Asjylyn Loder: 29 Oct 2015: Bloomberg.com
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Shell leads writedowns with $8.2 billion in impairments
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Predictions of future cash flow have fallen along with prices
More than $19 billion in oil and gas writedowns have been reported in a single week as producers acknowledge what investors already knew.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc leads the pack in recognizing that drilling prospects are worth a lot less than they used to. The producer announced its worst loss in 16 years on Thursday, including $8.2 billion in impairments. Southwestern Energy Co., Whiting Petroleum Corp. and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. have likewise written off acreage value.
For investors, those charges aren’t much of a surprise after oil tumbled 44 percent in the past year, dragging stock prices along with it. Shell has declined 15 percent in the past 12 months, Whiting is down 73 percent and Anadarko fell 26 percent.
“Their stock was clobbered already,” said Subash Chandra, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities in New York. “So you took a write down. How many billions have already been taken out of your equity value?”
For some companies, the write-offs were a foregone conclusion from an accounting standpoint. Of the 61 companies in the Bloomberg Intelligence North American Independent Explorers & Producers index, 25 use the full-cost accounting method, which requires them to recognize a charge when estimates of future cash flow from their properties falls below what the companies spent buying and developing the acreage. The predictions of future cash flow have fallen along with prices.
Barclays predicted $20 billion of impairments for Southwestern, Apache Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp., Devon Energy Corp., Encana Corp. and Newfield Exploration Co. Southwestern’s $2.8 billion charge, announced Oct. 22, was double the Barclays forecast. The other five companies are scheduled to report third-quarter results next week.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
