5th Feb 2026 09:01
(Alliance News) - 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 USD3.26 billion in the fourth quarter, down 11% from USD3.66 billion a year ago, and below USD3.51 billion company compiled consensus.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the quarter fell 10% to USD12.80 billion from USD14.28 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 USD9.56 billion in the quarter from USD9.40 billion a year prior.
Cashflow from operations declined to USD9.44 billion in the fourth quarter from USD13.16 billion a year prior.
Adjusted earnings in Integrated Gas fell to USD1.66 billion from USD2.17 billion, below USD1.81 billion consensus, while adjusted earnings in Marketing declined to USD578 million from USD839 million, below USD830 million consensus.
Adjusted losses in the Chemicals business mounted to USD589 million from USD258 million on-year but Shell's E&P division beat consensus.
In E&P, adjusted earnings of USD1.57 billion, were down from USD1.68 billion on-year, but ahead of USD1.48 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 USD18.53 billion from USD23.72 billion in 2024, while adjusted Ebitda fell to USD56.14 billion from USD65.80 billion.
Revenue for the quarter is USD64.09 billion, down 3.3% from USD66.28 billion on-year. Revenue for 2025 was USD266.89 billion, down from USD284.31 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 USD26 billion, made significant progress in focusing our portfolio and reached USD5 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 USD3.5 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 USD3.5 billion share buyback, making this the 17th consecutive quarter of at least USD3 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%.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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