Shell’s LNG trading provides quarterly boost

LONDON: Earnings from Shell’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading operations are likely to have been significantly higher in the fourth quarter of last year despite a sharp output drop owing to plant outages, it said on Friday.

Europe’s largest oil and gas company’s update ahead of its full-year results on Feb.2 also said it expects to pay about $2 billion in additional 2022 taxes related to the European Union and British windfall taxes imposed on the energy sector.

Fourth-quarter LNG liquefaction volumes are expected to be the lowest since the company acquired BG Group in 2016 for $53 billion, dropping to between 6.6 million and 7 million tonnes as a result of prolonged outages at two major plants in Australia.

But Shell, the world’s top LNG trader, said its LNG trading results are set to be “significantly higher” than in the previous quarter.

Shell’s third quarter results were dented by weaker refining performance and a slump in LNG trading.

The LNG trading division recorded a loss of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter ater traders were caught out by a sharp rally in European gas prices when Russia halted supplies.

Yet Shell remained on track for record annual profit in 2022, having posted earnings of $30 billion in the first three quarters, just shy of the 2008 record profit of $31 billion.

London-based Shell, whose Chief Executive Wael Sawan succeeded Ben van Beurden on Jan. 1 ater nine years at the helm, said in October that it intends to increase its dividend by 15 per cent in the fourth quarter.