Sacked Shell boss 'escorted from HQ'

[Robbien]

By James Moore (Filed: 23/04/2004)

Former Shell boss Sir Philip Watts was sacked in a face-to-face meeting with his fellow directors and then escorted from the building by security, it was reported yesterday.

Reuters news agency, citing insiders at the company, said the meeting was held at the company's Shell Centre, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The insiders did not know whether Sir Philip was aware of what was going to happen.

The report came amid mounting speculation that the US Department of Justice could be preparing to file charges over Shell's admission in January that it wrongly booked nearly 4billion barrels of oil as "proved reserves". Since then it has twice increased the number, which on Monday had reached 4.35billion barrels - more than 22pc of its reserves.

The report into the events leading up to the January announcement, by US law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, contained a deeply damaging exchange of correspondence between Sir Philip and Walter van de Vijver, who succeeded him as head of the company's exploration and production division.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/04/23/cnshell23.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2004/04/23/ixcity.html

[KissMyAsscroft]

1. wow...that sucks.

LOL!

[Zhade]

2. I wonder, do we really know how bad off we are?

Perhaps Peak Oil is closer than we thought - or we've already passed the peak, and they're desperate that we not find out.

[Robbien]

3. Shell is either the third or fourth oil company to understate its reserves

So, it is anyone's guess where we really stand.

Before the Iraq invasion it was thought the Iraqi wells could produce 10 bbd, but they are now saying they can only produce max 3-4 bbd. So where does that fact fit into the mix?