Herald Scotland: Shell vows to invest billions in North Sea

The chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell has said the company will invest billions of dollars in the North Sea in coming years and signalled it has no major concerns about the prospect of Scotland voting for independence.

Ben van Beurden highlighted the oil and gas giant's enthusiasm for areas like West of Shetland after the company posted a one third increase in underlying profits for the second quarter helped by strong oil prices.

The Anglo-Dutch company made $6.1 billion (£3.6bn) net of one-offs in the three months to June. It made $4.6bn in the same period of 2013 under Mr van Beurden's predecessor Peter Voser.

Asked if Shell had developed contingency plans for Scotland becoming indendent following the referendum in September, Mr van Beurden said: "As I've said before in December I think we would prefer it for the UK to remain a single country.
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