Shell Oil Reserves Unchanged at End of 2008

AMSTERDAM -- Royal Dutch Shell(RDS.A Quote), Europe's largest oil company, said Tuesday its oil reserves were unchanged at the end of 2008 from a year earlier.

The announcement means that 2008 was the first year the company hasn't pumped more oil than it has added to reserves since 2004, when an accounting scandal forced it to slash its proven reserves by more than a quarter.

The company said net reserves were 11.9 billion barrels of oil or equivalents at year-end, enough to last about 10 years if it stopped developing new projects.

CEO Jeroen van der Veer said Shell believes "the downturn could last more than a year" and Shell plans to cut costs. ...