Britain-based oil company Shell on Thursday reported that its first-quarter income before tax fell to $11.04 billion from last year's $14.35 billion - and also said it has started repurchasing shares.
Income attributable to shareholders declined to $7.36 billion from last year's $8.71 billion. Earnings per share were $1.13, down from $1.25 a year ago.
Adjusted Earnings per share were $1.20, compared to $1.39 in the prior year. Analysts on average expected the company to report earnings of $1.86 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Adjusted EBITDA was $18.71 billion, lower than prior year's $21.43 billion.
Total revenue and other income also declined to $74.70 billion from prior year's $89.02 billion.
Looking ahead for the second quarter, Integrated Gas production is expected to be approximately 920 - 980 thousand boe/d. LNG liquefaction volumes are expected to be approximately 6.8 - 7.4 million tonnes.
Upstream production is expected to be around 1,630 - 1,830 thousand boe/d. Production outlook reflects the scheduled maintenance across the portfolio.
Marketing sales volumes are expected to be approximately 2,700 - 3,200 thousand b/d.
Cash capital expenditure for full year 2024 is expected to be within $22 billion to $25 billion.
Shell also announced the commencement of a $3.5 billion of share repurchase drive covering a total contract term of around three months.
All shares repurchased as will be cancelled as the purpose of the drive is to reduce the issued share capital of the company.
As part of the move, the company has entered into an arrangement with a single broker consisting of three irrevocable, non-discretionary contracts, to enable the purchase of shares on both London market exchanges and Netherlands exchanges for a period of up to July 26.
The aggregate maximum consideration for the purchase of shares under the London contracts is $2 billion and under the Netherlands contract is $1.5 billion.
The maximum number of shares which may be purchased by the company under the drive is 360,000,000.
Shell intends to complete the transaction before August 1.