Shell warned the government not to tax it out of the UK, as it sketched out ambitious growth plans alongside an underwhelming set of results.
Chief executive Peter Voser said the Anglo-Dutch oil company was aiming to pump 4bn barrels of oil per day (bpd) by 2017, compared to 3.2bn today.
Net spending will rise from £15bn to £19bn this year as it chases its goal, although most of the difference will come from fewer asset sales, with actual investment set to rise by a more modest £1bn to £21bn.
Fourth-quarter profits fell 4pc to £4.1bn, taking the gloss off a 54pc rise in annual income to £20bn, thanks to high oil prices. The markets were less than impressed, either by Shell’s growth plans or its recent performance, sending the stock down 3.5p to 2265p.
Voser issued a coded warning to George Osborne not to tax Shell out of investing in Britain, after the Chancellor unveiled a £10bn, five year North Sea tax grab last year. ‘We hope we’ll get enough investment incentives in terms of tax structures so that we can actually keep the oil and gas industry alive here,’ he said.
He also predicted more closures of European refining operations after Swiss firm Petroplus collapsed, threatening UK supplies from the Coryton refinery in Essex. ‘I think we’ll see just a few big refineries surviving in the long term.’
But Europe currently has 6m bpd of surplus capacity, he added. Shell’s own downstream operation effectively refining and marketing slumped to quarterly losses of £176m, compared to a £305m profit last year.
Shell has been retrenching from both the UK and downstream of late, selling its Stanlow refinery to India’s Essar.
Chief financial officer Simon Henry said 80pc of future investment would focus on upstream exploration and production with 60pc of that sum to be spent in Australia and North America.
Much of that will come from environmentally controversial ‘shale gas’, with £3.8bn earmarked for exploration.
The company will also spend 35pc more on exploring for oil and gas, as well as investing in new sources of liquefied natural gas and chemicals.
Dividends are expected to rise marginally from the first quarter of 2012, up 1 cent to $0.43.
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.
