THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Friday, OCTOBER 30, 2009
By IAN TALLEY
WASHINGTON — Staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday issued new guidance on how the agency interprets oil and natural gas companies’ reserves accounting rules.
The guidance, sought by industry for years, allows companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chesapeake Energy Corp. to officially book major reserves that previously haven’t been permitted by the SEC.
Specifically, the principal revisions in the guidance include changing the price used in determining quantities of oil and natural gas reserves and removing the exclusion of unconventional methods used in extracting oil and gas from oil sands and shale gas.
Instead of using year-end prices, which are typically lower and therefore produce lower reserve values, petroleum companies can now use the average price during the 12-month reporting period.
The updated guidance corresponds with an SEC rule-making approved late last year to modernize its oil and gas reporting requirements. Industry had previously said SEC’s rules were antiquated and didn’t adequately account for new technology or market innovations, devaluing official estimates on their prime assets.
Reserves accounting is one metric investors use to determine the health of a petroleum company.
Write to Ian Talley at [email protected]
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.
