LONDON (Alliance News) - Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Thursday reported a dramatic fall in earnings during 2015, but the results did meet expectations.
The FTSE 100 oil and gas major said current cost of supply (CSS) earnings excluding items more than halved year-on-year in 2015 to USD10.67 billion from USD22.56 billion, which is at the top end of Shell's guidance provided last month.
CSS earnings including items fell 80% during the year to USD3.84 billion from USD19.04 billion a year earlier, whilst income attributable to shareholders fell at an even steeper rate to USD1.93 billion from USD14.87 billion, representing an 87% fall.
That USD1.93 billion result also was at the top end of Shell's guidance range of USD1.60 billion to USD2.00 billion.
The dramatic fall in CCS earnings before items resulted from the upstream unit reporting a large fall in earnings to USD1.78 billion from USD16.50 billion, with the downstream division actually reporting a rise in CCS earnings before items to USD9.74 billion from USD6.26 billion.
Cashflow from operating activities came in at USD29.80 billion compared to USD45.00 billion a year ago, which was slightly below analysts USD30.22 billion forecast.
Production in 2015 was 4% lower than the year before, averaging 2.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, with production down 1% on a like-for-like basis.
Shell, as expected, maintained its dividend for the year of USD1.88 per share and has also said its dividend next year will remain flat.
Shell is expected to complete its merger with BG Group PLC on February 15, with BG reporting its full year results on Friday. BG has already guided that it expects to report total results earnings of "at least" USD2.30 billion in 2015, nearly halving from USD4.03 billion in 2014 whilst its business performance earnings are expected to be around USD1.70 billion, also considerably down from USD4.34 billion a year ago.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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