News & Media releases
Shell Confirms Conclusion of US Department of Justice Reserves Investigation: No Further Action against Companies
30/06/2005
The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies reported today that the United States Department of Justice issued a public release on 29 June announcing the conclusion of the investigation of the recategorisations of Shell's proved oil and gas reserves. The announcement, made by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, David N Kelley, said that the Department would not take any further action against Shell.
Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s Chief Executive, commented, “Shell appreciates United States Attorney Kelley's decision. The conclusion of this investigation is a most important step toward putting the matter of the reserves recategorisations behind us.”
Notes to Editors
The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies, "the Group", is a diverse group of energy companies with operations in around 145 countries. The Group's businesses include oil and gas exploration and production; power generation; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects including wind and solar power. The Group's parent companies are Royal Dutch Petroleum Company which has a 60% interest in the Group and The "Shell" Transport and Trading Company plc which has a 40% interest in the Group. Shares in the parent companies are traded on stock exchanges in Europe and the US. On 28 October 2004 Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport and Trading announced proposals for their unification under a single company, Royal Dutch Shell plc, with one Board of Directors. For further information, visit http://www.shell.com
Disclaimer statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that are subject to risk factors associated with the oil, gas, power, chemicals and renewables business. It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable, but may be affected by a variety of variables which could cause actual results, trends or reserves replacement to differ materially, including, but not limited to: price fluctuations, actual demand, currency fluctuations, drilling and production results, reserve estimates, loss of market, industry competition, environmental risks, physical risk, risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets and the successful negotiation and consummation of transactions, the risk of doing business in developing countries, legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including potential litigation and regulatory effects arising from recategorisation of reserves, economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions, political risks, project delay or advancement, approvals and cost estimates.
Please refer to the Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2004 for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect the Companies' businesses. Neither of the Companies undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or otherwise.
Cautionary Note to US Investors:
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC') permits oil and gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proved reserves that a company has demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions. We use certain terms in this presentation, such as "expected producible resources" and "amount of reserves we expect to produce", that the SEC's guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in filings with the SEC.