Royal Dutch Shell reported a sharp rise in net profit on Thursday, beating analyst forecasts and joining its peers as stronger oil prices and improved refining margins boosted revenue after nearly three years of downturn.
A billion dollars in cost savings and budget cuts made over the past three years, as well as around $20 billion of asset sales following the $54 billion acquisition of BG Group last February, also helped increase cash flow and boost profits.
After completing the integration of BG Group in the third quarter of last year, the company and investors are turning their focus to increasing revenue and reducing debt as oil prices appear to recover.
A near 55 percent rise in oil prices in the first quarter compared with a year earlier to around $54 a barrel was the main driver of earnings growth.
Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company, generated a cash flow of $9.5 billion in the quarter, up 13 fold from a year earlier, enabling it to cover its dividend and reduce debt for a third quarter in a row.
Oil and gas production, known as upstream, rose 2 percent in the quarter to 3.752 million barrels of oil equivalent from 3.905 million boed in the fourth quarter of 2016 as a number of new fields continued to ramp up in Brazil and Kazakhstan in particular.
Refining and marketing earnings also rose 20 percent to $2.49 billion.
“We saw notable improvements in Upstream and Chemicals, which benefited from improved operational performance and better market conditions,” said Chief Executive Ben van Beurden.
The Anglo-Dutch company joined rivals in reporting better than expected results, after earnings from BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total all beat analysts’ forecasts.
Shell’s debt ratio versus company capitalization, known as gearing, declined in the first quarter to 27.2 percent from 28 percent in the fourth quarter.
Net income attributable to shareholders in the quarter, based on a current cost of supplies (CCS) and excluding exceptional items rose 142 percent to $3.75 billion, compared with a company-provided analysts’ consensus of $3.05 billion.
A year ago, net income attributable to shareholders was $1.55 billion.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Toby Chopra and Susan Fenton)
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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: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
