Photo by Jethro Carullo on Unsplash

By Isha Gir 

‘TO HELL WITH SHELL’[1]– is what was written on a cardboard sign, by locals, who were against Shell’s oil exploration in South Africa. If this does not explicitly demonstrate society’s aversion towards corporations then what does.  As Bakan stated in his ‘The corporation’, “Over the last 150 years the corporation has risen from relative obscurity to become the world’s dominant economic institution.” [2]It is undeniable that the notion of a corporation is becoming increasingly prominent in contemporary society. However, to what extent are corporations benefiting individuals? It appears that corporations do not necessarily serve society’s needs.  Shell was considered the top oil and gas company in the world, in 2021. This really justifies how important Shell is to the world

Despite Shell’s attempts at their “significant contribution to the UK government’s plans for a “green industrial revolution”[3]

We are not blind to Shell’s ultimate aim: The profit motive. Over the years, it has been clear that Shell only cares about the profit market and not much has changed since.

Profit motive against the environment:

Let’s look a bit at the profit motive against the environment. Over the years, Shell has repeatedly shown their lack of concern for the environment. This is shown through the ‘Brent Spar’ event. Brent Spar is an oil platform which is located in the North Atlantic. This was the first oil platform that Royal Dutch Shell wanted to dispose of. Shell considered disposing Brent Spar as an effective method of ‘low cost disposal’. This corporation even gained approval from the UK government. However, Shell completely disregarded the negative environmental repercussions. Greenpeace stated that “In addition to crude oil, the giant piece of industrial garbage contained PCBs, heavy metals, and radioactive waste.”[4] Hence if Shell proceeded with their plan, it would have caused such severe and detrimental impacts to species and land.  Fortunately, “Greenpeace office heard about the planned disposal of the Brent Spar, and urged his colleagues to launch another campaign.” And so  “The Greenpeace activists seized the moment to extend the dumping ban to include installations such as the spar.” . Some could argue that Greenpeace’s campaign had somewhat deterred Royal Dutch Shell and so ‘Brent Spar’ was not disposed of. Despite Greenpeace’s successful activism, the ulterior motive of Shell was to use a ‘lost cost disposal’ method and “Dumping [Brent Spar] in the sea could save the company about £8 billion”. This reiterates Shell’s monetary motive.

Once again, Shell portrays their profit motive and their failure to learn from corporate experiences, as we hear about South Africa blocking off Shell’s oil exploitation.

A BBC news article, ‘South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration’[5] stated that

a group of environmentalists in South Africa fear that “oil and gas along the country’s eastern coastline… will harm marine life”.[6] Local communities were fearful that Shell’s actions (their seismic testing) would cause many sea creatures and wildlife to be in danger. Furthermore, Shell had been ignorant of the impacts that had been objected on locals, the article said that “Local communities, who were also represented in the case, said that their customary rights to the land and fishing had not been respected.”[7] Not only were Shell ignorant to the environmental impacts but they also disregarded the impacts that the community would face as some benefitted from fishing as a source of income as well as a source of food. Both of these events had heavily impacted the environment in order to benefit Shell’s economic standing.

Let’s digress away from the environmental impacts that Shell has caused and look at a contemporary example. Shell were very recently caught out for still buying Russian oil, in the midst of the catastrophic situation in Ukraine. Shell had “purchased a cargo of Russian crude at a discounted price.”[8] This incontrovertibly portrays Shell’s profit motive, they insisted on acting, to better their company, over ethics and morality. Shell even admitted that “Exiting the Russia market is “a complex challenge,” [9]and that Shell was indeed obliged to “defend its purchase of Russian Crude”.[10]

Repeatedly, Shell has continued to commit certain actions at the corporate’s best interest. This selfishness roots directly from the economic aspect.. It is evident that Shell, along with many other corporations, predominantly aim to benefit financially and disregard all external matters. It seems that corporations have not changed and they are still considered ‘a fledging institution’ [11]

[1] BBC news 2021, , South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59809821.

[2] (Bakan, 2004)

[3] (Shell plc, no date) https://www.shell.co.uk/a-cleaner-energy-future/cleaner-power/wind.html

[4] BBC news 2021, , South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59809821.

[5] BBC news 2021, , South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59809821.

[6] BBC news 2021, , South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59809821.

[7] BBC news 2021, , South Africa court blocks Shell’s oil exploration. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59809821.

[8] BBC News 2022, , Shell sorry and pledges to stop buying Russian oil. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60661611.

[9] BBC News 2022, , Shell sorry and pledges to stop buying Russian oil. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60661611.

[10] BBC News 2022, , Shell sorry and pledges to stop buying Russian oil. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60661611.

[11] Bakan, 2004, p.1

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