Shell Braces For ‘Lower Forever’ Oil As Profits Soar
LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is gearing up for a world of “lower forever” oil prices, its Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday, after the company’s profits tripled in the second quarter.
The oil and gas industry has struggled with three years of weak prices while also facing the prospect of oil demand plateauing by the end of the next decade.
But Europe’s largest energy company was able to boost its profits more than expected, increase cash flow to $12.2 billion and reduce debt thanks to asset sales and as big savings introduced since the oil price collapse kicked in.
But Shell’s oil and gas production dipped versus the previous quarter as a result of reduced output from a facility in Qatar.
Van Beurden said with oil prices hovering around $50 a barrel and forecasts of only a modest recovery by the end of the decade, Shell was not planning to stop its cost cutting drive.
It was now “getting fit” to be profitable in a world where oil trades at $40 a barrel, he said.
“The external price environment and energy sector developments mean we will remain very disciplined.”
Shell is one of the top three picks of analysts that cover global oil companies, together with Chevron and Total , Reuters data shows.
Shell’s “performance is beginning to show the underlying potential of Shell’s ability to generate operating cash flows in the current oil price environment,” Brendan Warn, analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said. BMO has an “outperform” recommendation on Shell.
Shell’s shares were up 0.3 percent at 1404 GMT, outperforming the broader index, which was down 0.5 percent.
Shell’s European rivals Total and Statoil also beat analyst forecasts on Thursday.
Shell reiterated its plans to spend around $25 billion this year, at the lower end of its long-term range, but said it could cut further if needed.
Net income attributable to shareholders in the second quarter, based on a current cost of supplies and excluding exceptional items, rose 245 percent to $3.6 billion, topping a company-provided analyst consensus of $3.15 billion.
The rise in profits was driven mostly by refining and chemicals.
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: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
