Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil producer, plans to reduce spending in the Americas by 20% to focus on more profitable projects.

“Upstream Americas profitability has been impacted by losses in resources plays such as shales,” Shell said March 13 in a statement before CEO Ben van Beurden hosts his first strategy day in London. “The company intends to drive hard choices on capital allocation for selective growth, and divestment of non-strategic positions.”

Van Beurden has pledged to reduce spending this year and accelerate refinery and other asset sales after The Hague, Netherlands-based Shell issued its first profit warning in a decade. The CEO also has scrapped targets for cash flow, delayed drilling off Alaska and promised to restructure shale operations in North America.

Unprofitable shale investments contributed to a 48% slump in profit in the fourth-quarter, the Anglo-Dutch company said Jan. 30.

“We highlight the consistent decline in profitability-per-barrel in Upstream Americas as both concern and opportunity for material upside potential,” Peter Hutton, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in an emailed report March 12.

Shell said performance from refining and fuel marketing is weaker than that from businesses such as chemicals, lubricants and biofuels. It intends to separate the portfolio into distinctive units.

Van Beurden plans to dispose of about $15 billion of assets through 2015. It has agreed to sell holdings valued at more than $4.5 billion in Australia, Brazil and elsewhere, and is seeking buyers for stakes in oil and gas fields as well as in pipeline and fuel-marketing assets from the U.S. to Nigeria. It may also exit its $6.3 billion investment in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.

The asset sales target is “cautious” and is likely to be raised, Investec Bank Plc wrote March 12 in an emailed report. That said, Shell may make further “bolt-on acquisitions,” the bank said.

Van Beurden and CFO Simon Henry indicated in January that first-quarter earnings will be curbed by lower production following the end of a project in the United Arab Emirates and caps on Dutch gas output.