Royal Dutch/Shell faced loud calls for more open management today as it met rebellious shareholders in public for the first time since its infamous reserve downgrade.
The oil giant's twin annual general meetings (AGMs) in The Hague and London were two months late because of the turmoil caused by news in January that it had overstated its oil and gas reserves by 20 per cent.
The overbookings, and subsequent evidence that the problem was kept secret for months, has cost three top executives their jobs and stained the company's reputation.
Shareholders believe Shell's complex structure is partly to blame, and are using the AGMs to campaign for a more modern and accountable company. One group in The Hague plans to rebel over a normally routine resolution which protects management against prosecution for their actions in that year.
"We want to get clear answers on what the management is doing to improve corporate governance," said one Dutch institutional investor arriving for the Royal Dutch AGM in the Hague.
Directors of the 170-year-old Anglo-Dutch firm were braced for a humbling day.
"These recent months have felt simply dreadful," the group's top executive Mr Jeroen van der Veer told the meeting. "I agree that such a crisis should never have happened. But it has, and I sincerely regret this."