By Russell Hotten
Last Updated: 12:19am BST 02/06/2007
BP received a stay of execution on whether its Russian joint venture will continue to operate the vast Kovykta gas field, but no one should be in any doubt that the clock is ticking. TNK-BP’s involvement in Kovykta is going to cease or be substantially curtailed.
President Vladimir Putin is intent on renationalising energy resources and does not want revenues from a prize asset like Kovykta, which contains enough gas to power Europe for four years, flowing overseas.
Putin believes Russia’s energy assets were sold off too cheaply during the 1990s, and he wants them back. High oil and gas prices are, nevertheless, swelling the Kremlin’s coffers and helping to improve the living standards of Russians.
It has boosted Putin’s popularity at home, and created a self-confident Kremlin that is now asserting its power on the international stage.
The circumstances under which Yukos collapsed and the way state-run Gazprom took control of Sakhalin-2 from Royal Dutch Shell were highly dubious. The pressure being put on TNK-BP follows a pattern.
Russia’s emergence as an energy superpower and Europe’s increasing dependence on Gazprom gas is, somewhat belatedly, causing unease. By delaying a decision yesterday on whether to revoke TNK-BP’s licence to operate Kovykta, Russia has neatly avoided a potential row at next week’s G8 summit.
But this must not be allowed to neutralise the issue. It gives Western governments an opportunity to make one last appeal for good sense – and the rule of law. And the West is not without leverage. Although Europe needs Russian gas, Russia needs a market in which to sell.
Europe has yet to devise a coherent policy towards the Kremlin’s new-found power, preferring to let individual companies and countries do bilateral deals. The G8 would be a good venue for the major powers to start presenting a united front.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/06/02/ccom02.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.
