Additional evidence may have just emerged relating to the Shell/InterOil conspiracy theory. Subsequent to the publication two days ago of my Seeking Alpha article titled “InterOil: The Stars Are Aligned For A Takeover Battle To Ensue In The Coming Weeks”, Upstreamonline seems to have removed its August 2 article titled “ExxonMobil and InterOil locked in PNG talks”, which was referenced in my article and stated that “Sources said Shell is sore at missing the opportunity, and is waiting in the wings if the ExxonMobil-InterOil talks falter”.
If you click on the link copied on the following post (http://shareholdersunite.com/mybb/showthread.php?tid=4309), you’ll notice the following message, “We can't find the page you are looking for”. Maybe the deletion is meaningless or happened by mistake, but in several years of reading Upstreamonline, I don’t recall a single article having been removed from the site. Did Shell contact Upstreamonline or Russell Searancke Wellington and request that the article be removed? If so, is this indicative of the veracity of the theory that Shell is in fact preparing to bid for InterOil?