By Anne-Sylvaine Chassany
PARIS (Dow Jones Newswires): French oil major Total SA (TOT) expects to be able to make a decision to start drilling in the South Pars gas field “in the next months”, Yves-Louis Darricarrere, the company’s chief of exploration and production told reporters Wednesday.
The technical and the commercial discussions are in progress, Darricarrere said during a press conference on the company’s full-year earnings.
Total will weigh geopolitical risks of investing there once these talks are completed, he said.
The gas field, which is in the Persian Gulf, represents about 1 billion barrels of proven reserves and won’t start producing before 2011, Darricarrere added.
Regarding Russia, Total “won’t give up”, said Total’s newly appointed Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie, admitting that the company’s efforts to take a significant share of the country’s massive gas reserves were unsuccessful.
Discussions with Russian state-owned gas titan Gazprom OAO (GSPBEX.RS) on the giant Shtokman gas field are “ongoing”, Margerie said.
In Venezuela, “negotiations with the government are only starting” regarding the heavy oil Sincor project, in the Orinoco valley, Margerie said.
Total anticipates a slight decrease in Sincor’s production this year, due to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ quotas, Margerie noted.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Feb. 2 said the government will take majority control of oil projects in the Orinoco River basin by May 1 and that any foreign oil company that resists can leave.
Feb.14, 2007
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
