Shell reported the second-highest profit in its history on the back of record oil refining margins as the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine conflict deprived the world of fuel-making capacity.
Adjusted net income surged to US$10.8 billion (S$13.8 billion) in the third quarter, the London-based major said in an earnings statement on Oct 29. That is the highest since the three months immediately after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Analysts had anticipated a profit of US$10.2 billion. Shell raised its share buyback to US$5 billion and maintained its dividend.
Big Oil is reaping an oil-refining bonanza because the two wars have temporarily halted a swath of the world’s fuel-making capacity, meaning out-sized profits for those plants that continue churning out diesel, gasoline and other refined products.
Under Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan, Shell has concentrated its oil refining operations in fewer, larger plants closely tied to its trading business.
At the same time, it has focused on shareholder returns, expanded its liquefied natural gas (LNG) footprint, and maintained oil production.
The company’s oil refining margins surged to a record US$42 a barrel in the quarter, up from US$24 in the prior three months.
Adjusted profit from Chemicals and Products, the segment including fuel-making and oil trading, jumped to US$3.86 billion, the highest every quarterly earnings for Shell’s downstream unit.
The same business made a total of US$1.1 billion across all of 2025.
The major’s North American liquefied natural gas portfolio also benefitted from unusually wide profits for exporting the fuel into Europe and Asia, as its new LNG Canada site ramped up.
Shell and its partners in the Canadian project agreed this quarter to double export capacity. BLOOMBERG
