Monday, April 23, 2007. Issue 3642. Page 7.
Reuters
Small gas firm Volga Gas on Friday raised $125 million in its initial public offering in London, pricing its shares at $6, at the bottom of the range.
The offering on London’s AIM alternative market valued the company at $310 million after the issue and at $195 million before it.
Market sources said Volga Gas, which placed 20.83 million shares to have around 40 percent of its stock freely traded, was seeking a valuation of $180 million to $240 million prior to the new share issue.
Analysts said the IPO was poorly timed by Volga Gas because it coincided with a surprise attack by the outspoken deputy head of the Natural Resources Ministry’s environmental watchdog, Oleg Mitvol, on the company’s peers.
Mitvol last week called on the government to revoke operating licenses from mid-sized oil firm Imperial Energy and stop oil flowing through a newly built pipeline because it might have broken environmental guidelines.
He also said he would seek an investigation of how Imperial and other small companies booked their reserves, saying firms that floated stock abroad from 2003 to 2007 had overstated their reserves.
He said the firms in question were Sibir Energy, Urals Energy, Victoria Oil and Gas, gas firm Novatek and gold firms Trans-Siberian Gold, Highland Gold and Celtic Resources.
“The reserves scandal will have a knock-on effect on most of the junior oil and gas names on the market, as well as on newcomers,” Deutsche UFG brokerage said in a note.
Analysts at UBS said Mitvol’s attack on Imperial Energy might signal that it had become an acquisition target by a larger company. They also said the statement followed Mitvol’s general pattern of increasing pressure on Russian independent oil and gas firms.
Last year Mitvol led an environmental campaign against Shell’s project off Sakhalin, which culminated in an acquisition of half the project by Gazprom.
The takeover of the huge Sakhalin project helped the Kremlin further strengthen its grip over the energy sector and almost fully eliminate large-scale projects under foreign leadership.
Industry insiders say the Kremlin may soon turn its attention to mid-sized and small energy firms, which may ultimately end up under control of state firms.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/04/23/043.html
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.
