THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 31 AUGUST 2026
SLF-2007-043
The Sakhalin Papers XXXIII: The $5.3 Billion Alternative — When Britain’s Proposed Guarantee Disappeared and Japan Stepped In
On 29 February 2008, Sakhalin Energy withdrew its applications for British and US export-credit support. Less than four months later, Japan’s state-backed development bank signed a $3.7 billion loan and commercial banks added another $1.6 billion. The environmental controversy had not disappeared. The source of the money had changed.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-043
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal record: Japan Bank for International Cooperation announcement, 16 June 2008
Authenticated Shell record: Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2008; Shell SEC filings concerning the Sakhalin Energy ownership restructuring
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin)
Contemporaneous reporting: Oil & Gas Journal, June 2008; contemporary project-finance reporting; environmental-group statements issued immediately before and after financial close
Evidence standard: The financing amounts, ownership interests and stated purposes of the JBIC loan are treated as documentary fact. Environmental organisations’ criticisms are identified as allegations or assessments made by those organisations. The decisions of institutions that did not finance the project are not inaccurately characterised as judicial or regulatory findings against Sakhalin Energy. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
A new audience has arrived — and some of its readers are not human
By John Donovan, with research, analysis and editorial assistance from ChatGPT
For more than two decades, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, ShellNews.net and related websites have accumulated an extraordinary quantity of material concerning Shell.
There are news reports, court documents, correspondence, leaked and disclosed Shell internal emails, historical records, whistleblower material, photographs, legal documents and thousands upon thousands of webpages.
They were originally published for human beings.
Journalists. read more
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Wikipedia segment, the
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Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a living documentary index and remains under construction. It brings together direct correspondence between the Donovans and Shell, Shell internal communications, correspondence involving lawyers acting for Shell, and relevant evidential emails. Thousands of pages of archival material, including the extensive ShellNews.net collection and the Sakhalin-2 files, remain under review. Further dated documents will be added as they are identified and verified. Inclusion records what a document says or alleges; it does not necessarily establish the truth of every allegation contained within it.
The Donovan–Shell Documentary Chronology
Correspondence, Shell Internal Communications, Lawyers’ Letters and Evidential Emails, 1981–Present
A living documentary index drawn from the Donovan/Shell archive
By John Donovan
This chronology substantially expands the original concept of an index devoted only to correspondence between the Donovans and Shell.
The surviving documentary record is much broader.
It includes:
DONOVAN → SHELL
Letters, faxes and emails from John Donovan, Alfred Donovan or Don Marketing to Shell companies, directors, executives and employees.
SHELL → DONOVAN
Correspondence sent by Shell personnel to John or Alfred Donovan.
SHELL INTERNAL
Shell emails, memoranda, issue briefs, media-management discussions, security communications and other internal documents concerning the Donovans, Don Marketing, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, ShellNews.net, Donovan sources, litigation or campaigning. read more
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Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, AL-Yamamah, Alfred Donovan, Brent Bravo Scandal, Business ethics, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Corporate Governance, Corruption, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Gas, Goodbye Royal Dutch Shell Plc, GoogleNews, Gripe Sites, Hakluyt & Company, James W.D. Hall, John Donovan, johndonovan.website, Litigation, National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance, Nazi Germany, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell Business Principles, Shell North Sea Platforms, Shell PLC, Shell Reserves Scandal, Shell Spies, Shell Spying.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell · Sir Henri Deterding · Sir Philip Watts
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 31 AUGUST 2026
Shell Says the Criminals Did It. The High Court Says That Is Not the End of the Legal Question.
Shell says organised theft, sabotage and illegal refining caused the vast majority of Niger Delta pollution at issue in the Bille and Ogale litigation. That may ultimately be proved for many spills. But a 2025 High Court ruling on Nigerian law established something critically important: for a pipeline claim under section 11(5)(b) of Nigeria’s Oil Pipelines Act, third-party interference is not, by itself, a defence if relevant neglect by the licence-holder is proved. The newly disclosed Shell documents now have to be read against that legal framework.
For years, one word has dominated Shell’s explanation of oil pollution in the Niger Delta:
Sabotage.
Shell’s present litigation page says large-scale oil theft, sabotage and illegal refining by organised criminal gangs caused the vast majority of the pollution relevant to the Bille and Ogale proceedings. It says neither Shell nor Renaissance Africa Energy Company, formerly the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, should be liable for criminal acts committed by third parties. Shell says its former subsidiary invested in surveillance, pipeline monitoring, repairs, shut-ins and spill response and worked with Nigerian authorities as the criminality intensified. (Shell) read more
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Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Africa, Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Corruption · Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
For archival, research and search purposes, I have transferred the textual content of JohnDonovan.website to this dedicated page on RoyalDutchShellPlc.com. The material is presented without the original images and other visual elements, creating a text-focused version that should be easier for conventional search engines, AI-powered research systems and other indexing tools to crawl, process, index and cross-reference with the extensive Donovan/Shell archive already published on this website.
The purpose is preservation and accessibility. JohnDonovan.website contains a substantial amount of historical information about my dealings with Shell, Don Marketing, the litigation between the Donovans and Shell, subsequent campaigning and publishing activities, and the origins and development of the various Shell-related websites. Bringing the text into RoyalDutchShellPlc.com places that material alongside the much larger documentary archive to which it relates. read more
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Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Arctic Ocean · Corrib Gas Project · Corruption · Environment · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell · Sir Henri Deterding
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 30 AUGUST 2026
SLF-2007-042
The Sakhalin Papers XXXII: Parliament Rewrites the Rule — How a Sakhalin Financing Problem Entered Britain’s 2009 Export-Credit Law
The abandoned Sakhalin II judicial review had challenged ECGD’s power to “facilitate” exports when the goods and services concerned might already have been supplied. No court ever answered that question. Then Parliament changed the statute. The official record does not support saying that Sakhalin II alone caused the new law — but it establishes something considerably stronger than coincidence.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-042
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal records: Industry and Exports (Financial Support) Act 2009; Parliamentary debates of 16 March and 21 April 2009; House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Eleventh Report, 20 October 2008; Government response published 5 March 2009; ECGD Annual Review and Resource Accounts 2009-10
Shell records: Royal Dutch Shell plc filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission concerning Sakhalin II
Court record: Statement of Facts and Grounds in R (WWF-UK and The Corner House Research) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Evidence standard: Parliamentary statements, legislation, Shell regulatory filings and official ECGD records are treated as documentary facts. Arguments advanced by WWF and The Corner House remain allegations or legal submissions unless independently established. No court ruled that ECGD’s 2004 Sakhalin commitment was unlawful, and the 2009 legislation is not characterised as an admission that it had been. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 30 AUGUST 2026
Shell’s $10.9 Billion Nigeria Estimate vs Its Public Accounts: What Were Shareholders Told?
An internal report sent to Shell’s CEO in early 2014 reportedly put the cost of retiring SPDC’s existing asset base at $10.9 billion. Weeks later, Royal Dutch Shell approved its 2013 Annual Report and Form 20-F. The public accounts disclosed billions in global decommissioning provisions and a strategic review of Nigerian assets — but did not separately identify the $10.9 billion Nigeria estimate. That does not establish an accounting failure. It does create a legitimate disclosure question.
The 17 August instalment of The Shell Nigeria Files examined a particular issue: whether Shell’s programme of divestment risked transferring massive decommissioning and pollution problems along with the assets. This article addresses a different question.
What did Shell’s shareholders know, from Shell’s formal financial reporting, about the scale of the Nigerian retirement problem senior management was confronting internally? (Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com)
That question matters because Nigeria: Lifting the Lid, published on 29 July 2026 by Amnesty International, HEDA Resource Centre and partner organisations, says an internal report sent to Shell’s then CEO in 2014 estimated that decommissioning all existing SPDC assets could take decades and cost $10.9 billion, apparently excluding the separate cost of cleaning historic pollution. (Amnesty International) read more
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Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 29 AUGUST 2026
SLF-2007-041
The Sakhalin Papers XXXI: The Judicial Review That Never Reached Judgment — WWF, The Corner House and the Unanswered Legality Question
In August 2007, WWF-UK and The Corner House asked the Administrative Court to examine a question created by a three-year-old ECGD letter: could Britain’s export-credit agency make a legally binding conditional commitment to support Sakhalin II contracts before completing its environmental assessment — and while the very British supplies it was supposed to “facilitate” were already being delivered? The pleadings survive. The arguments survive. The judgment does not. Sakhalin Energy withdrew its application before the case could be decided.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-041
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal legal record: R (WWF-UK and The Corner House Research) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform — Statement of Facts and Grounds, dated 11 August 2007
Supporting records: Royal Dutch Petroleum Company/The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company Form 6-K, May 2003; WWF and Corner House witness material; contemporaneous reporting by The Guardian; Sakhalin Energy statements reported by Interfax; Parliamentary material concerning ECGD and Sakhalin II
Evidence standard: The allegations in the judicial-review papers are identified as allegations advanced by the claimants. They are not court findings. ECGD’s responses are identified separately. Sakhalin Energy’s withdrawal of its financing application is not treated as an admission of illegality or environmental wrongdoing. No court adjudicated the merits of this judicial review. read more
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Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Business Principles, Environment, Gas, Gazprom, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell PLC, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
The next materially distinct angle is internal compliance culture inside SPDC. Earlier instalments quoted the 2012 remark in passing, but none has examined it as the central documentary issue. The contrast is unusually sharp: in 2012 Shell publicly said its Business Principles were the foundation of how it worked and reported disciplinary action for Code violations worldwide; yet a Shell headquarters manager visiting Nigeria reportedly told colleagues that SPDC was afflicted by “collusion, nepotism and corruption” and that the Code of Conduct was “completely ignored.” (Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com) read more
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Wikipedia segment, the
Shell DPA Files,
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the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan -
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Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Corruption · Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Militant Attacks · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
A meaningful Woodcreek update has surfaced.
Reporting published on 28 August 2026, drawing on the JLL marketing material for Shell’s Houston campus, gives a much more precise picture of the proposed leaseback. Shell is reported to intend a 15-year lease on Buildings E and F, plus one floor of Building A, while taking only three-year leases on Buildings B, C, D and the remainder of Building A. That means the more than 700,000 sq ft Shell plans to relinquish would be released progressively over roughly three years rather than all at once. (Hoodline) read more
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Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: GoogleNews, John Donovan, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Arctic Ocean · John Donovan · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
SLF-2007-040
The Sakhalin Papers XXX: The Letter That Was Both a Commitment and “No Decision” — Inside ECGD’s 4 March 2004 Conditional Support
One day Britain’s export-credit agency told Sakhalin Energy it was able to support specified contracts, subject to conditions. The next day a minister told Parliament that approval would come only after the outstanding issues had been satisfactorily addressed. The apparent contradiction would eventually reach the High Court — but never receive a judgment on its merits.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-040
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal record: Export Credits Guarantee Department letter to Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd, 4 March 2004
Supporting record: Royal Dutch/Shell Form 6-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, May 2003; Parliamentary answers of February and March 2004; Administrative Court papers in R (WWF-UK and The Corner House Research) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; National Audit Office case study submitted to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee; contemporaneous reporting
Evidence standard: The existence and wording of the ECGD letter are treated as documentary fact. ECGD’s later description of the letter, ministerial statements and Shell corporate filings are separately identified. Allegations advanced in the proposed judicial review are not represented as judicial findings because the proceedings ended without a merits judgment. read more
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Posted in: Business Principles, ChatGPT, Environment, Gas, Gazprom, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell PLC, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
Shell has been trying to sell its 37.5% interest in Germany’s strategically important PCK Schwedt refinery for years. A 2021 deal was thwarted by Rosneft. A 2023 agreement with Prax collapsed. Now, according to Bloomberg reporting carried by Reuters, advanced negotiations with Poland’s Unimot have also ended without a sale.
By John Donovan
There are corporate disposals, difficult corporate disposals — and then there is Shell’s 37.5% stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery.
Shell has been attempting to get out of this particular German refining investment for years.
Unfortunately for Shell, the stake appears remarkably reluctant to leave.
Reuters reported on 27 August 2026, citing Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter, that Shell has ended negotiations with Polish energy group Unimot over a possible sale of its 37.5% interest in the refinery. According to Bloomberg, the talks began in 2023, were still at an advanced stage as recently as February 2026, but ended months ago. Shell declined to comment to Reuters, while Unimot had not responded when Reuters published its report. (in.marketscreener.com) read more
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Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, Germany, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
The next materially distinct documentary angle is the formal exception from Shell’s own group safety-control requirements. The 24 August instalment mentioned this only in passing and expressly identified it as a separate documentary story; it has not yet received a dedicated article. (Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com)
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 28 AUGUST 2026
Shell’s “Restricted” Safety Exception: Tampered Nigeria Pipelines Were Allowed to Keep Operating Outside a Group HSSE Requirement
A 2009 Shell engineering rule was rewritten specifically for SPDC. Then a 2012 internal application sought an exception from a group safety requirement after acknowledging that pipelines with numerous illegal connections called for “immediate corrective action or shutting in of the line.” The reason included the “considerable system downtime” needed to remove them. According to the newly published record, Shell executives approved the exception in 2013 and later extended it through 2016.
Some of the most consequential documents in a corporate archive do not look dramatic.
They are forms.
Procedures.
Technical standards.
Applications for exceptions.
One of the most important records in the newly disclosed Shell Nigeria files appears to be exactly that kind of document. read more
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Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Militant Attacks · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
In February 2007, a Shell insider sent John Donovan details of purported secret business-continuity arrangements. Donovan removed the locations, checked the allegations with other Shell sources and asked Shell’s General Counsel whether the material was genuine. Shell’s answer was essentially: we cannot tell you. Nearly twenty years later, Shell’s own internal emails make the episode considerably more entertaining.
By John Donovan
Sometimes an old article improves with age.
On 5 February 2007, I published an article on ShellNews.net entitled Royal Dutch Shell secret contingency plans. It concerned information supplied by a Shell insider about the company’s confidential Business Continuity Managementarrangements — the plans intended to keep Shell functioning if one of its principal offices became unusable following war, terrorism or some other major emergency. (Shell News)
Reading it again almost twenty years later is rather like opening a corporate time capsule. read more
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Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Business Principles, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
The next instalment follows exactly from the teaser at the end of SLF-2007-038. I have reconstructed the three Whitehall responses separately rather than treating them as a single government position, and I have been particularly careful to distinguish the disclosed departmental correspondence, evidence submitted to Parliament, contemporaneous journalism and the actual High Court ruling. (Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com)
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 27 AUGUST 2026
SLF-2007-039
The Sakhalin Papers XXIX: The Hidden Whitehall Warning — What DEFRA Told ECGD About Shell’s Sakhalin II Project
Before Britain offered conditional export-credit support, three government departments were asked what they thought. Their answers were strikingly different.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-039
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal record: UK interdepartmental responses to the Export Credits Guarantee Department’s Sakhalin II sensitive-case notification of 28 February 2003; Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin)
Supporting record: House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee published evidence; Royal Dutch/Shell Form 6-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, May 2003; contemporaneous reporting following disclosure of the Whitehall documents
Evidence standard: Departmental correspondence is distinguished from campaign interpretation, Parliamentary publication from Parliamentary findings, and judicial findings from the environmental merits of Sakhalin II. Different departmental emphases are not represented as a formal dispute unless the documents establish one. read more
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Wikipedia segment, the
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"Shell and the Spies",
the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan -
Kindle eBooks.
Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Business Principles, Environment, Gas, Gazprom, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell PLC.
Tagged: Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 27 AUGUST 2026
Shell’s 250-Barrel Threshold: Project Madrid Asked Whether Its Nigeria Shutdown Standard Was “Defensible Vs Global Benchmarks”
Buried in Shell’s 2013 Project Madrid papers is a remarkably specific figure. According to the newly published documentary record, “significant leaks” warranting pipeline shutdown were defined as more than 250 barrels over a month. The same internal presentation then asked whether that position was “defensible Vs global benchmarks.” That question came from inside Shell.
Sometimes one number changes the complexion of an entire document.
In the Shell Nigeria papers, that number is 250 barrels.
The figure appears in the Project Madrid Steering Group Update of 18 March 2013, now publicly catalogued by HEDA Resource Centre as Document 23 — MPR-10 HB 856-891_Redacted_260421_133829. HEDA says the disclosed cache contains internal emails and confidential audits cited in the Bille and Ogale litigation and released after campaigning groups sought publication on public-interest grounds. (HEDA Resource Centre) read more
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here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, the
Shell DPA Files,
"Shell and the Spies",
the Shell Leaks files, as well as books written and published by John Donovan -
Kindle eBooks.
Timeline of the Donovan Shell Feud.
Toxic History of Royal Dutch Shell Group. Shell and the Donovans: The Full Media Record — 550+ Articles, 110 Books, 40 Years.
Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Militant Attacks · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
