Shell reports record $41bn profit for 2022

Shell said today it made its biggest-ever annual profit last year, more than $41bn, driven by strong performances across its three business segments: Upstream, Integrated Gas, and Chemicals and Products.

Shell's full-year results show it more than doubled its profit, which excludes inventory effects, to $41.11bn from $17.07bn in 2021. This translated to the company's cash flow from operations last year jumping to $68.41bn, from $45.10bn in 2021.

For the fourth quarter Shell made a profit of $11.31bn, again excluding inventory effects, which was a 2.1pc increase on the $11.08bn it made in the final three months of 2021. But this was a significant improvement, or 40pc on the immediately preceding quarter — a period during which oil and gas prices fell back to levels they traded at before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

New Shell chief executive Wael Sawan put the fourth-quarter and full-year performance down to "Shell's differentiated portfolio, as well as our capacity to deliver vital energy to our customers in a volatile world". He confirmed that Shell had raised its dividend for fourth-quarter 2022 by 15pc and that the company had today begun a new $4bn share buyback programme.

Shell's oil and gas output in the October-December period was 2.83mn b/d of oil equivalent, a 2.3pc increase on the preceding quarter but down by 9.9pc on the same period of 2021. Its production guidance for the current quarter is between 2.66mn boe/d and 2.92mn boe/d.

In the company's downstream, refinery runs during the three months to the end of last year were steady quarter-on-quarter at 1.43mn b/d, which was a 6.4pc improvement on the fourth quarter of 2021. The global indicative refining margin for the quarter was $19/bl, compared with $15/bl in the third quarter of 2022.

Despite its stunning increase in cash flows, Shell said it is sticking to its current $23bn-27bn budget range for its capital spending for this year.

By Jon Mainwaring