Shell warned of 'unaligned reserves' in 2002
Potential errors in the booking of oil reserves at energy giant RoyalDutch/Shell were brought to the attention of senior management in early 2002, a former executive has claimed.
Link: Shell CFO’s position under threat
Walter van de Vijver, former head of exploration and production for Shell, who left the company last month, said he communicated concerns about the booking of oil reserves in February 2002.
According to the New York Times he sent a memo to the company’s top executives, which said one billion barrels of reserves ‘are no longer fully aligned’ with another 1.3 million barrels at risk.
In January this year, an erroneous booking resulted in the company cutting 3.9 billion barrels, or 20%, from the reserves it claimed in US Securities and Exchange Commission filings.