After the corona crisis, oil prices are rising significantly – but the energy giant Shell is in the red. And CEO Ben van Beurden has other worries as well.
The gas and oil company Shell surprisingly slipped into the red in the third quarter due to the turbulence on the raw material markets.
Group boss Ben van Beurden also ordered the company to stricter climate targets and thus also responded to criticism from investors and a court ruling from the spring. The bottom line was in the months of July to September a loss of 447 million dollars (385 million euros) after a profit of 3.4 billion dollars in the second quarter, as the British-Dutch group announced on Thursday.
Billions in depreciation
The reason was a write-off of $ 5.2 billion on the valuation of futures contracts for commodities that the company had taken out to hedge against fluctuations in the markets. In addition, the consequences of the “Ida” hurricane, which led to production failures, had a negative impact. The profit adjusted for one-off effects therefore fell by around a quarter to 4.1 billion dollars in a quarterly comparison, despite higher oil prices. As in the second quarter, sales were just under $ 62 billion.
Since the previous year’s figure was heavily burdened by the consequences of the Corona crisis and the drop in oil prices, the quarterly comparison is more meaningful. The market has since recovered: Oil costs more than it has for years.
Van Beurden defended the position of the group with the broad range from gas and oil to renewable energies. Without corporations like Shell, the transition to fewer greenhouse gas emissions would be more difficult. Shell had come under fire from the Dutch pension fund ABP, the largest of its kind in Europe. From 2023, he wants to sell shares in companies with a focus on fossil energy with a value of around 15 billion – including the shares in Shell.
New goals for reducing CO2
In order to satisfy critical investors and meet a court ruling, van Beurden gave Europe’s most valuable oil company new targets for reducing CO2 emissions. These are now to fall by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2016 and thus much more sharply than previously targeted. By 2050 they should be at zero. The group suffered a historic setback in May in the Netherlands. The district court in The Hague upheld a lawsuit by environmentalists and ordered that carbon dioxide emissions must be drastically reduced.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
