Hier het origineel van bovenstaande, die is wat duidelijker dan het Nederlands, krijg van de engelse variant nog meer de indruk dat met $50 p/b dividend gewoon betaald wordt de komende jaren en ze wapenen zich zelfs om ook het inkoopprogramma er door te krijgen van 2017 tot 2020, dus dan heb je het al over dividend veilig tot 2020. En dat met deze olieprijs want Shell heeft nog meer ruimte om te snijden, dat geven ze zelf ook aan.
Shell CEO Doing All to Safeguard Dividends Amid Low Oil Prices -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc is “pulling out all the stops to safeguard” its dividend in a world where oil prices remain “lower for longer,” Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden said. Europe’s biggest oil company is also protecting its plan to buy back shares, Van Beurden said in e-mailed comments before a speech at an industry conference in London on Tuesday. Shell is also keeping its “investment program steady for the future,” he said. The halving of oil prices in the past year has forced Shell and its peers to cut costs, defer projects and hunker down for a prolonged period of low oil prices. Even with oil trading for about $50 a barrel, Shell’s Van Beurden and BP Plc boss Bob Dudley have made dividends their top priority. Shell has weathered market ups and downs for seven decades -- including oil at less than $10 in the 1980s and 1990s -- without cutting dividends. The company is “geared to generate cash flow from operations and free cash flow in 2017 and beyond,” Van Beurden said. “So Shell is planning for a longer period of low prices.” Shell’s debt-to-equity ratio gives it the flexibility to maintain dividend payouts even at lower oil prices, Van Beurden said. The Hague-based company expects to cut operating costs by about $4 billion, or 10 percent, this year and will reduce capital expenditure by 20 percent. (BN)