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December 31st, 2006:

OUR DIRE WARNINGS ABOUT SAKHALIN II SINCE JULY 2005

A file of our news stories stretching back to July 2005 concerning the former Royal Dutch Shell Sakhalin II project can be found on the link below: –

http://www.shellnews.net/blog/our-dire-warnings-about-sakhalin-since-july-2005.html

With all due modesty, no one has run alarm bells as loudly or as long about this ill fated project or have been as accurate in forecasting the current disastrous outcome for Shell both financially and in respect of its reputation. Our warnings have resulted from information received from Shell/Sakhalin insiders.   read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc .com headline of the year: Energy giants cede Putin control with a thank you

President Putin

(Man of the people … Vladimir Putin greets children in Moscow’s Red Square.
Photo: AP/Yuri Kochetkov)

The New York Times
Steven Lee Myers in Moscow

INSIDE the Kremlin last week, the executives of three big international companies – Royal Dutch Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui – heaped praise on the man whose government had forced them to cede control of the world’s largest combined oil and natural gas project.

“Thank you very much for your support,” Shell’s chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, told the President, Vladimir Putin. The meeting ended a six-month regulatory assault on the project, Sakhalin II, but only after the companies surrendered control of it to the state energy giant, Gazprom. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

International Herald Tribune: Despite troubles in Africa, stampede for oil unabated

By Heidi Vogt
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 31, 2006

DAKAR, Senegal

Angola is joining the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, African oil exploration is booming, and China is investing. The stampede for oil in Africa has continued even as militant attacks in some countries and precarious governments in others make returns uncertain there.

Though much of the continent is just as conflict-ridden as the Middle East, analysts say, Africa is increasingly attractive because it is one of a diminishing number of regions still welcoming foreign corporations. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Reuters: Gazprom’s Sakhalin-2 buy may let EBRD off the hook

EXTRACT: POOR RECORD: The EBRD is supposed to demand strict environmental compliance from its borrowers and green groups said Shell’s poor record in managing Sakhalin-2 meant the project did not qualify.

THE ARTICLE

Sun Dec 31, 2006 3:22 PM GMT  
By Tom Bergin

LONDON (Reuters) – Russian gas giant Gazprom’s decision to take a majority stake in the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project may save the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) from having to approve its most controversial loan application ever. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

The Sunday Telegraph: EBRD set to deny loan to Sakhalin

By Sylvia Pfeifer
31 December 2006

Europe’s top development bank is set to walk away from the Sakhalin-2 energy project in what will be seen as an embarrassing snub to the renationalisation policy of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.

The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction & Development – which was established to encourage free markets in the former Soviet bloc – fears that the $20bn Russian scheme no longer qualifies for support after Shell and its two partners were forced to sell stakes to Gazprom, the state-owned gas company.
  
“With the emergence of Gazprom as the major shareholder in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, the project has effectively been nationalised,” said one industry executive familiar with Sakhalin. “The bank doesn’t normally back projects of that nature.” read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Petroleum News: Mackenzie natural gas pipeline project assailed from all sides

Week of December 31, 2006

Proponents of the Mackenzie Gas Project have invested about C$500 million in the venture so far, but a confluence of rising costs, weakening economics and aboriginal resistance that has slowed down the regulatory process could still undo that commitment, TransCanada Chief Executive Officer Hal Kvisle has warned.

In a year-end interview he delivered one of the bleakest assessments yet of the proposal to finally start shipping gas from Canada’s Arctic region to southern markets. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Houston Chronicle: Energy sector could see more mergers in ’07

Production and access challenges may drive growth
By KRISTEN HAYS

Oil exploration and production companies that have enjoyed record profits fueled by high commodity prices over the last two years may go to the altar in 2007 to keep growing.

Analysts say the energy sector could see more mergers and acquisitions to counteract difficulty in gaining access to oil and natural gas and higher costs of getting it to the surface.

Fadel Gheit, an oil analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said many oil companies are in prime financial condition with clean balance sheets and billions on hand. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.