EXTRACT: Weeks of pressure by Moscow on the rival Sakhalin-2, led by Royal Dutch Shell, culminated Tuesday with the country’s environmental watchdog saying it had asked a court to recognize that the scheme did not comply with ecological rules. Work will have to stop at that project if the suit is successful.
THE ARTICLE
Monday, September 11, 2006. Page 5.
By Deepa Babington
Reuters
NEW YORK — ExxonMobil on Thursday warned Russia to honor a decade-old production-sharing agreement to develop the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas block or risk spooking other foreign investors in the country.
The statement comes as the government and Exxon squabble over whether the company has automatic rights to develop newly discovered reserves around existing deposits in the Sakhalin-1 project.
The government plans to auction off the new deposits, while Exxon believes its license territory should be automatically enlarged to include them.
Exxon said it was in talks with the government to resolve the issue, but that any resolution should account for the rights of consortium members and strictly comply with the Sakhalin-1 agreement as well as the law.
“As the Sakhalin-1 project is one of the largest single foreign direct investments in Russia, it is globally visible and therefore serves as an indicator to others of the success or failure for other potential large foreign investment in the Russian oil and gas industry,” Exxon spokesman Bob Davis said in a statement.
“Any failure to honor the [agreement] could inevitably undermine the confidence of foreign investors and have a significant negative impact on the Russian investment climate,” he said.
Analysts have said the Kremlin — which had already alarmed foreign investors with its dogged pursuit of oil company Yukos for back taxes — is showing signs of increasing unhappiness with major projects controlled by foreign investors.
Weeks of pressure by Moscow on the rival Sakhalin-2, led by Royal Dutch Shell, culminated Tuesday with the country’s environmental watchdog saying it had asked a court to recognize that the scheme did not comply with ecological rules. Work will have to stop at that project if the suit is successful.
Exxon, meanwhile, said it had started the process of exporting oil from Sakhalin-1 on schedule, marking a major milestone for the closely watched project.
That met Exxon’s own forecast of exports starting in August, despite some reports earlier in the summer that they could be delayed to October.
Sakhalin-1 is the biggest new oil find in the area in many years and is expected to boost supply in a tightly stretched global market, helping ease high crude prices and displacing sales of competing African and Mediterranean crude into Asia.
The first oil from Sakhalin-1 began flowing into the export system on Aug. 29, and the initial tanker will begin loading at the newly built DeKastri terminal this month, Exxon said.
Oil production from the project should ramp up to a peak rate of 250,000 barrels per day by the end of 2006, it said.
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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.
