Schlumberger suffers as demand hits global projects
Schlumberger, the worlds largest oilfield services company, said yesterday that its 2008 profits would fail to meet expectations, blaming a rapid slowdown in the global economy and its impact on spending on oil and gas projects.
Schlumberger, which is based in Houston, Texas, helps private and government-owned companies to drill for and produce oil and gas. It employs 84,000 people in 80 countries. In a trading update, Andrew Gould, the chairman and chief executive, said that results had been hit by a severe global economic downturn, forcing many of its customers to delay or scrap multibillion-dollar investment programmes.
The shares slipped 11 per cent to $39.03 in afternoon trading in New York, but Mr Gould insisted that the outlook remained robust. We still maintain that in the longer term the fundamentals of our industry are sound, he said.
A collapse in the price of crude oil and the turmoil in global financial markets has prompted energy companies to delay or scrap big investment projects around the world. The groups full results will be published on January 23.
A string of oil companies have announced delays and cancellations to big oil projects in recent weeks, reflecting a drop of about $100 in global crude prices since July. This week it emerged that Royal Dutch Shell had shelved plans for a $3 billion (£2 billion) coal-to-liquid fuels project in Australia. Last month the group announced a delay to the expansion of its oil sands mining project in Northern Alberta, Canada.
Saudi Aramco, the worlds largest oil company in terms of production, scrapped plans to upgrade its onshore Dammam oilfield at a cost of $1.2 billion last month. A number of marginal, smaller projects in the British sector of the North Sea are also believed to be under threat.
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.
