THE HAGUE (dpa-AFX) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDS-B, RDSB.L, RDSA.L, RDS-A) reported third-quarter income attributable to shareholders of $5.84 billion compared to $4.09 billion, previous year. Basic earnings per share was $0.70 compared to $0.50. CCS earnings attributable to shareholders increased to $5.57 billion from $3.70 billion. Basic CCS earnings per share was $0.67 compared to $0.45.
Third-quarter CCS earnings attributable to shareholders excluding identified items were $5.6 billion, compared with $4.1 billion in the third quarter 2017. Basic CCS earnings per share excl. identified items was $0.68 compared to $0.50, a year ago. The company said the earnings primarily benefited from increased realised oil, gas and LNG prices as well as higher contributions from trading in Integrated Gas, partly offset by lower margins in Downstream, higher deferred tax charges in Upstream and adverse currency exchange effects.
Third-quarter revenue improved year-over-year to $100.15 billion from $75.83 billion, last year.
Also, Shell plc announced the commencement of trading in the second tranche of its share buyback programme previously announced on July 26, 2018. The company's intention is to buy back at least $25 billion of its shares by the end of 2020, subject to further progress with debt reduction and oil price conditions. On October 19, 2018 the company completed the first tranche of its share buyback programme.
The Board of Shell plc announced an interim dividend in respect of the third quarter of 2018 of $0.47 per A ordinary share and B ordinary share, equal to the US dollar dividend for the same quarter last year.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX