Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday that net profit jumped by a third to US$11.56 billion dollars (7.41 billion euros) in the second quarter owing to record high oil prices.
Net earnings, excluding fluctuations in the value of inventories, rose five per cent to 7.9 billion dollars in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period of 2007, Shell added in a results statement.
Production fell 1.6 per cent during the reporting period to 3.13 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with output hit by unrest at facilities in Nigeria.
Europe’s biggest oil company said its income jumped by 55 per cent to 131.42 billion dollars during the second quarter.
Energy majors like Shell were boosted by rocketing world oil prices that scaled record heights in the period and struck historic peaks above US$147 per barrel earlier this month.
“This is another set of competitive earnings for Shell shareholders,” said chief executive Jeroen van der Veer in comments accompanying the earnings release.
“Good operating performance, combined with increased oil and gas prices, offset the impact of weaker downstream conditions in the second quarter 2008.
“Shell is making substantial, targeted investments to grow the company for shareholders and help ensure that energy markets remain well supplied.” Investors welcomed the results, sending Shell’s ’B’ shares 0.94 per cent higher to 1,822 pence in morning trade on London’s FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.29 per cent at 5,405.20 points.
Royal Dutch Shell is the world’s second biggest energy company in terms of stock market capitalisation behind number one ExxonMobil.
BP, the third largest, said yesterday that its net profit leapt 28 per cent to US$9.47 billion in the second quarter.
Crude futures have spiked to a series of record highs this year as the dollar weakened, and amid geopolitical worries about key oil exporters Iran and Nigeria.
Oil prices hit a record high of US147.50 per barrel at the start of the third quarter, on July 11.
They have since fallen heavily on concerns that the global economic slowdown will weigh on energy demand, particularly in key consumer the United States.
At the same time, production outages in Nigeria have slashed Shell’s output from the African country.
On Tuesday, Shell said it was suspending some crude deliveries after militants sabotaged a pipeline in Nigeria.
The firm warned it may not be able to meet some supply contracts at its major Bonny terminal before the end of September.
Shell’s move followed an attack last Monday by rebels from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Shell pipelines in southern Rivers state, Nigeria’s main oil producing region.
The past two years have seen an upsurge in violent attacks by armed gangs in the Niger Delta, cutting Nigeria’s output of 2.6 million barrels per day of crude by a quarter.
Source : AFP
