Published: Thursday, 22 February, 2007, 09:23 AM Doha Time
By Odai Sirri
COSTS have soared above $20bn at a Royal Dutch Shell project to turn Qatari natural gas into superclean liquid fuel, a senior Qatari official said yesterday.
That would be up from an original budget of $5bn in 2003 and above even the highest estimate of roughly $18bn that Shell has indicated for its Pearl gas-to-liquids plant.
Rising prices for materials such as steel and shortages of manpower are boosting costs in the oil and gas industry. ExxonMobil Corporation pulled out of a similar project in Qatar on Tuesday because of rising costs.
Asked if Pearl had reached $15-$20bn, the Qatari official said: “No it’s much more than that…We’re talking about costs that are four to five times the original budget.”
Shell and Qatar today are to break ground on Pearl, one of a string of projects that form part of Qatar’s plans to get gas to market from the North Field – the largest pure, or non-associated, gas field in the world.
Pearl is central to Shell’s efforts to boost output after it ceded control of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in Russia’s far east to state-controlled Gazprom last year.
A Shell spokesman in London had no immediate comment on the rising cost of Pearl. Earlier, Shell said it had incorporated higher costs when it gave the go-ahead for Pearl last year.
“Nothing has changed,” said Andy Brown, Shell’s manager of operations in Qatar. “All the cost information was included in the final investment decision.”
Rising costs could hinder other investments in ventures like the 140,000 barrels per day Pearl plant, which will convert gas into fuels such as naphtha, used to make gasoline, say analysts. – Reuters
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.
