Royal Dutch Shell

A $120-million fine levied on Royal Dutch/Shell Group by the Securities and Exchange Commission resolves the company's part in the agency's inquiry into the overstatement of oil and gas reserves, but the role of individuals is still under investigation, regulators said. The SEC and the Anglo-Dutch oil giant announced that the settlement, which the company agreed to in principle last month, has been made formal.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group signed a $200-million accord to explore for oil and natural gas in Libya, a British official said, a plan that would give the oil company access to new supplies near European markets. The agreement has a potential value of $1 billion. Shell, based in London and The Hague, wants to find new deposits after lowering estimates of its reserves twice this year, leading to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group sacked its two top executives, responding to pressure from angry shareholders in the wake of news in January that they had overestimated oil and gas reserves. Chairman Phil Watts and the head of the company's core oil and gas division, Walter van de Vijver, will leave immediately, the company said. Many analysts had believed the worst of the pressure on Watts had passed, and few had expected him to go before his scheduled retirement in June 2005.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe's largest oil producer, said first-quarter profit fell 42%, less than that of its chief rivals, as energy prices dropped and margins from making and selling gasoline collapsed. Net income fell to $2.26 billion from $3.89 billion a year earlier. First-quarter profit slid 58% at Exxon Mobil Corp. and 57% at BP. Royal Dutch/Shell said that excluding one-time items and the effect of changes in the value of inventories, profit fell to $1.99 billion from $3.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group's efforts to revive flagging profit gathered speed as the company, based in London and The Hague, streamlined top management, while separately agreeing to sell a piece of its chemicals business. The moves by the world's top publicly traded oil company come ahead of a Monday meeting in which analysts expect the company to take $5 billion in charges to write down assets that Shell already has under review to be sold or closed.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Texaco Inc. on Thursday announced plans for a marketing and refining joint venture in Europe, signaling further consolidation in the oil industry. The companies signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding, with the aim of establishing the joint venture by the middle of next year, offering estimated annual pretax savings of at least $200 million. Under terms of the memorandum, Royal Dutch/Shell will have an 88% interest in the joint venture, with White Plains, N.Y.

Royal Dutch Shell Group's U.S. arm agreed to buy Tejas Gas Corp. for $2.35 billion in cash and debt, a move that would give it pipelines it needs to transport its burgeoning supply of natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico. Shell Oil Co., the U.S. unit, will pay $61.50 a share in cash, or $1.45 billion. That's 23% more than Tejas' closing price of $50. Shell will assume about $900 million in debt and preferred stock.

Some of the world's biggest companies are peeking behind the industrialized world's last Iron Curtain, lining up contacts that might pay off if North Korea is opened for foreign trade and investment. Royal Dutch Shell, General Motors and others have made sometimes quiet visits in the past month to the most isolated of the world's industrialized nations.