LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell warnedon Friday that its fourth-quarter figures are expected to besignificantly lower than recent levels of profitability becauseof current oil and gas prices and problems in the downstreamenvironment.
Shell, which missed analyst forecasts for its third-quartertrading in October, said its fourth-quarter 2013 earnings on acurrent cost of supplies basis excluding identified items areexpected to be about $2.9 billion.
"Our 2013 performance was not what I expect from Shell,"Chief Executive Ben van Beurden commented.