Russian roulette as oiligarchs battle over TNK
ROBERT DUDLEY had a suitcase packed on Friday, ready to leave Russia. The chief executive of TNK-BP thought he was going to be kicked out by the authorities, but they relented, letting him stay for another 10 days while they determine whether he has the right to work there.
The mind games over Dudleys visa are the latest scuffle between BP and its Russian partners over control of TNK. The stakes are high. Russia is the second-largest producer of oil after Saudi Arabia, and TNK is its third-biggest asset. It is a critical source of growth and profits for BP, which like most western oil companies is struggling for both.
BP struck the TNK joint-venture deal in 2003 in what was hailed as a trend-setting piece of Anglo-Russian co-operation. Relations have soured in the past year, however, with the local partners accusing BP of mismanaging the company and running it for BPs benefit. Mikhail Fridman, the billionaire who is one of the TNK investors, makes the arguments in a rare interview (see links below).
BP says the criticisms are nonsense. Whatever validity they do have, it is clear they obscure a much bigger game that is afoot, one to do with economic nationalism rather than shareholder returns. The Kremlin has in recent years steadily asserted its control over what it considers key national assets in the sector. After the destruction of Yukos and marginalisation of Royal Dutch Shell at the Sakhalin gas field, TNK is next on the list.
BP is a big, tough company, and knew when it first went to Russia what it was getting involved in. The TNK relationship, in fact, grew out of a scrap between BP and Fridman when it accused him of stripping assets out of another oil company, Sidanco, in which BP held a stake. In the pursuit of riches, it has chosen to lie with some odd bedfellows.
In a battle with the state, though, it is defenceless. The Kremlin will in the end take TNK if it wants it. Riding roughshod over BPs rights, however, will harm Russias interests. It still needs western expertise and money to develop its economy and ostracising groups like BP will make others less willing to help.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4363046.ece
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
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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