Financial Times: It's a Shell of a tale about van de Vijver: “An incriminating message, it is said, was found in his Shell e-mail account after he was sacked in March.”
By Clay Harris
Jul 15, 2004
Just when you thought no more surprises could emerge from Royal Dutch/Shell, there comes a curious tale.
According to whispers that have emerged in recent days, Walter van de Vijver, deposed head of exploration and production, was mulling the possibility of a move to Shell's global rival, BP.
An incriminating message, it is said, was found in his Shell e-mail account after he was sacked in March. Could he even have had ambitions to succeed Lord Browne?
That would be rather odd. Before his downfall, van de Vijver was seen at Shell as having farther to rise; he was a frontrunner eventually to succeed Sir Philip Watts, who also lost his job in March.
And yet. . . the memos released after Davis Polk & Wardwell's internal inquiry for Shell revealed van de Vijver's increasing frustration about the reserves position he had inherited from Watts, his E&P predecessor. Could he have got so desperate as to contemplate defection?
No one has ever moved between Shell and BP at such a senior level. BP has not recruited an executive director from outside since Robert Malpas came from Imperial Chemical Industries in 1983 to run BP Chemicals.
To BP, the idea that it had been in talks with van de Vijver was "absolutely total rubbish". Shell disclaimed all knowledge and said it was a question for van de Vijver. Mudlark's inquiry brought this response from someone close to van de Vijver: "No direct contact with BP; no discussion with BP; no invitation from BP; no deal with BP - zero."
No direct contact? Perhaps a headhunter on the prowl? "No headhunter. Third-party inquiry. No response. No follow up." So there was at least an ember underneath the smoke but not enough to justify the whispers.
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