By Isabel Gorst
Published: June 28 2009 19:47 | Last updated: June 28 2009 19:47
Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, threw down the welcome mat to Shell, telling the Anglo-Dutch major it could participate in new offshore oil and gas projects and help Russia build LNG tankers to help globalise its gas trade.
The offer, coming days after Russia signed a gas exploration deal with Total, the French energy group, signals a growing openness in the Kremlin to international investors as foreign investment falls.
Mr Putin said Shells help was needed to explore the remote, deep-water Sakhalin 3 and Sakhalin 4 blocks off Sakhalin Island in Russias far east.
Your experience will be called for here, Mr Putin told Jeroen van der Veer, the outgoing chief executive of Shell, during a meeting at his residence outside Moscow on Saturday.
Mr van der Veer said Shell looked forward to licensing rounds off Sakhalin that Russia has promised to hold since ExxonMobils licence at Sakhalin 3 was annulled in 2004.
Mr Putin laid to rest the ghost of a bitter dispute with Shell at Sakhalin II that forced Shell to cede its controlling share to Gazprom, saying the $20bn (14bn, £12bn) project was progressing well and should be expanded.
EDITORS CHOICE
Putin warns on Europe gas transit – Jun-04
Medvedev presses EU to help Ukraine – May-22
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
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.
