Financial Times: Not clammed shut: “Jeroen van der Veer remains refreshingly candid even after all Royal Dutch/Shell has been through this year.”: "We are like the schoolboy standing in the corridor outside the classroom. I don't think it is for us to lead the charge of new rules on reserve accounting, we shall leave that to others. But whatever the rules are, we will comply with them." (ShellNews.net)

By Clay Harris

Published: October 27 2004

Jeroen van der Veer remains refreshingly candid even after all Royal Dutch/Shell has been through this year.

Asked at a conference about the International Energy Agency's call for governments, regulators and corporations to unify energy reserves accounting, he said: "We are like the schoolboy standing in the corridor outside the classroom. I don't think it is for us to lead the charge of new rules on reserve accounting, we shall leave that to others. But whatever the rules are, we will comply with them."

He also had a word for some of his best customers, drivers of petrol-guzzling sports utility vehicles. "I cannot understand how these people drive their SUVs to shopping at Wal-Mart and then complain about high oil prices."