Founded : The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies was formed in 1907 -
60% of the group is owned by Royal Dutch Petroleum and 40% is owned by Shell Transport and Trading Company. These two companies formed an alliance in 1903 by which the two companies agreed to merge their interests on a 60-40 basis while remaining separate entities. For information on this here.Primary industry/service : Extracting, refining, and selling petroleum
Royal Dutch Petroleum, a holding company, owns 60% of Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and owns, directly or indirectly, investments in numerous companies, known as Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies.The title describes a group of companies engaged in the businesses of oil, natural gas, chemicals, power generation, renewable resources and coal, as well as others, throughout the world. Royal Dutch and Shell Transport are the Parent Companies of the Group but are not themselves part of it.Total revenue : $63.22 billion
The Good
[ ] one of top 50 best companies for minorities
[ ] one of top 100 companies for working
mothers
[ ] Has a non-discrimination policy that includes
sexual orientation
To Be Improved
[X] - sites in non-democratic nations
[ ] - child labor violations in last five years
[X] - environmental violations in last five years
Environment
A March 1999 report, the Council for Economic Priorities ranked Shell as the 10th most environmentally sound oil company, out of a field of 15 companies surveyed. The ranking was based on environmental impact (60% weight), environmental management systems (30% weight), and corporate environmental reporting (10% weight). Please note that the Council for Economic Priorities does not employ environmental scientists or engineers, and they only use statistical analysis in their ranking system, comparing data from the companies themselves on leaks, spills, emissions, etc. A more in-depth analysis is not reflected in CEP's ranking system.
In December 1997 Shell announced its intention to invest
$500 million in renewable energy technologies. The Sustainable Energy Program,
a Shell grant-giving initiative to promote sustainable energy, has approved
funding for 19 projects in more than 15 countries spread across four continents.
The initiative - part of the Shell’s social investment program – gives
aid to projects that “reduce the environmental impact of continued fossil
fuel use and increase the access of poor communities in developing countries
to modern forms of energy” (Shell webiste).
The Saro-Wiwa Execution and Shell’s Operations in Nigeria
A United Nations special report states that :
“Deep concerns about widespread and severe environmental damage in the River Delta region on account of oil exploration and other operations of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) continue. The fact of spillages is not in dispute.”The UN report clarifies that the cause of the spillages were still in dispute.[Situation of human rights in Nigeria, Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, pursuant to Commission resolution 1997/53]
Shell Oil claims that more than 28 percent of these spills in the Niger Delta where it operates result from sabotage, either through drilling holes into pipelines or forced closure of flowstations.
Deeka Menegbon of MOSOP (Movement for Survival of the Ogani People)
“Oilspillages [sic.] by Shell is always as a result of outdated and corroded pipes. Sub standard methods are used for oil exploration and exploitation in the Niger Delta.” [In a communique issued at the end one-day MOSOP workshop on shell community dev. Projects in Ogoni held on Saturday August 14, 1999 at Suanu Finimale Nwika Hall, Bori].A press-release by MOSOP stated that
“Silent killers of Ogonis are the dangerous gases and fumes which has been injected into our environment and which we continue to breathe; the poisoned water from our streams which we have been drinking daily for the past 41 years of Shell's presence in our area."Since 1958, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell Oil's parent company) has extracted $30 billion in oil from Ogoniland. The United States is Nigeria's biggest customer, consuming nearly half of its oil exports. Shell began receiving strong international criticism for its operations in Nigeria in 1995 when environmental activist and recipient of the 1995 Goldman Environmental Prize, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight other members of the Ogoni ethnic minority were executed by the state for their campaign against Shell. Saro-Wiwa was the founder of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and a longtime crusader against the environmental degradation caused by Shell in his homeland.
[Mrs.Gbenewa Phido, President MOSOP-UK, 2nd August, 1999]
The company argued it made a last minute plea for clemency, but critics said Shell did too little too late and its oil royalties helped prop up a brutal regime. “Shell should feel considerable responsibility for Ken Saro-Wiwa's death," said Stephen Mills, Human Rights and Environment Campaign Director for the Sierra Club. "He was hanged because he dared to speak out against the company's pollution and neglect in Nigeria."
The Sierra Club Board of Directors announced in December
of 1995 a membership-wide boycott of Shell Oil in response to the execution.
Some organizations disagree with this negative evaluation
of Shell. Amnesty International in its 6 November 1996 report (Nigeria:
Time to end the contempt for human rights) states that: "In its approaches
in recent years to Shell and other trans-national companies with significant
investments in Nigeria, Amnesty International has appealed to them to acknowledge
their responsibility to do all that they can to uphold human rights under
the UDHR. Only Shell has done so to date."
Because of the damage to its image caused by the Saro-Wiwa execution in particular and its operations in the Niger Delta in general, Shell is taking great measures to rebuild its reputation. According to the company website, Shell funds classroom and teacher builds classroom blocks in the Niger Delta. It also awards scholarships annually so that children can go to secondary schools and to universities. Shell also builds, renovates, staffs and equips hospitals in the area. In the largest program of its type in Nigeria, over 100,000 young children were immunized against childhood diseases over the last two years, largely due to Shell support.
Labor
For several years, major oil companies have been mounting attacks on trade union representation of their workforces wherever national law facilitates such tactics. The latest example is in Turkey, but there have been similar cases in, for example, the United Kingdom and Fiji.
According to the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, the anti-union campaign in Turkey seems to be led by Shell, although both Mobil and BP are active participants. In response to Shell’s activities, Turkish workers unions (Petrol-Is, the ICEM-affiliated Petroleum, Chemical and Rubber Workers Trade Union of Turkey) mounted a national boycott campaign against the three companies in 1996.
Other
The families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and John Kpuinen filed suit in the New York District Courts against Royal/Dutch Shell for its role in the detention, trial and subsequent hanging of the two activists. The suit was filed on Friday November 8, 1996, nearly one year after Saro-Wiwa, Kpuinen, and seven others were hanged.
The complaint, which was filed by attorneys from the New-York based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and by Washington DC-based law professor Julie Shapiro, points to links between Shell and the military regime which show the degree of influence the corporation had on Nigerian policy. According to Jennie Green, Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights: "
From calling in the military to suppress peaceful demonstrations at Shell sites to bribing witnesses at Saro-Wiwa and Kpuinen's trial, Shell had direct involvement in human rights violations against the Ogoni people."Aside from its complication in the Saro-Wiwa execution, several other Shell projects have drawn criticism from human rights groups. After visits to the Niger Delta in 1997 and 1999, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) organization found repeated incidents of people being brutalized for attempting to raise grievance with the oil companies (HRW, “The Price of Oil”, 1999).
Chad and Cameroon Pipeline
Another project (supported by Shell and other tans-national oil companies) that has drawn criticism is the proposed pipeline through central Africa, which according to human rights groups would give support to the governments of Chad and Cameroon (which have been cited for human rights abuses) while further impoverishing local rural residents.
There are arguments in support and against the proposition. According to proponents of the program, "Tax revenue from the project could double the annual revenues of Chad - one of the world's poorest countries - providing money for better health care, new schools and improved roads."
Critics which include South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote in a letter to the World Bank in protest of the new pipeline that "Africa has witnessed a long history of extraction of its natural resources, which has contributed little to improving the quality of life of ordinary citizens throughout the continent."
More on Shell’s Educational Contributions
Among Shell's philanthropic contributions are towards education. In 1997, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies established The Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund as a charity which funds Shell Centenary Scholarships. These scholarships support educational advancement and co-operation worldwide by providing opportunities for graduate students from overseas to study in the United Kingdom. The Fund's aim is to provide, each year, at least 50 full-cost scholarships to international students on one year taught graduate courses at six of the UK's leading universities.
Shell also established the Youth Training Academu of Los Angeles. Every year since 1993, Shell has enrolled 20 students from school in the LA district into the program. The Academy emphasizes such skills finding out how to get and keep a job; lessons cover topics ranging from interview techniques to computer skills. Additionally, students are given placements in local businesses to give them work experience. The program has been expanded into three other cities nationwide.
Some of Shell’s education aid also go towards providing schools with educational materials. The education materials have been accused by the Center for Commercial-Free Education groups as being "commercial" rather than educational. For an example, A Shell Oil video teaches students that the way to experience nature is to drive there - stopping to fuel up your Jeep at a Shell gas station on the way. The Shell logo appears on the screen at intervals throughout the video.
Shell's Contributions to Political Candidates
In 1998, Shell reported the 5th largest lobbying expenditures compared with all other oil companies.
Shell Oil donated $3,720,219 in 1998 with 26% going to Democrats and 74% going to Republicans. This data was obtained from the Center for Responsive Politics
For more information