Shell bosses 'fooled the market'

[DoYouEverWonder]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3640781.stm

Monday, 19 April, 2004

Shell executives knowingly hid the company's oil and gas shortfalls as far back as 2001, an independent review has revealed.

In its most damning piece of evidence it quotes one of the firm's former executives writing about "lying" and how the firm had "fooled" the market.

<snip>

Shell is under investigation in the US by both the Securities & Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.

The UK's Financial Services Authority and the Netherlands' market regulator AFM have also launched inquiries into the scandal.

Shareholders, meanwhile, have brought a number of class action lawsuits in the US.



Hate to say this folks, but this is bad news for all of us. Basically one of the biggest oil companies in the world is admitting that the world's oil reserves are nowhere near the levels they've been claiming. This is a much bigger threat to our national security than al Qaeda or Osama bin Forgotten.

[roguevalley]

1. I agree. Right now, if we don't get on alternative fuels, we're all toast.

by the way, jail the bastards.

[nolabels]

2. No suprise

Secret Dick lurks around like he is Dracula, you know the ole boy has got something big to hide :shrug:

[legin]

3. Bit of Enron type stuff here

Some companies have been overstating their profits to boost their share price.

I assume with oil companies the share price bears a relation to how much oil reserves they own, which in Shell's case were overstated by 20-25 %.

I wonder if there are other oil companies that have been doing similar creative accounting ?

[T Bone]

4. When did Bush change from a blue shirt to a white one on 911?

I am looking at the pictures at the bottom of your post.
blue shirt-white shirt. While still sitting in front of the same student artwork.... ??

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. It's the lighting and the camera

the shirt is the same.

I've looked at the pictures of W from that day very closely and the color variation is all over the map.

[MGKrebs]

5. Dang. I though Shell was the least of the evils.

Who the heck am i supposed to buy gas from now? Is there an electric car in my future? (As if Georgia Power is any better!)

[nolabels]

7. kind of a old story though also, but to the point of Secret Dick

A couple of hokey oil dudes with fingers in both pieces of the pie either both are way more dumb then any could imagine, or they lying and hiding something :shrug: Is it time for more duck hunting jokes yet?

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/14/1081838796111.html
Shell raised Oman oil reserves as output fell-NYT
Reuters, 04.08.04, 4:04 AM ET

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - Royal/Dutch Shell's <RD.AS><SHEL.L> oil output in Oman has been falling for several years, disproving company reports of improving production in the country, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

The Times said internal documents at the Anglo-Dutch group had suggested that proven oil reserve figures for Oman were raised in 2000 and resulted in a 40 percent overstatement by mistake.

Yet Oman's largest field, Yibal, had started producing less in 1997, it cited the internal documents and technical papers as saying.

Shell's former chairman Sir Philip Watts had said publicly in 2000 that improvements in drilling were helping the firm "to extract more from such mature fields," the Times said.
(snip)

http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2004/01/09/rtr1204427.html

[AngryAmish]

8. Crooks

[Moderator]

9. Please discuss here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x496651