Bernstein Liebhard Files Consolidated Amended Class Action Complaint In Royal Dutch/Shell Transport Securities Litigation

[New York, N.Y., September 14, 2004] Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz, LLP, sole lead counsel for Lead Plaintiff the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, filed a consolidated amended class action complaint (the “Amended Complaint”) on September 13, 2004, against the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (“Royal Dutch”), the “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, plc (“Shell Transport” and, together with Royal Dutch, the “Companies”), several current and former senior executives of the Companies, and the Companies’ outside auditors, which include, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and KPMG Accountants N.V. The Amended Complaint was filed on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased Royal Dutch ordinary shares and Shell Transport ordinary shares and American Depository Receipts during the class period April 8, 1999 through and including March 18, 2004.

Royal Dutch and Shell Transport are the parent companies of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (the "Group”), a group of energy companies with operations in approximately 145 countries. Royal Dutch has a 60% interest in the Group and Shell Transport has a 40% interest in the Group. Shares in the parent companies are traded on stock exchanges in Europe and the U.S. Beginning on January 9, 2004, the Group made a series of announcements concerning the restatement of approximately 4.47 billion barrels of oil equivalent (“boe”) of proved hydrocarbon reserves, or 23% of its proved reserves for 2002. In November, 2004, the Group announced that it expected to reduce its 2003 proved reserves by an additional 900 boe.

Lead Plaintiff alleges that during the class period, the defendants overstated the Group’s proved reserves by billions of boe, overstated the Group's reserves replacement ratio, and overstated the Group’s future cash flows by over $100 billion. As a consequence of the foregoing, defendants made materially false and misleading statements to the investing public that caused the price of the Companies' securities to be artificially inflated. When the truth was fully disclosed in March 2004, the Companies lost billions of dollars in market value.