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Shell vs Donovan: Oil Giant vs Watchdog

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How one man’s persistence exposed decades of corporate deceit — and forced an oil giant to live with its reflection.

Part 1: The Origins of a Corporate Nemesis

“There are two types of corporations: those that fear whistleblowers and those that wish they’d hired one.” — Industry proverb

In the late 1980s, John Donovan was not yet a thorn in Shell’s side. He was one of its trusted collaborators — a marketing innovator whose company, Don Marketing, created hugely successful sales promotions for Shell in the UK and around the globe.

But what began as a partnership ended in betrayal. A bitter dispute over intellectual property, allegedly stolen concepts, and corporate bullying gave birth to a feud that would last decades. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, shellnews.net, and shellwikipedia.com, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell to Trump: Don’t Smash the Turbines — We’re Busy Burning Gas

Oct 8th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Shell’s top U.S. executive has done the unthinkable: publicly critiqued a White House that is (mostly) friendly to oil and gas. In an interview flagged by Reuters, Colette Hirstius, President of Shell USA, warned that the Trump administration’s decision to halt fully permitted offshore wind projects is “very damaging” to investment. She added: “I think uncertainty in the regulatory environment is very damaging. However far the pendulum swings one way, its likely that its going to swing just as far the other way.” And, crucially: “I certainly would like to see those projects that have been permitted in the past continue to be developed.” read more

Big Profits, Bigger Spin

Oct 8th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Shell Rakes in Billions, Touts LNG & Trading Gains — Because Cashill isn’t Climate

Big Profits, Bigger Spin

Shell has released a Q3 2025 trading update that reads like a corporate victory lap. According to OilPrice, the company expects its Integrated Gas (LNG + trading/optimization) business to deliver “significantly higher” results compared to Q2. Refining margins are forecast to jump to $11.60 per barrel (from $8.90). Upstream production is guided to 1.79–1.89 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Meanwhile, LNG liquefaction is expected to rise to 7.0–7.4 million metric tons.

OilPrice: “Shell’s Q3 Profit Soars…” read more

Inside Shell’s Panic Room: The Secret Emails, the ‘Kill’ Order on a Sunday Times Story, and the Corporate Surveillance of Two Men with a Website

Oct 3rd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Shell’s internal communications—released to John and Alfred Donovan under UK Data Protection Act SARs—read like a field manual on corporate damage control: media manipulation, internal surveillance, Wikipedia “strategy,” security briefings, and a standing obsession with one website: royaldutchshellplc.com. Below is a guided tour of the most telling subjects, each backed by the actual documents.

1) “Try to kill the story”: Shell’s attempt to spike a Sunday Times piece

An internal memo notes Group media “are first trying to kill the story by pointing out that it is old news,” referring to reporting sourced from the Donovans’ site about Sakhalin/drilling emails. The author concedes it has a “slim chance” of success—yet the intent is explicit. read more

Shell Bets the Planet on LNG: Ten More Years of “Lower-Carbon” Storytelling

Oct 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Shell CEO Wael Sawan has finally shown his hand: the company’s main contribution to the energy industry for the next decade will be liquefied natural gas (LNG). Not wind. Not solar. Not storage. LNG. The same fossil fuel dressed up as a climate saviour.

What Sawan Said

At the Economic Club of New York, Sawan declared:

“We are absolutely committed to this sector.”

He argued LNG is “one of the most effective fuels” for lowering emissions because it can displace coal in Asia, citing India and China. (Reuters) read more

Shell Hands $40 Billion Pension Pot to Goldman Sachs — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Oct 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Shell outsources risk, Goldman takes the fees, and pensioners cross their fingers. Workers gave their lives to this company, only to have their retirements parked in Goldman’s casino—sorry, “global investment platform.”

Shell, the company that can’t keep oil out of rivers or nitrogen out of walkways, has now decided it can’t even trust itself with the pensions of its workers. Enter Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), freshly appointed as outsourced chief investment officer for $40 billion of Shell’s pension assets. (Freshfields)

The Deal

According to law firm Freshfields, which advised GSAM, the mandate covers Shell’s international pension plan assets in Europe and advisory services in North America. It’s one of the largest OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) mandates Goldman has ever scored. read more

BP Slips Off the Spotlight While Shell Struggles to Light Its Candle

Oct 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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When BP Steps Back, Shell Lights Up (Or Tries To)

In a twist that’s making all the wrong people blink, has quietly withdrawn from the high-stakes takeover dance. The energy giant was reportedly eyeing Ampol, an Australian fuels and infrastructure company. But now it’s told stakeholders: not us, thanks. (“BP quietly steps out of the takeover spotlight.”)

Meanwhile, Shell—the ultimate sin stock—is still scrambling for scraps of legitimacy in the energy transition. BP’s retreat offers it a weird kind of spotlight: “Look how far behind Shell is.” read more

Victory or Vanity? Shell Trumpets a New Gas Field While the Planet Boils

Oct 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Shell has fired up its Victory gas field tieback, 47 km northwest of Shetland, and is already bragging about keeping Britain’s kettles boiling. The single-well project, tied into the Greater Laggan Area pipeline, will funnel up to 150 million cubic feet of gas per day to the Shetland Gas Plant, before heading south to St Fergus and into the UK grid. (Offshore Mag)

Shell’s Sales Pitch

Shell UK’s country chair David Bunch hailed the project as evidence of Shell’s commitment to “supporting UK energy security.” The Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce praised the project as a local win, emphasising that most recoverable gas will be extracted before the end of the decade. (AGCC) read more

Shell’s Secret Charger Elixir: From Black Gold to Battery Soup?

Oct 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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Oil giant Shell has rolled out a new thermal management fluid for electric vehicles—yes, you read that right. The same company whose raison d’être once was pumping crude into the ground now says it can accelerate EV charging from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes. Inevitable? Maybe. Credible? Let’s dig in.

The Tech They’re Pushing

Shell’s Lubricants division claims it has developed a “high-performance EV thermal management fluid” that enables faster charging times “without compromise to battery safety, thermal stability or lifespan.” (Source: The Cool Down / New Atlas via The Cool Down) read more

Benzene & Bungling: Shell’s Toxic Exposure Scandal in Trinidad

Oct 2nd, 2025

by John Donovan.

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“If I had been up there a few minutes more, I would have been taken off in a body bag.”

Shell’s “zero harm” mantra has once again been vaporised—literally. This time it’s benzene gas on the Dolphin natural gas platform in Trinidad, where a former quality assurance inspector was allegedly exposed without proper protective gear. Shell, true to form, didn’t even bother reporting it to the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) or the Ministry of Energy, as required. WTF Shell?

The Incident They Didn’t Want Reported

The inspector says he was sent to check pipes and flanges in May 2021 by contractor Massy Wood Group. Nobody told him he needed a respirator. Within minutes, he was dizzy, gasping, and suffering chest pains. read more

Shearwater Shambles: Shell’s Nitrogen Leak Turns Decking Into Deadfall (and History Repeats Itself)

Sep 26th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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When you’re Shell—the company that brought you unseaworthy Brent Bravo lifeboats, the Prelude floating gas plant evacuation in Australia, and the occasional oil-for-arms scandal—you’d think safety blunders would be less frequent by now. Think again.

The Incident

On July 12, the Shell-operated Shearwater platform, 140 miles off Aberdeen, sprang a leak of liquid nitrogen. The leak damaged the underside of the deck, sending debris crashing onto a walkway below. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) later confirmed the falling material had the potential to cause a “fatal injury.”

Shell was served an improvement notice on August 4, with the HSE citing six separate breaches of health and safety law, including failures to protect workers from risks tied to “loss of containment events.” The notice must be complied with by September 9. read more

Bonga Bonanza: Shell Grabs a Bigger Slice of Nigeria’s Deep-Water Pie—And the Liabilities Too

Sep 26th, 2025

by John Donovan.

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What just happened (and why Shell’s grinning)

Nigeria’s oil regulator has approved a $510 million deal for TotalEnergies to sell its entire 12.5% stake in OML 118 (home of the Bonga deep-water field) to Shell and Agip. Total will offload 10% to Shell for $408m and 2.5% to Agip for $102m. Result: Shell’s stake rises to 67.5%, doubling down on offshore Nigeria after dumping its messy onshore assets to Renaissance. The regulator’s exact words:

“SNEPco and NAE have demonstrated both technical and managerial competence to optimally contribute to the upstream operations in OML 118.” read more

Toxic Legacy: Shell, Exxon, and the Underground Waste Dump That Stinks of Corporate Arrogance

Sep 24th, 2025

by admin.

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Move over Sakhalin, step aside Niger Delta—Shell and Exxon’s Dutch joint venture NAM (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij) has managed to dump itself into yet another scandal. This time, prosecutors allege the company secretly injected hazardous waste into empty gas fields in Groningen for over a decade.

The Charges

Dutch prosecutors have recommended a €20 million fine against NAM for a long list of environmental breaches, including:

Secretly dumping hazardous wastewater laced with mercury into empty underground gas fields near Borgsweer, Groningen.
Handling hazardous substances without permits, at sites where they had no business storing them.
Profiting over €5 million by cutting corners on proper hazardous waste treatment.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) said bluntly:

“The key question is not whether environmental damage occurred, but rather transparency.” (NL Times) read more

Shell Exec sick and tired about lying…

Sep 24th, 2025

by admin.

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Let me tell you a story.

A story of billions—of barrels, of dollars, and of lies.

A story of how one of the most powerful oil companies on Earth, Shell, got caught inflating its most precious asset: oil reserves.

Because in the oil business, reserves aren’t just numbers.

They are everything.

They represent future profits, shareholder confidence, executive bonuses.

They are the oil industry’s currency of credibility.

And Shell? Shell cooked the books.

In January 2004, Shell shocked the financial world by slashing its previously declared “proven” reserves by nearly 4 billion barrels—around 20% of what it had claimed. read more

Loeb Says Shell is a Frankenstein of Oil, LNG, Renewables & Gas Stations — Time to Chop Off a Limb

Sep 23rd, 2025

by admin.

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Third Point, Shell & the Art of Corporate Pressure

Activist investor Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC hasn’t just been stirring the pot—he’s been threatening to dismantle the entire kitchen. Loeb is sticking to his call that Royal Dutch Shell should break itself apart. Not because Shell’s ambitious, but because its ambition is now a jigsaw puzzle nobody asked for.

As Reuters reported, Loeb “praises Shell moves, sticks by calls for break-up” even as Shell shifts its head office and simplifies its shareholder structure.

What Loeb’s Proposals Actually Are

Here’s what Third Point wants Shell to do: read more

Shell’s Malaysian Mess: Court Orders Big Oil’s “Sin Stock” to Pay Up to Petronas

Sep 23rd, 2025

by admin.

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When Shell isn’t busy polluting rivers, spilling oil, or fighting climate lawsuits, it’s apparently stiffing national energy companies on their gas bills.

The Case: Shell vs. Petronas

The Malaysian Court of Appeal has ordered Shell MDS (Malaysia) to pay overdue monthly gas payments to Petronas, overturning a previous High Court injunction that had let Shell skip payments since August 2024.

According to The Edge, the three-judge panel ruled unanimously that Petronas had kept up its end of the bargain, delivering gas throughout the dispute. Shell, meanwhile, argued it was “caught between competing claims” after receiving dual invoices of 80 million ringgit each from Petronas and Petros, Sarawak’s state-owned gas aggregator (Reuters). read more

30 November 2023: Posted by John Donovan

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.
Extremely slow broadband for 10 months, not fixed. I have had slow broadband well below the guaranteed speed for 10 months and Shell Energy have not been able to fix it. They have tried sending about 4 or 5 engineers but have not fixed the problem. Gurps, who I have been dealing with most recently, has been friendly and polite, alth… Read more

Extremely Slow Shell Broadband

Shell

How one man’s persistence exposed decades of corporate deceit — and forced an oil giant to live with its reflection.

Part 1: The Origins of a Corporate Nemesis

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Shell Rakes in Billions, Touts LNG & Trading Gains — Because Cashill isn’t Climate

Big Profits, Bigger Spin

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1) “Try to kill the story”: Shell’s attempt to spike a Sunday Times piece

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What Sawan Said

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Shell outsources risk, Goldman takes the fees, and pensioners cross their fingers. Workers gave their lives to this company, only to have their retirements parked in Goldman’s casino—sorry, “global investment platform.”

The Deal

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When BP Steps Back, Shell Lights Up (Or Tries To)

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Shell’s Sales Pitch

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The Tech They’re Pushing

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“If I had been up there a few minutes more, I would have been taken off in a body bag.”

The Incident They Didn’t Want Reported

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When you’re Shell—the company that brought you unseaworthy Brent Bravo lifeboats, the Prelude floating gas plant evacuation in Australia, and the occasional oil-for-arms scandal—you’d think safety blunders would be less frequent by now. Think again.

The Incident

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What just happened (and why Shell’s grinning)

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The Charges

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Third Point, Shell & the Art of Corporate Pressure

What Loeb’s Proposals Actually Are

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When Shell isn’t busy polluting rivers, spilling oil, or fighting climate lawsuits, it’s apparently stiffing national energy companies on their gas bills.

The Case: Shell vs. Petronas

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JOE LYCETT DISCUSSES SHELL WITH JOHN DONOVAN

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30 November 2023: Posted by John Donovan

The content below is sourced from current verifiable customer reviews of Shell Energy published on Trustpilot.

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