Shell’s profit drops by almost a third on lower oil prices, but beats expectations

[LONDON] Shell’s second-quarter net profit tumbled by almost a third on Thursday (Jul 31), dragged down by a drop in oil prices, lower gas trading results and outage-related losses from its chemicals operations, but it still easily beat analysts’ forecasts.

The oil major’s shares were up 1.8 per cent following the announcement in which it also said it would maintain the pace of its share buyback programme at US$3.5 billion over the next three months, the 15th consecutive quarter of at least US$3 billion.

“We definitely saw macro continuing to be challenging on multiple fronts and against definitely a backdrop of geopolitical and economic uncertainty,” Shell’s finance chief Sinead Gorman told reporters.

“We saw that knock-on impact on both physical trade flows as well as commodity prices and margins. Despite that, we delivered a robust set of results,” she said.

Shell said it achieved US$3.9 billion in cost cuts compared with 2022, part of a programme aimed at saving between US$5 billion and US$7 billion by the end of 2028.

It recorded cash flow from operations of US$11.9 billion in the quarter, down from US$13.5 billion a year ago.

The buybacks together with US$2.1 billion in dividends brought shareholder distributions to 46 per cent of operating cash flow, within its 40 per cent to 50 per cent guided range.

Shell’s adjusted earnings, its definition of net profit, reached US$4.264 billion in the quarter, smashing the US$3.74 billion average in an analyst poll provided by the company but down 32 per cent from a year ago.

The company had guided in a trading update that it expected earnings to be hit by weaker trading in its integrated gas division and losses at its chemicals and products operations after an outage at its US Monaca polymer plant.

Crude oil prices fell in the quarter as Opec+, made up of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, began unwinding self-imposed production cuts that had been aimed at supporting the market.

Their most recent decision calls for an oil output increase of 548,000 barrels per day in August.

Global benchmark Brent crude prices averaged around US$67 a barrel during the April-to-June quarter, compared with US$75 a barrel in the first quarter and US$85 a year earlier.

Prices spiked briefly in June on the back of the conflict between Israel and Iran.

Gorman said Shell had taken a cautious, risk-off approach to oil trading in the quarter, because it saw a disconnect between price movements and supply-demand fundamentals.

She said that after seeing muted demand for liquefied natural gas from Asia in the first half of the year, which allowed Europe to restock, LNG markets could tighten again after the summer. REUTERS