( GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / BRANDON BELL )
The British hydrocarbons giant Shell warned on Wednesday that its fourth quarter 2024 results, which will be published at the end of the month, will be penalized by volumes and turnover falling from one quarter to the next in its division. gas.
The results in this business segment “should be significantly lower than those of the third quarter of 2024” due to “the expiration of risk hedging contracts”, warns the group in a press release, also anticipating a reduction in production volumes .
Shell’s earnings release for the fourth quarter and 2024 as a whole is scheduled for January 30.
The group’s stock fell 0.97% to 2,591.50 pence on Wednesday shortly after the opening of the London Stock Exchange.
Shell had published at the end of October a sharp decline in net profit in the third quarter of 2024, to 4.3 billion dollars, compared to 7 billion for the same period in 2023, affected in particular by the drop in refining margins and oil prices.
But the difficulties over the quarter were partly offset, among other things, by the increase in gas activity volumes.
The price of European gas increased at the end of 2024. On December 31, it exceeded the bar of 50 euros per megawatt hour – a first in more than a year -, driven in particular by the expiration of an agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, before going down a little.
Several Shell shareholders, including British pension funds, also announced on Tuesday the tabling of a resolution asking the company to “justify the assumptions on which its growth strategy is based” for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and ” to explain how it is consistent with (its) climate commitments.”
Shell has backtracked in recent months, like BP, on certain climate objectives, to refocus on hydrocarbons and boost its profits, to the great dismay of environmental activists. It announced again last month that it would no longer develop new offshore wind projects.
