London-based Shell Plc posted adjusted earnings of US$39.9 billion for 2022 in its financial results for the final three months of the year. Adjusted earnings in the fourth quarter, which exclude one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories, rose by 50 percent, to $9.8 billion, from the same period a year earlier.
Shell is the latest oil company to report bumper profits, which risks reigniting public anger that the fossil fuel industry do more to offset high energy bills for households and small businesses as well as cut climate-changing carbon emissions.
US-based Exxon Mobil also posted record annual profits days earlier, while UK rival BP and France’s TotalEnergies reported huge quarterly profits last year.
The results demonstrate Shell’s “capacity to deliver vital energy to our customers in a volatile world,” new chief executive officer Wael Sawan said in a statement.
Russia’s war in Ukraine sent global energy prices surging, with natural gas prices in Europe hitting record levels. (AP)