Financial Times: Light sweet temptation: “What next for BG?”
Published: May 11 2005
What next for BG? That might seem like a churlish question, given the gas group’s excellent first quarter results. But it is also a valid one. A 44 per cent rise in profits mirrors the success of BP and Shell. Its two larger rivals, however, could not match a 7 per cent year-on-year increase in production. No wonder this medium-sized company trades on a par with the super-majors at a multiple of 7.2 times debt-adjusted cash flow for 2006.
Yet these results barely registered on BG’s share price yesterday. Success to date has been due largely to flawless exploitation of BG’s pre-demerger legacy of large-scale assets. It remains committed to an organic growth strategy. No-one doubts BG’s technical expertise – just look at the Manatee discovery in Trinidad. It has bought up new acreage from Brazil to Canada. Early signs are encouraging.
But there is no getting away from the deteriorating industry environment. The high price paid recently by rival Statoil to EnCana for exploration assets highlights the competitive pressure to grow reserves. Governments are muscling in with higher tax rates and national oil companies. And the 36 per cent increase in BG’s lifting costs last quarter is a symptom of rampant inflation in the upstream sector.
BG’s strategy depends on big strikes in the not-too-distant future. But it must be tempting for management to, belatedly, leverage its highly-rated paper and credibility to deepen the asset base with acquisitions.
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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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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
