London Evening Standard: £2.5m for Shell boss who quit: “will astonish investors who have lost millions from the collapse in Shell's share price since the debacle broke” (ShellNews.net)

Jim Armitage

12 August 2004

Posted 13 August 04

WALTER van de Vijver, the former Shell operations director who resigned over the scandal about overbooking oil reserves, will scoop a pay-off of €3.8m (£2.5m).

The payment is bound to spark a new fat-cat outcry over the issue of 'rewards for failure' and will astonish investors who have lost millions from the collapse in Shell's share price since the debacle broke.

Shell said the payment to de Vijver, who was in charge of exploration and development, would be made in stages.

De Vijver was at one time heir apparent to the top job at Shell. He is widely blamed for being part of the cover-up as his boss Sir Philip Watts allegedly attempted to keep a lid on the true state of Shell's reserves.

A US law firm called in by Shell to investigate the affair found he was Watts' main accuser. He has ceaselessly denied responsibility for the scandal, which eventually resulted in the group admitting it had overbooked 3.9bn barrels of oil as 'proven' reserves.

De Vijver's were the most explosive internal emails revealed by Shell's investigation. He wrote to Watts last November: 'I am becoming sick and tired about lying about the extent of our reserves issues and the downward revisions that need to be done because of far too aggressive/optimistic bookings.' But his pleas were repeatedly brushed aside by Watts.

Shell said De Vijver's severance pay was subject to his continuing co-operation with regulators investigating the affair. He is being sued in class actions by a number of major US shareholders.

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