11 June 2007
Shares in British Gas-owner Centrica climbed by more than 2% on speculation it could be a target for Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The suggestion came after Gazprom’s deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev said the firm was close to increasing its presence in the UK.
The controversial state-owned company previously expressed an interest in buying Centrica back in February 2006.
However, Gazprom denied it was planning a takeover of Centrica.
“We don’t have Centrica or Scottish and Southern in our sights at the moment,” said Philip Dewhurst, a spokesman for Gazprom Marketing and Trading, the firm’s UK unit.
“Our plan in the UK is to grow our retail business organically.”
Centrica’s shares closed up 7.75 pence, or 2.2%, at 367.25p having been 4% higher earlier.
Deal in ‘near future’
Gazprom, which Western critics have accused of being a foreign policy tool of the Kremlin, currently supplies gas to 2,000 businesses in the UK.
“In the near future there will a deal to further increase the customer base on the British market,” said Mr Medvedev at a business conference in St Petersburg.
“Anyone who will be in London for the Wimbledon tennis tournament will know about it.”
This event starts at the end of this month.
In recent years Gazprom has threatened to cut gas supplies to Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus.
While Gazprom insists such disputes are solely about how much it gets paid for the gas, critics have accused the Russian government of using the firm to bully its former Soviet allies.
Western commentators say the Kremlin has also used Gazprom to wrestle control of foreign-owned energy investments in Russia.
They point to the Sakhalin-2 project off Russia’s Far East coast, where Gazprom gained majority control from Royal Dutch Shell last year, after Russian authorities refused to give Shell environmental clearance for the scheme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6740709.stm
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
