Shell still waiting on Iraqi oil deals
Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:04pm BST
Tom Bergin
LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell admitted making little progress in agreeing short-term oil service contracts in Iraq in recent weeks but said it was hoping for “entrepreneurial” natural gas deals.
Iraq had hoped to sign one to two year deals, under which Western oil majors are paid a fee to help boost oil output, early this year, but nothing has yet been agreed despite the passing of a June 30 deadline.
“We hope that we can sign something before not too long, but I admit that I have said that three weeks ago, and in the meantime we haven’t signed anything,” Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.
Van der Veer said Shell was also working on potential gas deals with Iraq, which he hinted could offer a profit-sharing element.
“We have entrepreneurial ideas of how we can co-operate with the Iraqis on the gas side,” he said.
Security worries are holding up agreements but analysts say the structure of the short-term service deals is also a problem for oil majors.
The companies normally only agree to profit-sharing deals so the fee-paying ones on the table currently are not in themselves very attractive.
Analysts say companies may agree to low-margin short-term deals to secure more lucrative long-term positions and van der Veer said his company envisaged the short-term deals would lead to longer term co-operation.
However, the oil ministry has said winning a short-term contract will not put any company in a privileged position to secure longer-term deals.
(Editing by David Holmes)
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKL120978220080731?sp=true
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.
