Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden told The Mail on Sunday just two weeks ago that he was committed to the Arctic
By Jon Rees For The Mail On Sunday: 4 Oct 2015
Shell is set to reveal that quitting the Arctic cost it up to $4.1billion (£2.7billion) in its third-quarter results when it unveils them later this month – in a move that could push the oil giant into reporting a loss.
The firm took investors and its environmental opponents by surprise when it announced last week that it would end its drilling programme in the Chukchi Sea, 150 miles off the north-west coast of Alaska.
It said it had found indications of oil and gas but not enough to justify further exploration.
Shell has said it will take a $3 billion charge on its balance sheet for its Alaskan operation plus $1.1 billion of future contractual commitments in its third-quarter results, due for release on October 29.
It will try to reduce the latter by subcontracting some of the fleet involved in the drilling. Analysts at Deutsche Bank said tax allowances may enable Shell to reduce the final cost, but called the Arctic venture ‘a very costly error financially and reputationally’.
The total $4.1billion charge against its balance sheet contrasts with the $5.3billion profit Shell reported in the third quarter of last year.
The venture has dogged Shell ever since it obtained drilling licences in 2008, when oil was $140 a barrel. Today it is $47 a barrel and many investors, let alone environmentalists, were unhappy about Shell’s decision to keep drilling while the price of oil crashed.
Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden told The Mail on Sunday just two weeks ago that he was committed to the Arctic, noting that oil was already extracted from the region, which could hold the equivalent of 29 billion barrels of oil and gas, according to the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Shell has spent $7billion in the Arctic including $2.1billion on licences – a fifth of its exploration budget since 2007.
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.
