Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, reported its largest quarterly profit ever on Thursday, amid high oil and natural gas prices caused by the war in Ukraine and the tightness in world energy markets.
The company’s adjusted profit of $9.1 billion for the January-March period was nearly triple the $3.2 billion it earned in the same period a year earlier.
Shell also said it would increase the pace of its share buybacks to $4.5 billion in the second quarter, compared to $4 billion in the first quarter, and increase its dividend by 4 percent to 25 cents a year. part.
In addition to high energy prices, Shell took advantage of market volatility to capture trading profits. It has also sharply reduced costs during the pandemic, increasing profits as prices and sales volumes have soared.
In a statement, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden appeared to suggest that the disruption caused by the war in Ukraine had shown that despite pressures to tackle climate change, there was still a need for strong oil and gas companies.
The war, he said, “has shown that safe, reliable and affordable energy simply cannot be taken for granted.”
Shell’s refining and chemicals divisions benefited from a shortage of diesel and other refined products, earning $1.2 billion for the quarter, up 50 percent from the same period in 2021.
Shell has announced that it will gradually withdraw from its oil and gas activities in Russia. On Thursday, the company said it took $4.2 billion in pre-tax write-offs on those companies. The charges include $1.1 billion on the loan it provided to build the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is now locked up, and $1.6 billion related to the company’s 27.5 percent ownership. operation of a liquefied natural gas facility on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.
The sharp rise in energy prices has brought huge profits to oil companies. BP on Tuesday reported its highest gain in a decade, more than doubling from a year earlier.
