Royal Dutch Shell has announced a 41% increase in first quarter profits on the back of higher world oil prices.
The Anglo-Dutch company said profits for the first three months of the year were $6.9bn (£4.1bn) compared with $4.9bn a year ago.
"We are making good progress against our targets, to deliver a more competitive performance," said chief executive Peter Voser.
On Wednesday, rival BP reported first quarter profits of $5.5bn.
BP's profits were down slightly from the same period last year. Production in the quarter was down 11% after BP sold assets to help pay for the cost of cleaning up last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Production target
As well as higher oil prices, Shell said asset sales and cost saving measures had also contributed to its profitability in the first quarter.
In March, the firm set out a new $100bn investment programme to meet demand for oil and gas.
It has set a production target of 3.7 million barrels of gas and oil per day by 2014.
Shell is one of the world's major suppliers of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The firm said it had started commercial production at its Qatargas 4 LNG facility.
As a consequence of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, demand for LNG is expected to increase as nuclear power there is scaled back.
No comments:
Post a Comment