Shell’s Q2 profit more than doubles to $9.8B, beats forecasts

British energy giant Shell reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Thursday, as higher oil and gas prices, robust trading results, and improved refining margins boosted profitability.

Profits rose to $9.84 billion in the April-June period, more than double the $4.26 billion recorded in the same quarter last year and up 42% from $6.92 billion in the first three months of 2026.

Income attributable to Shell shareholders rose to $10.82 billion from $3.6 billion a year earlier, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased to $20.71 billion from $13.31 billion.

Shell said the improvement was driven by higher realized energy prices, stronger liquefied natural gas trading and optimization results, improved chemicals margins and increased contributions from crude oil and refined products trading.

The gains were partly offset by lower production volumes, primarily due to Middle East-related disruptions affecting the company’s operations in Qatar, as well as weaker lubricant margins.

“Shell’s operational performance enabled very strong results during another quarter of severe disruption in global energy markets,” CEO Wael Sawan said.

The company’s upstream division posted adjusted earnings of $3.49 billion, up from $2.44 billion in the first quarter, supported by higher realized oil and natural gas prices.

Adjusted earnings from the chemicals and products segment rose to $2.88 billion from $1.93 billion in the previous quarter, reflecting stronger refining margins and improved oil-products trading.

Shell said its chemicals business delivered its strongest adjusted earnings since the third quarter of 2021, while refinery utilization reached a record 102%.

Integrated gas adjusted earnings increased to $2.69 billion from $1.78 billion in the first quarter despite a sharp decline in production. Integrated gas output fell to 631,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 909,000 barrels in the previous quarter, largely because of conflict-related outages affecting Qatari volumes.

Shell’s total oil and gas production available for sale declined 8.5% year-on-year to 2.46 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Shell announced a new $3 billion share-buyback program, marking the 19th consecutive quarter in which the company has announced buybacks of at least that amount.

The company said structural cost reductions had reached $5.8 billion since 2022, including around $700 million achieved during the first half of this year.

Shell also expects its planned acquisition of Canadian energy producer ARC Resources to be completed in the third quarter following shareholder approval.