• Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal Dutch Shell is eyeing a high-sulphur gas project in Russia's Astrakhan, the Web site of the southern region's governor reported on Thursday. "We have always paid great importance to the Caspian region, where we have been for over a hundred years," the head of Shell in Russia Chris Finlayson was quoted as saying to the regional governor Alexander Zhilkinym.
  
  Finlayson underlined Shell's interests in the development of sulphur dioxide gas. The company already extracts and processes it in Canada, the United States and Oman. "A large-scale mining and extraction development would play a larger role in increasing the capacity of the South Stream pipeline," Finlayson was quoted as saying, adding that the resources in Astrakhan are "staggering even on a world scale" story