Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said today higher oil prices and its own performance helped it to more than double third-quarter profits.
The firm reported pre-tax profits of £7.8billion for the third quarter, up 133% compared with £3.3billion a year earlier.
This was on sales of £78.8billion in the three months to the end of September, against £58billion in the same period in 2010.
Chief executive Peter Voser said: “Our third-quarter results were higher than year-ago levels, driven by higher oil prices and Shell’s performance.”
The firm’s production grew 2%, excluding divestments, outstripping BP’s 8% dip in production reported on Tuesday.
But Shell’s third-quarter profits were lower than its second-quarter figure of £9billion, which in turn was up 71% on the same quarter in 2010.
Mr Voser said production had been driven by a continued ramp-up of growth projects, mainly oil sands initiatives in Canada and gas to liquids developments in Qatar.
These were part of 20 new upstream start-up projects planned by Shell for 2011-14, outstripping BP’s pipeline of 17 major projects.
Mr Voser also said liquefied natural gas sales rose by 12%.
He added the firm completed £3.8billion of asset sales so far this year, £1.1billion of that in the third quarter, including the Stanlow refinery in the UK.
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