Oil and gas information

Proved reserves

Before taking production into account, our proved reserves increased by 1,274 million boe in 2023. This consisted of an increase of 944 million boe from Shell subsidiaries and an increase of 330 million boe from the Shell share of joint ventures and associates. After taking production into account, our proved reserves increased by 209 million boe in 2023 to 9,787 million boe at December 31, 2023.

Shell subsidiaries

Before taking production into account, Shell subsidiaries' proved reserves increased by 944 million boe in 2023. This consisted of an increase of 408 million barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids, an increase of 490 million boe (2,841 thousand million scf) of natural gas and an increase of 46 million barrels of synthetic crude oil. The 944 million boe increase comprised a net increase of 909 million boe from revisions and reclassifications, an increase of 155 million boe from extensions and discoveries, an increase of 3 million boe from improved recovery and a net decrease of 123 million boe related to purchases and sales of minerals in place.

After taking into account production of 978 million boe (of which 41 million boe were consumed in operations), Shell subsidiaries' proved reserves decreased by 34 million boe in 2023 to 8,283 million boe. In 2023, Shell subsidiaries' proved developed reserves (PD) increased by 100 million boe to 6,321 million boe and proved undeveloped reserves (PUD) decreased by 134 million boe to 1,962 million boe.

Shell share of joint ventures and associates

Before taking production into account, the Shell share of joint ventures and associates' proved reserves increased by 330 million boe in 2023. This consisted of an increase of 78 million barrels of crude oil and natural gas liquids, and an increase of 252 million boe (1,462 thousand million scf) of natural gas. The 330 million boe increase comprises a net increase of 346 million boe from purchase of minerals in place, an increase of 5 million boe from extensions and discoveries, and a net decrease of 21 million boe from revisions and reclassifications.

After taking into account production of 87 million boe (of which 5 million boe were consumed in operations), the Shell share of joint ventures and associates' proved reserves increased by 243 million boe to 1,504 million boe at December 31, 2023.

The Shell share of joint ventures and associates' PD decreased by 100 million boe to 508 million boe, and PUD increased by 343 million boe to 996 million boe.

Proved undeveloped reserves

In 2023, Shell subsidiaries and the Shell share of joint ventures and associates' PUD increased by 209 million boe to 2,958 million boe. There were decreases of 494 million boe as a result of maturation to PD, mainly 81 million boe in Mabrouk North-East (Oman), 77 million boe in Vito (USA), 74 million boe in Gorgon (Australia) and 262 million boe spread across other fields. These were offset by an increase of 47 million due to de-maturation of PD to PUD, an increase of 146 million boe as a result of revisions, reclassifications and entitlement changes, a net increase of 347 million boe due to purchases and sales of minerals in place, a net increase of 160 million boe due to extensions and discoveries, mainly due to 57 million boe in Sparta (USA), 39 million boe in Groundbirch (Canada), and 64 million boe spread across other fields, and an increase of 3 million boe due to improved recovery.

In addition to the maturation of 494 million boe from PUD to PD, 90 million boe was matured to PD as through PUD as a result of project execution during the year.

PUD held for five years or more (PUD5+) on December 31, 2023, amounted to 212 million boe, an increase of 56 million boe compared with the end of 2022. The increase in PUD5+ during 2023 was driven mainly by changes in Assa North (Nigeria) and Gbaran (Nigeria).

The fields with the largest PUD5+ on December 31, 2023, were Assa North (Nigeria) and Tupi (Brazil). These PUD5+ remain undeveloped because of delays in drilling operations and security incidents (Nigeria) or because of ongoing development involving a large number of deep-water wells (Brazil).

During 2023, we spent $7.2 billion on development activities related to PUD maturation.

Delivery commitments

We sell crude oil and natural gas from our producing operations under a variety of contractual obligations. Most contracts generally commit us to sell quantities based on production from specified properties, although some natural gas sales contracts specify delivery of fixed and determinable quantities, as discussed below.

In the past three years, we met our contractual delivery commitments, with the notable exceptions of Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, and Malaysia. The delivery commitments for Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago have been renegotiated. In the period 2024-2026, we are contractually committed to deliver to third parties, joint ventures and associates a total of some 5,380 billion scf of natural gas from our subsidiaries, joint ventures and associates. The sales contracts contain a mixture of fixed and variable pricing formulae that are generally referenced to the prevailing market price for crude oil, natural gas or other petroleum products at the time of delivery.

In the period 2024-2026, we expect to meet our delivery commitments for almost all the areas in which they are carried, with an estimated 70% coming from PD, 5% through the delivery of gas that becomes available to us from paying royalties in cash, and 25% from the development of PUD as well as other new projects and purchases.

The key exception is:

• In Malaysia, a the third-party gas supply line under maintenance was not repaired in 2023. Force majeure has been declared, and no penalties have been incurred, resulting in an expected true shortfall of some 68 billion scf of gas (62% of the promised gas delivery).