By Dino Mahtani in London
Published: February 1 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:00
Royal Dutch Shell warned yesterday that oil and gas production was likely to fall for a sixth consecutive year in 2008 as it struggles to make up shortfalls at key projects, writes Dino Mahtani in London.
High oil and gas prices helped the multinational oil company to report record full-year profits, with its current cost of supply earnings rising 8 per cent to $27.6bn in 2007. However, shares in Shell fell in early trade as investors focused instead on the company’s declining production trend.
The shares finally closed just 0.1 per cent higher at £17.91 in London.
Shell said that average production in 2007 declined 4.5 per cent to about 3.315m barrels a day of oil or its equivalent after it was in effect forced to cut its stake in the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia and following a fire at its Canadian oil sands development.
The company expects production to fall again this year in spite of holding on to a growth projection of between 2 per cent and 3 per cent in volumes from investment in new projects after 2010.
“This is a moderate disappointment,” said Jason Kenney, a senior analyst at ING. “It’s a difficult time for Royal Dutch Shell.”
The fall in production has unnerved shareholders, who are eager to see positive results from Shell’s long-term strategy of divesting non-core assets and building up investment in larger long-term projects.
These projects are expected to boost production in years to come, when access to easy conventional oil is expected to peak. However, many analysts fear that cost pressures on such projects could stymie their overall development, with cost inflation running at 10 per cent a year within Shell.
See World View Feeling the squeeze, Page 17 www.ft.com/ukdailyview www.ft.com/lombard
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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.
