St. Petersburg - Energetic discussions by the movers and shakers

Roman Abramovich bought the yacht Pelorus (10th largest in world) from Sheikh Modhassan of Saudi Arabia (bro to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd) for US$129 million, and merely servicing it costs him US$12 million annually. There are 22 cabins decorated in a vulgar "vintage style" with antique wooden floors, all the interior design was handed to Terence Disdale . A crew of 40, is fairly safe behind bulletproof glass, missile detection systems, and look after an indoor pool, a steam room, two helicopter pads, and a minisub, as well as special lights to ward off paparazzi.

Roman tells us he is a generous boss and In 2005 he lent Pelorus to Frank Lampard and John Terry for two weeks as a bonus for being the two best players at Chelsea F.C. After John Terry married his fiancee Toni Poole at Blenheim Palace on 15 June last year, they had a two week honeymoon on Pelorus in the Mediterranean. (after his performance in St Petersburg against MU (the best footie tem in the world) he will probably next see service on Pelorus as an anchor

It is not Roman's biggest yacht. He also owns Ecstasea (rumoured to be is crewed by a crack team of ex SAS servicemen ), and he also gave away Le Grand Bleu to his friend Eugene Shvidler. Eugene 42, is Russian but has he worked for Deloitte & Touche in New York and became a U.S. citizen. He later returned to Russia, where he teamed up with Roman Abramovich to start the oil trading outfit Runicom S.A. he is now chairman of Millhouse, LLC, the investment and asset management company he shares with Abramovich and their various partners.

An interesting lady who makes an intersting contribution to Millhouse is Ms. Olga Pokrovskaya who joined Millhouse LLC as head of corporate finance in July 2006. She previously held several key finance positions in Sibneft since 1997, including serving as head of corporate finance since 2004. From 1991 until 1997, she worked as a senior audit manager at (now defunct) accountancy Arthur Andersen. Moscow born Ms. Pokrovskaya is also on the board of Evraz alongside Mr Shvilder and some other interesting people. In January this year she joined the Highland Gold Board of Directors alongside Mr Shvilder, Millhouse have a 40% interest and their 2007 results are showing a welcome , if modest profit.

When she joined Sibneft , President Eugene Shvidler said, “Her track record in ensuring Sibneft’s high level of financial transparency will provide reassurance to banks and investors.”

Evraz Group’s principal assets include three of Russia’s leading steel plants, Nizhny Tagil (NTMK) in the Urals region and West Siberian (Zapsib) and Novokuznetsk (NKMK) in Siberia. The Company also owns Palini e Bertoli in Italy, Evraz Vitkovice Steel in the Czech Republic, and Evraz Oregon Steel Mills and Claymont Steel in the United States.

The Economic forum will have 1,200 participants and cover many topics.. one of especial interest was yesterday ..‘ENERGY - GLOBAL PLAYERS AND ARBITERS. (INTERDEPENDENCE, PARTNERSHIP, COMPETITION)' (Supported by OAO Gazprom) This was a discussion with this truly stunning list of participants...

Discussion featuring: (comments up to 5 minutes):
1) Alexei Miller, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee;
2) Tony Hayward, Group Chief Executive, BP (whose Russki pals are causing even more problems at TNK-BP whose capital is divided equally between British oil major BP and three Russian billionaires owning the Alfa-Access-Renova consortium -- Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Len Blavatnik this gangster gang of 3 have demanded the removal of CEO brit Robert Dudley, claiming he is running the company exclusively in the interests of the British shareholders.)
3) Vagit Alekperov, President, LUKOIL (Just announced today the deal for West Qurna field with Iraq he has been chasing he tells us for 5 years)
4) Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive Royal Dutch Shell
5) Daniel Yergin, Chairman, Cambridge Energy Research Associates
6) Andrew Gould, Chairman and CEO, Sсhlumberger
7) Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company (who have justy shoved all their prices up , many by a whopping 20%)
8) David O'Reilly, Сhairman and CEO, Chevron Corp.
9) Rex W. Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation
10) James J. Mulva, President and CEO of ConocoPhillips
11) Thierry Desmarest, Chairman Total

Jeroen van der Veer gave us a call and suggested we listen to his podcast which is of his talk at Princeton in March to the spooky Council on Foreign Relations (download here) on the subject "Energy Scenarios to 2050: Implications for U.S. Energy Security " (if problems on download go here to Princeton site with link.)