Posts from ‘May, 2004’

Mail on Sunday: £150m bonanza for Shell auditors   Patrick Tooher, 30 May 2004 Posted 31 May 04   ACCOUNTANTS who failed to spot Shell’s massive overbooking of reserves were paid more than £150m in the past five years by the embattled oil giant.   Most of the fees paid to KPMG and PwC were [...]

BARRON’SOnline.com: Winds of Fortune MONDAY, MAY 31, 2004 By JACQUELINE DOHERTY With oil at $40 a barrel, windmills and solar panels are getting a second look IT USED TO BE A QUAINT DREAM of the granola and Birkenstock crowd: widespread use of windmills and solar panels to generate electricity. But now, lured by the potential [...]

News.com.au: Shell cuts earnings $285m By Bruce Stanley in London May 31, 2004 ROYAL Dutch/Shell Group has reduced its annual earnings by $US203 million ($285 million). This was revealed in an annual report delayed by two months due to the scandal arising from the company’s downgrading of its oil and gas reserves. Yet even as [...]

The Business: Benchmark Column: Shell Edited by Grant Clelland 30 May 04 The oil industry is still essentially run by geologists, so Shell’s executives will have a ready analogy for the periodic tremors the seismic upheaval of Shell’s 3.9bn barrel reserves downgrade in January is still throwing out. Last week’s 120m barrel downgrade, Shell’s fourth [...]

The Business: Shell UK bosses join push for single board   By Richard Orange 30 May 2004   DIRECTORS of Shell Transport and Trading, the British side Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal-Dutch-Shell, have swung behind investors pushing for the company to unify its two boards.   A UK fund manager involved in meetings with directors on [...]

The Wall Street Journal: Hostages Are Released After Saudi Crisis Ends   Associated Press May 30, 2004 3:44 a.m.   Saudi Arabia — Saudi authorities freed American, European and other foreign hostages Sunday after a shooting rampage turned into a daylong standoff, and a Saudi security official said the lead attacker was in custody and [...]

The Independent: Shell chief faces investors’ wrath over reform at annual meeting   By Tim Webb 30 May 2004   Leading shareholders in Anglo-Dutch company Shell are threatening to vote against the chairman, Jeroen van der Veer, at its Dutch annual shareholder meeting next month.   Under Dutch listing rules, companies must ask shareholders to [...]

The Times: The Andrew Davidson Interview: Life’s a gas for BG supreme   30 May 04   Frank Chapman is the man his rivals would like to poach. But the man who loves sailing says he has already plotted a course for the next nine years    SIZE, says Frank Chapman, looking as lean and [...]

The Observer: Don’t vote before you read this   Sunday May 30, 2004   Heather Connon hears fighting talk from bosses of two very pugnacious shareholder activists   ‘Vote often, vote early and vote on an informed basis’ is a motto that Sarah Wilson hopes will become universally accepted. Wilson is founder and managing director [...]

The Observer: Shell’s ground zero Sunday May 30, 2004 The reserves scandal has left the Anglo-Dutch oil giant a long way behind its rivals. Dogged by difficulties in Nigeria and elsewhere, can it ever catch up, asks Oliver Morgan On Friday morning there were loud thumps across the City as oil giant Shell’s hefty annual [...]

The Observer: Saudi horror sparks fears of oil crisis   · Militants hold 50 hostages · £4 gallon looms as battle rages   Nick Mathiason and Mark Townsend Sunday May 30, 2004   Oil prices are set to surge after al-Qaeda gunmen killed at least 16 people, including a Briton, and seized 50 hostages yesterday [...]

news-press.com: Shell Oil replaces sulfur-tainted gasoline   Staff and wire reports Published by news-press.com on May 30, 2004   Shell Oil interrupted or stopped the sale of gasoline at more than 500 stations in the South because of high levels of sulfur that can damage vehicle fuel gauges and make an empty tank appear full. [...]

The Scotsman: Shell   Posted 30 May 04   THE oil industry is still essentially run by geologists, so Shell’s executives will have a ready analogy for the periodic tremors the seismic upheaval of Shell’s 3.9 billion barrel reserves downgrade in January is still throwing out.   Last week’s 120 million barrel downgrade, Shell’s fourth [...]

Houston Chronicle: Former SEC leader Levitt notes irony in Shell’s troubles   Associated Press May 29, 2004, 7:03PM Posted 30 May 04   Sometimes a selection of keynote speakers for a high-profile conference is all luck.   Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt kicked off accounting firm KPMG’s annual energy conference last week [...]

The Sun Herald: Shell shuts pumps in parts of South   By ALAN SAYRE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Posted on Sat, May. 29, 2004   New Orleans on empty   Shell stations on the Coast were not affected by the problem at the Norco refinery because the gas they sell comes from the Mobile area.   [...]