Royal Dutch Shell profits dropped 60pc to $2.4bn (£1.6bn) in the second quarter after concluding its shale oil and gas assets in North America were worth $2.1bn less than it had thought.
8:15AM BST 01 Aug 2013
Excluding the impact of the big one-off writedown, profits still fell 20pc to $4.6bn, a result chief executive Peter Voser admitted was “clearly disappointing†and blamed in part on the deteriorating security situation in Nigeria.
Shell said it would embark on a major programme of asset sales, picking up the pace of divestment from the $21bn it has sold off over the past three years. It launched a strategic review of its North American shale assets, as well as a previously-announced strategic review in Nigeria.