Shell’s “Successful Failure”: Still Failing, But With Even Bigger Bonuses

CEO Wael Sawan says his strategy is working — if you define ‘working’ as slashing renewables, kneeling to Wall Street, and praying the Trump administration sticks around.

Shell — the fossil-fueled titan that never met a barrel of oil it didn’t want to burn — has declared its latest strategy a “successful failure.” Which is corporate code for: We didn’t achieve what we said we would, but we did make rich people richer, so that counts, right?

Two years into CEO Wael Sawan’s so-called “10-quarter sprint” to remake Shell into a leaner, meaner profit machine, the results are in:

• ✅ Cost cuts

• ✅ Mass layoffs

• ✅ Renewables quietly binned

• ✅ More cash thrown at shareholders than at the climate crisis

• ❌ Still can’t catch up to Exxon and Chevron

“We have outperformed our peers,” Sawan bragged in New York this week — carefully omitting that Shell’s stock is still priced like a clearance bin compared to its American rivals.

Gas, Dividends, and a One-Way Ticket to Wall Street

Let’s be clear: this is not a “strategy” in any meaningful sense. It’s a carefully choreographed bonfire of green commitments — all in the name of chasing the cool kids at ExxonMobil and Chevron, who trade at price-to-earnings ratios that Shell can only dream of from across the Atlantic.

Sawan’s fix? Give shareholders more money. Lots more. He’s now pledging to return 40–50% of Shell’s cash flow to investors (up from the already ridiculous 30–40%). According to HSBC’s Kim Fustier, who summed up the investor mood in her latest report:

“More of the same, please.”

And Shell is obliging. They’re cutting spending on everything except oil, gas, and stock buybacks. In fact, they’ve repurchased a fifth of their entire company since 2023. If this pace continues, they’ll have cancelled 40% of Shell’s shares by 2030. Climate be damned — the stock chart must go up.

Still Not American Enough?

Despite all the shareholder pandering, Shell remains undervalued compared to its U.S. peers. And the reason, according to Sawan? It’s not the emissions. It’s not the reputational baggage. It’s not the ongoing Russian court cases or the legacy of lying about reserves. It’s… London.

Yes, poor Shell — stuck in the supposedly “inhospitable” UK market, where investors occasionally flinch at the word “fossil fuels.” But don’t worry, because Wael Sawan already has a solution: Move to New York.

A year ago, Sawan warned that if the valuation gap wasn’t closed by 2025, he’d “have to examine other options,” including ditching the London Stock Exchange entirely.

Spoiler: it’s 2025. And the gap is still yawning.

Cue the backflip. Or more accurately: the oil-soaked sprint to Wall Street, where fossil fuels are still sexy and Trump is once again measuring the Oval Office drapes.

Trump and Shell: A Match Made in Methane

Speaking of Trump — the man who thinks wind turbines cause cancer — Sawan couldn’t help but gush:

“The Trump administration’s energy policies are aligned with those of Shell,” he said at an investor event in New York.

Oh, and by the way, he met with Trump at the White House the week before.

That’s right — Shell’s CEO is openly aligning the company’s future with a man who withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, dismantled climate regulations, and gave fossil fuel CEOs their own private keys to the EPA.

At this point, Shell isn’t just flirting with authoritarian petro-politics — it’s inviting them to dinner.

Meanwhile, the Planet Burns

While Shell focuses on appeasing investors like BlackRock and Vanguard, who claim to care about ESG but still fund every pipeline they can find, the company continues to walk away from clean energy like it’s a bad date.

Its “transition strategy” now means:

• More gas

• Less renewables

• Higher dividends

• And absolutely zero shame

Sure, Shell talks about net zero by 2050 — but only if the share price is high enough, and only if it doesn’t involve, you know, doing anything.

The Bottom Line

Let’s call Shell’s refreshed strategy what it really is: a high-speed escape from accountability. It’s a “sprint” not toward progress, but away from climate responsibility, ethical investment, and any trace of a moral compass.

Wael Sawan and his executive crew are piloting a rocket straight into the sun — but hey, at least the free cash flow yieldis outperforming.

Shell may call this a “successful failure.” But the rest of us?

We call it what it is: a flaming middle finger to the planet.

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