(Oleg Mitvol: no guarantee)
By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 1:22am BST 25/05/2007
BP’s role in a huge Russian gas field may come to an end as early as next week, a top Moscow official has warned.
Russia’s environmental agency has stepped up pressure on the UK energy group’s joint venture, TNK-BP, saying that its licence to operate at the Kovykta gas field may by revoked by June 1.
TNK-BP’s subsidiary working the field, Rusia Petroleum, has gone to the courts to clarify the terms of its Kovytka licence, a process that could take several weeks. But yesterday, Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, said “the likelihood” of TNK-BP’s licence being revoked was “100pc”.
The relatively under-developed Kovytka field has the potential to be a massive revenue-earner for BP, but the company’s Russian operation is accused of breaching its licence by not extracting gas fast enough. TNK-BP was expected to produce 9bn cubic metres of gas annually, but Mr Mitvol says only 33.9m came out of the ground last year.
TNK-BP says that the government’s failure to invest in infrastructure means that even if more gas was produced it could not be transported to customers.
The alternative would be to burn off the gas. The company says it cannot produce the required amount because state gas monopoly Gazprom will not allow it to build a planned export pipeline to China.
But Mr Mitvol appears to disagree. “When the company [TNK-BP] signed its licence agreement, it had no guarantee from Gazprom. In the West, in any civilised country, you wouldn’t sign an agreement without a 100pc guarantee.” However, analysts believe the dispute should be seen in the wider context of Moscow’s strategy to claw back energy assets controlled by Western companies.
Last year Gazprom took control of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project run by Royal Dutch Shell. This followed months of pressure from Mr Mitvol’s office that Shell had breached its licence.
Meanwhile, TNK-BP has resolved a dispute with energy company Rosneft over who owns an 11.29pc stake in a company operating in the Irkutsk region.
The stake, initially owned by the East Siberian Gas Company, was sold to TNK-BP, but the sale was thrown into confusion when Rosneft submitted a late higher offer. Rosneft and TNK-BP have now agreed to split the stake.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/05/25/cnbp25.xml
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.
