By Jesse Westbrook
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will review whether energy companies give investors sufficient information about their oil and gas reserves after some firms overstated estimates.
The SEC named John Lee, a Texas A&M University professor, as its first academic engineering fellow, the agency said in a statement today. He will scrutinize energy reserves and recommend whether the SEC should revise its disclosure rules.
“I look forward to working with John Lee as we begin a review and evaluation of our current disclosure requirements,” John White, who heads the SEC’s corporation finance division, said in the statement.
Oil reserves, which investors use in assessing a company’s future earnings, have drawn scrutiny after revisions at companies including El Paso Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, agreed in 2004 to pay $120 million to settle SEC allegations that it overstated reserves.
The SEC defines oil and gas reserves as those that may be recovered from known reservoirs with “reasonable certainty.” Reasonable certainty means recovery of the underground oil and gas reserves is more likely than failing to extract them.
White, in the statement, said the SEC will evaluate the effectiveness of new technologies energy companies use to estimate reserves. Former SEC Chairman William Donaldson tried to make it a requirement that accounting firms audit oil and gas reserves in 2004 following concern that estimates were inadequate.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Westbrook in Washington at [email protected] .
Last Updated: October 3, 2007 16:24 EDT
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.
