Shell’s announcement in January, which it said it had to slash its proven reserves by 20%, cost its two top bosses their jobs and wiped billions of dollars off the value of the company’s stock.

Speaking at the company’s AGM in London, Sutherland said, “[I am] confident that estimates of [BP’s] oil and gas stocks [are] accurate, but [I] accepted that confidence in the industry had been rocked by the shock announcements by rival Royal Dutch/Shell that it was downgrading its accessible reserves.”

“It’s an important issue and no doubt one that will have concerned shareholders. We believe that our estimates are accurate and meet the standards required,” added Sutherland, who also stated the company had reviewed its processes used for booking stocks to avoid a similar situation.

Sutherland also reassured the shareholders the company would press on with its three-year share buy-back program “program rather than use spare cash generated by rising oil prices to pay higher dividends”. BP has spent around US$1.3 billion so far this year to re-purchase its stock. Many analysts are predicting the spending could reach US$5 billion by year’s end.

In its annual report, BP announced proven reserves of 18 billion barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2003. It also replaced more than 120% of the oil and gas it produced. Profits have also grown 42% to US$12.4 billion in 2003.