(Article published by The Wall Street Journal hours before news broke of the apparent assassination in Siberia of a top TNK-BP official.)
October 2, 2006
Apart from the rough-and-ready tactics, it could prove a good match. Russian gas giant Gazprom has finally said openly that it wants to buy out BP’s local partners in its Russian operation, TNK-BP. BP has first refusal over that 50% stake, which has a market value of about $20 billion. Yet it probably will have little choice but to defer to Gazprom.
True, the U.K. oil major would then have to live with a Russian state-controlled behemoth at its side instead of its current partners, a group of oligarchs. Efficiency and profitability might suffer. However, Gazprom could unlock TNK’s giant gas project in Eastern Siberia, now stalled. That might release a lot of value. The deal would expand Gazprom’s oil business, which fits its ambitions to become an integrated global energy company. The Kremlin would also be happy, given its desire to corporatize the Russian economy. It all sounds ideal.
But there are risks, and one of these is Rosneft. Gazprom’s only state-controlled rival is also interested in TNK and might want a slice of the company too. That could happen in one of two ways. It, rather than Gazprom, might get the go-ahead from the Kremlin to buy out BP’s Russian partners. Or it might one day displace BP itself and coexist with Gazprom in a Russian/Russian joint venture. Thankfully the latter looks unlikely. Rosneft and Gazprom are different animals; tigers and lions do not live in the same ecosystem.
If Rosneft and Gazprom have a catfight in the Kremlin over who gets to buy into TNK, that is not BP’s immediate problem either. Still, all this illustrates the limits of BP’s control over its Russian operations. Its final partner, in a deal on which it originally conducted 40,000 hours of due diligence, looks as though it will be decided out of BP’s sight, behind Kremlin walls. Not good — but a less bad result than the problems other foreign oil majors face in Russia. BP’s Russian investment looks safe, for now.
— John Paul Rathbone, Mike Verdin and John Christy
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.
