CALGARY , April 10, 2012 /CNW/ – Shell Canada today announced it purchased a 1,820 acre (740 ha) tract of land in northern Alberta to conserve boreal forest habitat near its oil sands operations.
The conserved area, now called the Shell True North Forest, was privately owned land previously used for cattle grazing and hay production. Its purchase on behalf of Shell’s oil sands business will conserve an area almost twice the size of Stanley Park in British Columbia.
“Shell has a land and reclamation strategy in place to guide environmental performance in our oil sands business and the Shell True North Forest is part of that continuous effort,” says John Abbott , Shell’s Executive Vice President, Heavy Oil. “As oil sands reclamation takes decades to complete, conserving land allows us to address the impacts of our land disturbance in the short term.”
Land conservation plays a key role in managing biodiversity. The Shell True North Forest contains mixed woodlands, grasslands, wetlands and habitat along the Ksituan River which runs through the property. The property has excellent road access and will allow for many different recreational opportunities such as hiking and bird watching.
The Shell True North Forest is located 70 km north of Grand Prairie, Alberta and lies less than one km south of Moonshine Provincial Park. The land was secured through an arrangement with the Alberta Conservation Association. Together, both parties will manage the area for biodiversity conservation and low impact recreational use.
“Over the next decade we plan to accelerate the pace of land reclamation at our mines and develop technologies to reduce future land disturbance,” says Abbott. “Including the Shell True North Forest, we’ve conserved land equivalent to nearly 14 per cent of our Jackpine and Muskeg River mines.”
For more information, visit www.shell.ca/truenorthforest.
Cautionary note
The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this release “Shell”, “Shell group” and “Royal Dutch Shell ” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ”Subsidiaries”, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this release refer to companies in which Royal Dutch Shell either directly or indirectly has control, by having either a majority of the voting rights or the right to exercise a controlling influence. The companies in which Shell has significant influence but not control are referred to as “associated companies” or “associates” and companies in which Shell has joint control are referred to as “jointly controlled entities”. In this release, associates and jointly controlled entities are also referred to as “equity-accounted investments”. The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect (for example, through our 24% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.) ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.
This release contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ”anticipate”, ”believe”, ”could”, ”estimate”, ”expect”, ”intend”, ”may”, ”plan”, ”objectives”, ”outlook”, ”probably”, ”project”, ”will”, ”seek”, ”target”, ”risks”, ”goals”, ”should” and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for the Shell’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserve estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including potential litigation and regulatory measures as a result of climate changes; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell ‘s 20-F for the year ended 31 December, 2010 (available at www.shell.com/investor andwww.sec.gov). These factors also should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this release, 10 April, 2012 . Neither Royal Dutch Shell nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this release. There can be no assurance that dividend payments will match or exceed those set out in this release in the future, or that they will be made at all.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) permits oil and gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proved reserves that a company has demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions. We use certain terms in this release, such as resources and oil in place, that SEC’s guidelines strictly prohibit us from including in filings with the SEC. U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.
