By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch
Last update: 3:33 p.m. EDT April 8, 2009
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gazprom on Wednesday said it gained its first major entry into the U.S. natural gas market through a pact with Royal Dutch Shell as the energy giant moves to expand its reach into the country’s vast storage and transport infrastructure.
Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer, will ship liquid natural gas (LNG) from its Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East to Sempra Energy’s Energia Costa Azul import terminal in Baja California, which is under a long-term assignment from Shell.
Gas will then be transported to Southern California via the Gasoducto Baja Norte and North Baja Pipeline and sold by Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA, Inc., headquartered in Houston.
The agreement was one of several announced today in Moscow by Alexey Miller, the CEO of OAO Gazprom, and Jeroen van der Veer, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell.
“This deal will enable Gazprom to begin shipment of LNG supplies from Sakhalin II to the United States, the world’s largest gas market, and other markets of the Pacific Basin, starting from this year,” Gazprom’s Miller said in a statement.
The Gazprom deal comes as excess LNG continues to find its way to the U.S., which contains sizeable storage capacity for the fuel.
While storage levels for natural gas in the U.S. and around the world remain high, Miller said Gazprom has seen “certain signs of demand growth” in the past few weeks.
Steve Gelsi is a reporter for MarketWatch in New York.
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.
