By Upstream staff
Russia’s environmental agency said today it is set to start investigating a unit of Italian energy player Eni which has contracted to work on Shell’s Sakhalin 2 development.
The move came a day after Eni chief Paolo Scaroni said rising pressure on Western energy companies in Russia had delayed an asset swap deal between Eni and Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom.
Today Scaroni backtracked, saying talks were going well and were on track.
The environmental agency Rosprirodnadzor said in a statement it had submitted documents about illegal deforestation by the contractor to prosecutors.
It has previously threatened to open multiple probes against many contractors, without giving their names.
Today it specifically underlined that one of the contractors was Starstroi, which it said was a subsidiary of Eni. Starstroi is in fact a subsidiary of oilfield services company Saipem, which is controlled by Eni.
The Sakahalin 2 project includes construction of the world’s largest gas liquefaction plant to supply Japan and the US.
Rosprirodnadzor has threatened to halt the project and withdraw its environmental permits, although the Shell-led group says it is still on track to ship the first liquefied natural gas in 2008.
Many analysts have interpreted the rising pressure as a Kremlin strategy to squeeze foreigners out of the strategic energy sector or force them to cede bigger stakes to national companies on better terms.
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.
