The Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell lost $2.2 billion due to the expanses relating to the development of the shale gas field, report on second quarter 2013 summary says.
The company’s earnings declined by 57% to $1.7 billion. The income unadjusted for written off money would be $4.6 billion. The total revenue also contracted from $117 billion to $112.7 billion.
Shell warned that the business of North America will stay loss-making for at least half of a year. The company announced that it is going to revise the working strategy in the region and to sell some of its assets.
Besides, the negative impact on the financial result was provoked by the production decrease in Nigeria, where the volume of extracted oil and gas dropped by 100,000 barrels daily (about 4% of the all extracted Nigerian oil). Furthermore, the company’s activity is often interrupted by regular oil stealing and pipelines damaging by the Islamist militants.
Shell has been developing several projects concerning shale gas production in North America by exploring fields amounting to 14.5 square kilometers. The company is also carrying out shale business in China, Australia, Ukraine, and Canada.