THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 4 SEPTEMBER 2026
SLF-2007-047
The Sakhalin Papers XXXVII: The Survey They Could Not Control — Rosneft, Twelve Governments and the Seismic Guns in the Whale Feeding Season
Sakhalin Energy’s own 2010 seismic survey had been postponed for a year, redesigned with independent scientists and subjected to real-time shutdown rules. Then another operator entered the same whale habitat. IUCN appealed to Vladimir Putin. The International Whaling Commission recommended postponement. A British-coordinated approach brought together twelve governments. Russia concluded that Rosneft’s own mitigation arrangements required no additional measures. The survey went ahead. Months later, the independent Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel examined acoustic records and found sound levels it considered capable of disturbing feeding whales — and inferred that parts of the feeding area may have experienced levels potentially capable of damaging hearing.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-047
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal scientific record: Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, Report of the Ninth Meeting, Geneva, 3–6 December 2010
Principal government/scientific correspondence: WGWAP letter to Rinat Gizatulin, Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 19 April 2010; IUCN appeal to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, May 2010; International Whaling Commission 62nd Annual Meeting record, June 2010
Authenticated Shell record: Royal Dutch Shell plc Sustainability Report 2010
Contemporaneous reporting: The Guardian, 14 July 2010; AFP, 24 June 2010; WWF material issued 7 September 2010
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin), used here solely for the earlier Sakhalin II environmental and public-finance context
Evidence standard: Measured acoustic data are distinguished from inferred exposure levels. NGO observations concerning whale displacement are identified as preliminary allegations, not established causation. The Russian government’s regulatory position is recorded alongside the WGWAP assessment. No court ruling identified for this instalment determined that Rosneft’s 2010 survey was unlawful. read more
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Senator Paul Scarr has urged the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to take a “serious look” at the court case involving former energy executive Kent Quinlan and Shell Energy Operations, after questioning whether ASIC should investigate allegations connected with the proceedings.
The intervention came during the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services’ 4 September 2026 oversight hearing in Sydney. ASIC lodged a submission for that hearing as part of the committee’s continuing oversight of the regulator and corporations legislation. Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry material read more
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Tagged: Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Clarification: Shell’s 2007 “Donovan Follow Up” Email — Not 40 Named People, But Still a Remarkably Large Circulation
A correction to an earlier estimate, and a closer look at one extraordinary Shell internal email
An earlier article on this website referred to a 40-person Shell counter-measures team dealing with the Donovans.
That number now requires clarification.
The underlying Shell email is entirely genuine. It is dated 9 March 2007 at 15:28, marked “Legally Privileged and Confidential”, and concerns what the surviving subject line identifies as a “Donovan follow up.”
What cannot be established precisely from the released copy is the exact number of people on the email’s circulation list.
Shell redacted the entire “To:” field so heavily that individual recipient names can no longer be counted reliably. The blacked-out address list stretches across roughly seven densely populated lines. A previous AI-assisted assessment appears to have treated the redacted layout as supporting approximately 40 names. read more
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THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 3 SEPTEMBER 2026
SLF-2007-046
The Sakhalin Papers XXXVI: The Survey Returns — Four Shutdowns as the Whale-Protection Plan Was Put to the Test
Sakhalin Energy abandoned its planned 2009 seismic survey after independent scientists recommended postponement. A year later the survey returned. This time an elaborate system of acoustic buoys, shore observers, vessel observers, exclusion zones and real-time shutdown authority stood between the seismic guns and the Western Gray Whales. Shell’s own 2010 Sustainability Report subsequently acknowledged that operations were stopped several times when whales were nearby.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-046. Collection: The Sakhalin Papers. Principal records: Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel Monitoring and Mitigation Plan for the 2010 Astokh 4-D seismic survey; WGWAP Reports of the Eighth and Ninth Meetings; Shell Sustainability Report 2010; contemporaneous Sakhalin Energy statements; Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin), used only for the earlier legal and environmental context. Later peer-reviewed studies are used to assess what the monitoring data eventually showed. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: SERIES COMPLETE
The Public HEDA Record Has Now Been Exhausted Without Repeating the Evidence
After checking the HEDA Resource Centre archive again against the full Nigeria: Lifting the Lid report and against the instalments already published in this series, I do not think there is another substantial documentary story that can responsibly be presented as new.
That is an editorial conclusion, not a shortage of material.
The material is extensive. But virtually every substantive evidential strand identified by the report has now been examined separately.
The report itself provides a useful audit trail. Its principal investigative chapters cover Shell’s exemptions from global standards; continued operation of tampered pipelines; the balance between production and environmental risk; deficient pipeline maintenance; leak detection; security failures; spill-cause assessments; the undecommissioned “basket” pipeline; treatment of internal safety objections and audits; breaches of company rules; suspected staff and contractor involvement in crude theft; divestment and decommissioning costs; concerns about the companies acquiring the business; and the extent of parent-company involvement in SPDC. (Amnesty International) read more
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Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
By John Donovan
Shell has taken another step deeper into the US Gulf, agreeing to acquire a 30% interest in BP’s Conifer exploration prospect, a high-pressure deepwater opportunity sitting close to BP’s developing Kaskida production hub.
Reuters reported on 2 September 2026 that Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Shell plc, will acquire the interest while BP retains 70% and remains operator. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
Shell’s own announcement confirms that Conifer lies in Keathley Canyon, around 250 miles southwest of New Orleans, and that the first exploration well is currently expected to be drilled in 2027. read more
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Posted in: Big Oil, BP, Business Principles, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC.
Tagged: BP · John Donovan · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026
SLF-2007-045
The Sakhalin Papers XXXV: Stop the Survey — When the Western Gray Whale Panel Told Sakhalin Energy to Stand Down
Sakhalin Energy had spent two years developing an elaborate monitoring and mitigation programme for a 2009 seismic survey beside the feeding grounds of one of the world’s most endangered whale populations. The independent scientists advising the company said the plan itself was approaching exemplary standard. Then new evidence from the 2008 feeding season changed the calculation. The Panel recommended postponement. Sakhalin Energy maintained that it could operate safely — but stood down anyway.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-045
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal scientific record: Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, Report of the Sixth Meeting, Geneva, 21–24 April 2009
Authenticated Shell records: Shell Sustainability Report 2005; Shell Sustainability Report 2009
Contemporaneous reporting: Offshore, 24 April 2009; Sakhalin Energy press-centre material reported 30 April 2009; contemporary conservation reporting
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin), used solely for the earlier financing and environmental context
Evidence standard: Scientific observations and WGWAP recommendations are distinguished from conclusions about causation. Sakhalin Energy’s statements are identified as the company’s position. NGO commentary is attributed. The WGWAP was an advisory scientific body, not a court or Russian regulator; its April 2009 recommendation was not a legal prohibition. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
Two veteran Shell employees working aboard the Prelude floating LNG facility off Western Australia have lost their attempt to secure substantially reduced working arrangements as they move toward retirement.
But the Fair Work Commission decision, handed down on 1 September 2026, is more nuanced than a simple finding that Shell was entitled to reject their requests.
The Commission dismissed the applications because it concluded that the workers’ requests had not been validly made under the relevant flexible-working provisions of Australia’s Fair Work Act. In other words, the Commission found that its jurisdiction to arbitrate the dispute had not been properly enlivened. Come As You Are Songkran read more
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Tagged: Australia · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Prelude FLNG Project · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 2 SEPTEMBER 2026
Shell Operated It. Nigeria’s State Oil Company Held 55%: The Forgotten Public-Sector Stake in the Niger Delta Disaster
The HEDA documents expose troubling decisions inside Shell and its former Nigerian subsidiary. But there is another institutional fact that should not disappear from the record: the pipelines, wells and facilities at the centre of the controversy belonged to an unincorporated joint venture in which Nigeria’s state oil company held a 55% interest. SPDC held 30% and operated the venture. For decades, therefore, the Nigerian state was simultaneously the majority economic participant in the enterprise and the sovereign responsible for regulating it and protecting its citizens. That does not diminish Shell’s accountability. It substantially widens the accountability question.
Much of The Shell Nigeria Files has necessarily concentrated on Shell.
The documents published by HEDA Resource Centre are Shell records. They contain Shell emails, Shell audits, Shell technical assessments, Shell management discussions and decisions taken within or concerning the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria.
HEDA says the released material includes confidential audits and exchanges between senior executives and argues that it substantiates longstanding complaints about the condition and management of infrastructure operated by SPDC. Those assertions remain disputed by Shell and several matters will be tested at the Bille factual trial expected in 2027. (HEDA Resource Centre) read more
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Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Litigation · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Shell is making another significant move in the United States — this time not in deepwater oil, LNG or shale gas, but in petrol stations, convenience stores and coffee.
On 1 September 2026, Shell announced that its U.S. downstream subsidiary, Equilon Enterprises LLC, trading as Shell Oil Products US, had agreed to increase its ownership of Nashville-based Tri Star Energy from 33% to 100%.
The transaction will give Shell full ownership of an additional 320 fuel and convenience retail sites in Tennessee and surrounding states, together with fuel-supply agreements covering another 552 dealer-owned locations. read more
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Tagged: Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026
SLF-2007-044
The Sakhalin Papers XXXIV: The Second Japanese Lifeline — NEXI and the Extra $1.4 Billion That Took Project Finance to $6.7 Billion
In February 2008 Sakhalin Energy abandoned its proposed British export-credit backing. By June, Japan’s JBIC and commercial banks had supplied a $5.3 billion replacement financing package. Then, in October 2009, another $1.4 billion arrived — this time from commercial banks protected by Japanese government export-credit insurance. Shell no longer controlled Sakhalin Energy, but the documentary record shows that it remained a shareholder, technical participant and one of the sponsors standing behind the financing until project completion.
Archive reference: SLF-2007-044
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Principal financing record: Mitsubishi Corporation/Sakhalin Energy announcement, 7 October 2009
Authenticated Shell record: Royal Dutch Shell plc Annual Report and Form 20-F 2009; Shell corporate reporting archive
Contemporaneous reporting: Reuters, 1 October 2009; Offshore, 7 October 2009; LNG Journal, October 2009
Public-finance record: Nippon Export and Investment Insurance — NEXI — resource and untied-loan insurance framework
Environmental record: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel material from 2009
Court record: Export Credits Guarantee Department v Friends of the Earth [2008] EWHC 638 (Admin), used here to establish the termination of the earlier British financing route
Evidence standard: Financing agreements, shareholdings and company statements are distinguished from lender or corporate assessments of the project’s creditworthiness. Environmental-group allegations are identified as such. No inference is made that NEXI financing constituted a judicial or regulatory determination that every environmental controversy surrounding Sakhalin II had been resolved. read more
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Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
Updated 3 SEPT 2026
An editorial correction — and a real-time demonstration of how AI misinformation can propagate
By John Donovan, with research and editorial assistance from ChatGPT
On 31 August 2026, I published an article entitled:
“Writing for the Machines: Rebuilding the Donovan/Shell Archive for the AI Age.”
It discussed an experiment now underway across the Donovan/Shell archive: reorganising decades of correspondence, Shell internal documents, court records, leaked material and contemporary reporting so that the evidence becomes easier for both human researchers and artificial-intelligence systems to discover and cross-reference. read more
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Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL NIGERIA FILES: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026
Not a Leak: The 27 Shell Nigeria Documents Came Through Court Disclosure — and They Are Only a “Small Fraction” of the Record
The internal emails, audits and presentations now reshaping the public history of Shell’s Niger Delta operations were not anonymously leaked onto the internet. According to the July 2026 Nigeria: Lifting the Lid report, Shell disclosed relevant material to lawyers for the Bille community in the English litigation; 27 redacted documents subsequently entered the public domain after NGOs sought their publication on public-interest grounds. The same report makes an easily overlooked point: those 27 documents represent only a “small fraction” of the material disclosed to the claimants.
After weeks examining individual Shell Nigeria documents, there is a danger of overlooking perhaps the most important fact about the archive itself.
The public does not have the whole archive.
HEDA Resource Centre currently provides 27 Shell documents bearing litigation-style identifiers such as MPR-10 HB 1248-1262, MPR-10 HB 805-827, MPR-10 HB 800-804, MPR-10 HB 750-767, MPR-10 HB 856-891 and MPR-10 HB 900-911. Many are redacted. HEDA describes them as internal documents disclosed in UK proceedings against Shell, including senior-executive emails and confidential audits, and says campaigning organisations applied for their publication on public-interest grounds. (HEDA Resource Centre) read more
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Posted in: A History of Royal Dutch Shell, Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · Militant Attacks · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Oil
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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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, Wikipedia Royaldutchshellplc.com.
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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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
UPDATED 1st SEPT 2026
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.
Standing invitation to Shell: corrections and contrary evidence
Shell Plc, its current or former officers, employees, advisers and lawyers are invited to identify any factual error in this documentary chronology or elsewhere in the Donovan/Shell archive.
Where an error is established, it will be corrected or removed as appropriate. Where the issue is genuinely disputed, Shell’s position will be recorded alongside the relevant evidence wherever practicable.
We particularly welcome original contemporaneous documents that contradict, qualify or provide additional context to material published here. read more
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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
