Shell's half-year earnings soar amid war volatility

Shell has revealed a better-than-expected 70 per cent surge in first-half earnings despite “severe disruption” in oil and gas markets amid the Iran war.

The FTSE 100 giant saw underlying earnings jump to £12.55 billion after notching up a forecast-beating haul of £7.37 billion in the three months to the end of June.

The rise came as its oil traders capitalised on the highly volatile cost of crude.

The second-quarter result was more than double the £3.19 billion posted a year earlier and up sharply on the £5.18 billion reported the previous quarter.

The group said underlying earnings at its chemicals and products unit – including its oil trading business – jumped to £2.15 billion, up significantly from £141 million a year ago.

Wael Sawan, chief executive, said: “The operational performance enabled very strong results during another quarter of severe disruption in global energy markets, as we worked hard to provide critical energy supplies and products to our customers.”

Shell has been able to profit from trading on oil price swings, with the cost of Brent crude surging as high as $120 a barrel before dropping to pre-war levels and back up past $90 this week amid fraught negotiations between the US and Iran.

But Shell’s Pearl GTL site in Qatar stopped production in March after being hit during attacks, while LNG facilities in the country partly owned by Shell were also affected.

While its Pearl site has not been able to produce gas since the missile attack, Shell says production has been boosted group-wide thanks to a strong performance at other global facilities.

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