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Dow Jones Newswires: Shell 2Q Profit +40%; Books $500 Million Lawsuit Charge

Thursday July 27th, 2006 / 8h50 
 
(This item updates an item published around 0627 GMT, noting $500 million provision.)
By Benoit Faucon
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) Thursday posted a 40% rise in net profit for the second quarter as soaring oil prices more than offset barrels lost from unrest in Nigeria and a $500 million provision for a class action.
 
The world’s fourth-largest publicly traded oil and gas company by market capitalization posted a net profit of $7.324 billion, or $1.13 per share, for the three months ended June 30, compared to $5.236 billion, or 78 cents a share, for the same period last year.
The quarterly earnings were impacted by a net charge of $232 million, which compared to a $545 million net charge in the second quarter of 2005.

Shell said it had booked a provision of $500 million, an amount it would be ready to pay to end a securities class action. It added that no settlement has been reached.

Revenue rose 1% in the second quarter to $83.13 billion from $82.64 billion in the year-earlier period.
 
Shell’s profit got a boost from a 35% annual rise in industry-average oil prices during the second quarter, which averaged $69.53 a barrel for benchmark North Sea Brent crude compared with $51.63 a barrel a year earlier.

Total oil and natural gas production, the cornerstone of the company’s earnings, dropped to 3.253 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, from a 3.526 million boe/d average one year earlier. Shell’s Nigerian output was 177,000 boe/d than last year after attacks from Niger Delta militants demanding a greater share of oil-revenue distribution for the local population disrupted operations.

Company Web site: http://www.shell.com

By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9266; [email protected] 
 
Thursday July 27th, 2006 / 8h50

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