Terry Macalister and Rob Evans
Wednesday September 27, 2006
Shell told the British government earlier this year that the now troubled Sakhalin-2 project could become a model for future operations worldwide. The boasts were made by Shell UK’s chairman, James Smith, in a meeting with Hilary Benn, the international development secretary, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London.
Despite criticism about the scheme from green campaigners – and from the Kremlin in the past week – Shell said it had broken new ground by establishing Russia’s first offshore project and had handled the environment with care.
“James Smith hoped that Shell’s experience will help establish a road map for future operations in Europe and central Asia,” said a note of the meeting on January 11, made by the Department for International Development.
Shell is now engaged in a bitter fight with Russian authorities over its operational record at Sakhalin-2. The Russian ministry of natural resources says the project is damaging salmon streams and forests. It has announced plans to launch an environmental review of the Sakhalin development – the biggest liquefied natural gas project in the world.
The meeting with Mr Benn – details of which have been obtained by the Guardian under freedom of information rules – was requested by Shell to discuss its projects in the trouble-hit Niger delta as well as Sakhalin in Russia’s far east.
A government note of the meeting said: “James Smith noted that Shell viewed it as one of their most important projects that would have large implications for the world energy markets, as well as the Russian energy agenda.”
The EBRD is currently deciding whether Shell’s environmental and social record at Sakhalin is good enough to warrant public money being given to the project. The group Bankwatch, which monitors the environmental and social impacts of development finance, cites an increase in social problems in Sakhalin as a result of hundreds of oil workers arriving there.
Shell said it had regular briefings with ministers, but declined further comment.
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.
