Investor Day in New York, September 5, 2014
Sep 4, 2014
Shell’s management hosted an investor day in New York on September 5, 2014, including presentations by Ben Van Beurden, Chief Executive Officer of, Simon Henry, Chief Financial Officer of, Marvin Odum, Upstream Americas Director of, and John Abbott, Downstream Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc.
CEO video comment
Royal Dutch Shell plc CEO Ben van Beurden investor day statement (September 5, 2014)
Hello, I am Ben van Beurden, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell.
Today, we’re holding a management day in New York with shareholders and analysts, and let me give
you a summary of that.
Our strategy is to deliver cash flow growth through the cycle, and competitive returns, and all of this is
of course underpinned by an unrelenting focus on safety.
Our ambitious growth drive in recent years has yielded a step change in Shell’s portfolio and options-set,
with more growth to come, but at the same time we are sharpening up our performance in a number of
areas.
We have made some changes in 2014.
We have moderated our spending and growth plans, increased our divestments, and we are
restructuring some parts of the company.
We are making good progress with the three priorities that I set out at the start of 201 … to balance
growth and returns … by focusing on better financial performance, enhanced capital efficiency, and
continued strong project delivery.
Our financial performance is improving, but, I want to see more competitive results right across the
company and particularly from Oil Products and North America resources plays.
In Upstream Americas, the deep-water Gulf of Mexico is a high margin area for Shell… where we have a
strong flow of new projects, and a successful exploration programme, which should sustain and grow
our production into the next decade.
Mars B is ramping up well…Cardamom is on track for start-up this year … and we recently discovered oil
with our Kaikias well, providing further upside in the prolific and highly profitable greater Mars basin.
Resources plays such as shales remain an important longer term growth opportunity for Shell with
around 10 billion boe of resources and potential in the North America portfolio.
We want to be competitive at the bottom line in this business, and the key to that is accessing the best
geology, advantaged evacuation routes, and taking out costs.
We are not there today but are making good progress.
The portfolio is now stabilizing after a phase of asset sales … major divestments of non-core positions in
this area are essentially complete, totalling more than $3 billion announced this year.
In Downstream, I want to emphasise that the improvement of the financial performance is a multi-year
story as there are simply no quick solutions…but also here we are making progress. As an example, let
me highlight Motiva which has moved from loss to profit. Motiva has been pursuing a range of
improvement initiatives, including improved refinery reliability and improved maintenance efficiency …
with an end-to-end optimisation focus and value capture right across all assets and markets, supported
by improved product logistics.
Overall, I am determined to get a tighter grip on business performance management in the company,
and improve the balance between growth and returns.
Our financial performance is improving, but we can do more here.
This means a more competitive picture on returns as well as cash flow ... and over the medium term,
addressing underperforming areas of the business robustly.
Our strategy is designed to deliver through-cycle growth in cash flow and competitive returns ... and
Shell’s dividend track record underscores our commitment to shareholders … with over $30 billion of
dividends and buy backs planned for 2014 and 15 combined.
Thank you