A Horrified Netherlands May Rethink Its Economic Ties With Russia
Extract from a BloombergBusinessweek article by Carol Matlack published 21 July 2014
The Netherlands, a nation of traders, generally doesn’t like to let politics interfere with business. The death of 193 Dutch nationals in the Malaysia Airlines jet crash could change that.
Major Dutch companies with business interests in Russia also are drawing fire for their relations with President Vladimir Putin. “In April of this year, when the crisis over Crimea was at its height, [Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer] Ben van Beurden made a point of visiting Putin and saying that no matter the political situation, Shell and Russia had great plans for the future…”
The Netherlands has deep economic ties with Russia, ranging from Shell’s investment in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project…
Will Royal Dutch Shell Be Forced to Skedaddle From Russia?
Extract from a Motley Fool article by David Smith published 21 July 2014 under the headline: “Will ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell Be Forced to Skedaddle From Russia?”
Amid a crescendo of calls in Washington for the imposition of severely tightened sanctions on Moscow, following last week’s tragic shoot-down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, I’m wondering whether in, say, six months, the likes of ExxonMobil, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell, will retain permission to work side-by-side with Rosneft and other Russian state-controlled energy companies.
Shell has a 27.5% interest with Gazprom in Sakhalin-2 on a desolate, eponymously named island in the Sea of Okhotsk, to Russia’s east. Until 2006 Shell operated the project, but late that year it was forced to sell much of its then majority interest to Gazprom, for what was generally agreed to be a pittance, relative to the $20 billion the company had already invested in the project.
Few limits offshore, Shell says
Extract from a UPI article byDaniel J. Graeber published 21 July 2014
LONDON, July 21 (UPI) –John Hollowell, Shell’s vice president in charge of deep waters in the Americas, told The Daily Telegraph in London there were few limitations to how deep or how far offshore oil companies can drill.
“How far you can go is really technology based,” he said in aninterview published Sunday. “When we can’t overcome the technical barriers, that will be the end, but we have yet to reach that stage.”
The company said it’s working according to the terms of the new safety culture that emerged in the wake of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
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