Royal Dutch Shell faces damaging claims over its influence on a supposedly independent environmental audit to determine whether the...[Sakhalin II] oil and gas project would receive vital bank funding... Dozens of emails released by the government...reveal anxiety from an unidentified party, thought to be a UK government agency, at how Shell was 'stage managing' the review conducted by AEA Technology... The report…was used by banks to assess whether funding Sakhalin II was consistent with environmental and social protocols...A spokesman for Shell said: "The opportunity for Sakhalin Energy [joint venture Shell, Gazprom, Mitsui, Mitsubishi] and its shareholders to provide comments on a draft report of this kind is routine and designed to ensure accuracy. The findings contained in AEA Technology's report are entirely theirs."