Around the edges there’s a lot of narrative but there’s a simple and unmissable truth in this morning’s results from Royal Dutch Shell Plc - one of world’s largest oil firms is making a lot of money by selling its main products, oil and gas, at higher prices.
Shell’s third quarter results showed its highest ever cash flows from operations which tallied some US$17.5bn excluding working capital.
The Anglo-Dutch group reported some US$13.46bn of earnings (adjusted EBITDA on CCS basis). It also maintained disciplined cash capex totalling US$13.2bn for the first nine months of 2021.
Amidst soaring crude and gas prices it's probably unsurprising Shell’s upstream and integrated gas operations (the liquified natural gas unit) performed particularly strongly, accounting for US$6.7bn and US$3.7bn of adjusted earnings respectively.
In September, Shell announced the US$9.5bn divestment of its assets and pledged to pay-out some US$7bn to shareholders via a special dividend.
Today, it also confirms its third quarter interim dividend will be 0.24 US cents per share.
"This quarter we've generated record cash flow, maintained capital discipline and announced our intention to distribute US$7bn to our shareholders from the sale of our Permian assets,” said chief executive Ben van Beurden.
“Today, we also set a new 2030 target to halve the absolute emissions from our operations, compared to 2016 levels on a net basis.
“Altogether, this is clear evidence of how we are accelerating our Powering Progress strategy, purposefully and profitably."