By Doug Norlen: Published: November 29 2006 02:00 | Last updated: November 29 2006 02:00
From Mr Doug Norlen.
Sir, Arkady Ostrovsky’s article “Out on a limb” (November 23), on the controversy-plagued Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia, quotes Ian Craig, chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, as claiming that environmental problems are temporary. One could say the same about a mugging in the park, but that does not make it excusable. Mr Craig also claims that many project violations are fixable, without explaining why so many have not been fixed.
Perhaps one reason is that, if allowed to proceed, many of the injuries the project inflicts will be neither temporary nor fixable. Instead, the project’s fundamental design flaws pose permanent chronic risks to the environment and local economy, and to all companies and financiers involved. This includes building an offshore oil platform adjacent to the only feeding habitat of the critically endangered western gray whale, onshore pipeline designs that fail to account for natural conditions and geohazards, ongoing pollution discharge into the fisheries-rich Aniva Bay, the lack of an approved comprehensive oil spill prevention and response plan, and more.
As Mr Ostrovsky rightly indicates, even the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development branded the project “unfit for purpose” based on fundamental derogations of its environmental policy.
Sakhalin II’s permanent design flaws result from Shell’s failed management system, irrespective of the current financial debate between the oil giant and Russia. Perhaps this is the same failed management referred to by Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch/Shell, when he told the Financial Times last year: “We do some projects very well, and this large Sakhalin project and some others we don’t do very well.”
Doug Norlen,
Policy Director,
Pacific Environment,
San Francisco, CA 94104, US
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
