Lord Oxburgh KBE FRS                                                                                  Shell Shareholders Organisation

Chairman, Shell Transport & Trading Co plc                                                847a Second Avenue (bn 166)

C/o Shell Centre                                                                                               New York

London SE1 7NA                                                                                               NY 10017 USA                                  

26/4/04: One Page By Fax Only To: 011 44 (0) 207 934 8060

Dear Lord Oxburgh

The following is an extract from a press release by the Shell Shareholders Organisation being sent to US Class Action Lawyers, the media and other parties: -

REPEATED WARNINGS OF A SHELL CORPORATE CULTURE OF COVER-UP AND DECEPTION WENT UNHEEDED (issued 26 April 2004)

Last Thursday, 22 April 2004, Shell Legal Director, Richard Wiseman, sent his sincere birthday greetings by e-mail to Alfred Donovan, the 87 year old Chairman of the Shell Shareholders Organisation. This kind gesture was despite the fact that Shell has been in an extraordinary feud with Mr Donovan for over a decade. During the same e-mail, Mr Wiseman updated and reconfirmed earlier admissions he had made in respect of:-

(1) Undercover operations targeted by Shell against Mr Donovan and his family.

(2) A glaring loophole in Shell’s Statement of General Business Principles which completely undermines its guarantee of honesty, openness and integrity in all of Shell’s dealings. 

The fundamental flaw in the SGBP did not deter the Chairman of the Shell CMD, Jeroen van der Veer and his Vice Chairman, Malcolm Brinded from circulating messages to Shell employees worldwide last week (extracts below) quoting from the “core values” of the SGBP which Mr Wiseman admits have no legal value whatsoever. Like a bet with a bookmaker, they are binding in honour only. In other words, place your complete trust in an already discredited Shell management; in the case of Van der Veer and Brinded, two key players already implicated (up to their necks) in the oil reserves cover-up.

Mr Van der Veer stated the obvious in his message to “Dear colleagues” when he said: “We have to recognise that there will be more media articles in future that are not positive.” Another massive understatement of reserves, this time in regards to any remaining reserve of respect for Shell's once proud reputation. Brinded said in his message of 21 April that "too much optionality" (whatever that is) “can clearly bring difficulties". He admitted that "with hindsight" factors relating to "reserves replacement performance" were not previously clear to him. We are in possession of both messages in their entirety. The information comes from one of a number of Shell whistleblowers - current and former management level employees - one of whom has more "dynamite" information directly relating to the oil and gas reserves debacle. It is likely to be put into the public domain very shortly. 

The reminder of the press release and the above correspondence with Mr Wiseman is published on Shell2004.com 

Issued By: Shell Shareholders Organisation (email: shellshareholdersorg@hotmail.com)

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