Shell’s H1 Profits Climb to $14bn with Focus on Fossil Fuels

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Shell’s profits have climbed to $14 billion or £10.9 billion for the first half of 2024 after its decision to focus on fossil fuels over low-carbon energy delivered stronger than expected earnings for a second consecutive quarter.

Europe’s biggest oil and gas company rewarded its shareholders with a further $3.5 billion in share buybacks after reporting adjusted earnings of $6.3 billion in the three months to the end of June, the Guardian UK reported.

The latest results, which have taken the company’s total profits for the first half of the year to $14 billion and its share buybacks to $7 billion, have angered climate campaigners as Shell continues to grow its global gas business and pull back on investment in low-carbon energy.

Shell delivered its results days after BP topped forecasts by reporting profits of almost $2.8 billion for the second quarter and set out plans to develop an oil hub in the Gulf of Mexico.

Together the companies have reported combined profits over the last year amounting to £31.2 billion, or more than the combined gross domestic product of six of the Caribbean countries affected most by the record-breaking destruction of Hurricane Beryl, according to the NGO Global Justice Now.

Shell watered down a climate pledge this year by reframing a target to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of the energy it sells by 15-20 per cent by the end of the decade, compared with its previous target of 20 per cent.

This will enable Shell to slow the pace of its emissions reductions while growing its global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business in a decade that climatologists have warned is crucial in averting a climate catastrophe.

The new targets emerged months after Shell’s chief executive, Wael Sawan, said the company would cut hundreds of jobs from the oil company’s low-carbon division as part of a plan to increase the company’s profits.