WSJ: Shell CEO Scripts a Leading Role for Gas

Shell's Peter Voser says China has a 'clearer, firmer' energy policy than most Western countries and that its shale reserves could surpass the U.S.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is a modern colossus: an oil and natural-gas company with assets in 44 countries and $470.2 billion in revenue flowing from six continents. While still one of the world's largest producers of oil, it is increasingly focused on natural gas, from converting it into clean-burning diesel in Qatar to building giant export facilities in Australia, Africa and Canada.

Chief Executive Peter Voser, who became CEO in 2009, makes final decisions on strategic multibillion dollar investments that can sometimes take decades to pay off, all while staying atop political developments at home and abroad. His enormous capital budget of $32 billion in 2012 was three times larger than the budgets of Google Inc., Boeing Co. and International Business Machines Corp. combined. Shell faces the challenge of finding more oil and gas to replace what it pumps from the ground and sells, especially because many of the world's best remaining drillable regions are either placed off limits by foreign governments or increasingly technically difficult to access. MORE