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Meanwhile, with regard to Shell's Enronesque experience . . .
Remember Royal Dutch/Shell's Enronesque experience relating to overstatement of reserves from last year? Well, the British equivalent of the SEC -- the Financial Services Authority, or FSA -- announced yesterday that it had concluded its investigation of former senior Shell...
DOJ decides not to go Arthur Andersen on Shell
Over 15 months after opening a criminal investigation into Royal Dutch/Shell Group's overstatement of oil and gas reserves, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that they will not charge the company in the continuing criminal probe. Here are previous posts over the...
Big Oil challenges outmoded SEC reserve reporting requirements
Several big oil companies released a report yesterday that they had commissioned that challeges the way in which U.S. regulators require oil companies to measure how much oil and natural gas the companies have in the ground. Reserve numbers are...
Shell's reserves continue to tumble
Royal Dutch/Shell Group announced another sharp cut in its energy reserve estimate yesterday even as high energy prices allowed the company to generate a fourth-quarter profit of $4.48 billion. Here is a series of posts over the past year on...
The way government addresses California's chronic gasoline shortage
This previous post from last summer told the story about a bizarre Federal Trade Commission investigation that had been launched into the planned closing of an unprofitable Royal Dutch/Shell Group refinery in California. Shell had been unable for years to...
The Houston Open - consequences of bad decisions
This Chronicle article about the downturn in the Houston Golf Association's charitable donations after a less than stellar Shell Houston Open this past spring brings to mind how even well-intentioned people can bungle a good thing through a series of...
ConocoPhillips' ambitious Russia play
Houston-based ConocoPhillips announced earlier this week a $2.36 billion "strategic alliance" with Moscow-based OAO Lukoil under which Conoco will buy a 7.6% stake in the Russian oil company and get a share in joint projects. The deal provides Conoco access...
Pension fund plaintiffs
This Wall Street Journal ($) editorial addresses a litigation phenomenon that has been increasing in recent years -- public employee pension funds serving as plaintiffs in class action lawsuits. And as the editorial notes, this new willingness to serve in...
Former El Paso traders targets of criminal probe
About a dozen former El Paso Corp. traders and their supervisors have been notified they are targets of a grand jury investigation into natural gas price manipulation. The former employees received target letters from the United States Attorney's office in...
Shell reaches settlements on reserve overstatement
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the world's third-biggest public oil company, reached preliminary settlements with U.S. and British authorities to pay penalties of about $150 million for overstating its energy reserves. Earlier posts are here about the Shell overstatement controversy. Shell announced...
California expects Shell charity
In what can only be described as bizarre governmental intervention, this Wall Street Journal ($) article describes a politically-motivated Federal Trade Commission investigation that has been launched into the planned closing of an unprofitable Royal Dutch/Shell Group refinery in California...
More on Shell reserve estimate fiasco
The NY Times and the Wall Street Journal ($) both report extensively on the report to the Royal Dutch/Shell board regarding Shell management's mishandling of reserve estimates. Here are the prior posts over the past couple of months on this...
Be careful what you put in emails
That's what former Royal Dutch/Shell executive Walter van de Vijver is saying these days....
Draft Shell report pins blame on former key executives
This Wall Street Journal ($) story reports that a draft Royal Dutch/Shell Audit Committee report primarily blames Shell's former chairman, Philip Watts, and former exploration-and-production chief, Walter van de Vijver, for the company's massive energy-reserve overbooking that was revealed earlier...
Shell reassigns reserve finance executive
This Wall Street Journal ($) story reports on Royal Dutch/Shell Group's reassignment of Frank Coopman, the former top financial executive in its exploration-and-production business. Before a shakeup earlier this year, Mr. Coopman was the chief financial officer of Shell's business...
Royal/Dutch Shell announces first deal with Libya
Royal/Dutch Shell finally was able to enjoy some good news yesterday with this announcement of a breakthrough deal with Libya's state oil company to explore for oil and natural gas that could give Shell access to as much as $1...
Chronicle catching up on Shell story
The Chronicle leads with this Reuters News Service story today that Royal/Dutch Shell may face a Justice Department criminal investigation in connection with its oil and gas reserve writedowns over the past two months. The Chronicle does not exactly have...
How low will Royal Dutch/Shell go?
In this stunning announcement, Royal Dutch/Shell today downgraded 250 million barrels in reserves to less certain reserve categories and decided not to book 220 million barrels that it had earlier classified as reserves. Although small in comparison to Royal Dutch/Shell's...
Justice opens inquiry over Royal Dutch/Shell's reserve writedown
Given recent disclosures at Royal Dutch/Shell previously discussed here, this announcement that the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into the oil company's recent restatement of reserves is no surprise....
Shell under the microscope
In the wake of its earlier write down of oil and gas reserves and resulting management purge, Royal Dutch/Shell Group is the subject of NY Times and Wall Street Journal ($) articles today regarding the management failures that led to...
Heads roll at Shell
In a surprise to no one in the oil and gas industry, Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Board fired the company's two top executives today in the wake of the company's embarrassing announcement in January that it had significantly overestimated its oil...
Kazahkstan oil and gas development deal completed
This NY Times article reports on the consortium of international oil and gas companies that have formally agreed to proceed with a $29 billion development of the Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan, the largest oil discovery since Prudhoe Bay in...
El Paso writes down reserves
Houston based El Paso Corporation disclosed that it is reducing the value of its estimated proven reserve base of its oil and gas properties by 41%. Proven reserves represent what an oil and gas company can reasonably expect to produce...
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