• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 4 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 2 days How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 2 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 3 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 5 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 15 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 4 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Irina Slav

Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

More Info

Premium Content

Shell Posts 700% Rise In Earnings, Prepares For ‘Lower Forever’ Oil Prices

Shell reported net earnings attributable to shareholders of US$1.92 billion for the second quarter of the year, a more than 700-percent increase from a year earlier when the figure stood at just US$239 million. The figures are based on current cost of supplies – a profit metric used in the oil industry.

Excluding what Shell calls identified items, also called exceptional items, the income attributable to shareholders came in at US$3.6 billion, up from US$1.045 billion a year earlier.

The Anglo-Dutch major’s chief executive said in a statement accompanying the results that free cash flow was US$12.2 billion, including proceeds from divestments as well as investments.

Ben van Beurden said that higher realized oil and gas prices as well as higher production of LNG and, of course, lower costs were the main drivers of profitability.

In spite of Shell’s success in generating a positive cash flow, the oil major laid out a somewhat pessimistic vision for oil prices. Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told shareholders that the company is preparing for a world in which crude oil prices might never return to pre-2014 levels.

In terms of operational results, Shell’s upstream business swung into the black this quarter from a year earlier, rising by almost US$1.7 billion to a positive US$340 million. Downstream earnings, however, were the big driver of total profits, increasing by 39 percent to US$2.5 billion in the reporting period. Related: The Next Big Catalyst In The U.S. Oil Export Boom

Despite the encouraging figures, demonstrating, according to Van Beurden, Shell’s solid performance over the last 12 months, the company will remain “very disciplined”. The chief executive also said that “In the current macro-economic environment, we continue to pull on four levers to strengthen our financial framework divestments, capital investment, operating costs and the delivery of new projects.”

Shell has been saddled with a serious debt load following the acquisition of BG Group last year, and has been actively divesting assets to slim it down. During the second quarter of 2017, divestments came in at US$9.47 billion, up from US$1 billion a year earlier.

In addition to cutting costs at its traditional businesses, the company recently declared its support for renewables, pledging US$1 billion in annual investments in clean energy research and development.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

ADVERTISEMENT

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • the masked avenger on July 27 2017 said:
    Big oil just keeps sucking the world economy dry.
  • Irina on July 27 2017 said:
    Not forgetting the thousands and thousands of people they laid off
  • James on July 27 2017 said:
    All I can say to Shell is good luck on your lower forever prediction haha, when oil goes back up into the 60s and 70s before too long they'll be eating their own words with lots of salt!

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News