By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 4, 2007
AMSTERDAM, — Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter earnings rose 5.7 percent, despite falling oil prices and declining profit at its production and refining arms.
Net income rose to $7.28 billion, from $6.89 billion a year earlier, while sales fell 3.3 percent, to $73.5 billion.
The improvement in Shell’s results was mainly a result of the good performance of the stock market. The company’s corporate financing arm reported earnings of $801 million, up from $227 million last year.
Production of oil and equivalents fell 6.4 percent, to 3.5 million barrels a day, largely because of lower natural gas production.
“That’s just part of the normal business,” Peter R. Voser, chief financial officer, said in a conference call, adding that the company’s long-term production prospects were solid.
Shell’s drop in production was also partly attributed to a loss of 80,000 barrels of oil a day at its Nigerian operations in March, which were already partly shut down because of violent protests by rebel groups seeking a larger share of oil profits.
Mr. Voser said that security in the Niger Delta had improved, but that the company’s facilities had suffered “considerable damage,” and that it was impossible to predict how much, if any, of the 178,000 barrels a day Shell was missing throughout Nigeria would be restored before the end of the year.
Shell has largely recovered from a 2004 accounting scandal in which it was forced to restate the size of its proven reserves, in part by investing heavily in nonconventional sources like oil sands and liquefied natural gas.
Shell’s American depositary shares rose 76 cents, to $71.45, on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company’s first-quarter results were not as strong as those of the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, Exxon Mobil, whose profits rose 10 percent, to $9.3 billion. But they compared favorably with those of its top European competitor, BP, which reported a 17 percent drop, to $4.66 billion.
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
