By John Donovan
Any Shell shareholders diligent enough to wade through all the small print in the recently released Shell Strategic Report have grounds to shudder at the confirmation buried on page 8 that Royal Dutch Shell PLC mainly self insures its risk exposures. This information should be prominently displayed in large red text, flashing if that was possible.
The relevant section even cites the BP Deepwater disaster for which BP had no external insurance. As a consequence, one of the worlds biggest companies was brought to the edge of bankruptcy by just one calamitous event.