Rift Develops Among Investors in Russian Gas Venture
MOSCOW BP, the huge British oil company, on Friday rejected demands from a group of Russian billionaires to fire the head of the lucrative TNK-BP natural gas venture, deepening a confrontation between shareholders as the countrys biggest state-controlled oil companies seek a stake in the venture.
Tensions between Russian and foreign shareholders of TNK-BP, the largest foreign oil producer in Russia, boiled over this week after the billionaires consortium sought the resignation of the TNK-BP chief executive, Robert Dudley.
The investors Mikhail Fridman, Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik, a Russian-born American citizen cited disagreements over investments and asset sales, and expressed concern that Mr. Dudley was managing the venture solely in BPs interests.
On Friday, BP said Mr. Dudley was not stepping down. Were standing very firmly behind him, a spokesman for BP in London, Roddy Kennedy, said.
This week, Mr. Dudley, who has led the joint venture since its formation in 2003, lashed out at the Russian shareholders, telling a Russian newspaper that the company was suffering from a breakdown in management, a remark that the consortium called deeply inappropriate.
The billionaires refused to attend a meeting Thursday of the companys board in Cyprus because Mr. Dudley had not been removed. Vladimir Buyanov, BPs spokesman in Moscow, said that Mr. Fridman, Mr. Vekselberg and Mr. Blavatnik instead met in Cyprus with the chairman of BP, Anthony B. Hayward.
I can say both groups made proposals regarding management of the company, Mr. Buyanov said. He declined to reveal any details of the meeting or to comment on the demands to fire Mr. Dudley.
BP and AlfaAccessRenova, the collective name for the investment vehicles representing the billionaires interests, each own 50 percent of TNK-BP. The company accounts for about a quarter of BPs total worldwide production. As oil prices have soared, the Kremlin has backtracked on profit-sharing deals. Gazprom, the Russian national gas behemoth, has long been positioning itself to take a potentially major stake in TNK-BP.
Since Vladimir V. Putin, then president of Russia and now the prime minister, and Tony Blair, then the British prime minister, created TNK-BP with an $8 billion investment, several major oil companies operating in Russia have fallen into difficulty.
Yukos, once the biggest private company in Russia, was dismantled in 2003 after prosecutors sent its former chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to a Siberian prison for tax evasion. The state company Rosneft later acquired most of the Yukos assets. In 2006,Royal Dutch Shell was pressured into selling a controlling stake in its $20 billion Sakhalin-2 oil project to Gazprom at a below-market price after environmental regulators threatened it with billions of dollars in fines.
Last June, BP ceded to Gazprom its stake in the oil-rich Kovykta field, a Siberian deposit with enough natural gas to supply Asia for five years, a move that came as Mr. Putin sought to end foreign ownership of Russias biggest energy assets.
More recently, Russian authorities raided the Moscow offices of BP and TNK-BP, accusing a TNK-BP employee of industrial espionage and opening an investigation into tax evasion and possible environmental violations.
A week later, BPs troubles in Russia continued as the authorities questioned the legality of work permits for the companys expatriate employees.
The dispute among TNK-BP shareholders is expected to be a test of the position on foreign investment in Russia of the newly inaugurated president, Dmitri Medvedev.
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.
