REUTERS
LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Oil majors BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and Statoil (STL.OL) are in talks to buy Toreador Resources (TRGL.O), a U.S. company exploring for oil in France, the New York Times said on its DealBook website.
The companies have signed confidentiality agreements with Toreador, which has a market capitalisation of $210 million, and concluded technical due diligence on the firm’s oil properties, the newspaper said, citing people briefed on the matter.
Toreador has the right to develop 649,000 acres, with an additional 153,000 acres pending regulatory approval, in the Paris Basin, where an estimated 65 billion barrels of oil are believed to be in the source rock, the company says on its website.
New drilling technology has opened up drilling for oil and gas in complex rock formations, including shale, which were previously uncommercial.
Toreador said in November it was exploring strategic alternatives, including raising capital by equity or debt offerings, and possible partnership in the Paris Basin oil shale.
Shell declined comment. BP and Statoil were not available for comment.
(Reporting by Tom Bergin, editing by Will Waterman)
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.
