He added, "There is the theory of 'peak oil' - that the big discoveries have all gone. But we don't know where the peak will come with oil sands. With oil shale, we have not yet started. There will be many peaks in many time frames."
Never-the-less, Shell's production last year fell from 3.7m barrels a day (bpd) to 3.5m after hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico knocked out some platforms. Militant protests are also affecting the company's interests in Nigeria, knocking out at least 100,000 barrels of oil production per day. Shell was working to bring full production back on stream, it said. It admitted it only replaced six or seven of every 10 barrels the company extracted last year, up from five out of every 10 in 2004.
It stuck to a target of averaging a "reserve replacement ratio" of more than 100pc, a figure it last surpassed in the 1990s, between 2004 and 2008, however. Shell is increasing capital expenditure to try to find more oil and gas, spending $19billion on looking for more hydrocarbons this year, compared with $15.6billion in 2005.
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