Several factors conspire to hurt returns
What will be next for Royal Dutch Shell? Last Friday, the company issued a profit warning, announcing that fourth-quarter net income was going to be $2.9 billion US, down from $5.6 billion in the same period a year earlier.
It was the first such warning in a decade.
The company blamed a number of factors, including challenges on the refining side of its business, rising exploration costs and other challenges related to operating in countries such as Nigeria, where security continues to be a problem.
Because of this, news on Monday that Royal Dutch is selling its stake in the Wheatstone natural gas project in Australia for $1.14 billion to the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Company shouldn’t have come as a big surprise.
Royal Dutch’s situation is even more surprising, given the fact oil prices have been relatively stable – in the $100 US per barrel range for Brent and around $90 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate.
Add in the fourth quarter resurgence in natural gas prices last year and it becomes an interesting puzzle.
How exactly should investors look at Royal Dutch?
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: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
