Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:47am EST
* JV to focus on “transformational” plays in Atlantic
* Comes as big oil groups boost exploration spend
By Tom Bergin
LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is teaming up with independent explorer Tullow Oil to explore for oil in the Atlantic, in a sign the biggest oil companies accept dramatic measures are needed to turn around their weak record on finding oil.
Tullow said on Wednesday the planned partnership would focus on making “transformational” discoveries in “underexplored frontier basins”.
In the past decade and a half, independent explorers have led the way in opening up new multibillion barrel oil provinces in Africa and South America.
The collapse of oil prices to $10 barrel in the 1990s killed the appetite of industry leaders like Shell and Exxon Mobil for exploration in frontier areas. Instead they focused on less risky, but less lucrative investments, such as developing large, known finds.
The oil giants are now increasing their exploration budgets but analysts doubt they can quickly turn around their reliance on acquisitions of oil fields or smaller producers to replace the oil and gas they pump each year.
Shell’s plan to tie up with Tullow could provide a shortcut to its effort to boost discoveries, by tapping into Tullow’s expertise and a culture that encourages exploration risk-taking.
The venture builds on Shell’s entry into Tullow’s exploration licence in French Guiana in 2009, where the partners announced a significant discovery last year.
Tullow has grown from an industry minnow in the 1990s into Europe’s largest independent oil explorer, with a market value of over $20 billion, on the back of major discoveries in Uganda and Ghana.
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.
