----Original Message Follows----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Nigeria Says Reserves Are Unaffected by Shell Cuts
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 19:02:38 -0500 (EST)
The article below from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\
THE DREAMERS - IN SELECT CITIES
Set against the turbulent political backdrop of 1968 France
when the voice of youth was reverberating around Europe, THE
DREAMERS is a story of self-discovery as three students test
each other to see just how far they will go. THE DREAMERS
is now playing in select theaters.
for more info:
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thedreamers/index_nyt.html
\----------------------------------------------------------/
Nigeria Says Reserves Are Unaffected by Shell Cuts
March 24, 2004
By JEFF GERTH and STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON, March 23 - Nigeria's national oil company says
its oil and gas reserves have not been affected by the
Royal Dutch/Shell Group's recent reduction of its estimates
of proven reserves in the country.
In January, Shell stunned investors by reducing its global
reserve estimates by 3.9 billion barrels, or 20 percent,
including a large but unspecified cut in Nigeria. On
Friday, after an article in The New York Times reported on
internal company documents that recommended confidential
treatment for Nigeria, the company disclosed Nigeria's
share was 1.3 billion barrels.
That same day, Shell's outside lawyers were contacted by "a
representative of the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan,"
a Shell spokesman, Simon Buerk, said on Tuesday, confirming
a report last week in The Times that the Justice Department
had started an inquiry into the company's disclosures.
A statement provided on Monday by the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation, responding to questions submitted a
week ago, said Shell's revision did not affect Nigeria's
position because of different standards of reporting
reserves. Nigerian national standards, according to the
statement, allow reserves to be reported even if they have
only a 10 percent chance of being recovered. The more
rigorous regulatory standard, under which Shell and other
publicly traded companies operate, only allows those with a
90 percent chance of recovery with existing wells and
equipment to be reported as proven reserves.
Another difference is that proven reserves, under the
Securities and Exchange Commission definition, involve a
financial commitment to extract the resource, while
Nigeria's standards are focused on the geological
resources.
"There is no precise international legal standard or
industry agreement on how to classify reserves," said Fatih
Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy
Agency, "and this is a major concern for consumers and
producers."
There have been international efforts to increase
transparency between resource rich countries and private
companies. A report to be released on Wednesday by Global
Witness, a London based nongovernmental group, highlights
some of the problems in oil revenue reporting.
The issue is important because much of the world's oil is
in less-developed countries like Nigeria, but most of the
financial and technological resources needed to develop
that oil are in the hands of large Western companies like
Shell.
The Nigerian oil company said that its relations with oil
companies were cordial and that "the strength each party
brings to the partnership and the dividends outweigh the
differences."
Shell informed Nigeria "of the significant revisions" in
its S.E.C. proven reserves in early January 2004, the
statement also said.
A report prepared for Shell's senior managers last December
had recommended keeping secret from investors the details
of its revisions in Nigeria for fear of damaging its
business relationship as well as Nigeria's dealings with
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. One
reason cited in the report was the likelihood that it would
"undermine the current resolution" of bonus negotiations
between the two parties, even though the bonus pertained to
the Nigerian definition of reserves, not the stricter
S.E.C. definition.
But the Nigerian statement said that "there is no linkage
between Shell's lowering of its proved reserve estimate for
Nigeria and the resolution of the bonus issue."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/24/business/worldbusiness/24oil.html?ex=1081172958&ei=1&en=ee77e0b9f7478a11
---------------------------------
Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:
http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF
HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo
For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
--------------------------------------------
This service is hosted on the Infocom network
http://www.infocom.co.ug
