing directors since the chairman Sir Philip Watts, the head of exploration and production Walter van de Vijver and the finance director Judy Boynton were sacked over the reserves misbooking scandal.
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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 insider to join top board

Reuters.co.uk: Shell insider to join top board

Tue 18 May, 2004 17:44

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Royal Dutch/Shell Group says it will make Linda Cook, head of Shell Canada, a new managing director from August 1 to bolster a board depleted by recent sackings.

Cook, a veteran of more than 20 years with the firm, will take on executive responsibility for gas and power from the incumbent Malcolm Brinded, taking the number of top executives on the Committee of Managing Directors (CMD), the top executive grouping in Shell’s twin-holding hierarchy, to four from three.
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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.

Score of Shell

Financial Times: Score of Shell

Published: May 11 2004

Here’s a clue from Royal Dutch/Shell that, in the face of demands by some investors for a governance overhaul, any change is unlikely to shift the balance of power at the oil giant.

Jeroen van der Veer, appointed chairman two months ago after its incredible shrinking reserves brought the departure of Sir Philip Watts, tiptoed around the issue when grilled on a Dutch chat-show.

Having said it would be wrong to speculate on the outcome due next month of a review of the group’s century-old dual-board structure, Van der Veer seemed to do just that. 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.

Bloomberg.com: Shell Reports Drop in First-Quarter Earnings as Output Falls

Bloomberg.com: Shell Reports Drop in First-Quarter Earnings as Output Falls

April 29 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which faces regulator probes and investor lawsuits after cutting oil and gas reserves three times, said first-quarter profit fell 16 percent from a year ago as output declined.

Net income dropped to $4.43 billion from $5.31 billion a year ago, the company, based in London and The Hague, said in a PRNewswire statement. Profits from asset sales were smaller than in the year-earlier period.
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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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