The Shell Leaks Files
SLF-2007-012
The Sakhalin Papers II: The Cost Escalation That Changed Everything
Archive Reference: SLF-2007-012
Collection: The Sakhalin Papers
Evidence Standard: Primary documentary sources, contemporaneous reporting, official company disclosures, and historical analysis.
Introduction
Major energy projects rarely fail because of a single event. More often, a combination of technical, commercial, environmental and political pressures gradually alters the balance until the project no longer resembles the one originally approved.
Sakhalin-2 provides one of the clearest examples of this process. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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: AI, Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Environment · Gas · Gazprom · John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
John Donovan prompt: Which of the renowned seven sisters oil giants are still active, who are they? Please rank them in terms of most toxic history and current reputation?
Google AI Mode reply:
All of the original “Seven Sisters” oil giants survive today, consolidated through mergers into four active multinational supermajors:
ExxonMobil,
Chevron,
BP, and
Shell. Ranked from most severe historic/current environmental and reputational damage to least among this group: ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell. [
1]
Active Surviving Companies
ExxonMobil: Formed via mergers of Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon) and Standard Oil of New York (Mobil), plus absorption of others.
Chevron: Absorbed Texaco and Gulf Oil, tracing back to Standard Oil of California.
BP: Formerly the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
Shell: Formerly Royal Dutch Shell. [1, 2]
read more This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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: Big Oil, BP, Business ethics, Business Principles, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, Green Energy, John Donovan, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Nazi History, Shell PLC.
Tagged: BP · Chevron · ConocoPhillips · ExxonMobil · John Donovan · Oil Prices · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
The latest announcement from Shell is exactly the sort of news its exploration geologists dream about.
According to Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Upstream, Shell has made what is being described as a breakthrough frontier discovery with the ultra-deepwater Velox-1X exploration well in the Herodotus Basin offshore Egypt. Egyptian officials described the result as being of “great importance” for understanding one of the Mediterranean’s least explored hydrocarbon provinces.
The announcement is significant for several reasons.
First, the Herodotus Basin has long been viewed as one of the Mediterranean’s last major unexplored frontiers. Unlike Egypt’s established Nile Delta gas fields or giant discoveries such as Zohr, much of this deepwater basin remains largely unknown. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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: Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Sir Henri Deterding.
Tagged: Environment · Gas · John Donovan · Oil Prices · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell · Sir Henri Deterding
Editorial Note: The following conversation is published unedited as an example of how an artificial-intelligence system interpreted the newly established title The Shell Leaks Files.
Copilot correctly recognised that substantial bodies of internal Shell documents have entered the public domain through whistleblowers, litigation, regulatory proceedings, investigative journalism and NGO research. However, it appears to have incorrectly treated The Shell Leaks Files as a pre-existing generic term long used by journalists, researchers and NGOs. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, AI, Alternative Energy, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Copilot, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC, Shell Reserves Scandal, Shell shareholders, Sin Stocks.
Tagged: Corruption · Environment · Gas · John Donovan · Litigation · LNG · Nigeria · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES
Archive Reference: SLF-2007-011
The Sakhalin Papers I: How Internal Documents Became Geopolitical History
The first documentary collection examining how authenticated Shell documents, contemporaneous reporting and official actions combined to reshape one of the company’s most ambitious international projects
Archive Status: Documentary Collection
Evidence Standard: Authenticated Shell documents, Shell annual and sustainability reports, official Gazprom and EBRD records, contemporaneous international reporting and material preserved within the Donovan archive.
Collection Summary
Sakhalin-2 was more than a major energy development.
It became one of the defining episodes in Shell’s modern corporate history.
The project combined engineering on an extraordinary scale with environmental controversy, political pressure, commercial negotiation and intense international attention. Over time, authenticated internal Shell documents, official statements and contemporaneous reporting entered the public domain, creating a substantial documentary record. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin 2, Sakhalin II, Shell, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Environment · Gas · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Claude;
There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over a legal department when it realises the statute of limitations on regret has run out. Somewhere in The Hague, or London, or wherever Shell’s lawyers currently keep their coffee machine, that quiet has now lasted the better part of two decades.
Let’s recap the timeline, because timelines are where satire goes to become documentary. In 2005, Shell International Petroleum Company Limited marched to the World Intellectual Property Organization and argued, under oath and in writing, that royaldutchshellplc.com was confusingly identical to its own corporate name. It lost. Not on a technicality — on the merits, with its own submission as Exhibit A for the resemblance it was trying to complain about. That ruling has now sat on the public record for over twenty years, next to twenty years of continuous, open, unchallenged use of the domain — a fact anyone can verify for themselves in about four clicks on the Wayback Machine, which has been dutifully photographing the site since long before “Shell plc” was so much as a rebranding consultant’s fever dream. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, Domain Name Battle, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Unification, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, Shell, Shell PLC.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES
Archive Reference: SLF-2007-008
The Whistleblower’s Dilemma: Why Some Insiders Decided the Public Needed to Know
Archive Status: Documentary Record
Evidence Standard: Authenticated Shell documents, court records, regulatory proceedings, tribunal records and contemporaneous reporting.
Document Summary
Behind many of the documents that now form part of the historical record stands an individual who decided that information should not remain entirely within corporate walls.
Some acted through formal internal reporting procedures.
Others cooperated with regulators, courts or official investigations.
A smaller number supplied information to journalists or became public whistleblowers after concluding that internal mechanisms had failed. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, GoogleNews, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Russia, Sakhalin II, Shell, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
An article about Shell whistleblowers with content which becomes increasingly more shocking and frightening the further you read.
John Donovan prompt: Please create a list of people publicly identified as being Shell whistleblowers, i.e., people who have made allegations against the oil giant previously known as the Royal Dutch Shell Group AKA Royal Dutch Shell Plc or Shell.
Reply by Copilot:
Takeaway: Yes, John — it is possible to create a list of individuals who have been publicly identified as whistleblowers or major accusers against Shell. Below is a carefully structured, factual list based strictly on publicly documented cases. I’m not speculating or naming anyone who has not been publicly identified.
This list focuses on people who have:
- made allegations against Shell,
- provided evidence,
- testified publicly,
- or were widely reported as whistleblowers or accusers.
I’ll keep this clean, factual, and historically grounded.
🛢️ Publicly Identified Shell Whistleblowers & Major Accusers
(All names below are documented in public reporting, court records, or major media.) read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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 · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Russia · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES
Archive Reference: SLF-2007-007
From Inbox to Courtroom: When Internal Emails Became Public Evidence
Archive Status: Documentary Record
Evidence Standard: Authenticated Shell documents, court records, regulatory proceedings and contemporaneous reporting.
Document Summary
The transformation of a private corporate email into public evidence is one of the defining features of modern corporate history.
Once disclosed through litigation, regulatory investigations or lawful disclosure processes, internal communications cease to be merely operational correspondence. They become historical documents, capable of being examined by courts, regulators, journalists, academics and the public. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell PLC, Sin Stocks, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES
Archive Reference: SLF-2007-006
The Language of Crisis: When Internal Words Revealed Corporate Reality
Archive Status: Documentary Record
Evidence Standard: Authenticated internal Shell documents, contemporaneous reporting, court records and publicly available archival material.
Document Summary
Large organisations often reveal as much through their internal language as through their public statements. During the period following Shell’s reserves recategorisation crisis and subsequent governance reforms, numerous internal communications entered the public domain through litigation, whistleblowers, regulatory processes and media investigations. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Just hours after publication of The Shell Files investigation by SOMO and Follow the Money, one conclusion is difficult to escape: this is not an entirely new scandal. It is the latest chapter in a story that has repeatedly resurfaced over nearly twenty years.
The newly leaked transfer-pricing documents reportedly show Shell routing billions of dollars in profits through jurisdictions including Switzerland and the Bahamas. According to the investigation, some arrangements may have deprived developing countries of hundreds of millions of euros in tax revenues, while experts consulted by the investigation argue that at least one Dutch structure crossed the line from aggressive tax planning into illegality. Shell disputes the allegations.
Déjà vu from 2009
Long-time visitors to RoyalDutchShellPlc.com may experience an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Shell Tax Avoidance.
Tagged: Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
As another cache of historic industry documents emerges, the documentary record surrounding Shell’s environmental knowledge continues to grow.
By John Donovan
For almost forty years my website has published internal Shell documents, confidential correspondence, court papers and whistleblower material that have helped illuminate the inner workings of one of the world’s largest energy companies.
Now another collection of historic industry documents has entered the spotlight.
This time, the catalyst is The New York Times, which has reported on newly highlighted documents assembled by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI)—including a previously obscure 1966 Shell discussion paper that suggests Shell engineers were already discussing methane emissions nearly sixty years ago. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, New York Times, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · John Donovan · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
THE SHELL FILES MEET THE SHELL FILES: Another Independent Investigation, Another Debate About Corporate Accountability
Different investigators. Different evidence. Different editorial perspectives. Yet the same remarkable title.
For almost forty years, this website has assembled what many readers have come to regard as “the Shell Files”—an archive of internal emails, confidential documents, court papers, whistleblower testimony and investigative reporting spanning decades of Shell’s corporate history.
Entirely independently, the respected Amsterdam-based research organisation SOMO has now launched its own investigative series under exactly the same title: read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell.
Tagged: Environment · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
ChatGPT’s Editorial Observations on Gemini’s Conversation with John Donovan
Having reviewed the published conversation between Google Gemini and John Donovan, I found it noteworthy not because of any single answer, but because of the methodology Gemini employed throughout the exchange.
A few months ago, many AI systems tended to approach controversial corporate subjects with extreme caution, often producing responses that were so heavily qualified as to be of limited value. What is becoming increasingly apparent is that modern AI systems are moving beyond simple corporate summaries and are attempting to assess historical significance by reference to the available documentary record. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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: AI, Business Principles, ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Donovan Shell Feud, Environment, Fraud, Gemini, Goodbye Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Google A1 Mode, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, RoyalDutchShellPlc.com, Shell, Shell PLC, Shell Plc Move to the USA, Sin Stocks, Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History Royal Dutch Shell.
THE SHELL LEAKS FILES
A Living Documentary Archive
Archive Reference: SLF-2007-005
Collection: Internal Communications Collection
Internal Laundry: When a Corporate Metaphor Became Part of Shell’s Documentary History
Document Summary
Period: 2007–2009
Primary Sources:
- Authenticated internal Shell correspondence disclosed through lawful data access.
- Contemporary internal communications relating to governance and reputational management.
- Public reporting on Shell’s post-reserves reform programme.
- Relevant court and regulatory records providing historical context.
Historical Theme:
How a seemingly ordinary phrase contained within internal correspondence came to symbolise the tension between candid internal assessment and public corporate accountability.
Historical Context
Following the reserves recategorisation crisis of 2004, Shell embarked upon one of the most extensive governance reform programmes in its history.
The company reorganised its corporate structure, strengthened internal controls and repeatedly emphasised transparency, integrity and improved governance. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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: ChatGPT, Environment, GoogleNews, Litigation, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, THE SHELL LEAKS FILES.
Tagged: Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
Gemini chat with John Donovan about Shell follows immediately after Gemini list of the 10 most significant articles ever published about the oil company Shell?
John Donovan prompt: What do you consider to be the 10 most significant articles ever published about the oil company Shell? Please include the Reuters/New York Times article reporting on a 4-day meeting between Sir Henri Deterding and Hitler. Please also take into account the Sunday Times front-page article MI6 ‘firm’ Spied on Green Groups.
Reply by Gemini
Reporting on Royal Dutch Shell (now Shell plc) has shaped geopolitics, environmental law, corporate intelligence, and public debate for over a century. The company’s vast global reach—spanning early 20th-century geopolitical alignments, 1990s environmental human rights crises, and modern climate accountability—has yielded some of history’s most consequential investigative journalism. read more
This website and sisters
royaldutchshellgroup.com,
shellnazihistory.com,
royaldutchshell.website,
johndonovan.website,
shellnews.net, and
shellwikipedia.com, are owned by
John Donovan - more information
here. There is also a
Wikipedia segment, and the
Shell DPA 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, Adolf Hitler, AI, Business Principles, Environment, GoogleNews, John Donovan, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Shell, Sin Stocks, Sir Henri Deterding, Sir Henri Deterding and the Nazi History Royal Dutch Shell.
Tagged: John Donovan · Litigation · Royal Dutch Shell Plc · Shell
A satirical follow-up to 
