BP retains law firm for Russia venture fight
By Russell Hotten
Oil giant BP has begun marshalling its defences in the battle for control of TNK-BP by retaining the services of a leading Russian law firm.
The firm, Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners (EPA), was a regular adviser to former Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and includes Oleg Deripaska, one of the world’s richest men, as a client.
The move is a further indication of BP’s willingness to dig in for the long haul in the increasingly bitter battle with its partners in the oil joint venture. EPA has already advised BP on the employment contract of Robert Dudley, the TNK-BP chief executive who faces expulsion from Russia at the end of the month.
BP’s 50-50 partner in TNK-BP, a consortium called Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), claims the employment contract has not been renewed and so Mr Dudley is not entitled to a work permit.
But BP executive vice president Lamar McKay said yesterday: “Bob Dudley has a valid employment contract and is therefore entitled under Russian law to a renewal of his work visa. Therefore we remain confident that, if the laws are properly applied, he will be given a new work visa.”
Yesterday, Mr Dudley’s visa was extended for another 10 days while the Federal Migration Service clarifies his status. A BP source added that even if Mr Dudley was forced out of Russia, “he would still be chief executive of TNK-BP.”
AAR – controlled by billionaires Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg – is trying to oust Mr Dudley, accusing him of promoting BP’s interests in the venture, a claim that has been denied. Meanwhile, BP yesterday bought an onshore gas field in mainland America, paying $1.75bn (£875m) for natural gas assets in Oklahoma.
The deal is BP’s first major gamble on North America’s booming gas fields. It will work with Chesapeake Energy, a smaller independent company which knows how to produce gas from what are essentially unconventional reservoirs. Chesapeake produces about 50m cubic feet of gas a day – BP believes the site could produce double that.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/19/cnbp119.xml
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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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