By Ed Crooks in London
Published: March 13 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 13 2007 02:00
In the gold rush of today’s energy business, companies such as Halliburton are the modern equivalents of Levi Strauss and Wells Fargo.
Providing services to oil companies has been an even better business than finding and producing oil in recent years. Since the start of 2003, ExxonMobil’s shares have roughly doubled; those of Royal Dutch Shell, now the runner-up among Western oil majors, have risen about 40 per cent.
But shares in Halliburton and Schlumberger, the world market leader for oil services, have more than tripled.
Scarcity of equipment and skilled personnel at a time of bumper investment in oil exploration and production have sent the costs of oil services soaring. BP estimated its cost inflation was 14 per cent last year, and oil services companies were among the beneficiaries.
The other big advantage for the services companies is that unlike the oil majors, they can operate in countries with a dominant state-controlled national oil company. In many of those countries, which account for about 80 per cent of the world’s oil and gas reserves, it is hard for foreign companies to operate, and has become more difficult in recent years.
Oil services companies count national oil companies not as rivals, but as some of their most important customers. Halliburton signed two big contracts in Russia in the fourth quarter of last year: a feat that none of the oil majors could emulate.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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.
