Philip Watts

Sir Philip Beverley Watts KCMG (born 25 June 1945) is a former chairman of the multinational energy company Shell[1] and a priest in the Church of England.

Shell dismissed the allegations as "groundless", but Watts was questioned in London by representatives of Berger & Montague in mid-April 2004 although he was not named a defendant in the lawsuit, which was brought solely against the company.

[4] Less than three years after taking over the chairmanship Watts was swept out of office in early 2004 by revelations that the company had overstated its proved oil and gas reserves by nearly 25 percent.

Reports surfaced of internal memoranda addressed to many of Shell's senior executives months earlier discussing the possibility that the company's proven reserves had been overestimated.

During 2003, increasingly fractious e-mails from Walter van de Vijver, Watts' successor as CEO of Shell Exploration and Production, made it clear that senior executives had been discussing the issues around reserves for some time.

Watts (who had consistently said that he had "...acted properly and in good faith at all times") was investigated by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) about his role in relation to the recategorisation of the company's hydrocarbon reserves.

Watts was also investigated by the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly misleading the stock market by allowing the overstated reserves figures to stand.