16 September 2006
As a measure of value, it is pretty clumsy. But it shows how far the stock of BP has fallen in the eyes of the City. Shell, which only two years ago was ravaged by its own reserves scandal, is now a bigger company than its arch rival.
Admittedly, there isn’t much in it (Shell’s £114bn against BP’s £113bn), but this measure matters to the inhabitants at BP’s plush St James’ Square offices as much as it matters to the fund managers who met at the Association of British Insurers on Monday.
The oil giant and its highly rated chief executive Lord Browne have had a torrid two months. Lord Browne spent the end of July in a rather too public spat with his chairman Peter Sutherland about when he should retire (he eventually won a 10 month extension until the end of 2008), and then in August he had to cope with oil spills from a key pipeline in Canada. If you add in the catastrophic Texas City blast and three US regulatory probes, then there is feeling of crisis surrounding BP.
Individually these events would not damage BP. But the culmination of all these pin-pricks is having a negative effect on BP’s shares. And its big investors are worried.
If Lord Browne was hoping for a gentle run-in to his retirement, he was sorely mistaken.
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.
