Lower oil and gas prices take toll on Shell profits

By Rob Davies

PUBLISHED:22:28 GMT, 1 November 2012| UPDATED:22:28 GMT, 1 November 2012

Lower oil and gas prices, coupled with the UK’s tax regime, drove quarterly profits at Royal Dutch Shell down 15 per cent.

The larger of Britain’s two supermajors reported a quarterly profit of £3.8billion – stripping out changes in the value of its oil inventory.

The decline on last year was partly down to the effect of lower oil prices eating into revenue. But the fall would have been less pronounced – down 6 per cent to £4.1billion – had it not been for a series of one-off charges.

Shell-shocked: The decline on last year was partly down to the effect of lower oil prices eating into revenue

Shell (up 52p to 2177p) took a writedown of £219million in North America, where the discovery of huge stores of shale gas has depressed prices, forcing down the value of its gas assets.

And it also took a £203million hit due in large part to UK restrictions on tax relief for the decommissioning of ageing oil and gas infrastructure.

The effect was only partially offset by £343million from the sale of some of its businesses, which was also a factor in a 1 per cent decline in oil and gas production to 2.98million barrels per day.

Shell added a cent to its quarterly dividend payment, which reached $0.43 per share, but analysts at Investec said it could ‘afford a more generous dividend if it chose to’.

‘I am pleased with our progress in a difficult industry environment,’ said chief executive Peter Voser.

‘There is more to come from Shell.’

Shell spent £371million to acquire new oil and gas prospects during the quarter, including deep water acreage in Benin and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as onshore shale gas assets in North America.

The Anglo-Dutch firm has been widely tipped to make a large acquisition in East Africa, having lost out to Thailand’s PTTEP for Cove Energy earlier this year.

****Speculation has linked the firm to a bid for Tullow Oil, the Africa-focused oil explorer that has made a series of impressive discoveries across the continent.****