Shell profit up by $2.2bn, to invest $25bn in Nigeria, others

The net profit of Royal Dutch Shell more than doubled in the first three months of 2017, surpasing predictions by analysts as rebounding oil prices and refining gains helped to boost the company’s revenue.

The company’s first quarter 2017 financial results released yesterday showed that net income attributable to shareholders in the quarter, based on a current cost of supplies (CCS), rose by $2.2 billion.

CCS is a number similar to the net income that US oil companies report.

It generated a cash flow of $9.5 billion in the quarter, up 13 fold from a year earlier, and the strongest among its rivals like Total and Exxon.

“We saw notable improvements in Upstream and Chemicals, which benefited from improved operational performance and better market conditions,” its chief executive, Ben van Beurden, said.

Shell, with operations in more than 70 countries, is Nigeria’s oldest energy company producing oil in various joint and production sharing arrangements with NNPC and other foreign oil companies.

It, however only recently resumed production at its 225,000 barrels per day Bonga field in Nigeria, an exercise to ensure sustained production and reduced unscheduled production deferments.

The oil giant said it is investing around $25 billion this year while it expects the delivery of new projects to generate $10 billion in cash flow from operating activities by 2018.

In its upstream operations in the first quarter, Oil and gas production rose 2 percent to 3.752 million barrels of oil equivalent from 3.905 million barrels in the fourth quarter of 2016 as a number of new fields continued to ramp up in Brazil and Kazakhstan in particular.