Reuters: Shell, Total eye Mexico oil law changes keenly
Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:38am EDT
By Tom Bergin and Marie Maitre
LONDON, April 10 (Reuters) – European oil majors Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Total SA (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) said they were keenly watching proposed legal changes in Mexico that could pave the way for investment by foreign companies in oil production.
Shell’s head of exploration and production, Malcolm Brinded, said the fact the legal changes may not go so far as to allow foreign companies to book reserves would not be a deterrent, as Shell was more focussed on profit than reserves bookings.
“We’re always keen to see countries open up access. It will be exciting to see Mexico in that regard,” Brinded told reporters in a briefing at the sidelines of the International Oil Summit in Paris.
“We do think we can bring something to bear there,” he added, citing Shell’s experience in oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
When asked whether Total was watching Mexico’s plan to reform the energy sector, Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie replied: “I look at any change in any producing country with interest.”
President Felipe Calderon’s government handed Congress a compromise energy reform plan on Tuesday that he hopes will attract foreign companies to hunt for new oil reserves to rescue falling output in the world’s No. 5 crude producer.
But energy sector analysts questioned whether the new contracts were attractive enough to entice investment.
Brinded would not comment on the terms of the proposed new investment framework but when asked if he would avoid investment in Mexico if, as analysts have predicted, legal changes precluded investors from booking reserves, Brinded replied “No”.
Mexico’s constitution bars private or foreign companies from exploring for or producing oil, and left-wingers and some centrists in the divided Congress are strongly opposed to allowing risk or profit-sharing partnerships.
The energy plan submitted this week was watered down to omit a controversial clause allowing state oil monopoly Pemex to form risk-sharing joint ventures, but it sets out a new system of service contracts based on incentive fees.
(Reporting by Tom Bergin; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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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.
