Shell Prepares for 2010 Hurricane Season

HOUSTON, June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As hurricane season begins, safety remains a top priority for Shell. Leading up to and throughout the season, Shell's preparation efforts are focused on three areas: personnel safety, protection of the environment and minimizing the impact on production and supply. Shell's approach to hurricane management includes early detection, tracking, and timely preparation.  

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"Shell has many years of experience in preparing for storms in the Gulf of Mexico. We monitor every tropical development that may potentially impact the United States and initiate preparation and recovery plans accordingly," said Tom Smith, President, Shell Oil Products US.

The Shell Hurricane Incident Command team (HIC) is charged with managing oncoming storms. Members of the team represent all of the various support functions and operational preparedness functions that come into play when handling a hurricane evacuation and redeployment. This group of individuals is designated far in advance of June 1, with continuity from year to year. The HIC team meets regularly before hurricane season, and more frequently during the season, in response to specific hurricane threats to continuously assess the situation and potential impact as well as to put appropriate preparation and response procedures into action.  As part of ongoing preparation and planning, the HIC team conducts evacuation table-top drills in order to prepare personnel, and identify and correct any inefficiencies before there is need for an actual evacuation.

"Our hurricane plan has very specific instructions for producing and drilling locations, describing how to shut operations down safely and leave structures in a state that can weather the storm before we leave," explains John Hollowell, Executive Vice-President, Deep Water, Shell Upstream Americas.

Shell implements a phased approach to hurricane preparation and response for its offshore Gulf of Mexico facilities and onshore refineries and chemical plants. A general overview of Shell's hurricane procedures begins with ongoing pre-season planning activities (Phase I). Once a tropical system develops, Shell makes an assessment of projects and personnel and, if necessary, evacuates non-essential personnel (Phase II). When dangerous conditions are anticipated within 72 hours, Shell escalates evacuations and begins to shut-in production at offshore facilities and shutdown facilities onshore (Phase III).  Once a hurricane's arrival is imminent and facilities are secure, Shell evacuates the remaining crews offshore and onshore (Phase IV). Once a storm has passed, damage assessments are made and, when facilities are deemed safe, crews begin to restart production and the HIC team conducts a review to identify process effectiveness and opportunity for improvement (Phase V).  

Shell storm update alerts are available to members of the media throughout the 2010 hurricane season via Shell’s Twitter feed. Please subscribe today at www.twitter.com/shell_stormctr.

For additional information on Shell, please visit www.shell.us/.

About Shell

Shell Oil Products US, a subsidiary of Shell Oil Company, is a leader in the refining, transportation and marketing of fuels, and has a network of approximately 6,100 branded gasoline stations in the Western United States. Shell Oil Company is an affiliate of the Shell Group [(NYSE: RDS.A) and (NYSE: RDS.B)]. Shell Oil Company is a 50 percent owner of Motiva Enterprises LLC, along with Saudi Refining, Inc. Motiva Enterprises LLC refines and markets branded products through more than 8,300 Shell-branded stations in the Eastern and Southern United States.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 100 countries with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of Liquefied Natural Gas and Gas to Liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects including wind and solar power. For further information, visit www.Shell.com.  

Cautionary Note

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this press release "Shell", "Shell group" and "Royal Dutch Shell" are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words "we", "us" and "our" are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ''Subsidiaries'', "Shell subsidiaries" and "Shell companies" as used in this press release refer to companies in which Royal Dutch Shell either directly or indirectly has control, by having either a majority of the voting rights or the right to exercise a controlling influence. The companies in which Shell has significant influence but not control are referred to as "associated companies" or "associates" and companies in which Shell has joint control are referred to as "jointly controlled entities". In this press release, associates and jointly controlled entities are also referred to as "equity-accounted investments". The term "Shell interest" is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect (for example, through our 34% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.) ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ''anticipate'', ''believe'', ''could'', ''estimate'', ''expect'', ''intend'', ''may'', ''plan'', ''objectives'', ''outlook'', ''probably'', ''project'', ''will'', ''seek'', ''target'', ''risks'', ''goals'', ''should'' and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for the Group's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserve estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including potential litigation and regulatory effects arising from recategorisation of reserves; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell's 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2008 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov). These factors also should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, June 1, 2010. Neither Royal Dutch Shell nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) permits oil and gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proved reserves that a company has demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions. We use certain terms in this press release that SEC's guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.

SOURCE Shell Oil Company

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