Chairman James Smith says Shell has had to respond to the global warming challenge
Fiona Harvey The Guardian, Friday 8 April 2011
James Smith leaves Royal Dutch Shell at the end of the month
Now is a good time to be running an oil company. Prices are sky-high, energy demand is increasing at an unprecedented rate as the global economy recovers, and there are new markets to be explored. Royal Dutch Shell largely dodged the criticism heaped on the industry after BP‘s catastrophic oil spill last year in the Gulf of Mexico, and is delivering golden results to shareholders. Profits for 2010 were reported as $18.6bn (about £11.4bn), nearly double the $9.8bn for the year before.