Shell has revealed stronger-than-expected profits for a second consecutive quarter after making $6.3bn (£4.9bn) in the last three months.
The company’s adjusted earnings for April to June were above analyst forecasts of $5.9bn and the $5bn it made in the same period last year.
It is the second quarter in a row that Shell has beaten expectations by delivering profits well above the consensus of analyst forecasts. In the first quarter, the company reported adjusted earnings of $7.7bn against forecasts of $6.46bn.
Shell delivered the better-than-expected results days after BP topped forecasts by reporting profits of almost $2.8bn and set out plans to develop a new oil hub in the Gulf of Mexico.
Together the companies have reported combined profits over the last year amounting to £31.2bn, according to the NGO Global Justice Now. This is more than the combined gross domestic product of six of the Caribbean countries impacted most by the record-breaking destruction of Hurricane Beryl, which has been linked to rising global temperatures.
Izzie McIntosh, a climate campaigner at Global Justice Now, said Shell’s profits laid “bare the shameful inequity at the heart of the fossil fuel economy”.
“People in the Caribbean devastated by the impacts of Hurricane Beryl are left to pick up the pieces, while rich shareholders and fossil fuel CEOs get to rake in the profits, removed from the chaos they’ve played a leading role in creating,” McIntosh said.
Shell’s latest quarterly results were below those reported in the previous three months because of lower profits from its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business and refineries. But the company has promised to repeat the $3.5bn in share buybacks from the first quarter in the months ahead.
The chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the strong financial results coupled with the decision to hand shareholders $3.5bn in buybacks demonstrated the company was “delivering more value with less emissions”.
Shell had warned investors to expect an impairment charge of up to $2bn in its quarterly results after it was forced to halt work on Europe’s largest biofuel project and sell off a Singapore refinery.
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The company said it had “temporarily paused” the construction of the Rotterdam biofuel plant, which was expected to convert waste into sustainable aviation fuel and biodiesel by the end of the decade to help the aviation sector reduce its emissions.
Shell’s biggest energy transition project has struggled with technical difficulties that have delayed its progress so far. The company had expected to start producing up to 820,000 tonnes of biofuels a year in April, before this was pushed back to 2025.
