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THE SCOTSMAN: Shell Confirms Position on Reserves: “Oil giant Shell revealed the extent of its declining reserves today after replacing only 19% of the oil that was pumped out of the ground in 2004.” (ShellNews.net) 31 March 05

 

By David Winning, PA City Staff

 

Oil giant Shell revealed the extent of its declining reserves today after replacing only 19% of the oil that was pumped out of the ground in 2004.

 

Shell said its recoverable reserves stood at 11.9 billion barrels at the end of December, down from a restated figure of 12.95 billion barrels a year earlier.

 

The figures were included in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and were in line with guidance given at the time of the company’s annual results last month.

 

Shell was forced to restate its data for 2003 and the previous year in the wake of the reserves crisis that claimed the scalps of three senior executives and led to regulators imposing fines totalling almost £83 million.

 

The company downgraded its reserves from 19.35 billion barrels of oil at the end of 2002 to 14.87 billion barrels after it emerged that bosses had overbooked the amount of oil that could be recovered from the ground.

 

The figure for 2003 was also cut from 14.35 billion barrels of oil to 12.95 billion barrels after Shell completed an audit of its worldwide energy fields.

 

In its statement, the company said: “Shell continues to target at least 100% reserves replacement over the period 2004-2008, including associates.”

 

Shell has been battling to restore confidence in its business since the reserves crisis broke in January last year.

 

Investors will vote in June on proposals to merge Shell’s UK and Dutch parent companies after nearly 100 years of separate operations.

 

And earlier this month, the company tightened its policy for awarding pay to executives and scrapped potentially lucrative stock options.

 

Record oil prices have enabled shares in Shell to recover from the sharp falls that followed the company’s initial downgrade of its reserves and four further cuts.

 

Shell reclassified its reserves for a final time last month when it reported annual profits of £9.3 billion.

 

http://business.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4331830

 

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