By John Donovan
The above slide appeared in a 62 page Royal Dutch Shell PowerPoint presentation prepared in June 2000: “Excom Early Look Business Plan 2000”.
It is clear from the content of the presentation that Shell was well aware of the potential dangers ahead.
Unfortunately is is equally clear from page 4 of a current 30 page Wood Mackenzie Executive Summary of Shell (dated November 2013) that Shell failed to take heed of the internal alarm bells rung in 2000.
On the same page Shell is taken to task over its unlikely ability to create any significant growth bearing in mind several past years of flat-lining or diminishing production and warns about the related challenges facing the new CEO Ben van Beurden.