Nils Pratley , Friday February 1 2008
Which quoted oil company is most critical to the functioning of the global economy? Which one, if it went out of business overnight, would cause the machine to stall most quickly? A few years ago, we would have chosen from the obvious short list – Exxon, Shell, BP – but the other day one UK oil chief executive gave a surprising answer. It’s Schlumberger, he said.
US group Schlumberger is the world’s largest oil -services company. It doesn’t own any oil itself, but its 80,000 employees in 80 countries are busy looking for the stuff, and producing it, as contractors. Remove them overnight and an awful lot of oil would stop flowing very quickly.
There is a connection here with Shell. The Anglo-Dutch group’s profits hit a record yesterday, provoking the usual accusations of profiteering, but the company has a problem: production fell for the fifth year in a row. Production is down partly because of the progress made by the likes of Schlumberger. Oil-rich nations no longer feel the need to ring a member of the Big Oil club when they want to exploit their natural resources.
Big Oil demands production-sharing agreements and a big cut of the spoils to fund its big dividend requirements. Confident governments – and there’s nothing like oil at $90 a barrel to inspire confidence – are instead buying project-management expertise directly from services companies. Alternatively, they take their cue from Russia and demand more onerous terms from the club.
For Shell and others, the easy life is over: capital expenditure is $25bn a year and rising, and the cash is increasingly being spent in places where, given the choice, it would rather avoid. Digging up the tar sands of Canada is no picnic.
Few hearts will bleed for the western oil majors, and nor should they. But obscene profits? Think how much the Saudis and Russians are making. Even Schlumberger, a winner in the new order, is only one quarter of the size of Exxon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/01/3
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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.
