The NewYork TimesShell reported record earnings for the second consecutive quarter on Thursday, as the energy giant continues to prosper from high oil and gas prices spurred by the war in Ukraine and other factors.
Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, said adjusted earnings were $11.5 billion for the second quarter. The figure topped Shell’s previous record of $9.1 billion in the first quarter.
Shell said it would set aside $6 billion in the third quarter to buy back shares, a way to raise its stock’s value, continuing a buyback program that amounted to $8.5 billion in the first half. The company said that it would hold its dividend steady at 25 cents a share.
Shell has benefited from a tight global market for refining that has also been roiled by the war. What the company called “dislocation” in products like diesel added about $1 billion to profits in the quarter, Shell said.
Shell is also a major supplier of liquefied natural gas, which is in high demand in Europe.
Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive, said that today’s high energy prices were the result of global wholesale market conditions, as well as government policies that had discouraged investment in oil and natural gas in recent years. The best way for the company to help lower prices was to keep investing in various energy sources, he said.
“In the end our role is to supply the energy the world needs,” he said.
Mr. van Beurden said that Shell would invest in a large new gas field called Jackdaw in British waters and that it was participating in a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in the Netherlands.
Stanley Reed has been writing from London for The Times since 2012 on energy, the environment and the Middle East. Before that he was London bureau chief for BusinessWeek magazine. @stanleyreed12 • Facebook
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