Following the resignation of Sir Philip Watts on 3rd March, 2004, Jeroen van der Veer has taken over as Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/ Shell Group of Companies.

Jeroen van der Veer was previously Vice Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Committee of Managing Directors, and he is President of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. He is very well known to key stakeholders throughout the Middle East, having previously held regional responsibility for Shell's business activities in the Middle East.

The role of Vice Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies has now been filled by Malcolm Brinded, a Member of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/ Shell Group of Companies and Chief Executive Officer of Shell Gas & Power.

Following the resignation of Walter van der Vijver, Malcolm Brinded will also have overall responsibility for Shell Exploration & Production, and Shell Trading businesses, Group IT and Procurement.

Malcolm Brinded is also very well known in the Middle East through his Gas & Power role, and having worked in Oman from 1989 to 1993 as Engineering Director and North Oman Business Unit Director for Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

Rob Routs will take over overall responsibility for Shell's Chemicals and Consumer Businesses and Group Research in addition to his position as Chief Executive of the Oil Products Business.

"As far as Shell in the Middle East is concerned, it is business as usual," says Ron van den Berg, Regional CEO for Shell's E&P Business for the Middle East, Russia and CIS, and Shell Country Chairman for Dubai and the Northern Emirates. "Our business strategy for the region remains unaltered. However, I look forward to helping Jeroen and Malcolm renew and expand contact with our senior level stakeholders in the region in due course."

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (Shell) are now partners in a US $20 million sustainable development project in Nigeria. The agreement was first announced in Washington DC by senior representatives from USAID and the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies.

The partnership is the largest so far under USAID's new business model, the Global Development Alliance, which promotes public-private alliances to implement sustainable development programmes around the world. By partnering with the private sector, developing country governments and non-governmental organisations, USAID is able to extend its reach and effectiveness in responding to new global challenges.

Shell will contribute some US $15 million over the next five years to the partnership and USAID will contribute $5 million. The partnership's programmes will aim to help build capacity and opportunity for Nigerians in the strategic areas of agriculture, health, and small and medium sized enterprises.

USAID and Shell plan to focus their work on food security through a cassava cultivation support programme; the prevention of malaria; and the support of the export shrimp industry.

The cassava project is expected to be the first to commence, with start-up by the end of 2003. Its aim is to provide greater income for cassava farmers in 11 Nigerian states. The programme will improve technology transfer to address cassava mosaic disease and to develop cassava processing. It will also help identify further commercial markets within industry for cassava, such as ethanol production, livestock feed and use in baking. In addition to being a staple food, starch from cassava is already being used in industries including textile manufacturing.

The cassava project will be implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, an international agricultural research centre which has successfully implemented USAID and other cassava programmes. The institute is also a key partner with the Government of Nigeria in the implementation of the Nigerian Presidential Cassava Initiative.

Shell already spends about $60 million annually in the Niger Delta on its well-established social investment programme. It will now be able to extend this important work with this partnership with USAID. Shell is confident that its programmes will make a significant contribution to socio-economic development in Nigeria and in the Niger Delta in particular.

Students from 38 developing countries are currently studying at various universities of the United Kingdom with the full backing of a Shell scholarship fund.

Sixty-four students are studying for Masters degrees with the benefit of either an annually-awarded Shell Centenary or Shell Centenary Chevening Scholarship. The scholarships are awarded based on the relevance of the post-graduate studies to the needs of the students' home countries.

Former students who have benefited from the scholarship fund and who are already undertaking work in their home countries include a forestry co-ordinator for Nepal's Community Forestry Pogramme, and a young man who has set up an organisation to help rural communities in Zambia make the most of natural resources.

Shell Hydrogen recently participated in opening the first hydrogen station in Amsterdam, the largest city in the Netherlands and the home of Shell Hydrogen's principal global office. The station is the latest to be opened under a European Union initiative to demonstrate that hydrogen and fuel cell buses could be used to provide clean transport for the continent's cities.

The Amsterdam station is located at a bus station in the north of the city owned by the local public transport company, Gemeentelijk Vervoer Bedrijf (GVB). It will be used to refuel daily three DaimlerChrysler Citaro fuel cell buses that GVB will run on the city streets as part of the public fleet. The project is a component of the Clean Urban Transport for Europe project (CUTE), a European Union initiative to demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative, highly energy efficient, clean urban public transport system.

Hydrogen will be produced at the station by electrolysis using water and 'green' electricity produced from renewable energy sources. Each refuelling will dispense approximately 40 kilogrammes of hydrogen in a process taking about 10 minutes.

Jeremy Bentham, Chief Executive Officer of Shell Hydrogen, said, "Shell Hydrogen has been involved in the opening of four hydrogen stations over the past 12 months, three of them in Europe. With each new opening more people see hydrogen vehicles operating on their local streets and understand that hydrogen is a safe, practical and desirable fuel for transport. I am glad that with this latest station the people of Shell Hydrogen's home city of Amsterdam will have the chance to experience for themselves as bus passengers this new promising fuel in use."

Shell Hydrogen, DaimlerChrysler and GVB are joined in the project by Dienst Milieu en Bouwtoezicht, HoekLoos, NOVEM and Nuon.

In April 2003, Shell Hydrogen opened the first Shell-branded hydrogen station, on the site of an existing Shell service station in Reykjavik, Iceland. In June last year, Showa Shell opened a hydrogen station in Tokyo, Japan. Shell Hydrogen is also a partner in a hydrogen refuelling demonstration project in California. Efforts are also underway to install a hydrogen dispenser at a Shell service station in the Washington DC area in the US.

Shell is the only global energy group involved in hydrogen demonstration projects in all three key hydrogen markets - North America, Europe and Japan.

Shell Chemicals appointed David Loughman as Vice President, Styrene Monomer/Propylene Oxide (SM/PO) and Urethane Chemicals, at the beginning of the year.

Since May 2003, David has served as Shell's Regional Exploration Director, EP Americas, with responsibility for all exploration and pre-development activities in North and South America. He replaces Jan van der Eijk, who recently became Shell's Executive Vice President of Technology.

Loughman has extensive international experience including general management roles in Africa, Europe and the US. From 1998 to 2000 he was Managing Director of A/S Norske Shell, and was Gas Director of Shell UK before moving in July 2002 to the US as Vice President and General Manager of E & P Development in Shell Exploration and Production Company.