June 2, 2007
Steve Hawkes
Russian authorities yesterday gave BP an extra two weeks to negotiate a deal over its future role in the $20 billion (£10.1 billion) Kovykta gas field, by delaying a decision over whether to revoke the group’s licence.
The move amounts to a brief stay of execution for Tony Hayward, BP’s new chief executive, who is understood to have held talks about the project on Thursday with Gazprom, the Kremlin-backed gas group.
Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources had been widely expected to annul the Kovykta licence held by TNK-BP, the UK group’s Russian venture, in a meeting yesterday.
The ministry claimed that TNK-BP had breached the terms of its licence by failing to meet a production target of 9 billion cubic metres per year.
However, by mid-afternoon yesterday, a source revealed that the ministry had put back a decision by a fortnight, owing to the “complexity of the matter”. Alexander Shadrin, a TNK-BP spokesman, added: “The meeting took place. No decision was made.”
The ministry’s move means that a decision on the matter will now come after the G8 summit in Germany and Russia’s showcase Economic Forum in St Petersburg, which Mr Hayward is due to attend next weekend.
Analysts said it was still almost certain that Gazprom would eventually secure a majority stake in the project.
The natural resources ministry mounted a similar campaign against Shell last year over environmental breaches at the Sakhalin II offshore oil and gasfield. The campaign ended with Gazprom taking a controlling stake.
TNK-BP argues that production at Kovykta is low because Gazprom has not agreed to export gas from the field, which is big enough to supply Asia for five years.
Gazprom has already been offered control of the project, but analysts said it seemed the Russian authorities were putting pressure on TNK-BP to lower the asking price.
Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Alfa Bank in Moscow, said: “The fact that TNK-BP will lose control is a given.”
Meanwhile, the ministry’s licensing committee gave a boost to another UK concern, deciding not to take any action over the vast majority of licences held by Imperial Energy in the Tomsk Region. Shares in Imperial surged 15 per cent.
BG Group separately secured a new 15-year deal to supply Russia with gas from its Karachaganak field in Kazahkstan. The deal means that the BG-led consortium will push ahead with an $8 billion (£4 billion) investment at the field.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article1873109.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.
