WikiLeaks cables: Shell's grip on Nigerian state revealed --US embassy cables reveal top executive's claims that company 'knows everything' about key decisions in government ministries --Oil Firm swapped intelligence with US 08 Dec 2010 The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable. The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.