You'll have to forgive TS a moment whilst we get this out of our system. Nick Land's appointment as a non-exec at Shell has got us thinking, that's all.

One hopes Nick will not be too reserved in his new role, for example, or that Shell didn't shell out over the odds to land Land.

'Oil take it,' Land obviously thought when offered the chance to drill down into Shell's books.

We all know Land is such a slick operator that there's no way his career has hit a sump.

TS doesn't want to gas on too long about this, you understand.

On a more serious note, TS wondered if Nick's audit buddies at E&Y, beavering away on BP's figures, don't take offence about him working for its rival.

It might also be noted that Shell has insisted it wants to direct more non-audit work to people other than PwC, its auditors. Will E&Y be the lucky recipient of any of those commissions, one wonders?