THE BUSINESS: BP overtakes Shell on profits
“Jonathan Wright at Citigroup said: “We look for BP to be the star performer of the results season while Royal Dutch Shell causes us concerns with the risk of further project delays.”
Sunday July 24, 2005
By: Richard Orange
BP IS set to trump Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday with record $5.7bn (£3.2bn, €4.6bn) quarterly profits, thus overtaking its arch rival as the most profitable UK company.
Shell results on Thursday are expected to come in below BP’s, with profits of some $5.4bn. Shell last year produced $18bn profit, the greatest ever for a UK company, while BP lagged behind at just over $16bn.
Shell was ahead again in the first quarter of 2005, posting $5.3bn to BP’s $5bn, but BP has started to pull ahead as Shell’s production declines – some 4% this quarter to 3.4m barrels per day – and BP responds better to current conditions thanks to the quality and geography of its refining business. BP is expected to report a 3% increase in production to 4.1m barrels per day.
Jonathan Wright at Citigroup said: “We look for BP to be the star performer of the results season while Royal Dutch Shell causes us concerns with the risk of further project delays.”
Angus McPhail at ING said: “I think the real story’s in the refining downstream where I think BP’s going to do significantly better than Shell.”
The City will be eager for news from BP on whether an accident at its Thunderhorse platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which left it listing at 20 degrees, will lead to delays to the project, designed to begin production later this year. BP has already righted the platform, but it is unclear whether the listing revealed a serious design flaw and whether any equipment was damaged.
The boom conditions for the international oil industry are pointing towards another year of record profits, as the high oil price and wide refining margins stay in place for longer than most analysts expected. US oil majors Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, are also expected to report record results this week.
Merchant bank CSFB argues that the City is currently forecasting oil company profits will be some 15% below where they will be later in the year if oil prices remain high for the rest of the year.
CSFB analyst Ed Westlake said: “They have to be assuming that oil prices will subside in the second half of the year. These results could herald a round of upgrades.”
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.
