The Wall Street Journal: Shell Will Take Quarterly Charge Of $330 Million
“reserves-booking scandal this year exposing Shell’s need for new reserves”
By MARK LONG
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
July 2, 2004
LONDON — Royal Dutch/Shell Group said it will take a $330 million (€270.7million) charge to its second-quarter earnings for unsuccessful exploration on assets inherited in its 2002 purchase of Enterprise Oil. The company also announced the planned sales of a number of downstream assets in the U.S., Peru and Spain, in a move seen as a signal that Shell is following through on intentions to boost returns.
Shell was criticized by some observers as overpaying in its $5 billion purchase of Enterprise, which brought producing and exploration areas in the North Sea, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico under Shell’s aegis.
However, with a reserves-booking scandal this year exposing Shell’s need for new reserves and production, and with oil prices remaining high, the acquisition doesn’t appear to be such a bad move, analysts say.
Analysts said they weren’t concerned about the exploration write-downs. “If you do explore, you do end up writing stuff off,” said Brendan Wilders, an analyst with Oriel Securities in London.
Shell said it has exceeded by $55 million its target for cost savings of $300 million from the Enterprise purchase. It added that the acquisition has increased its cash flow by $3 billion.
Shell also said it has sold pipeline assets valued at nearly $1 billion in the U.S. in the past week, including the sale to Buckeye Partners LP of its pipeline system in the Midwest.
Buckeye, of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, bought five pipelines and 25 terminals from Shell for $530 million. Buckeye owns the 4,640-kilometer Buckeye Pipe Line, which stretches from Massachusetts to Illinois and has pipelines in five states.
Last week, Shell sold 3,200 kilometers of refined-petroleum-products pipeline infrastructure to Magellan Midstream Partners LP for $492 million.
The transactions are part of the oil giant’s effort to streamline operations to improve efficiency and financial performance, Shell Oil Products U.S. Chief Executive Lynn Elsenhans said.
Proceeds from asset sales this year total $3.5 billion.
Write to Mark Long at [email protected]
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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.
