Oil falls as investors cash in on OPEC deal rally, dollar rises
The United States, now the world’s biggest oil producer but not a member of OPEC, said it had little faith in the deal leading to higher prices in the long term. Amos Hochstein, the U.S. energy envoy, said in a Reuters interview the deal will either lead to higher U.S. production and trigger another price fall or allow U.S. producers to expand market share.
Oil prices fell on Friday on a stronger dollar and as investors cashed in on a 6-percent rise in just one day after OPEC members agreed to reduce output for the first time in eight years to stifle a two-year price slide.
Global benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down $1.03 at $48.21 a barrel by 1006 GMT, but still 4.5 percent higher than before the OPEC agreement on Wednesday.
U.S. crude CLc1 was down 66 cents at $47.17 a barrel, around 5 percent higher than before the OPEC announcement.
MARKETWATCH: Oil prices continue to fall as doubts over OPEC agreement build
By Jenny W. Hsu and Sara McFarlane
Published: Sept 30, 2016 6:49 a.m. ET
Oil futures fell Friday as investors cashed in their recent gains and skepticism grew over a tentative agreement to cut production among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Shell estimates annual Argentina investment of $300 million through 2020
Thu Sep 29, 2016 | 8:50pm BS
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) plans to invest $300 million a year in Argentina through 2020 in exploration as well as refining, distribution and marketing, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The announcement came after Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri in Buenos Aires. Shell has been working to launch an early production well in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale reserves.
(Reporting by Juliana Castilla; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Peter Cooney)
OPEC decision on daily oil output freeze to have no impact on Shell’s strategy
September 29, 2016
Baku-APA. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) agreement to freeze daily oil output will not affect Royal Dutch Shell ‘s current strategy, a spokesman for one of the world’s largest oil companies told Sputnik on Thursday, APA reports quoting Sputnik.
On Wednesday, OPEC oil producing countries agreed a preliminary deal on the sidelines of an international energy forum in Algiers, Algeria. The output ceiling was set at 32.5-33 million barrels a day for the whole cartel.
Investors in the fossil fuel sector have finally had cause to celebrate this week after OPEC suggested that an output freeze could finally be in the offing.
The idea had initially been tabled at the start of the year as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Venezuela and Russia got around the table. But Iran’s determination to get the pumps ramped back up to pre-sanction levels put the plan firmly on the backburner.
However, with Tehran’s reluctance to take part in a deal now apparently thawing, stock pickers have become more optimistic over the growth outlook for many of the oil industry’s major players.
A campaign group is urging Shell and BP shareholders to use binding votes on pay plans to encourage bosses to embrace green energy, a news report said yesterday.
ShareAction said sticking with old remuneration policies that reward executives for digging for oil would lead to both companies becoming obsolete and going bankrupt, The Guardian reported.
In line with rules introduced in 2013, large companies like Shell and BP face binding shareholder votes on three-year pay policies next year, the report said.
With the ever-growing energy needs worldwide, the conventional sources of energy are likely to exhaust soon. Having explored the majority of the onshore reserves, oil and gas producers around the globe are now moving to offshore reserves, that are primarily formations in deep waters, containing thick layers of oil and gas in permeable rock. Consequently, Deepwater drilling, often used to categorize drilling in water depths of greater than around 400 meters, has become an attractive alternative to onshore drilling. In line with this growing trend, Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) has categorized Deepwater as one of its growth priorities for the next five years. (Also Read: Shell’s Growth Priority Over The Next Five Years – Chemicals) In this note, we discuss the growth potential of the deepwater market, Shell’s positioning in this market, and its strategy going forward.
For years, debates in the OPEC conference room were dominated by clashes between top producer Saudi Arabia and arch-rival Iran.
But as the two managed to find a rare compromise on Wednesday – with Riyadh softening its stance towards Tehran – a third OPEC superpower emerged.
Iraq overtook Iran as the group’s second-largest producer several years ago but kept its OPEC agenda fairly low-profile. On Wednesday, Baghdad finally made its presence felt.
Shares in oil giants BP and Shell surge on production cut deal
The agreement by OPEC countries boosts hopes for a sector which has seen mass job cuts, but could push up prices at the pump.
Thursday 29 September 2016
Shares in Royal Dutch Shell and BP have surged after top oil producing countries agreed to cut production for the first time in eight years.
Shell climbed 6% and BP was up 4% following the decision by OPEC – with other commodity firms also performing strongly.
The stocks helped the FTSE 100 Index turn 1% higher, with improvements also seen in French and German markets, following an upturn for Asian shares overnight.
OPEC’s agreement on Wednesday helped the price of a barrel of Brent crude climb above $49 overnight, before slipping back slightly.
BP and Shell investors urged to reward bosses for backing green energy
Shareholders should use binding votes on pay policies next year to push executives to stick to climate goals, says ShareAction
Sean Farrell: Thursday 29 September 2016 00.01 BST
Shell and BP’s pay plans encourage their bosses to dig for oil instead of investing in low-carbon energy and should be overhauled by shareholders, according to the campaign group ShareAction.
Investors in the oil companies should use binding votes on pay policies next year to scrap short-term targets and reward chief executives for working towards the target set in Paris last December to limit global temperature increases to 2C or less, the responsible investment group says in a report.
Gazprom said on Thursday it plans to launch a third liquefied natural gas (LNG) production train at the Sakhalin-2 LNG plant in 2021, possibly fed by a newly drilled field, as Russian companies seek to boost their share of the global LNG market.
Russia accounts for less than 5 percent of the global LNG market but new plants are being built or considered by Novatek, Gazprom and Rosneft.
Located at Prigorodnoye on Sakhalin island, Sakhalin-2, Russia’s sole LNG plant, operates two production lines with a combined capacity of 10 million tonnes of LNG per year. The third train should add another 5 million tonnes.
CTV News: Shell Canada accident report: pipe fell to within 12 metres of oil well off N.S.
Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, September 28, 2016 6:36PM EDT
HALIFAX — When heaving waters in the North Atlantic wrenched a string of massive steel pipes from a drilling ship off Nova Scotia’s coast, one of the 20-tonne sections of the plummeting coil struck the seabed just 12 metres from the top of an undersea oil exploration well.
The distance is one of several details in a Shell Canada accident report received through access to information legislation, prompting critics to say the entire incident was too close for comfort in an area near one of Atlantic Canada’s richest fishing grounds of the Scotian shelf.
(refer to 295-page Report by Economics and Industry Steering Committee issued 7 May 2015)
Much has been written on this website about FLNG, the Prelude specifically raising doubts about the validity of claims by Shell that FLNG risks are as safe as if not more so than conventional offshore installations. The Government report raised considerable concerns in relation to the safety of FLNG facilities. In particular, concerns were raised about the compact nature of the working environment offshore relative to the space afforded to an onshore LNG processing plant and that the facilities will remain manned during cyclonic storms.
Royal Dutch Shell CEO tells President Temer the country is expected to be one of the top investment focuses for the multinational in the coming years.
Beurden stated that Shell’s partnership with Petrobras in the pre-salt projects remain a priority for the multinational, despite the negative news in the international media about the corruption scandal in the Brazilian company.
By Lise Alves on September 28, 2016
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Reiterating that there is a favorable investment climate in Brazil, the president of petroleum giant Royal Dutch Shell, Ben Van Beurden, told Brazil’s President Michel Temer of the company’s interest in maintaining and increasing investments in the country.
“We have plans for a future together. We came here to talk about the confidence we have in the country and some points that can be improved,” Beurden told journalists after attending meetings with President Temer and Petrobras CEO, Pedro Parente on Tuesday.
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Russia, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Partners at Russia’s Sakhalin-2, the sole liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the country, have agreed on the strategy of marketing LNG from the planned third train, Olivier Lazare, head of Royal Dutch Shell in Russia, told a conference.
Sakhalin-2 is currently operating two LNG production trains with combined capacity of around 10 million tonnes of LNG per year. The planned third train should add another 5 million tonnes of annual capacity.
Shell’s Nigerian division has shut down one of the two pipelines that carry Bonny light crude to its Forcados terminal in the Niger Delta, saying a fire was detected “on the right of way” of the pipeline. The shutdown will take 180,000 bpd off Shell’s Nigerian exports.
At the same time, the company continues to refuse to confirm or deny an announcement from the Niger Delta Avengers from Saturday that they’d blown up a Bonny Light pipeline. Shell has two pipelines bringing crude of this blend to Forcados, and the fire was detected at the Trans Niger Pipeline. It remains unclear whether the fire is a consequence of the NDA attack or if the attack was on the other pipeline.
From left, Alberta Minister of Energy Marg McCuaig-Boyd, Shell Canada President Lorraine Mitchelmore, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Ben van Beurden, Marathon Oil Executive Brian Maynard, Shell ER Manager, Stephen Velthuizen, and British High Commissioner to Canada Howard Drake open the valve to the Quest carbon capture and storage facility in Fort Saskatchewan Alta, on Friday November 6, 2015. Quest is designed to capture and safely store more than one million tonnes of CO2 each year an equivalent to the emissions from about 250,000 cars. JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Shell says a fire has forced it to close a key oil pipeline feeding Nigeria’s strategic Bonny Export Terminal, which militants attacked last week.
The ongoing challenges are losing oil multinationals billions of dollars in what used to be Africa’s biggest petroleum producer.
SBM Intelligence risk analysts estimate that renewed militant attacks, low oil prices and weak refinery margins have cost Dutch-British Shell and U.S.-based Chevron and ExxonMobil $7.1 billion in the first half of the year, representing about 70 percent of earnings.
Boats sail past Pulau Bukom on June 8, 2016.PHOTO: REUTERS
27 Sept 2016
SINGAPORE (REUTERS) – A unit at Royal Dutch Shell’s manufacturing site at Pulau Bukom in Singapore experienced an “operational upset” on Tuesday resulting in flaring with dark smoke, a spokeswoman said.
“This has since subsided after the affected unit was stabilised,” she said.
There was no fire as a result of the flaring and the rest of the site is operating normally, she added.
A trunk line carrying crude oil in the Goi community in the Ogoniland area of Rivers State became engulfed in dark plums of smoke and flames on Monday morning. The trunk line belongs to the Shell Petroleum Development Company.
Celestine Akpobari, an environmental activist who visited the site, said the inferno occurred just a few meters away from a military surveillance post. According to her, the fire immediately followed the sound of an eruption affecting the Agbada/Bomu trunk line.
By Chiemelie Ezeobi and Sylvester Idowu: 26 Sept 2016
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday condemned in strong terms, the renewed hostilities by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
The group at the weekend claimed responsibility for the bombing of Bonny pipeline in Rivers State.
MEND also dissociated itself from the ‘holier than thou’ and arrogant attitude of the Pan-Niger Delta Group over the proposed Niger Delta Summit convened by the federal government.
WARRI, Nigeria – Shell Nigeria is refusing to confirm a report by Niger Delta militants that they have bombed its Bonny oil pipeline in the south, crippling its exports.
Friday night’s bombing breaks a month-long ceasefire between militant groups and the government and comes days after repairs from an earlier attack had allowed exports to resume.
Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo says he cannot comment on the incident.
The Niger Delta Avengers say its attack is “only a wake-up call” responding to a clampdown by security forces that it says violated the ceasefire. The military has reported arresting at least two Avenger commanders last week.
Law360, New York (September 23, 2016, 4:53 PM EDT)
Shell Oil Co. has agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims by California’s water quality regulator and a whistleblower that the company had billed a state fund for cleanup work already covered by insurance proceeds, the agency said on Friday.
Shell will pay the State Water Resources Control Board $11.3 million to drop administrative proceedings over 100 claims to a cleanup fund for leaky underground storage tanks. The agency said Shell was able to get repaid through insurance or litigation, but had omitted that fact…
All eyes are on Saudi Arabia and other big producers as the oil price hovers around $40 a barrel
Tommy Stubbington:
Oil prices could be headed back below $40 a barrel, with a deal this week between the world’s top exporters looking increasingly remote.
Opec meets for three-day talks in Algiers tomorrow, with the cartel still divided on its response to oil’s price slump.
Brent crude fell sharply to under $46 a barrel on Friday, as hopes of a production cut faded. Analysts at Citigroup said the price could slide below $40 unless big producers led by Saudi Arabia can hammer out a deal to pump less crude. Forecasters at Macquarie Group, meanwhile, said that even if a production freeze can…
Saudi Arabia’s central bank stepped up efforts to support lenders in the Arab world’s biggest economy as they grapple with the effects of low oil prices.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, as the central bank is known, said it decided to give banks about 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) in the form of time deposits “on behalf of government entities.” It’s also introducing seven-day and 28-day repurchase agreements, as part of its “supportive monetary policy.”
The plunge in oil prices over the past two years forced the government to draw down on its deposits in the banking system, squeezing domestic liquidity. That’s pushed up the three-month Saudi Interbank Offered Rate, a key benchmark used for pricing loans, to the highest level since 2009. The central bank was said to have offered lenders 15 billion riyals in short-term loans in June to help ease liquidity constraints.
In August 2016, Prestel Books published Photos That Changed the World, including this image of the Greenpeace Brent Spar campaign, captured by David Sims on 16 June 1995.
The story begins in the 1950s, when Royal Dutch Shell found oil near Groningen, in Permian sandstone linked to North Sea formations. By 1971, Shell had located the giant Brent oilfield in the North Sea, 220km east of Shetland, England. The Brent field produced a valuable, low sulphur crude, and set the standard for the European, or “Brent”, oil price.
Next year will mark the end of an era as Royal Dutch Shell largely abandons its iconic tower and consolidates workers on the west side of town in its Woodcreek complex in the Energy Corridor and the Shell Technology Center a few miles south of Woodcreek. Only Shell’s energy trading team will remain downtown.
The move – largely to cut costs in the ongoing oil bust – continues the exodus of Big Oil from downtown Houston. Exxon Mobil moved out last year when it built its massive new campus by Spring. Of Houston’s 10 largest energy employers, just Chevron and CenterPoint Energy remain downtown.
Extracts from an article by Colm Keena published by The Irish Times on 22 Sept 2016
Shell E&P Ireland Offshore Inc associated with Corrib gas project
Two companies registered in the Bahamas and used by Dublin property investor Paul Fenelon for investments in the UK are among companies of Irish interest on the Corporate Registry of the Bahamas.
The registry, normally difficult to access, is being made publicly available by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), of which The Irish Times is a media partner.
Shell E & P Ireland Offshore Inc, a company with an address in Nassau, has had a number of Irish directors over the years, starting in 2000. The company is associated with the Corrib gas project in Co Mayo.
Shell and its Equilon Enterpises LLC affiliate were essentially caught double-billing the state fund
Shell Oil Co. and an affiliate have agreed to pay $20 million to California officials over false claims the companies submitted to a state-run underground storage tank cleanup fund, California officials said Friday.
As part of the settlement, state officials permanently rejected cleanup claims from Shell and the affiliate totaling as much as $150 million.
Andrew DiLuccia, a spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said Shell and its Equilon Enterpises LLC affiliate were essentially caught double-billing the state fund. “They were getting reimbursement for cleanup costs from an insurer,” he said.
AMSTERDAM, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Gas extraction from the northern Groningen gas field will be held at 24 billion cubic metres per year for the coming five years, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday.
The decision made on Friday by Rutte’s government cemented a preliminary plan to cut output to minimise the risk of earthquakes resulting from production at Groningen, which once supplied 10 percent of the gas used in the European Union.
One of the most reliable features of negotiations over oil production is a divergence between what countries say and what they do.
Three weeks ago, Russia and Saudi Arabia were discussing co-operation to stabilise the oil market. This week there was talk of a year-long agreement between Russia and Opec to cap production. At the same time, however, Russia has been stepping up its drilling in the mature fields of western Siberia, taking its oil output to new record highs. Its production is forecast by Goldman Sachs to grow a further 590,000 barrels per day over the next three years.
Running an income fund has been fairly straightforward for the past few years. Drug giants like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and AstraZeneca (AZN) have kept up shareholder returns and the telecoms sector has offered rich pickings. So have BP (BP.) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB). However, income plays are becoming more expensive, and now we’re hearing that Shell’s dividend record is in serious danger.
Shell has not cut the dividend since the Second World War; it’s a fact we love to repeat whenever the conversation turns to the oil sector and dividends. And, despite a 55% rally since late January, the shares still offers a prospective dividend yield of 7.3%.
A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) is in talks to buy a portfolio of North Sea assets from Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) as the Danish group considers adding scale to its oil and gas business ahead of a planned spin off, banking sources said.
Maersk announced on Thursday a major overhaul that will see it focus on its core transport and logistics businesses, while looking at options for its energy division within 24 months that could include a joint venture, merger or listing.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) said flaring on Thursday at the Norco, Louisiana manufacturing complex shared with the Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL] refinery was due to an upset in the company’s chemical plant.
The refinery and chemical plant share the safety flare system at the complex and when the flare goes off it is sometimes reported as being due to a malfunction at the refinery.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Shell has made plans to move the bulk of its staff out of its historic Houston base.
The company informed staff that more than 3,400 workers would be relocated from its base in the Houston Central Business District to its facilities on the west side of the city.
Shell’s base, known as One Shell Plaza, was completed in 1971. At the time it was the tallest tower in the city. A spokesperson confirmed that only staff in trading will remain at site, which makes up part of the downtown Houston skyline.
By:Staff The Canadian PressPublished on Wed Sep 21 2016
HALIFAX — Shell has plugged the first of its deepwater exploration wells off Nova Scotia, saying it didn’t find enough oil to make it worth proceeding.
The well is located about 250 kilometres offshore of Halifax on the Scotian shelf.
The company says in a news release that the work on the Cheshire well was completed last week.
It says it has started working on a second exploration well, Monterey Jack, at a location about 120 kilometres southwest of the Cheshire location.
The move will affect 3,400 employees when it takes place early next year as part of “an effort to meet the ever changing market conditions and optimize resources for future opportunities,” Shell said in a statement Tuesday. Employees will move to the company’s Woodcreek facility and Shell Technology Center on the west side of town.
Those who work for Shell’s downtown trading operations will stay put, although the company said it eventually plans to have all of its Houston-based staff in company-owned facilities on the west side.
Allegedly illegal Nigerian oil exports valued at $12.7 billion are at the heart of a lawsuit the country has filed against units of Chevron (CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), Total (TOT) ENI (E) and Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR).
The case points to outsiders’ shipments to the United States between 2011 and 2014, but is likely to expose domestic corruption as well. Militants have crippled Nigeria’s oil production this year, a recurring theme over recent decades. Lagos hearings, which begin next week, come as the country struggles with the affects of policy stagnation, currency devaluation, inflation and low oil revenue.
Shell Oil Co, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, plans to move most of the operations at its company’s downtown headquarters to new offices on the city’s west side, Shell announced to employees on Tuesday.
Only Shell Oil’s U.S. trading floor with remain in Shell Plaza after the first quarter of 2017, the company said in a statement.
Shell follows ExxonMobil Corp, which relocated 10,000 employees from offices across Houston, including downtown, to a custom-built complex 25 miles (40 km) north of the city in 2015.
Sep 20 2016, 15:19 ET | By:Carl Surran, SA News Editor
Nigerian officials say the government is suing several major oil companies for $12.7B of oil that allegedly was exported illegally to the U.S. during 2011-14.
The Federal High Court in Lagos begins hearings next week in cases filed against Nigerian subsidiaries of Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A, RDS.B), Eni (NYSE:E), Total (NYSE:TOT) and Petrobras (NYSE:PBR).
The officials say the government alleges that the companies did not declare more than 57M barrels of crude oil shipments.
Royal Dutch Shell is building the world’s largest floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project, which has the potential to transform the way natural gas resources are developed. It is designed to recover resources offshore that would otherwise be too costly or difficult to develop without the need to lay pipelines and build processing plants on land. In this article, Hazardex takes a look at the latest developments in this ground-breaking project.
The Prelude natural gas field was discovered by Shell in the Browse Basin off north Western Australia in 2007 with an additional field, Concerto, discovered nearby in 2009. Combined, these gas fields have around 3 trillion cubic feet of liquids-rich gas. The Australian Government gave the Prelude FLNG project environmental approval on November 12, 2010, and Shell took the final investment decision (FID) on May 20, 2011.
Shell Canada said three of its employees are back at work and doing well after experiencing an “unexpected electrical arc flash” at the company’s Scotford oil refinery and chemical plant Sunday.
In a statement to Global News, Shell Canada said the workers were taken to the company’s health centre as a precaution and “cleared for full duty later that evening.” The company said it’s now investigating what caused the incident.
The U.S. Department of Labor defines an arc flash as a “phenomenon where a flashover of electric current leaves its intended path and travels through the air from one conductor to another or, or to ground.” It said the when arc flashes occur with people nearby, “the results are often violent” and can lead to serious injury or death.
Oil is slowly climbing back to $50 a barrel as a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia and an agreement on production in Venezuela helped to stabilise prices.
The production agreements could finally give some assurances to dozens of companies who have suffered since crude slumped from $114 a barrel in 2014 to $28 early this year.
Oil supermajors such as BP and Shell have been high-profile casualties, losing billions in profits.
They’ve written off billions of pounds and have had to slash tens of thousands of jobs as they change their businesses to cope with the reduced profits.
Oil prices fell last week after the IEA and OPEC reported in their respective oil market reports that the supply-demand rebalancing of oil will take longer than market expectations. The WTI (WTI) and Brent were down by almost 2% and were trading at $43.3 and $45.77 at the time of writing this article. Even the U.S rig count increased for the 12th week in a row. Oil prices are going down as markets have realized that global oil supplies are only going to increase in the coming time. “It really looks similar to the period of the early 1990s, when we were at $20 oil. Is $45 to $50 the new $20? I am not ready to say we are in this new equilibrium environment, but it sure does feel like we’re moving in that direction,” said the head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Jeff Curie. It must be noted that investment firms such as Goldman Sachs have started lowering their 2017 forecast for oil prices. Let us look at those factors that are putting downward pressure on oil.
There is one basic thing Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) (NYSE:RDS.B) needs to do to take full advantage of its LNG strategy, and that is to boost demand by increasing the number of fueling stations in the markets they’re competing in.
It has been marketing its LNG brand for some time, but it hasn’t had the desired impact in the short term because the infrastructure isn’t in place to respond to demand. If it can’t service demand than marketing efforts are underwhelming to say the least.
Links to over 240 articles by a host of publishers including the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, New York Times etc., containing references to this website, or its founders Alfred and John Donovan (photo right).
Includes newspaper and magazine articles, and newsletters. All in date order.
The more positive mood in crude prices last week always looked fragile, based as it was on nebulous talk about a possible Opec production freeze and volatile US data that were heavily influenced by storm Hermine at the beginning of the month.
That vulnerability was exposed this week. Brent crude, which briefly hit $50 per barrel on September 8, dropped below $46 on Friday.
As prices fell, analysts took differing views on the outlook. Bloomberg focused on the chance of a rebound, as markets started to focus on the growing risk of shortages. On the other hand, the FT’s Neil Hume pointed out that there was still more crude production capacity set to come on stream as a result of the investment binge of 2011-14 – not least the much delayed Kashagan field in Kazakhstan – meaning that prices could remain depressed in the short term.
EBOOK TITLE: "SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL" - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: "JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL'S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL" - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: "TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA" - PUBLICATION SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 2016.
OVER 240 NEWS ARTICLES AND NEARLY 40 BOOKS, ALL CITING THIS WEBSITE: SEE INFORMATION BELOW
Links to over 240 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires etc., and almost 40 books containing references to this website, or its founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus a selection of academic papers and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, all citing this website. All in date order. Click on the link at the foot of this column to see the entire 240 plus news articles, again, all in date order.
Head-cut image appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC FAT CAT CEO, BEN VAN BEURDEN, PAID $30 MILLION IN 2014
DISCLAIMER
This is not a Shell website, nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell.
We operate on a non-profit basis with no subscription charges, no wages, no bonuses, no company pensions and no private jets. In comparison, Royal Dutch Shell Fat Cat Boss, Ben van Beurden, received a financial package worth $30 million USD in 2014.
SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER
The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.
Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.
GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE: FEBRUARY 2010
MORE INFORMATION: Contact details for over 176,000 employees and contractors of Royal Dutch Shell reached John Donovan and some environmental and human rights groups, ostensibly from disaffected Shell staff calling for a “peaceful corporate revolution” at the company. The database, from Shell’s internal directory, contained names and telephone numbers for all the company’s work force worldwide, including some home numbers. It was supplied with a 170 page covering note, explaining that it was being circulated by “116 concerned employees of Shell dispersed throughout the USA, the UK, and the Netherlands”, to highlight the harm done by the company’s operations in Nigeria. John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.
NAZI NAMED SHIP HIRED BY SHELL
The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name - Pioneering Spirit.
Relieved: When I first went to work for Shell many centuries ago ONE SHELL was the tallest building in Houston and Shell was a respected company. My,my, how things have changed. Shell's retreat to the burbs is very symbolic.
Heartbroken: @Bill Campbell. I applaud your bravery to stand up to the Shell bullies. I can't recall anyone having the principles and courage to stand up to the bullies in that disgustingly rancid place. Where are all the people that stood for something? Now staff are treated like numbers (cattle) with the constant threat of the sack hanging over them. Guantanamo C16 has even announced that it will start charging inmates to use the gym facilities. Our prison comrades in Houston have had their cells taken away from them and condemned to home incarceration. Someone mentioned core values. I fear a ban on using those words is not far away. RDS RIP
The Escape Committee: So, its true. Camp Culpepper will now house the majority of the 3,500 staff from downtown. Thankfully the escape committee has been working on tunnels and a plan which involves "working from home". Its going to be brutal, we will no longer have desks but will be dynamically sharing space. This whole treatment of staff is getting more like farm fed chickens every day. What on earth happened to the "respect" part of our core values.
Bill Campbell: RELATED ARTICLE: Shell safety chief urges industry not to get bogged down in KPIs.Safety KPIs (re various comments on your website)
It is interesting that during the utter collapse of safety standards on the Brent field (TFA et al) they were able to demonstrate ‘improvement’ in safety by the misuse of the worst kPI known to man, that is lost time incident frequency.
I am reminded of the world of Deepwater Horizon prior to the incident. Transoceanic staff were patting each other on the back at the time of the explosion for their sustained good performance re safety represented by the metrics of this KPI. This despite the installation being flooded with gas on several occasions in the months prior to the incident, the fact that the medieval gas sensing system did not and could not take executive action, that the drill crew had never trained for a blowout type incident despite the previous drill kicks, and when it happened on the fateful day rather than maintaining well flow via the appropriate surge diverted sent it fatally to the mud treatment skid. Also that just before all hell broke loose that during the back flowing of the well and displacing the mud with water no one was monitoring the mud returns, a cardinal sin in the Drillers 101 course.
Here was an installation of inadequate design where none of the learnings from Piper A were ever considered worth incorporating but Transocean sold this installation and its own ‘world class services’ on the basis of a discredited KPI which if honestly recorded measures occupational risk levels at the shop floor at best but says nothing at all about the societal risks of all those persons living on the installation due to its intrinsic design shortcomings of the vessel and the incompetence of its crews, their supervisors and onshore management
Bill Campbell
from an old EP hand: Dutchdude I agree completely. And it should come as no surprise that this van Beelen talked some common sense. I worked with his father and the stupidities by the drilling community in Alaska would simply not have occurred when he was head of Drilling! Shell appears to follow the rest of the society that has decided to get all professionals bogged down in filling in metrics rather than doing their job. Only to allow the great many apparatchicks to write pompous reports and demand more monitoring! In the past society followed Shell, times have changed.
Dutchdude: Recently in the corridors I heard one of those younger high flyers make a statement that the SVS is a great idea by Shell HR, to get rid of all deadwood and losers in the company. Very sad indeed, as I see this person as one of the KPI-tigers in the company. Never a solution just numbers and pictures.....BTW Excellent speech about KPIs, glad to see some senior Shell folks still know what the business is about.
Relieved: The Saudi's are in a race to expand their non-oil related asset base in order to prepare for the day when the majority of their income will come from investments other than oil. Their reserves are depleting and their population is increasing and they need to do as the Kuwaiti's did years ago, invest in the economies of the Western Democracies to insure a stable long term income long after their oil depletes.
Relieved: Read the article about safety 'KPI's'. Once again the mindless bureaucratic drones have taken over. It is a make work business to keep the trolls employed.
Guest: Trying to find out about TA plans of Shell Pernis for this autumn, does anybody know if they are going to shut FCC or any of their CDUs any time soon?
Relieved: Someone just referred to Shell as a 'snakepit'. It has been that way for decades, and it gets progressively worse as time passes.
Outsider: John
I’m curious as to why there is so little in the press outside Nigeria on the subject of OPL 245.
I’m told that the OPL 245 issues are the biggest single concern within Shell in financial terms, and probably reputational terms, and have been for a couple of years. Corrib is not even close.
C16 Camp Xray: LondonLad how can you honestly make a comparison between badly treated staff and Greenpeace? And have you not checked how much dirty pollution by way of CO2 an oil company is responsible for? Or all the oil spills? Where the hell is the empathy? Good grief I'm relieved to be out of that snake pit. No doubt another HR or PR (or is it CX) person will write a reply protecting their masters!
Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the company holding the rights; Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.
DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the late Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now operated by John, Shell's "No.1 Enemy", aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders. (JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER) For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:"An open wound for Shell": WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name failed. NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes. SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT: WHAT A WELL INFORMED SHELL OFFICIAL SAID ABOUT US:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to embarrass,belittle and criticize Shell, which they do quite well. Their website, royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is spying on Shell employees globally trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats, including death threats, have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with information. The worlds biggest leak of employee details as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website. The insider leaks had already cost Shell billions on the Sakhalin Energy project and the loss of SEIC Deputy Chairman, David Greer. We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g. "How Royal Dutch Shell saved Hitler and the Nazi Party". MEDIA COVERAGE: Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: "Rise of the Gripe Site";"Two men and a website mount vendetta against Shell' and "92-year-old's website leaves oil giant Shell-shocked”. SHELL PETROL STATION images displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues here.
John Donovan can be contacted at [email protected]
SHELL’S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY
EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."
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:
THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
ENDS
(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)
SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004
Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after FIVE consecutive cuts to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed $150 million in fines on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by class action lawsuits. Sir Philip Watts
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
the end of the Royal Dutch Shell Group in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip turned to religion and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a sadistic sacking by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.
Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
SHELL CONTROVERSIES
selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.
WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas. Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.
Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?
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.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes 1 and 2 authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph (full size here) shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.
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By 
From left, Alberta Minister of Energy Marg McCuaig-Boyd, Shell Canada President Lorraine Mitchelmore, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Ben van Beurden, Marathon Oil Executive Brian Maynard, Shell ER Manager, Stephen Velthuizen, and British High Commissioner to Canada Howard Drake open the valve to the Quest carbon capture and storage facility in Fort Saskatchewan Alta, on Friday November 6, 2015. Quest is designed to capture and safely store more than one million tonnes of CO2 each year an equivalent to the emissions from about 250,000 cars. 
27 Sept 2016
BY SAHARA REPORTERS, NEW YORK: 26 SEPT 2016
Jody Godoy
Shell E&P Ireland Offshore Inc associated with Corrib gas project
By 
By Ron Bousso and Jonathan Saul | LONDON
Thu Sep 22, 2016 | 5:53pm BST
Shell has made plans to move the bulk of its staff out of its historic Houston base.
By: Staff 
The move will affect 3,400 employees when it takes place early next year as part of “an effort to meet the ever changing market conditions and optimize resources for future opportunities,” Shell said in a statement Tuesday. Employees will move to the company’s Woodcreek facility and Shell Technology Center on the west side of town.
Links to over 240 articles by a host of publishers including the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, New York Times etc., containing references to this website, or its founders Alfred and John Donovan (photo right). 
EBOOK TITLE: "SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL" - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: "JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL'S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL" - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: "TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA" - PUBLICATION SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 2016.
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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: 
MORE DETAILS:
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.
