Another Rough Russian Road
I don’t know how the latest Russian energy row will turn out, but it could be a reason to steer clear for a while of BP(NYSE: BP), whose new management and otherwise improving fortunes have made it attractive recently.
I’m referring to BP’s increasingly swords-points relationship with its trio of Russian billionaire partners in its TNK-BP joint venture. Unfortunately for the London company, the venture accounts for about a quarter of its global production, and so a total unraveling of that relationship would be a significant blow to its efforts to right itself following a string of misfortunes.
The expanding agitation between the company and its Russian partners was described in detail in a Wall Street Journal piece on Thursday. But, despite its importance to both BP and other majors that want to continue to work in Russia, it boils down to an increasing inability of anyone in the partnership to agree on much of anything anymore. According to the Journal, some observers believe the “crescendo of complications” resembles the 2006 attack on the Russian interests of Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A)(NYSE: RDS-B).
That attack ended with the sale of Shell’s interests on Sakhalin Island — at what appeared to be a considerably below-market price — to mammoth Russian gas producer Gazprom. It also proved to be one of many instances of western companies being roughed up by the powers that be in the countries that used to make up the Soviet Union.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, Italy’s Eni (NYSE: E) has been victimized by muscle-flexing by the Kazakh government. And even ExxonMobil(NYSE: XOM), which, unlike Shell, continues to work successfully on Sakhalin, for now has sworn off new projects in Russia.
BP, for its part, has overcome a number of negatives of late, including the abrupt resignation of its longtime CEO Lord Browne for personal reasons, a disastrous explosion at a Texas refinery, and pipeline leaks in Alaska. But, given the increasing inability of Russian oil interests to make nice with their major oil company playmates, it’s easy to see the TNK-BP venture coming completely unglued.
On that basis alone, and while I have been warming to BP’s direction under its new CEO, Tony Hayward, I’m inclined to give the company a somewhat wider berth for now.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/06/13/another-rough-russian-road.aspx
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.
