Look ahead: Van der Veer tells oil industry
Shell boss tells industry to keep spending
Shell boss Jeroen van der Veer said most of the Anglo-Dutch supermajor's projects are profitable at current oil prices and warned the industry against cutting investment too sharply during the downturn.
Van der Veer said oil and natural gas projects still needed serious investment even though weak demand and commodity prices, coupled with exchange rate fluctuations, would "hit bottom lines quite seriously".
"The upturn in the economy will come," he told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. "If the industry stops investing, I am convinced that we make the industry even more cyclical.
"Hamlet said 'to be or not to be' .... the second Hamlet question is to invest or not to invest," he added. "At Shell, we are convinced that you keep on investing."
Van der Veer, who will hand the reins of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant to his finance director on 1 July, said $40-per-barrel oil was "sufficient" for his company if royalties and taxes adjust accordingly.
Yet on the other hand, Shell has been slowing its development of the Canadian oil sands, and Van der Veer said there was no way to start new projects there at current costs.
The Dutch executive, who first joined Shell in 1971, also said energy companies faced more than just a daunting macroeconomic challenge, but also a global political push to reduce carbon emissions.
"I think carbon dioxide solutions will be delayed," he said. "This is not a good climate to do a lot of expensive (carbon capture and storage) projects.
"Carbon dioxide is a huge problem. There is no silver bullet."