Shell News Archive Friday, January 9, 2004
BBC News: Shell shares dive as reserves cut
FT: Shell makes shock cut in oil reserves estimateREUTERS BOND NEWS UPDATE: Moody’s, S&P say may cut Shell ratings
January 9th, 2004:
Shell News Archive Friday, January 9, 2004
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.
CANADIAN PRESS (NATIONAL POST) Royal Dutch/Shell scales back proved reserves; Canadian estimates unaffected
January 9, 2004
LONDON (AP) – The Royal Dutch/Shell Group is downgrading one-fifth of its proved oil and natural gas reserves after reassessing the prospects of some of its projects.
Shell said Friday it was recategorizing 3.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent from proved reserves to “scope for recovery.” None of Shell’s Canadian reserves were affected by the change. The “scope for recovery” category means that although the same volume of hydrocarbons is believed to be present, the development of the projects is not mature enough for them to qualify as proved reserves.
BBC NEWS: Shell shares dive as reserves cut
Published: 2004/01/09 09:44:30 GMT
Giant oil group Royal Dutch Shell has said it is trimming its figures for proven oil and gas reserves by 20%.
Stunned investors promptly began a sell-off that knocked more than 7% off the Anglo-Dutch firm’s share price in both London and Amsterdam.
Shell said it does not expect the reassement to have any impact on its financial results, as 90% of the reserves involved remain undeveloped. But analysts were unconvinced. Shares in fellow oil firm BP also fell 2%.
REUTERS BOND NEWS UPDATE – Moody’s, S&P say may cut Shell ratings
Fri January 9, 2004 04:11 PM ET
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s on Friday said they may cut the top ratings for Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , after Shell on Friday cut by 20 percent its estimates of how much oil and gas it was certain it could profitably extract from its fields.
Investors reacted to Shell’s announcement by criticizing management and punishing the company’s share price, which fell more than 7 percent.
Both Moody’s and S&P affirmed their short-term ratings for Shell.
But Moody’s said it may cut the group’s “Aaa” long term ratings, while S&P said it may cut the group’s “AAA” ratings, which in both cases are the highest possible ratings.
Many western oil companies are struggling to find new oilfields to replace maturing ones, which is crucial to assuring future earnings growth.
But in recent years, investors have perceived Shell as lagging in adding new fields.
FT: Shell makes shock cut in oil reserves estimate
By Joanna Chung and Gordon Smith
Published: January 9 2004 9:48
Royal Dutch/Shell, one of the world’s largest and most respected oil companies, shocked shareholders and rivals on Friday by slashing estimates of its proved reserves by 20 per cent.
The revelation that almost 4bn barrels of oil and gas would have to be reclassified to comply with US Securities and Exchange Commission rules triggered a drop of more than 7 per cent in Shell’s share price – knocking about £3bn ($5.5bn) off its market value and hitting shares across the sector.
Reserves are a key measure of an oil company’s health. Although difficulty of finding new reserves has become an industry-wide problem, Shell has been among the least successful of its peers in making new finds. Many of the company’s added reserves have come in the form of upward revisions of the capacity of fields already discovered – rather than through exploration successes. On Friday, Shell said its reserves would shrink again this year, with only 70-90 per cent of oil and gas extracted being replaced.
Although Shell said the decision would have no material effect on its financial statements, or the total volume of hydrocarbons in place, the news intensified pressure on Sir Philip Watts, its embattled chairman.
Sir Philip was head of Shell’s exploration and production division when the fields in question – the majority of them in Australia and Nigeria – were classified as proved. The revision suggests Shell took an unrealistic view of how quickly it could develop the fields. The company said the move would bring all its reserves up to “a common standard of definition”.
Leading UK shareholders said the news was the latest example of poor communication by the oil group. They were particularly angered by the absence of Sir Philip and other board members from a conference call explaining the revision to investors on Friday. One large UK shareholder said: “No one likes to deliver bad news but he should not have left it for others to do.”
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.
