Board members of Shell Trans- port and Trading, the UK arm of Royal Dutch/Shell, the beleaguered European energy group, yesterday described their first meeting with shareholders since last week's new cut to reserves as "helpful and constructive".

The talks with "deeply upset" shareholders were organised by the Association of British Insurers. "When we said we were 'deeply upset', that reflected a real sense of frustration," said Mr Peter Montagnon, ABI's head of investment affairs. He added: "The dialogue is not over and it will continue."

The meeting was held less than a week after the company admitted for the second time in three months that it had wrongly booked proved oil and natural gas reserves with the US Securities and Reserves Commission. In January, Shell slashed 20 per cent of its proved reserves.

Lord Oxburgh, non-executive chairman at Shell Transport and Trading; Sir Peter Burt, a non-executive chairman on Shell Transport and Trading's board; and Jyoti Munsiff, the company secretary and its top lawyer, represented Shell at the meeting of top shareholders held at ABI's London offices.

Lord Oxburgh called it "an excellent meeting", and said: "A whole range of matters was discussed. Nothing \ ruled in, nothing \ ruled out."

But Shell Transport and Trading's shares were down 2.2 per cent at 355.03p sterling, while Royal Dutch traded at 37.77, down 1.4 per cent.

Much of the rest of the sector was down because of fears of reserves restatements by other companies. BP was especially hard hit, trading 2.76 per cent lower at 441.735p.

UK investors are calling for better corporate governance at Royal Dutch/Shell and have pointed out that the large outside investors needed more power to influence important decisions.