OREANDA-NEWS. November 26, 2007.  Royal Dutch/Shell Plc, Netherlands' and UK oil company, refused to acquire gas assets of Britain's Regal Petroleum in Ukraine, Shell's press office reported. Shell has pulled out of a deal, announced only two days ago, to buy a 51% stake in the Ukrainian gas assets of UK oil explorer Regal Petroleum, following Regal's surprise appointment of a new chief executive. "Our memorandum of understanding with Regal was agreed with the previous management team. The management change at Regal was not expected by Shell," the Anglo-Dutch oil major said in a statement on Friday.

On Thursday, Regal said Chairman Francesco Scolaro and CEO Neil Ritson had resigned and that David Greer - until recently a senior Shell employee - would take on both roles. Since October 2004, Regal has had four chief executives and an executive chairman resign from its board.

A Shell spokeswoman said the oil major had taken note of an interview Greer gave to the UK business newspaper, in which he suggested Regal was no longer keen on the sale. "We see from the new management's comments that they may have changed their thinking on this transaction. Regal have indicated that they would like to review options. Therefore we have decided not to proceed with the memorandum with Regal," Shell said in a statement.

Regal owns indirect rights on the exploration and development of the Mehedovsko-Golotovshchinskoe and Sviridovskoe gas condensate deposits in Ukraine.

Royal Dutch/Shell is one of the major oil companies in the world. In Ukraine Shell operates the filling stations network consisting of about 150 units as well as Shell Energy Ukraine LLC, the company engaged in delivering gas to Ukraine.