Shell posts profit, concerned of volatility

LONDON / MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said yesterday that net profits climbed by two percent to $7.139 billion (5.514 billion euros) in the third quarter, when the group faced weaker oil and gas prices.

Shell added in a result statement that its adjusted net profit, a key measure which strips out changes in the value of inventories and other non-operating items, fell by 6.0 percent to $6.56 billion in the three months to September.

However, that beat market expectations for profit of $6.31 billion, according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

“Shell is driving a long-term and consistent strategy, against a backdrop of volatile energy markets,” said Chief Executive Peter Voser in the earnings release.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Rosneft beat analysts’ expectations yesterday by reporting a more than doubling of quarterly profits to $5.8 billion in advance of its $61 billion acquisition of Anglo-Russian rival TNK-BP. The report should help boost the confidence of one of the Russian state’s two most important energy companies on the eve of its planned alliance with the British group BP and emergence as a global super-major by buying TNK-BP. “Net profit in the third quarter of 2012 reached a five-year high of 181 billion rubles ($45.8 billion),” Rosneft said in a statement. The company had also attributed its gains to better cost controls and efficiency.