Lower oil production blamed for Royal Dutch Shell profits fall - Guardian Unlimited- About: Oil and Gas News

Royal Dutch Shell yesterday blamed lower oil production, weaker refining margins and higher costs for a fall in third quarter profits. Chief executive, Jeroen van der Veer, described the results as “satisfactory” in the light of the weaker refining margins and said they were underpinned by the group’s operating performance. Chief financial officer, Peter Voser, said overall oil and gas output was down 4%, with oil production, usually the highest source of earnings for oil companies, down 9%. Earlier this year Shell sold control of the Sakhalin 2 project in Siberia to Gazprom but hydrocarbon production is expected to benefit from Deimos in the Gulf of Mexico and Norway’s Ormen Lange gas field, where production is under way. Mr Voser would not be drawn on whether oil would break $100 a barrel but acknowledged it was hard to explain the current level in terms of fundamentals. The inevitable comparison with the current fortunes of BP will fall in favour of Shell, and the recent stock performance has confirmed that Shell is in a position to execute its strategy without the distractions of internal turmoil. read more

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