Royal Dutch Shell has reported a massive $6.1 billion loss for the third quarter of the year, showing a stark contrast to the company's trend last year, when it reported a $5.3 billion profit.  Most of the oil company's loss was due to the cost of halting a number of its major projects, reported BBC News.

Due to the company's decision to stop its projects, such as Alaskan drilling and the Carmon Creek oil sands project in Canada, the company has taken an immense $8.6 billion charge.

Apart from this massive loss, the lower prediction for oil and gas prices did little to improve the company's already dismal financial statistics for the year, according to Ecommerce-Journal.

Shell announced last month that it will be stopping its Arctic oil and gas exploration off the coast of Alaska "for the foreseeable future" after "disappointing" results. However, the details of the project's results have not been released yet.

Shell has also announced last Tuesday that it will stop its construction of its Carmon Creek thermal oil sands projects in northern Alberta, citing a lack of infrastructure to transport the oil and the need to managing costs given the diminishing price of oil.

The company's Chief Executive, Ben van Beurden, sees the decisions, though costing the company massive amounts of profit, as poignant and pertinent.

"I am determined that Shell will become a more focused and competitive company as a result," he said.

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