ft.com/energysource
June 23, 2009 3:23pm
Royal Dutch Shell has caused some excitement with reports of a huge gas discovery off the coast of Norway.
The truth is, the field may be pretty big, but even if the most optimistic estimates are right, it will not come close to the top of the list of the worlds biggest gas fields.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate estimated the Gro (pronounced grew) field could hold 10bn-100bn cubic metres of gas. As the NPD said itself, the size of the discovery is currently very uncertain. Shell, which shares the field with StatoilHydro of Norway and GDF Suez of France, says there is a lot more appraisal and evaluation work to be done.
Commercialising the discovery will not be easy, either: it is 360km offshore, in 1,376 metres of water.
At the upper end of the estimated range, Gro would be a good-sized field: the biggest found in Norway since Ormen Lange in 1997. However, Ormen Lange is four times the size of that top estimate, at 400bcm.
Even at 100bcm, Gro would add only about 3 per cent to Norways proved gas reserves. It could provide the whole of the UKs gas demand for just a single year. In barrels of oil equivalent, that would be about 600m barrels, and Shells share, 50 per cent, would be less than 3 per cent of its reserves of 11.9bn boe at the end of last year. It is worth having, but Shell needs to keep finding more Gros.
For comparison, South Iolotan in Turkmenistan could be more 100 times the size of Gro. Now thats a huge gas field.
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.
