Energy giant Shell reported a jump in its adjusted earnings in the first quarter on the back of strong oil and gas prices, while its LNG sales rose when compared to the same period last year.
The firm said its adjusted earnings reached $9.13 billion in the quarter. This compares to $3.23 billion in the year before and $6.39 billion in the prior quarter.
Income attributable to Shell shareholders was $7.11 billion, compared with $5.66 billion last year, and included post-tax charges of $3.9 billion related to the phased withdrawal from Russian oil and gas activities, Shell said.
“The war in Ukraine is first and foremost a human tragedy, but it has also caused significant disruption to global energy markets and has shown that secure, reliable and affordable energy simply cannot be taken for granted,” Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden, said.
“Today’s results, the progress we are making with our $8.5 billion share buyback program and the reduction of our net debt to $48.5 billion all show we remain on track, and give us the confidence to plan future shareholder distributions and disciplined investments that will accelerate our strategy,” he said.
LNG sales rise
Shell sold 18.29 million tonnes of LNG in the January-March period, compared to 16.38 million tonnes in the same period last year, and 16.72 million tonnes in the prior quarter.
Liquefaction volumes dropped year-on-year from 8.16 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes but they rose compared to the previous quarter of 7.94 million tonnes.
Shell expects liquefaction volumes to be about 7.4 – 8 million tonnes in the second quarter.
The outlook for the second quarter reflects the derecognition of Sakhalin-related volumes, a reduction of 0.8 million tonnes in liquefaction volumes compared with the first quarter, Shell said.
As previously announced, Shell’s Integrated Gas segment reported a rise in earnings.
The segment earned $3.07 billion, compared to $2.45 billion in the same period a year ago.
Adjusted earnings reached $4.09 billion, up from the previous quarter of $4.03 billion and from $1.57 billion in the same period last year.