Shell caps blazing profits season for energy majors

Shell unveiled Thursday a sharp jump in profits, capping a blockbuster first-quarter earnings season for global energy majors that have shrugged off weaker gas and oil prices.

BP and Shell in Britain, ExxonMobil and Chevron in the United States, and TotalEnergies in France have together logged more than $40 billion in net profits for the three months to March.

“Looks as though earnings have held up much better than expected, largely it seems down to bumper trading revenues and much tighter cost control than in the past,” said Finalto analyst Neil Wilson.

At $70-80 per barrel, “crude still trades higher than just about any time since 2014 -- October 2018 aside -- so relatively speaking, pricing is still strong in terms of where it has been in the last decade,” he told AFP.

For Shell, profit after tax surged 22 percent to $8.7 billion from a year earlier, when it faced a $3.9 billion charge over its exit from Russia after Moscow invaded Ukraine. The company benefited from falling costs and a better performance at its chemicals division, as it also unveiled a $4.0 billion stock buyback.

The news came after rival BP announced Tuesday that it rebounded into net profit of $8.2 billion in the first quarter, after a record loss a year earlier sparked by its own exit from Russia.