By Paul Betts
Published: October 9 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 9 2007 03:00
Fate can play funny tricks. Who would have thought of Paolo Scaroni, the former Pilkington boss now running Italy’s Eni oil group, locking horns again with Sir Richard “Dick” Evans, the former head of BAE Systems – and in Kazakhstan of all places?
Mr Scaroni and Sir Richard fell out famously three years ago when the Italian walked out of the BAE board, where he had been serving as a non-executive director. He was highly critical of the UK company’s track record on defence contracts and its dogged pursuit of a transatlantic merger.
Mr Scaroni is now embroiled in another dispute between the Eni-led consortium of oil companies and the Kazakhstan authorities about commercial production delays and cost overruns at the giant Kashagan field. Yesterday he was in Kazakhstan with the Italian prime minister to try to advance a compromise.
That may prove more ticklish than expected. The Kazakhs have recruited a formidable negotiator in Dick Evans. The former BAE boss was last year appointed chairman of Kazakh state holding Samruk, which controls five big companies, including the state oil and gas KazMunaiGaz group.
KazMunaiGaz is part of the Eni-led consortium but has only an 8.3 per cent stake, compared to the 18.5 per cent stakes held by western majors such as Eni, Exxon, Total and Shell. It would probably like a bigger share of the project as well as to play a more prominent management role.
The last time Mr Scaroni was up against Dick Evans, it was easy to get up and walk out. This time round he can hardly afford to slam the door on the world’s biggest oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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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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