Royal Dutch Shell is set to unveil its highest earnings since the oil market collapse this week, just one year after the oil major’s lowest profits in more than a decade.
The Anglo-Dutch oil group’s efforts to overhaul its portfolio during the depths of the oil market rout are expected to be turbo-charged by the recovery in oil prices to over $65 a barrel last year, from under $30 a barrel at their lowest point in early 2016.
Analysts predict the group’s earnings on a “current cost of supply” basis will be more than $15.7bn (£11bn) for 2017 from just $3.5bn (£2.5bn) the year before. The final quarter of last year is expected to generate higher earnings than the whole of 2016 at $4.2bn (£3bn), according to analyst consensus forecasts.
The startling turnaround from Shell’s disappointing 2016 results, which were even lower than in 2015, comes in the wake of a diligent focus on financial discipline following the mega-deal to take over BG Group, the gas giant, at the depths of the market rout.
Shell has also completed the majority of its $30bn (£21bn) programme to sell-off oil assets which are peripheral to the business. Shell’s oil major peers are also expected to reveal a cash flow boom in the coming weeks.
Jason Gammel of Jefferies told investors to “put on their rally caps” as the higher earnings flow through the shareholders, many of whom have patiently accepted company shares in lieu of dividend payouts.
Shell said in November that it would begin to buy back at least $25bn (£18bn) worth of shares, but analysts at JP Morgan have predicted this could rise to $27.5bn (£20bn), buoyed by higher flows of cash back into the business.
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.
