LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell,Europe's largest oil major, missed analysts' profit expectationsfor the fourth quarter after booking $500 million ofimpairments.
Shell's cost of supplies excluding identified items, itspreferred way of measuring profit, was $1.8 billion in thefourth quarter, against analyst expectations of $2.8 billion.
"Earnings were impacted by charges of $0.5 billion relatedto deferred tax reassessments which were not included asidentified items," the company said.
(Reporting by Karolin Schaps and Ron Bousso; Editing by DavidGoodman)