ABSTRACT
This chapter explores corporate governance and company culture in the world of 'Big Oil' and Royal Dutch Shell, one of the 'seven sisters' of the world energy oligopoly. Alongside the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the oil giants of America and Europe provide the underpinning for a world system of economic and business domination. Shell Oil by the mid-1990s had taken a lead role in developing corporate environmental relationships. Shell has become transparent: its environmental and communitarian programmes are incompatible with the nature of its production and investment cycle. In 1995, Shell Oil was presented in the media as substantially departing from its stated environmental ideals both in the North Sea and in Nigeria. In Germany, Greenpeace's story triggered a consumer revolt against Shell retail products, particularly petrol. The short-termism of both investment institutions and corporations is a direct challenge to global sustainability. With the Global 500 corporations, change comes only after disaster of near-monumental proportions.
