Oil giant Shell posts weakest quarterly profit in nearly five years
Shell petrol station is at 106 Old Brompton Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom on December 25, 2025.
Nurfoto | Nurfoto | Getty Images
British oil expert Shell On Thursday, it reported its weakest quarterly profit in almost five years due to a weak crude oil price environment and unfavorable tax adjustments in the fourth quarter.
Shell reported adjusted earnings of $3.26 billion for the quarter, missing analysts’ expectations of $3.53 billion, according to a consensus compiled by LSEG. A separate service provided by the company analyst forecast Shell’s expected fourth quarter profit was determined as 3.51 billion dollars.
This marks Shell’s weakest quarterly result since the first three months of 2021, when adjusted earnings were $3.2 billion.
Shell posted weaker-than-expected adjusted earnings of $18.5 billion for full-year 2025, compared to annual profits of $23.72 billion the year before.
“I’d like to start by saying that it was actually a very strong operating quarter for us,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.
“A couple of things upset us this quarter. One was some tax adjustments that were against us, chemicals were really weak, but I would actually look at the strength of our integrated gas, manufacturing and marketing businesses,” Sawan said.
The company announced a 4% increase in its dividend to $0.372 per share and a $3.5 billion share buyback program; This marks the 17th consecutive quarter with buybacks of $3 billion or more.
Net debt amounted to $45.7 billion at the end of last year, a rate of 20.7%. This reflects a $41.2 billion increase in net debt and an 18.8% increase at the end of the third quarter.
Performance and returns
The results come at a time when low oil prices are forcing European energy giants to confront some tough choices.
Expectations of a particularly weak earnings season, along with a challenging market environment, were expected to put the industry’s shareholder payouts at risk.
Norway’s Ekinor In this sense, he was the one who made the first move. State-supported energy company announced It made major cuts to the share of buybacks on Wednesday after recording a 22% drop in fourth-quarter profit.
Equinor said it would reduce share buybacks to $1.5 billion this year from $5 billion last year, while also reducing investments in renewable energy and low-emission energy projects.
Shell’s Sawan said he came to the job about three years ago with the aim of improving the performance culture at the company.
Referring to the widespread use of artificial intelligence and developments in the supply chain, Sawan said, “Looking ahead now, we still see many opportunities to really improve our performance.”
“But there [are] There are also opportunities to really increase returns. “And I would say, in this next phase, you’ll see us continue to be consistent in our return on capital and continue to improve our return on capital,” he added.
britain’s blood pressure and France Total Energies Both are scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings next week.
