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Shell PLC on Thursday left its buyback unchanged but reported weaker earnings than forecast due to reduced oil prices and a softer contribution from its marketing business. The London-based oil major reported adjusted earnings of $3.26 billion in the fourth quarter, down 11% from $3.66 billion a year ago, and below $3.51 billion company compiled consensus. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the quarter fell 10% to $12.80 billion from $14.28 billion a year prior. Shell said the lower earnings reflected lower Marketing margins, lower realised prices and higher operating expenses. Operating expenses rose 1.7% to $9.56 billion in the quarter from $9.40 billion a year prior. Cashflow from operations declined to $9.44 billion in the fourth quarter from $13.16 billion a year prior. Adjusted earnings in Integrated Gas fell to $1.66 billion from $2.17 billion, below $1.81 billion consensus, while adjusted earnings in Marketing declined to $578 million from $839 million, below $830 million consensus. Adjusted losses in the Chemicals business mounted to $589 million from $258 million on-year but Shell’s E&P division beat consensus. In E&P, adjusted earnings of $1.57 billion, were down from $1.68 billion on-year, but ahead of $1.48 billion consensus. Trading at Shell has been impacted by lower oil prices amid geopolitical and economic volatility with the price of Brent crude down 7.9% year-on-year, despite a recent rally. For 2025 as a whole adjusted earnings in 2025 dropped to $18.53 billion from $23.72 billion in 2024, while adjusted Ebitda fell to $56.14 billion from $65.80 billion. Revenue for the quarter is $64.09 billion, down 3.3% from $66.28 billion on-year. Revenue for 2025 was $266.89 billion, down from $284.31 billion in 2024. Chief Executive Wael Sawan commented: ‘2025 was a year of accelerated momentum, with strong operational and financial performance across Shell. We generated free cash flow of $26 billion, made significant progress in focusing our portfolio and reached $5 billion of cost savings since 2022, with more to come.’ Looking ahead, Shell guided for between 920,000 and 980,000 barrels of oil per day in production from Integrated Gas in the first quarter of 2026. The firm expects Upstream production between 1.7 million boepd and 1.9 boepd and sees Marketing sales volumes between 2.55 million barrels per day and 2.75 million barrels. In addition, Shell raised its fourth quarter dividend and kept the pace of quarterly buybacks unchanged at $3.5 billion from the prior quarter, despite some analysts forecasting a cut. Shell said the buyback programme will be completed before the first quarter results announcement. It increased the fourth quarter dividend by 3.9% to 37.2 US cents per share, from 35.8 US cents. CEO Sarwan said: ‘In Q4, despite lower earnings in a softer macro, cash delivery remained solid and today we announce a 4% increase in our dividend and $3.5 billion share buyback, making this the 17th consecutive quarter of at least $3 billion of buybacks.’ Shares in Shell were down 1.7% at 2,818.50 pence each in London on Thursday. The wider FTSE 100 was down 0.4%. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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