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Shell disappoints market as earnings tumble

Published: 10:45 28 Jul 2016 BST

picture of Shell workers
Not sure of Shell any more

Royal Dutch Shell 's (LON:RDSB) second quarter earnings came in well below market forecasts as weaker oil prices and lower refining margins bit hard. 

Net earnings in the three months to June tumbled 72% from the same period a year to US$1.045bn compared to market expectations of around US$2.16bn.

The Anglo-Dutch giant blamed a weak oil price, weaker refining margins and redundancy and restructuring charges for the decline.

UBS described the results, the first since the merger with BG, as disappointing.

“The absence of any obvious progress in earnings or cashflow” was a feature said the broker.

For the half year, earnings fell 65% to US$2.6bn, with production losses rising to US$2.8bn from US$664mln and both gas and downstream posting lower profits compared to the previous first half. Net debt rose to US$75.1bn.

The dividend was held at US$0.47 to make US$0.94 for the half year, though this was not covered by earnings even excluding one-off charges.

Shares fell 3.8% to 2,206p.

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