Royal Dutch Shell Plc is “pulling out all the stops” to safeguard its dividend in a world where oil prices remain “lower for longer,” Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden said. Europe’s biggest oil company is also protecting a plan to buy back shares and keeping its investment program “steady for the future,” Van Beurden said in e-mailed comments before a speech in London on Tuesday. Oil’s collapse in the past year has forced Shell and its peers to reduce costs, defer projects and hunker down for a prolonged period of low prices. Even with crude trading for about $50 a barrel, Van Beurden and BP Plc boss Bob Dudley have made dividends their top priority. Shell has weathered market ups and downs for seven decades — including oil at less than $10 in the 1980s and 1990s — without cutting shareholder payouts. The company is “geared to generate […]