The China Mail - Shell profits climb despite falling oil prices

Profit after tax climbed to $17.84 billion in 2025 from $16.1 billion a year earlier, Shell said in a statement.

Energy prices faced pressure last year on concerns that US President Donald Trump's tariffs would hurt economic growth. They dropped further as a result of higher output by OPEC+ nations.

More recently, prices have rallied as Trump ramped up military threats against major oil producer Iran, but have since cooled on easing tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Shell said its underlying earnings, which strip out some energy-price movements and one-off charges, dropped 22 percent to $18.53 billion last year.

In the fourth quarter alone, net profit fell 22 percent from the previous quarter, to $4.1 billion.

"In Q4, despite lower earnings... cash delivery remained solid," chief executive Wael Sawan said in the statement.

He added that Shell was raising its dividend to shareholders and would begin a new share buyback programme worth $3.5 billion.

Following the update, Shell's share price dropped 1.9 percent on London's top-tier FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.5 percent overall.

- 'Quarter to forget' -

"The final quarter was one which Shell will want to forget, although the numbers for the year as a whole were slightly more palatable," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.

"The volatility of the oil price inevitably had an effect as tepid demand and oversupply put a dampener on any price progress," he added.

The international oil price benchmark, Brent North Sea crude, was down 1.6 percent at $68.33 per barrel on Thursday.

Shell announced in November that it was ending its participation in two offshore wind projects in the North Sea, part of its shift away from alternative energy to focus on its fossil fuels business.

In an online video Thursday, Sawan said Shell had "entered 2026 as a more resilient organisation".

"We have raised the bar on operational performance, we are showing more discipline and making great progress to deliver more value with less emissions," he said.

Sawan added that Shell was focusing on "lower costs, further performance improvements supported by the transformative potential of AI, and a higher-returning portfolio".

The company, like some of its rivals, has scaled back various climate objectives in favour of more profitable oil and gas production.

Shell's British rival BP, which publishes its 2025 earnings next Tuesday, said last month that it would take a write-down of up to $5 billion linked to its own energy operations.

Shell's end of year was marked by survivors of a deadly 2021 typhoon in the Philippines filing a UK lawsuit against the company, seeking financial compensation for climate-related harms.

Typhoon Rai struck the southern and central regions of the Philippines in mid-December 2021, toppling power lines and trees and unleashing deadly floods that killed more than 400 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

The lawsuit, brought by the British law firm Hausfeld on behalf of 103 survivors, argues that Shell's carbon emissions contributed to climate change, impacting Philippine communities.

I.Ko--ThChM