Royal Dutch Shell is poised for a fresh attempt at Arctic oil exploration through a deal with Russia’s Gazprom Neft, the Kremlin revealed on Thursday night.
The companies are preparing to sign an agreement that will cover joint offshore drilling in the Russian Arctic as well as shale oil projects onshore in Western Siberia, it said.
The agreement will be announced next week when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Netherlands, where the Anglo-Dutch company is headquartered.
Gazprom Neft is the majority-owned, oil-focused arm of gas giant Gazprom, which is in turn majority-owned by the Russian state.
The deal comes just weeks after Shell was forced to delay its high-profile exploration campaign in the Alaskan Arctic for another year after a series of setbacks blighted its campaign in 2012.
The US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Shell had “screwed up” last year and has set a series of criteria the company must meet before it will be allowed to resume.
Shell has made no secret of its desire to expand further in Russia, where it already collaborates with Gazprom at the giant Sakhalin gas project offshore in the sub-Arctic of Eastern Siberia.
Last summer Shell chief executive Peter Voser said: “From a strategic point of view we are open to further investments in Russia and therefore are looking at opportunities either [in] oil or LNG. We have talked with the various players. Those talks include Gazprom.”
Russia has been courting international energy giants to help it exploit its vast oil and gas reserves, changing its tax regime to try to encourage inward investment.
State oil giant Rosneft has struck a series of deals with the likes of ExxonMobil, Statoil and ENI for Arctic exploration and last month confirmed it was also now looking at projects with BP, its 20pc shareholder.
Oil companies meanwhile are keen to secure access to the Arctic, where much of the world’s untapped oil reserves are believed to lie.
Gazprom Neft declined to comment, while Shell was not immediately available for comment.
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.
