Russia is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in potential revenues under deals signed with Western oil majors in the 1990s, a senior official said in an interview.
Taxes from the Royal Dutch Shell-led Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s far east “could amount to 300-400 mln usd” per year, Sergei Fyodorov of Russia’s ministry of natural resources told the official daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
Instead, Fyodorov said, “we receive around 20 mln usd in royalties” under a production sharing agreement (PSA) that spares the Shell-led consortium from paying the government a share of revenues until the project turns a profit.
Russian authorities have increased pressure on foreign oil majors in recent months with moves seen as part of a government drive to assert control over the country’s vast energy reserves.
Fyodorov went on to question Russia’s two other existing PSAs with consortiums led by US major ExxonMobil and France’s Total, part of a wider government campaign of criticism against the deals.
“The costs are much higher than they could be” on the Total project to develop the Kharyaga oil field in the far north of Russia, said Fyodorov, meaning that the state will receive less revenue.
Under most PSAs, companies to take on initial investments in return for favourable tax conditions and an agreement to share a designated portion of revenues once they have recouped their investment.
Fyodorov added that Exxon, which is developing the Sakhalin-1 fields, is extracting less oil than promised and “that unextracted oil is revenue not received by Russia”.
21 Sept 2006
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.
