{"id":33609,"date":"2023-05-04T13:38:02","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/shell-posts-10-billion\/"},"modified":"2023-05-04T13:49:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:49:40","slug":"shell-posts-10-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/shell-posts-10-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Shell posts $10 billion profit as trading offsets lower energy prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla<\/p>\n

LONDON (Reuters) – Shell on Thursday posted first-quarter net profit of $9.65 billion as strong earnings from trading and higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales offset cooling energy prices, while extending its large share repurchase programme.<\/p>\n

The stronger-than-expected profits followed a string of forecast-beating results from rivals including BP and Exxon Mobil as the sector continues to benefit from strong demand and price volatility. Norwegian rival Equinor on Thursday also posted higher-than-expected quarterly profits.<\/p>\n

Shell kept its dividend unchanged at $0.2875 per share and also kept the rate of its share repurchase programme stable at $4 billion over the next three months, even as its cash generation fell in the quarter to $14.15 billion from $22.4 billion in the previous quarter. <\/p>\n

With buybacks and the dividend payout reaching $6 billion, or roughly 40% of cash flow, Shell exceeded its commitment to spend 20% to 30% of its cash flow on shareholder returns. <\/p>\n

BP saw its shares slump by over 8% on Tuesday after it slowed down its buyback programme.<\/p>\n

Shell shares were up 0.8% by 1242 GMT.<\/p>\n

“In Q1, Shell delivered strong results and robust operational performance, against a backdrop of ongoing volatility,” Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Sawan, who took the helm in January, told reporters he was focused on narrowing a wide gap in the share performance of Shell and its European peers against their U.S. rivals.<\/p>\n

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GRAPHIC: Shell’s LNG production and sales https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/graphics\/SHELL-LNG\/gkplwqyarvb\/chart.png<\/p>\n

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PROFITS BEAT<\/p>\n

Shell reported adjusted earnings of $9.65 billion in the first quarter, exceeding a company-provided analyst forecast of $8 billion. The company’s shares were up 0.8% in afternoon trade. <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That compared with earnings of $9.1 billion a year earlier and $9.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, when Shell reported a record annual profit of $40 billion. <\/p>\n

Lower natural gas prices in the quarter weighed on Shell’s giant integrated gas business, with profits slumping 18% to $4.9 billion. But this was broadly offset by a 139% jump in profits to $1.8 billion in its chemicals and refined products unit.<\/p>\n

Shell, the world’s top LNG trader, said LNG production rose in the quarter thanks to higher uptime at its Prelude floating facility off the coast of Australia.<\/p>\n

Shell showed “strong operational performance in the quarter across all divisions with oil and gas trading playing a key role,” Jefferies analyst Giacomo Romeo said in a note.<\/p>\n

Benchmark Brent crude oil prices averaged $81 per barrel in the first three months of the year, down 16% from a year earlier, while Europe’s benchmark TTF front-month wholesale gas contract has fallen 50% so far this year.<\/p>\n

The British company maintained its 2023 capital spending plans unchanged in a range between $23 and $27 billion. <\/p>\n

Sawan has introduced a new management structure since taking office in January, including placing its renewables and low-carbon operations under the downstream division.<\/p>\n

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GRAPHIC: Shell’s quarterly profits https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/graphics\/SHELL-PROFITS\/akveqjwxevr\/chart.png<\/p>\n

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GRAPHIC: Shell’s cash generation https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/graphics\/SHELL-CASH\/akpeqjwjepr\/chart.png<\/p>\n

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(This story has been refiled to fix a spelling error in the headline)<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n

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By Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla LONDON (Reuters) – Shell on Thursday posted first-quarter net profit of $9.65 billion as strong earnings from trading and higher liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales offset cooling energy prices, while extending its large share repurchase programme. The stronger-than-expected profits followed a string of forecast-beating results from rivals including BP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":33610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-33609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ4304X-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33609"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34244,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33609\/revisions\/34244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}