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Daily Telegaph: Shell running low after complications: ‘Shell is poised to cut its reserve figures’: ‘move will evoke memories of the 2004 scandal

By Peter Taylor
Last Updated: 12:31am GMT 17/03/2008

Shell pumped far more oil than it discovered last year after its reserves were severely depleted by complications in Russia and Nigeria.

The oil giant is expected to tell investors at a presentation today that its reserve replacement ratio fell to 2005 levels, about 80pc, compared with more than 150pc in 2006.

The fall in reserve levels follows Shell’s forced divestment, at the hands of Russian regulators, of a controlling interest in the $20bn Sakhalin 2 project off Russia’s east coast. Militant attacks in Nigeria have also affected operations, hitting production to the tune of 140,000 barrels a day.

Shell is poised to cut its reserve figures for 2007 by more than 1bn barrels as a result of the complications.

The move will evoke memories of the 2004 scandal in which Shell booked reserves it did not have.

That led to the departure of three senior executives and saw Shell hit by a series of class-action lawsuits that cost the company settlement bills totalling $470m.

Shell is expected to forecast negligible production growth until 2010. Current annual production is about 1.2bn barrels.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/17/cnshell117.xml

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