WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (AFP) - Royal Dutch/Shell will pay US regulators 120 million dollars to settle fraud allegations related to a "massive" overstatement of energy reserves, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Tuesday.
The group simultaneously settled a market abuse case with the British authorities.
"Shell's overstatements of its oil reserves, which occurred over an extended period, mandate a strong enforcement response, including imposition of significant civil penalties, to deter Shell and others from engaging in similar misconduct," said SEC Fort Worth Office administrator Harold Degenhardt.
"As our investigation continues, we intend to focus on, among other things, the people responsible for Shell's failures," he said in a statement.
According to the SEC order, Shell's 2002 filing overstated proved reserves by 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent, or approximately 23 percent.
Shell also inflated the standardized measure of future cash flows reported in the same filing by about 6.6 billion dollars, it said.
The company corrected the figures for reserves from 1997 to 2002 in an amended filing on July 2 of this year.
Shell agreed to settle by consenting to a cease-and-desist order finding violations of the antifraud and other provisions of the federal securities laws.
It paid a 120-million-dollar penalty in a related civil action the commission filed in US District Court, the SEC said.
The company paid a nominal one-dollar disgorgement.
Shell also undertook to spend an additional five million dollars to develop and implement a comprehensive internal compliance program under the direction and oversight of the group's legal director.
The group neither admitted nor denied the SEC findings.
Simultaneously, Shell agreed to pay 17 million pounds (30 million dollars) to settle a market abuse enforcement action initiated by the British regulator, the Financial Services Authority.
Shell had announced July 29 an agreement in principle with the US and British regulators.
Tuesday's announcement of a settlement confirmed most of those details.