© Reuters. Jeffrey Smith
Investing.com — Shares of Shell (LON:) rose Friday after the oil and gas giant said gas trading was strong in the fourth quarter, despite a plunge in natural gas prices in the fourth quarter. rose in early trading.
In a brief transaction update for the previous quarter, Shell posted a “significant increase” in integrated gas unit trading and optimization over the three months to September, with pre-tax and pre-depreciation adjusted earnings of 12 He said he expects it to be between $1.6 billion and $1.6 billion. .
The company also recouped some of last year’s unexpected gains from the oil and gas industry, quantifying the expected hit from recent initiatives in the UK and Europe. The planned EU Solidarity Charge and UK Energy Profits Levy are expected to pay approximately $2 billion, but the timing of the payments will have a minimal cash impact on Q4 results The news pushed Shell’s overall hit to just under $2.4 billion.
Elsewhere in the update, Shell said refining margins widened to about $19 a barrel in the last three months of the year, up from $15 last quarter, while chemicals margins went from $27 to $32 a tonne. said to have expanded. But with the start of depreciation at the new Polymers Monaca chemical plant in Pennsylvania, we noted weakening trading and optimization.
Shell’s share price has been essentially flat over the past seven months as underlying gas and oil markets peaked before falling in response to signs that higher prices are eating into global demand. By 03:45 ET (08:45 GMT), Shell shares were up 1.2%, beating the benchmark gain of 0.3%.
