Shell has revealed a better-than-expected 70% surge in first half earnings despite severe disruption in oil and gas markets amid the Iran war.
The FTSE 100 giant saw underlying earnings jump to 16.75 billion US dollars (£12.55 billion) after notching up a forecast-beating haul of 9.84 billion dollars (£7.37 billion) in the three months to the end of June as its oil traders were able to capitalise on the highly volatile cost of crude.
Strong second quarter performance
The second quarter result was more than double the 4.26 billion dollars (£3.19 billion) posted a year earlier and up sharply on the 6.92 billion dollars (£5.18 billion) reported in the previous quarter.
The group said underlying earnings at its chemicals and products unit – including its oil trading business – jumped to 2.88 billion dollars (£2.15 billion), up significantly from 118 million dollars (£141 million) a year ago.
CEO comments on market disruption
Chief executive Wael Sawan said: “Shell’s operational performance enabled very strong results during another quarter of severe disruption in global energy markets, as we worked hard to provide critical energy supplies and products to our customers.”
Shell has been able to profit from trading on oil price swings, with the cost of Brent crude surging as high as 120 dollars a barrel at one stage before dropping to pre-war levels and back up past 90 dollars this week amid fraught negotiations between the US and Iran.
Impact on Qatar operations
But Shell’s Pearl GTL site in Qatar stopped production in March after being hit during attacks while LNG facilities in the country partly owned by Shell were also affected.
While its Pearl site has not been able to produce gas since the missile attack, the group has seen production boosted group-wide thanks to a strong performance at other facilities globally.
