Royal Dutch Shell net profit jumps almost a third

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday said net profit grew 31.5 percent to $1.545 billion (1.316 billion euros) in the second quarter from a year earlier, boosted by higher oil prices.

"Shell's strong results this quarter show that we are reshaping the company following the integration of BG," chief executive Ben van Beurden said in an earnings statement in reference to the Anglo-Dutch company's purchase of British peer BG Group in 2016.

"Cash generation has been resilient over four consecutive quarters, at an average oil price of just under $50 per barrel," he said.

Revenue jumped 23 percent to $72.1 billion in the reporting period, with Shell aided also by the sale of non-core assets.

Profit on a current cost-of-supplies basis -- which strips out changes to the value of its oil and gas inventories -- more than trebled to $3.6 billion.

Van Beurden added that Shell would continue to focus on cost controls.

The second quarter result was meanwhile skewed by performance a year earlier, when Shell was hit by low crude prices and costs linked to its takeover of BG Group.

Shell is in the process of selling off assets worth £30 billion over two years up to 2018 -- and has since offloaded about two-thirds the amount.

It plans to make investments of $25 billion this year, down on 2016 when Shell bought BG for £47 billion in a move intended to strengthen its position in the liquefied natural gas market.

In morning trade, Shell's shares were up about 1.0 percent on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was flat overall.

Source: AFP