Shell profits beat expectations on refining boost:
Business | Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:26am BST
(Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported a lower than expected 56 percent drop in first quarter net income at $3.2 billion (2 billion pounds), as refining and trading profits offset a decline in earnings from oil and gas output.
Shell maintained a dividend of 47 cents per share and said it would use its planned $70 billion acquisition of smaller British rival BG Group to further optimise its asset base.
Profits from refining and trading rose to $2.65 billion in the first quarter of 2015 from $1.575 billion a year earlier, offsetting a sharp drop in oil and gas production earnings to $675 million from $5.7 billion.
“Our results reflect the strength of our integrated business activities, against a backdrop of lower oil prices,” Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden said.
Shell has sold $2 billion worth of assets so far this year as part of its drive to keep only its most profitable assets, it said.
In January, Shell announced a three-year, $15 billion cut in spending to help it weather the plunge in oil prices.
Van Beurden then warned against over reacting to the recent oil price fall.
Oil majors have slashed 2015 upstream budgets by 10 to 15 percent on average in recent months.
BP and Total kicked off the sector’s quarterly results season on Tuesday with higher than expected profits thanks to steep increases in profits from refining, showing the resilience of global oil firms in the face of slumping oil prices.
Benchmark Brent prices averaged $55 a barrel in the first quarter of 2015, almost half the level of a year ago.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Vincent Baby)
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
