Reuters: Government sells 16.1 mln bbl royalty-in-kind oil
Fri May 16, 2008 3:58pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government said on Friday it has sold 16.1 million barrels of oil produced on federal land to four energy companies, putting more supply on the market at a time of record high prices.
The four companies – units of Chevron Corp. (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM.N: Quote, Profile,Research), Sempra Energy Trading (SRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDSa.L: Quote,Profile, Research) – will pay $1.9 billion for the oil based on current oil prices near $127 a barrel, the Interior Department said.
The oil will be delivered to the companies over 6 months beginning on July 1.
The move by the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) is not a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an action reserved for severe supply disruptions like the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Instead, the MMS occasionally sells oil turned over to the government by energy companies as royalties that were due on the crude they drilled on federal leases in lieu of paying cash royalties.
The department’s royalty-in-kind program, which is a decade old, allows the MMS to directly sell oil produced on federal lands to raise funds for the U.S. Treasury.
Separately, the U.S. government on Friday said it would not sign contracts with energy companies to deliver up to 13 million barrels of crude oil to the U.S. emergency stockpile.
The Energy Department’s decision comes after Congress this week approved legislation ordering the Bush administration to stop putting oil into the emergency stockpile until crude prices fall below $75 per barrel, far lower than current levels.
(Reporting by Chris Baltimore; Editing by David Gregorio)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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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.
