Extract: 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.
THE ARTICLE
By BENOIT FAUCON
July 27, 2006
LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC 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 class actions.
The world’s fourth-largest publicly traded oil and gas company by market capitalization posted a net profit of $7.32 billion, or $1.13 per share, for the three months ended June 30, compared to $5.24 billion, or 78 cents a share, for the same period last year.
Revenue rose 1% in the second quarter to $83.13 billion from $82.64 billion in the year-earlier period.
MORE ON EARNINGS
Take a peek at what to expect in the reports of other major companies.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.
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 barrels-of-oil-equivalent-a-day average one year earlier.
Shell’s Nigerian output was 177,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day lower than last year after attacks from Niger Delta militants demanding a greater share of oil-revenue distribution for the local population disrupted operations.
Write to Benoit Faucon at [email protected]
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