Saeed Shah and Alex Brett
Sunday August 19, 2007
The world’s oil majors will descend on two key conferences about Iraqi oil next month, seizing their last chance to jockey for position before the expected passing of the country’s hydrocarbon law sets off a scramble for its vast energy resources.
Iraqi officials, including oil minister Hussein Shahristani, will attend the gatherings in Dubai in September to meet international oil executives. All the big players will be there, including BP, Shell, Exxon and Chevron, as well as minnows such as Addax Petroleum, some of which have operations in Iraq.
David Horgan, managing director of Petrel Resources, an Irish explorer with a presence in Iraq since 1999, said: ‘All the oil companies have been salivating at the prospect of Iraq for years. There is a good chance of very large discoveries. Nowhere else in the world offers that.’
Horgan said that once the oil law was passed, oil executives would rush to sign exploration and production deals, despite Iraq’s security situation. Under severe US pressure, the Iraqi administration is now expected to push through the oil law before the end of September.
The majors have stayed away from Iraq, which has the world’s third largest oil reserves, because there was no legal framework for investing in its energy sector. Unusually for the Middle East, the oil law will provide generous rates of return and production sharing agreements that allow companies that have had to write down their reserves, such as Shell, to book massive new reserves.
Muhammad-Ali Zainy, from the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London, said: ‘Why do international oil companies rush in to divide the loot at a time when Iraq is submerged in blood? Iraqis will not benefit from this.’
Iraq has discovered reserves of 115bn barrels, of which only 40bn barrels have been developed. There are large parts of the country that remain unexplored.
Separately, Russia has lobbied successfully to set up an energy cartel which it hopes will rival Opec. At the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, leaders of Central Asian countries, China and Russia last week agreed to create a ‘unified energy market’ in the region that is home to some of the biggest producers of oil and gas.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made clear at the conference that Tehran was prepared to join the club, which would see the world’s first, second and fourth largest gas producers form a powerful bloc, potentially ranged against Western interests.
Christopher Langton, an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: ‘Russia is seeking to have an organisation tilt the competition in its favour.’
The move coincides with the apparent decline of US influence in the region, where both the Trans-Caspian pipeline project and the diversion of Turkmen gas via Russia to Europe have stalled.
Ariel Cohen, a regional expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said: ‘The resource control in Russia’s hands will benefit President Putin tremendously’.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2151542,00.html
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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.
