Posted by WSJ.com Staff
This is more a legal story than an energy story, but it involves one of the world’s biggest energy companies, so it’s worth noting: Royal Dutch Shell said Wednesday it would pay $352.6 million to settle claims brought in the U.S. by European shareholders, who accused Shell of defrauding them by overstating its reserves.
The Netherlands-based oil giant also agreed to pay $47 million in attorneys’ fees to three American law firms that represented the European investors.
The agreement marks the first time that an all-European cast of players has leveraged U.S. courts to settle stock-fraud allegations, marking a further step in a gradual migration of U.S.-style civil-litigation methods to Europe.
April 11, 2007, 3:00 pm: Permalink | Trackback URL: http://blogs.wsj.com/energy/2007/04/11/shell-settles-investor-lawsuit/trackback/
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Memories fade about the impact and scope of the Shell reserves debacle.
In fact there were five successive downgrades covering a third of Shell’s total hydrocarbon reserves.
On 9 January 2004 in the first Reserves write-down, Royal Dutch/Shell announced that it was writing down its “proved” oil and gas reserves by 20% (or 3.9 billion barrels), from 19.5 billion barrels to 15.6 billion barrels.
On 18 March 2004, in the second reserves write-down, Shell announced that it was further cutting its proved oil and natural gas reserves for 2002 by an additional 250 million barrels. It also announced that the 2004 AGM would be delayed.
On 19 April 2004 Shell cut its reserves again. The third reduction brought Royal Dutch/Shell’s total reserves to 4.35 billion barrels — reducing the amount of reserves that the Company planned to book in 2003 by about a billion barrels. This was the same day that Shell lost its “AAA” credit rating.
The following day, Malcolm Brinded, the boss of Shell Exploration & Production, attempted to assure the financial markets that there would be no more bad news. He said the company had carried out a “painstaking and thorough” review which would “draw a line” under Shell’s difficulties. He was wrong.
24th May 2004 the fourth reserves write-down was announced by Shell which stated that it was downgrading another 103 million barrels of its proven reserves to other non-proven categories.
On 1 November 2004, Shell announced the fifth reserve write-down, reducing its estimate of 2003 reserves by 1.4 billion barrels, or 9.8 percent, to 12.95 billion. Its oil and gas holdings were at least a third lower than reported in 2002 after the company misled investors and failed to find new fields.
Mr Brinded is tipped to be the successor to the current CEO, Jeroen van der Veer, when he retires in 2009. His track record does not inspire confidence.
Posted by John Donovan
Co-owner of the website www.royaldutchshellplc.com
Comment by John Donovan – April 12, 2007 at 10:49 am
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.
