* Voser helped Shell recover from 2004 reserves crisis
* He goes as industry faces cost squeeze, price falls
* Shell looking at both external and internal candidates
* CFO Henry, U.S. upstream boss Odum possible contenders
* Shell joins peers in beating Q1 earnings forecasts
By Andrew Callus
LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell chiefexecutive Peter Voser, who built the oil company into a leaderin liquefied natural gas after a reserves accounting scandal, isto retire next year in a shock early departure.
The softly spoken and widely respected 54-year old Swissnational took over as finance chief in 2004 amid the board-levelupheaval that followed Shell's dramatic downgrade of reservesestimates, becoming CEO in 2009.
His exit from a role he is seen to have excelled insurprised investors, analysts and people inside Europe's biggestoil company. Two senior members of staff told Reuters they hadno inkling that he would go.
Voser said the move was driven by a desire for a change oflifestyle.
His departure, scheduled for the first half of next year andannounced along with first-quarter results, comes as the companyand its industry face huge challenges.
Shell is the western world's number two company byproduction behind Exxon Mobil. But, like its peers, itis struggling to replace reserves and boost production, andfaces a squeeze on earnings as costs rise while the price of oilthreatens to fall decisively below the psychologically important$100 a barrel level.
INSIDE JOB
Shell said it would look outside and inside the company forVoser's replacement. However, as with most big oil companies,new chief executives traditionally come up through the ranks.
Finance director Simon Henry refused to be drawn on hisprospects for succeeding Voser.
Inside Shell, Henry is regarded as a potential front-runneralong with Marvin Odum, the company's head of upstreamoperations in the Americas.
Henry has a mathematics and accounting background eventhough, like Odum, he joined the company as an engineer, and isrespected by shareholders who know him from his days as head ofinvestor relations. Odum, who is about Voser's age, would beShell's first American CEO.
Andrew Brown, who became head of international upstream lastyear, could be a candidate too, as could director of projectsand technology Matthias Bichsel. One source said Brown'srelatively recent appointment may make him an outside bet, whileBichsel, born in 1954, might be considered too old for the job.
Voser said his decision to go was a personal one.
"After such an exciting executive career I feel it is timefor a change in my lifestyle and I am looking forward to havingmore time available for my family and private life in the yearsto come," he said in a statement.
He has been named in media reports as a possible futurechairman of Roche Holding, the drug firm based in hisnative Switzerland at which he is already non-executivedirector.
But Henry said Voser had indicated he had no plans to takeon new non-executive directorships or chairmanships.
STRONG TRADING, LIKE BP
The last of the western world's four biggest oil companiesto report results, Shell joined its peers on Thursday indelivering a first-quarter profit that topped marketexpectations.
Henry said the company was well-placed to deal with therecent fall in oil prices.
"We also think there are quite few players in the market,quite a few companies, who actually have bet the farm on$100-plus oil prices. We don't," he said.
Nevertheless, analysts say that among the world's top oilcompanies, Shell spends more on exploration per barrel producedthan any of its competitors. Its most high-profile explorationfailure has been in Alaska, where it has spent $5 billion since2006, and has yet to drill a single complete hole.
Adjusted net profit on a current cost of supply basis roseto $7.5 billion from $7.3 billion a year ago, compared withexpectations of around $6.5 billion.
As was the case with BP's results on Tuesday, Shell exceededexpectations by a big margin thanks in large part to its tradingactivities, which were not split out from the rest of itsoperations.