From an article by Royston Wild published 15 Jan 2015 by The Motley Fool under the headline:
“Why Royal Dutch Shell Plc And BP plc’s Project Scalebacks Are Doomed To Fail”
With the oil price collapse showing no signs of bottoming any time soon, the world’s fossil fuel giants are in a desperate struggle to ratchet up their cost-saving initiatives and cut their exposure to what is becoming an increasingly perilous market.
Just yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) announced that it was stopping work on a £4.3bn petrochemicals plant with Qatar Petroleum. Construction of the huge Al-Karaana complex started in 2012, but Shell has been forced to bin the operation due to “high capital costs rendering it commercially unfeasible, particularly in the current economic climate prevailing in the energy industry.”
The Brent benchmark has shed a staggering 60% of its value since the summer, and touched its cheapest since March 2009 at around $45.20 per barrel just this week.
The effect of this ongoing weakness is prompting the City’s brokers to hurriedly take the red pen to their market forecasts, and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch projected just today that Brent could dip as low as $31 by the end of the first quarter. It forecasts an average of just $52 per barrel for 2015.
Undoubtedly, BP and Shell are caught in a delicate balancing act between exercising fiscal responsibility in the face of current market challenges, and maintaining a sturdy earnings outlook by creating a healthy asset base. As a result I believe that earnings forecasts could be subject to severe downgrades in both the near – and long term.
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.
The Brent benchmark has shed a staggering 60% of its value since the summer, and touched its cheapest since March 2009 at around $45.20 per barrel just this week.