Shell and City of Dawson Creek Partnership Helps Conserve Water in Northeast B.C.

VANCOUVER, Sept. 7, 2012 /CNW/ - Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) (NYSE: RDS.B) and the City of Dawson Creek today celebrate the opening of the Dawson Creek Reclaimed Water Project. The facility, process and associated infrastructure will virtually eliminate Shell's need to draw on local fresh water sources for the operation of its Groundbirch natural gas venture in Northeast British Columbia. The multi-million dollar facility will provide a new source of revenue for the City of Dawson Creek as well as additional water for industrial and municipal uses.

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The City of Dawson Creek, some 1,191 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, is the centre of British Columbia's natural gas and oil producing fields. The new treatment facility will help meet the water needs of all users including the people and municipality of the City of Dawson Creek.

With a capacity of 4,000 cubic metres a day, enough water for over 12,000 Canadian households^[1], the plant will treat sewage waste-water currently released into the Dawson Creek. Waste water is treated to a standard suitable for industrial and municipal uses and the local municipality could use the water for cleaning roads and watering sports fields. Shell will pipe its share of the water from the plant to its natural gas operations some 48 kilometres to the west of Dawson Creek where the company operates the prolific Groundbirch gas field.

"Across all our operations, we strive to work collaboratively with local communities, governments and industries to identify innovative solutions to complex challenges," says Lorraine Mitchelmore, Shell Canada President and Country Chair. "Through this collaborative partnership with the City of Dawson Creek, we are virtually eliminating the amount of fresh water used for our operations, providing the City with an additional source of revenue and reducing three million kilometres a year in truck traffic from local roads."

Natural gas has a key role to play in meeting growing global demand for cleaner energy because it emits 50 to 70 per cent less CO₂ than coal when used to generate electricity. Because hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells requires volumes of water, Shell has long been aware of the need to conserve water at Groundbirch. Currently recycling approximately 75 percent of the water it produces, the company's goal is to minimize and virtually eliminate the amount of fresh water it uses in drilling and completions.

"The use of treated waste water is an excellent step forward by Shell and the City of Dawson Creek to improve resource demands and operations, and is an example of a green project that has already resulted in positive change," says Minister of Energy and Mines Rich Coleman. "The Government of British Columbia applauds the work and commitment that has resulted in this fine facility which is a model we hope other industry players and local governments will strive to replicate."

"The new plant demonstrates the value to our community of working collaboratively with industry to find innovative solutions to shared challenges," says Dawson Creek Mayor, Mike Bernier. "Water is a limited resource and we need to use it carefully and responsibly. This facility allows us to do that."

In its global operations, Shell considers the world's water, energy and food systems to be tightly linked: water is needed to extract energy and generate power; energy is needed to treat and transport water; and both water and energy are needed to grow food. Shell strives to conserve water in its operations through the development of new technologies and processes, but also by working with communities to find local solutions to water use, as has happened in Dawson Creek.

"Our partnership with Shell will help us meet the needs of the industries that provide jobs and prosperity to our region and will provide us with an additional source of revenue through selling the water to industrial consumers. The City itself could also use the treated water for parks and sports fields," says Mayor Bernier.

Shell has built a pipeline of approximately 48-kilometres to transport water from the treatment plant to the Groundbirch area where it will be stored in ponds and later mixed with recycled production water to be used in drilling and well completions. Piping the water to Groundbirch rather than trucking it means a reduction in traffic, noise and dust, which are among the top concerns of local landowners. The pipeline option is expected to eliminate three million kilometres a year in truck trips over the course of full gas field development.

Shell's Groundbirch venture includes five natural gas processing plants, over 250 wells and a gas-gathering system. The operation is currently producing enough natural gas to meet the needs of approximately 400,000 Canadian homes.

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 23% 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 Shell's products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves 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, 2011 (available at http://www.shell.com/investor and http://www.sec.gov ). These factors also should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this release, September 7, 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.

We use certain terms in this release, such as discovery potential, that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 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 http://www.sec.gov. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.

1. http://www.ec.gc.ca/eau-water/default.asp?lang=En&n=E85F9FC8-1 Canadians use an average of 329 litres of water each day for household and gardening purposes.

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SOURCE: Royal Dutch Shell PLC

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