The Wall Street Journal: Oil Companies Quit China Pipeline Project
“Shell… the lead negotiator with PetroChina”
By XU YIHE
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
August 4, 2004; Page A11
SINGAPORE — A consortium comprising Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Gazprom OAO decided to pull out of PetroChina Co.’s $5.25 billion (€4.36 billion) West-East natural-gas project in China.
A Shell official said the consortium decided to pull out of the pipeline project because it was unable to find “common ground” with PetroChina. Shell is the lead negotiator with PetroChina. PetroChina couldn’t be reached for comment.
According to an initial agreement with PetroChina, the three companies in the consortium each have a 15% stake in the project, with PetroChina holding 50% and Sinopec Corp. holding 5%. The consortium, however, hasn’t provided any funding for the project.
The negotiations have been deadlocked since early this year on a number of issues, including the percentage of the rate of return on the investment and downstream market development.
When announced two years ago, the project — a 2,500-mile pipeline stretching from China’s far west to its eastern coast — seemed to mark the close of an era in which Beijing viewed its vast gas and oil fields as the crown jewels of its socialist economy, off limits to foreigners.
China-based industry officials said the consortium’s withdrawal from the project will hurt the confidence of foreign companies in investing in China’s energy sector in the long run, even though the move will have little impact on the operation of the pipeline.
The Shell official said, however, that its energy business in China will continue to grow, despite the failure to reach an accord on the pipeline project. “We expect that the total funding for the Shell share of projects in China during 2004 will amount to $1 billion, the highest ever in a single year,” he said.
The West-East gas pipeline links gas reserves in the Ordos and Tarim basins in western China and markets in eastern China around Shanghai. PetroChina started commercial operation of the first section of the pipeline in January and completed construction of the second section yesterday.
PetroChina aims to increase the gas supply from the pipeline to eastern China to five billion cubic meters next year, far lower than the pipeline’s designed capacity of 12 billion cubic meters a year, mostly to household and commercial users.
Write to Xu Yihe at [email protected]
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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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