Rising energy prices, along with cost cutting, helped secure the soaring result at Europe’s largest energy company.
Shell, Europe’s largest energy company, reported on Thursday its biggest ever quarterly profit, reflecting high prices for oil and natural gas spurred by the war in Ukraine and tightness in world energy markets. The company’s adjusted earnings of $9.1 billion for the January-March period were almost triple the $3.2 billion it earned in the same period a year earlier. Shell also said that it would increase the pace of share buybacks in the second quarter, to $4.5 billion, compared with $4 billion for the first quarter, and that it would raise the dividend by 4 percent, to 25 cents per share.
