LONDON Shell PLC became the latest oil giant to make record annual profit last year, joining U.S. peers in surging back from early pandemic losses on soaring energy prices.
Shell's SHEL, SHELL, SHEL, $41.6 billion full-year profit surpasses the London-based company's previous record of $31.4 billion in 2008, measured on a net current-cost-of-supplies basis, a figure similar to the net income that U.S. oil companies report.
The results bring in more than $132 billion the combined profit of the three big majors last year, including historic results from Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. during the past week. The hauls, driven by strong global energy demand, erase billions of dollars of losses incurred during Covid lockdowns as global travel and economic activity slowed. Shell's earnings included a fourth-quarter profit on a net current-cost basis of $11.4 billion, compared to $11.2 billion in the year-ago period. Performance in Shell sliquefied natural gas business helped boost the results after Russia cut off pipeline gas supplies to Europe, which benefited from soaring global demand. The earnings for the fourth quarter, which strip out certain commodity-price adjustments and one-time charges, were $9.8 billion. That beat the consensus forecast of $8 billion for the quarter, according to a survey of 28 analysts for Shell by an outside firm. Shell's results are the first reported under Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan, who took over the role Jan. 1 from longtime boss Ben van Beurden. The 48-year-old Mr. Sawan, a dual Lebanese-Canadian national who joined Shell in 1997, rose through the ranks to oversee Shell's natural gas business, which has driven record profits and more recently renewable energy.