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Shell motors past BP with 71% rise in profit to £6.6bn
Nick Goodway, Evening Standard30 Oct 2008
Royal Dutch Shell made even bigger profits than arch-rival BP in the last three months, on the back of record oil prices.
The Anglo-Dutch giant today revealed profits of $10.9 billion (£6.6 billion) for the three months from July to September, a rise of 71% on a year ago. Its shares gained 20p to 1690p. BP said two days ago that its third-quarter profits soared by 148% to £6.4 billion. Both companies' numbers were well ahead of City forecasts and prompted renewed calls for them to pass on recent oil-price falls to consumers.
Oil peaked at $147 a barrel in mid-July but has since fallen sharply to about $70. Chancellor Alistair Darling today echoed the Prime Minister's call for the fall to be passed swiftly on to consumers. While oil prices have halved, petrol prices have come down from a peak of just under 120p a litre in July to 99p today a fall of less than 18%.
"I want to see that reduction passed on to the pumps as quickly as possible...because people are entitled to see the benefit of that falling price reflected in what they actually pay when they fill up the car," Darling told GMTV.
Shell admitted that its profit had been boosted by just over $2 billion from one-off non-operating items, most notably the profit of $1.4 billion it made from closing its German gas transport business.
The firm was hit by militant attacks on its operations in Nigeria, closures due to hurricanes of facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, and planned maintenance in the North Sea. Together with other factors, that meant crude-oil production for the quarter was down by 10% and natural gas by 2%.
Chief executive Jeroen van der Veer, who it was announced last night will hand over to finance director Peter Voser next June, said: "We delivered satisfactory earnings and operating performance in the third quarter. We are watching the world economic situation closely. Shell is robust across a wide range of energy prices."
Announcing an 11% rise in the dividend to 40 cents, van der Veer added: "Our strategy remains to pay competitive and progressive dividends and to make significant investments in the company for future profitability."
