Royal Dutch/Shell faces investor fury

[dArKeR]

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS

For the first time since it became engulfed in an oil reserve scandal, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group on Monday tried to contain the fury of shareholders at its annual meeting, but the company may have inadvertently made things worse after an executive raised doubts about when he was first informed of the reserve discrepancy.

Shareholders -- demanding to know how the company could have overbooked approximately 4.5 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves and also when company officials first knew about it -- appeared surprised when Aad Jacobs, supervisory board chairman of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Co, said he was told of "an issue with reserves" last November. Shell's overstatement of its reserve estimates did not become public knowledge until early January.

Jacobs said he was having lunch last November with Walter van de Vijver, then head of exploration and production, when a problem with reserves was mentioned. Jacobs said he advised van de Vijver to "go talk to your colleagues and the chairman," referring to Sir Philip Watts, then chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell. Both Watts and van de Vijver resigned earlier this year in the wake of the reserves scandal.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/2004/06/30/2003177164

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