THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell Makes Fourth Downgrade Of Oil Reserves This Year
May 24, 2004
LONDON — Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos. Monday downgraded the size of its oil reserves for the fourth time this year.
The company, which stunned shareholders in January when it announced its confirmed oil and gas holdings were 20%, or 3.9 billion barrels, smaller than it had claimed, said that it was downgrading 103 million additional barrels of reserves from “proven” to less certain categories.
Shell, the world’s third-largest publicly traded oil company by market capitalization, blamed the new reserves downgrade on an accounting change involving “royalties paid in cash in Canada.”
Combined with two other announcements since January, it brings the total of downgraded reserves to 4.47 billion barrels, the company said.
Reserves are an oil company’s most valuable asset, and any reclassification into less certain categories is a serious concern for investors.
Shell last month reported a 17% drop in first-quarter net income as a big gain last year offset the benefits of this year’s higher oil prices. The company also warned about rising costs at two key projects, and said it would boost capital spending as it attempts to turn around its core exploration-and-production unit.
Shell’s massive reserves restatement had a limited impact on its earnings.
Shell said its net income fell to $4.43 billion from $5.31 billion in the first quarter of last year. Sales were $76.2 billion, up 10% from $69.4 billion. Stripping out the fluctuating value of its inventories and a $1.29 billion credit largely related to the sale of a stake in a German gas company last year, Shell said it earned $4.25 billion in the latest quarter, up 9.3% from $3.89 billion in the year-earlier period.
Shell also said it would buy back about $2 billion, or €1.7 billion, in shares this year.
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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.
