UK-based major Shell reported better-than-expected earnings to start 2024 despite lower prices and a decline in LNG sales as the natural gas, oil and chemicals trading units all performed well.
UK major Shell plc reported an increase in net profits for the first three months of the year as liquefied natural gas sales volumes rose by 6 percent on the previous quarter, though were slightly less than the same quarter of 2022.
Royal Dutch Shell reported overall third-quarter profits down 25 percent from the previous quarter as the natural gas division posted a loss blamed on accounting provisions for hedging while liquefied natural gas sales for the year to date plunged 13 percent.
Royal Dutch Shell, whose oil and gas operations include more than 60 million tonnes per annum of LNG sales, has warned that its third-quarter earnings would be hit by the impacts of Hurricane Ida in the US Gulf of Mexico and is expected to have an aggregate adverse impact of around $400 million.
Royal Dutch Shell reported a drop in second-quarter liquefied natural gas sales as overall earnings also declined from the first three months of 2021 amid healthy cash flows. The performance was one of recovery from the massive losses posted in 2020 because of write-downs in assets.
Royal Dutch Shell has given an update on its second-quarter outlook with the Integrated Gas division, including LNG, expected to have trading and optimisation results significantly below average and similar to the first quarter of 2021 because of unplanned maintenance at LNG plants.
Royal Dutch Shell, with one of the largest global LNG sales portfolios, has warned investors to expect post-tax charges of between $3.5 billion and $4.5 billion in relation to impairments, asset restructuring and onerous gas contracts in the fourth-quarter earnings in February 2021.