THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Australia’s ACCC: Won’t Take Action On Vopak/Shell Deal
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
August 23, 2004 9:55 p.m.
Posted 24 August 04
CANBERRA — Australia’s competition watchdog said Tuesday it won’t take action over a storage lease agreement between Vopak Terminals Sydney Pty. Ltd. and Shell Australia.
Independent fuel importer and wholesaler Trafigura Australia had claimed to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission that it was being pushed out of the storage site at Sydney’s Port Botany.
The Port Botany lease held by Trafigura, which supplies leaded and unleaded fuel and diesel to independent distributors and retailers, expires at the end of the month.
Shell Australia, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), will acquire the 65,000 cubic meters of storage to keep jet fuel and other petroleum products.
“The ACCC conducted market inquiries to determine the impact on competition in the wholesale and retail petroleum markets and has come to the view that the Vopak/Shell arrangements would not substantially lessen competition for the purposes of the Trade Practices Act 1974,” commission chairman Graeme Samuel said in a statement.
He also said that should the ACCC oppose the leasing of the terminal space by Shell , “it is likely that the…storage would remain unused.”
Further, the ACCC’s market inquiries revealed that as major independent retailers have sought longer-term contracts with the domestic refiner/marketers in order to protect their operations, independent imports have become less viable.
The loss of these contracts made it difficult for independent importers to develop a profitable business case for the leasing of the Vopak facilities, said Samuel.
-By Veronica Brooks, Dow Jones Newswires;
61-2-6208-0901; [email protected]
-Edited by Paul Godby
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 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.
