THE US Senate has voted to end deep-water royalty relief for oil and gas companies working in the Gulf of Mexico when commodities price hit certain high levels, writes Blake Wright.
The royalty language was added as part of the large $460 billion-plus defense spending bill, which passed on a 98-0 vote late last week.
Under the provision, the Interior Department would be required to put language in federal drilling leases that voids royalty relief in high energy price environments.
The move by the Senate was in response to leases from 1998 and 1999 that were mistakenly awarded without the oil and gas price thresholds that would have suspended royalty relief.
Pundits estimate the snafu has allowed producers to avoid paying the about $2 billion in royalties to date. The provision does not address what to do about the companies that hold 1998 and 1999 leases without the threshold language.
Some legislators have called for those contract terms to be renegotiated.
A handful of operators, such as Shell and Chevron, have already met with Interior officials to discuss possible changes in those lease terms.
The House of Representative has already passed its defense spending bill with no such royalty relief provision. The two bills now head to conference to be negotiated into one to be passed along to President George Bush for signing.
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.
