Yet despite all this spending, some of Shell’s most capital-intensive projects have failed to pay off. Consider its operations in Nigeria, for instance, which have been beset by oil theft and vandalism that resulted in the loss of some 100,000 barrels of production per day in the second quarter, and its $5 billion oil campaign in Alaska, which has failed to produce any oil so far and was shelved  recently due to regulatory and environmental uncertainties.
October 12, 2013
For the world’s largest integrated oil companies, times have been better. Lackluster share-price performance aside, the majors’ second-quarter earnings were quite disappointing across the board. Most found it difficult to grow production, despite shelling out record amounts of money.
The problem has been especially severe for Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-AÂ Â ) , one of the group’s biggest spenders. Let’s take a closer look at the company’s capital spending program and whether or not it will pay off in the long run.