Another invaluable lesson in the art of politically motivated spin (is there any other kind of spin?) from one of the businesses that does it best (via FT):

"Companies have been lobbying to remove a series of conditions that they claim are onerous, unfair or in contravention of local laws and which campaigners say would undermine their value. Executives have attacked the thresholds above which they must disclose and argued that they should not be required to violate laws in countries, such as Qatar, which deem information on resource payments to be confidential for reasons of national security."

Here's another view for Shell to consider: do they want to disclose the information while they still have control over how it is received, or do they want to wait for Wikileaks to just disclose it for them in the next few years?