Shell in talks with Sibir on swap deal
By Sylvia Pfeifer
Published: August 3 2008 18:44 | Last updated: August 3 2008 18:45
Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with smaller rival Sibir Energy about an asset swap that could see the oil major emerge with a large stake in the Russian-focused group.
The two companies are equal partners in the Salym fields in eastern Siberia. Under the proposal, Shell would swap its 50 per cent stake in the fields for an equity holding in Sibir itself.
People close to the talks last night cautioned that the discussions had been going on for several months and there was no guarantee they would be successful. Sibir declined to comment.
Sibir, whose biggest shareholder is the billionaire Shalva Chigirinsky, is the largest company on Londons Aim, with a market value of £2.3bn. It last month reported a trebling of full-year pre-tax profits to $344m (£174m) and said it hoped to migrate to the FTSE?100 index later this year.
At the time, the company said it still hoped to resolve a long-running dispute with Gazprom, the Russian energy group, over the control of the Moscow Refinery by the end of the year.
For Shell, the proposed asset swap would allow it to retain an economic interest in the Salym developments while distancing itself from operations on the ground.
Two years ago, the company was forced to surrender control of the huge Sakhalin-II oil field to Gazprom in what was seen as part of a wider move by the Kremlin to renationalise its resource assets.
Meanwhile, rival BP is still locked in a dispute over the control of its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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.
