Shell to pay $353 million in overbooking settlement

By Mark Potter

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) agreed to pay $352.6 million to non-U.S. investors on Wednesday as it seeks to put behind it the reserves overbooking scandal that rocked the oil giant in 2004.

The second-largest Western oil company by market value also said it would offer $80 million to settle claims from U.S. investors.

Shell shocked investors in 2004 by slashing its proven oil and gas reserves by 20 percent in a scandal that cost three top executives their jobs, sparked a probe by U.S. regulators and sent its shares plunging.

If the two deals are ratified, they would take the total amount paid out by Shell in fines and compensation to investors as a result of the overbooking to almost $700 million.

Shell said in a statement that "without admitting any wrongdoing" it had agreed to pay $352.6 million, plus $6.25 million in administrative costs, to settle claims from non-U.S. investors.

The investors include Dutch pension funds ABP and PGGM as well as organizations representing individual investors, such as Dutch group Vereniging van Effectenbezitters.

ABP and PGGM welcomed the settlement.

"In our view, the settlement amount offered by Shell is reasonable in light of other settlements reached in other securities class actions," ABP chief legal counsel Rene Maatman said in a statement on behalf of both pension funds.