Royal Dutch Shell said its $7bn share buyback programme would continue “at pace” despite weaker oil product sales due to the Omicron Covid variant and forex headwinds in Turkey.
Shell has already returned $1.5bn to investors and a decision was taken on December 31, 2021 to carry on with the redistribution of the remaining $5.5bn.
The oil giant said this was in addition to the ordinary distributions of 20%-30% of cash flow from operations.
In a trading update, Shell also warned that production from its integrated gas division was hurt by unplanned maintenance in the last quarter of 2021.
Oil products marketing results were hit by a trading performance significantly below the third quarter. Chemicals margins and refinery utilisation also fell in the three months to December 31 compared with the previous quarter.
However, trading profits from integrated gas jumped on quarter as Shell benefited from soaring liquefied natural gas spot prices.
