Group Business Correspondent
ROYAL Dutch Shell has underlined its faith in the exploration potential of the North Sea by buying in to a licence a relative minnow has been working on.
The oil and gas giant has exercised an option to acquire a stake in acreage containing a prospect it is thought could hold 290 billion cubic feet gas from Cluff Natural Resources.
Shell will pay $600,000 for the 50 per cent stake and has agreed to fund 75 per cent of the cost of drilling an exploration well, up to a maximum of $25 million.
Read more: North Sea exploration deal coup for oil and gas pioneer
Both deals provided vindication for Algy Cluff’s decision to return to his roots in the North Sea after facing setbacks with his plan to produce gas by burning coal held beneath the Forth.
Mr Cluff, who is chairman of Cluff Natural Resources, felt the gas-rich Southern North Sea had potential some firms had not recognised.
Cluff Natural Resources acquired acreage in the area as other firms slashed spending on North Sea exploration activity in response to the crude price plunge from 2014 to 2016.
Read more: Cluff keen on North Sea after gasification setback
Its chief executive Graham Swindells said: “Shell’s continuing interest in the Company’s portfolio … is a testament to our licensing strategy and the ability of our technical team to identify, evaluate and communicate the potential of overlooked opportunities within the UK’s mature basins.”
Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said in February that the company was focused on growth in the North Sea after retrenching in response to the crude price plunge.
Read more: North Sea oil pioneer returns to military roots with new charity
Mr Cluff founded the firm that discovered the Buchan field in the North Sea in 1975. Cluff Natural Resources shares closed up 0.07p at 2.55p leaving the firm with a market capitalisation of around £14m.
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.
