London-based Royal Dutch/Shell Group denied a published report Monday that it is considering hiring the former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman to help it deal with the complexities associated with the agency’s ongoing inquiry into the company’s overbooking of oil and natural gas reserves.

“Shell has not retained the services of [former SEC Chairman] Harvey Pitt or his firm, and the matter is not under consideration,” said Shell spokesman Andy Corrigan in London.

Pitt, who heads up a consulting firm in Washington, DC, Kalorama Partners, did not return NGI’s telephone calls.

The Financial Times of London reported Monday that Shell was mulling the idea of hiring Pitt in the wake of the SEC investigation of the company. The agency began the probe after Shell disclosed that it had overbooked its worldwide proved reserves by 20%, or by about 3.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). This cut the company’s proved reserves to 15.6 billion boe from the 19.5 billion boe estimated in December 2002.

Shell’s reserve reclassification and the subsequent probe prompted Sir PhilipWatts to resign as chairman in early March, along with the company’s exploration and production chief.

Pitt left the SEC in November 2002 amid growing controversy over his handling of the job as the nation’s top financial watchdog in a post-Enron environment.

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