Shell Confirms Deepwater Oil Discovery Offshore French Guiana

LONDON, September 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

As part of the Tullow-operated joint venture, Shell today confirms an
oil discovery in the Guyane Maritime permit approximately 150-kilometers
offshore French Guiana.

The GM-ES-1 well is being drilled in a water depth of over 2,000 meters
and to date has drilled to a depth of 5,711 meters. The well has encountered
over 70-meters of net oil pay in two objectives. The joint venture plans to
drill ahead to the planned target depth.

'We are pleased with the preliminary results of this first ever
deepwater well offshore French Guiana,' said Dave Lawrence, Shells executive
vice president Exploration and Commercial. 'We are early in the evaluation,
but the initial results are encouraging for this new play. The joint venture
will continue to drill ahead, evaluate the well results, and determine next
steps.'

Shell acquired an initial equity interest of 33% in the joint venture in
2009 and increased its equity interest to 45% in 2010, subject to government
approval. The joint venture is currently operated by Tullow (27.5%) with
additional equity interest held by Total (25%) and Northpet (2.5%), a
company owned 50% by Northern Petroleum plc and 50% by Wessex Exploration
plc.

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December, 2010 (available at http://www.shell.com/investor and
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). These factors also should be considered by the reader.
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September 2011. Neither Royal Dutch Shell nor any of its subsidiaries
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