The Sunday Times
Danny Fortson
LIBYAs national oil company and two billionaire Indian brothers are among the contenders to buy Britains second-largest oil refinery.
Shells Stanlow complex near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, produces a sixth of the UKs petrol and is the oil giants only refinery in Britain. However, the company has put it up for sale as it tries to rein in its huge cost base and struggles with the effects of an oil price that is half the level of the historic high hit last year.
Shell last month reported a sharp fall in profits and Peter Voser, chief executive, has launched a savage efficiency drive that is expected to cost thousands of jobs.
Stanlow is being sold along with two German refineries, at Heide and Harburg. The auction is being run by Lazard and final bids are due on August 17. Shell hopes to pocket up to £1.5 billion from the sales.
Among the bidders are Libyas National Oil Corporation and Essar, the mobile phone to shipping conglomerate owned by the billionaire Ruia brothers, Ravi and Shashi. The American refining giant Valero and an investment vehicle controlled by the Saudi royal family are also expected to make offers.
The involvement of Essar and the Libyans reflects a wider interest by developing-world groups that produce oil and want to break into the European market. PetroChina is in talks with Ineos, the chemicals maker, about taking a stake in its Grangemouth refinery. Refineries take crude oil and convert it into petrol and other fuels.
Stanlow, which employs more than 800 people, has seen much controversy recently. Next week, construction engineers will be balloted on strike action over pay, and it has also been targeted by fuel protesters over petrol prices.
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.
