Russian bear gets grisly - Shell raped, Hambro dumped
Dmitry Medvedev, is the Russian first deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of Gazprom the state controlled Gas company.
Oleg Mitvol, is the deputy head of the state environment agency,(Rosprirodnadzor) who has threatened the Shell-led operating company Sakhalin Energy with fines, licence withdrawals and lawsuits, for environmental damage, tort, malsfeasance,misfeasance, breathing, farting and anything else he can throw at them.
Mitvol , after listening to very expensive legal eagles says he wants a modest US$30 billion in damages on the Skhalin peninsu;ar , its 2 dozen inhabitants, the local wildlife and .... well whatever , he threatens international arbitration at the court in Stockholm earlynext year. Bollocks.
Shell has 55% of the Sakhalin LNG project which it is intended will ship 2008 and supply Japan, Korea and the United States by tanker with 9.6 million tonnes per year of supercooled LNG - hence Mitsui & Co have a 25 % stake and Mitsubishi have 20 %.
After the shouting and tumult dies it looks like Gazprom , and Medvedev, assisted by Mitvol's threats of scandalum magnatum will emerge with 50% of the field with Japanese twins M & M dropping 10% each and Shell disgorging the rest. Cash exchanges, licences, etc remain to be sorted out. Shell was looking at some swapsie deal for the Gazprom Zapolyarnoye field (which straddles the Arctic Circle) as part of the negotiations over Sakhalin-2 but when they got to look at costs got cooler than the ice cap where the gas may be found.
Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko told Parliament on Tuesday (12/12) "Working consultations and negotiations on Gazprom's possible involvement in the project are in progress," and said Gazprom would face the same requirements as other investors should it join Sakhalin II, which operated under a production sharing agreement with the Russian government signed in 1994.
Khristenko said Gazprom would need to deal with inflicting serious environmental damage to Sakhalin Island, including deforestation, toxic waste dumping and soil erosion which had been alleged. "Gazprom will have to follow all the obligations of the agreement, including the requirements of environmental protection legislation, just like all other investors,"
Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer met Gazprom's senior staff on Friday when details of the corporate rape by the State were hammered out. (Curiously elsewhere in the world, the State is unloading public assets - except Venezuela). Presumably Jeroam lay back and thought of his pension and annual performance bonus.
It must be remebered that Sheel was admonished by the Uk Cahrity Commisdsioners for using a Sherll funded charity (The Shell Foundation) to make improper representations to the UK government in respect of the Sakhalin II crisis. Even asking the policeman for help didn't help.
Once again Russia is flexing it's economic and energy muscles - but they suffer from expertise - which is what Shell have so they can hang on to some of the project and run it for the Russians and still come out smiling. D'Souza of Shell says talk of surrender , white flags and being stuffed royally by the Russians is all nonsense. - as if!
A deciding factor is of course that Gasprom has made promises to deliver all over the plave for gas - and it has to deliver ... a prospect that is not truly in the bag.... and one that should worry European and UK energy planners.
Now the heat is turning on Hambros Mining whose shares lost 15% today as Mitvol and the state environment agency starting bleating about safety - as if ! Minerals are the next on the hit list - is NATO listening ? watching? ... or just wanking about in Afghanistan playing at not being soldiers ?
Play with the Russian Bear - you can get hurt very badly.
This my children is energy security.
PS. Oleg Mitvol (pic) was a business partner of "UK citizen" Boris Berezovsky,friend of Tony and Cherie Blair, and the late Alexasandr Litvinyenko. He was board chairman and majority shareholder in the Russian daily newspaper, Noviye Izvestia essentially owned by and a mouthpiece of Berezovsky.
Quoted by the Guradian as the "Kremlin attack dog" so perhaps his alliances are variable.
PPS LATE NEWS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke at Moscow State University, about the West accusing Russia of gas blackmail, he said, "Here transpires the West's intention to get access to Russian energy without giving anything in return." Ho.HO. The Season of Tidings of Goodwill starts early.
