Thurs 13th March 2014
** For immediate release **
Commenting on today’s Shell Management Meeting where CEO Ben van Beurden sets out new directions for the company, Sarah Shoraka, an oil and human rights campaigner from Platform said:
Shell’s profit warning in January was exactly a decade on from the Shell Reserves Scandal of 2004. A significant part of the scandal lay in the data Shell was giving on its Nigerian oil and gas assets, forcing Chairman Philip Watts’ early departure. As Ben van Beurden has stated, Shell continues to face problems in the Niger Delta. In order to address these, the company needs to start a comprehensive clean-up in Ogoniland, following the recommendations of a recent UNEP report and by allocating $1bn. The profit warning identified the situation in the Delta as one of Shell’s key challenges, by spending a small portion of the 2013 profits and showing real commitment the company could turn things around in Nigeria.
James Marriott, an oil and finance campaigner from Platform said:
Following the profits warning, Shell was keen to reassure investors that they would see some dramatic actions by the board to address shareholder concerns. It is clear that the company has to cut it’s capital expenditure and return capital to shareholders. In two provinces cutting capex would also substantially protect investors from high operational risks – in the US Arctic offshore and the Canadian tar sands. As with action on the clean up in Ogoniland this would also dramatically reduce the company’s, current and threatened, social and ecological impacts in Alberta and Alaska. We urge van Beurden to cease Shell’s plans to drill in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and to mirror it’s halting of work on the Pierre River tar sands mine with a halt on other projects in the Albertan province.
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Notes
On Thursday Royal Dutch Shell plc will host a Management Day in London.