April 27, 2007
Steve Hawkes
Shell is being forced to pay the Russian Government an annual dividend of about $100 million (£50 million) to keep its stake in the lucrative Sakhalin II offshore project.
The Anglo-Dutch group and its partners admitted yesterday they had agreed to “minor adjustments to the fiscal terms” of the project. The change was pushed through last week when Shell formally handed over a majority stake in Sakhalin II to Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas group.
Analysts said that although the sum would not be material to Shell, it was yet another sign of the Kremlin’s power over Western energy firms desperate to find and exploit new oil and gas reserves.
Peter Hitchens, analyst for Teather & Greenwood, said: “I don’t think Shell is happy, but it has no choice. It is stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
The “priority dividend” comes after months of wrangling over cost overruns on the Sakhalin II project, which have infuriated the Kremlin. Two years ago Shell doubled the cost estimates for the field to $20 billion and said gas might not be produced until 2008, delaying the first revenue for the Russian authorities.
Industry experts said that the “priority dividend” was effectively a way in which the Russian authorities could change the terms of the production-sharing agreement on Sakhalin II and take more revenue without a formal revision.
Sources in Russia initially said that the dividend could cost all the partners nearly $1 billion a year, but experts in the UK said that the total was nearer to “a few hundred million”. This would hand Shell a bill of about $100 million.
A Shell spokesman said: “Whilst keeping the production share agreement intact the minor adjustments have given the Russian Federal Government more access to revenues when oil and gas prices are high.”
Alongside Gazprom and Shell, Japan’s Mitsui and Mitsubishi both own a 12.5 per cent stake in the project.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article1711986.ece
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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.
