By Tom McGhie and Will Stewart
26 March 2011, 7:03pm
BP is under intense pressure to settle the dispute with the four oligarch shareholders in its Russian joint venture that threatens the company’s future, after it emerged that rival Shell was holding talks with Kremlin-owned oil giant Rosneft about Arctic exploration.
Rosneft’s powerful chairman and Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Igor Sechin, said the company preferred to do a deal with BP, but that whatever happened its policy of exploiting Arctic oil and gas reserves would go ahead.
A Rosneft source said: ‘If we do not get a deal with BP, the state holding will find a new partner. Within the past three months Rosneft has received offers to work together from several leading energy companies, including Shell.’
BP’s big rival said it had had a relationship with Rosneft since 2007 and was open to further opportunities. Shell has made no secret of the fact that it sees the Russian Arctic as one of the world’s major untapped gas and oil exploration areas.
Company sources said they were interested in Arctic co-operation, but not the closer financial ties BP is seeking. BP is planning a share swap with Rosneft.
News of Shell’s intervention comes as BP is reeling from an arbitration court ruling by a Swedish panel in London that upheld the objection by the oligarchs in TNK-BP to the £6.3bn tie-up with Rosneft.
The shareholders, collectively known as Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR), say BP’s proposed Rosneft deal violates an agreement between BP and TNK-BP. This, they claim, stipulates that BP should pursue all development opportunities in Russia through the joint venture rather than going it alone.
BP’s new chief executive, American Bob Dudley, is also under pressure to reach a deal with the fourbnaires – Mikhail Fridman, Len Blavatnik, Viktor Vekselberg and German Khan.
Most analysts believe that Dudley, who was run out of Moscow by the oligarchs in a TNK-BP feud in 2008, misjudged the strength of opposition when he tried to reach a deal with Rosneft, bypassing TNK-BP.
Dudley will be hoping the Kremlin will put pressure on the oligarchs, but it is almost certain he will have to give them some form of compensation.
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.
