The Independent: “Even those clowns at Shell”

5 June 04

(Extract from article)

I would have thought that at over $40 a barrel even those clowns at Shell should to be able to make some money. Indeed the increase in the price of the black stuff must far exceed the overstatement of reserves that Shell famously and disgracefully indulged in recently.

I see Shell is back around 400p or so, bouncing back from the 350p or so they bottomed out at in the immediate wake of the reserves scandal. Perhaps they have further to go. I won't be adding to my holding just yet however, because I feel I need some time to have a bit more of a ponder about where the markets might go next in the current turmoil. Indeed as I write the price of crude is declining. All very well, of course, but what happens if the House of Saud finally loses its grip on its Kingdom? Then the fuel protesters would have something to cry about. I cannot help wondering how a war that was, in reality, fought for oil and to make capitalism safe from terrorism has brought us to such a pass.

s.o'grady@independent.co.uk

http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest_save/story.jsp?story=528325