The Times: Need to Know: “A group led by Royal Dutch/Shell, the oil giant, is to export 37 million tonnes of Russian liquefied natural gas to North America in a $3.4 billion (£1.9 billion) agreement. (ShellNews.net)

October 15, 2004  

A group led by Royal Dutch/Shell, the oil giant, is to export 37 million tonnes of Russian liquefied natural gas to North America in a $3.4 billion (£1.9 billion) agreement.

Statoil, Norway’s biggest oil and gas company, has agreed to pay a 20 million Norwegian crown (£1.7 million) settlement for alleged bribery in a deal with an Iranian consultancy.

The Russian Government appears close to putting Yukos’s Siberian operations up for sale at a knockdown price, sparking concern that it is seeking to engineer a sale to Gazprom, the state-controlled gas monopoly.