THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell Brazil President Castelli To Leave Company in Feb.: “The president of the Brazilian unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC), Aldo Castelli, will leave his post early next year, the company said in a statement. Castelli will go into early retirement on Feb. 15, 2005, and be replaced by Vasco Dias…” (ShellNews.net) Posted 23 Dec 04

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The president of the Brazilian unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC), Aldo Castelli, will leave his post early next year, the company said in a statement.

Castelli will go into early retirement on Feb. 15, 2005, and be replaced by Vasco Dias, currently sales director at the steel company Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (SID), or CSN.

Castelli had worked for Shell for 22 years, four of which as president of Shell Brazil. Dias had been working for Shell for 21 years, before switching to CSN.

In mid-2003, Shell became the first foreign company to produce oil in Brazil. Having an 80% stake in a joint operation with Brazil's state oil firm Petrobras S.A. (PBR), Shell currently produces 55,000 barrels of crude per day from the Bijupira and Salema oil fields in the Campos Basin, about 140 kilometers off the coast of Macae in Rio de Janeiro state.

-By Bernd Radowitz, Dow Jones Newswires; (55 21) 3288 5004; bernd.radowitz@dowjones.com