Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported a rise in profit for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2018, saying it’s revenue were helped by high oil, gas and liquefied natural gas prices within the period.
The oil giant said its profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 on a net current cost-of-supplies basis–a number similar to the net income that U.S. oil companies report–was $7.33 billion compared with $3.08 billion in the year-earlier period, according to Marketscreener.
Shell said total revenue for the quarter rose 19percent to $104.6 billion, while adjusted CCS earnings attributable to shareholders–Shell’s preferred metric–came to $5.69 billion in the fourth quarter.
Net profit attributable to shareholders for Q4 rose to $5.59 billion from $3.81 billion in the year-earlier period, while Shell maintained its quarterly dividend at 47 cents a share
Last year Shell kicked off a much-awaited $25 billion share-buyback program by saying it would start with an initial $2 billion, which it completed on Oct. 19. Shell said Thursday that it will buy back a further $2.5 billion of shares in the third tranche.
Cash flow from operations for the quarter rose to $22.02 billion, from $7.28 billion in the year-earlier period the company said, while production stayed relatively flat at 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day.
Meanwhile, the oil giant has forecast a declining production in its integrated gas and upstream divisions, in the first quarter of 2019, citing the effect of divestment.
According to the report, oil products sales volumes are expected to fall in Q1 of 2019 compared with the same period in 2018 due to divestment.
Subscribe To Newsletter
