Shell (LON: SHEL) reported on Thursday adjusted earnings of $39.9 billion for 2022, double the earnings from 2021, becoming the latest Big Oil firm to deliver record profits for last year.
Shell's adjusted earnings doubled to $39.9 billion in 2022 from $19.3 billion in 2021, thanks to higher realized oil and gas prices, high refining margins, and strong trading results mainly in the gas, chemicals, and renewables divisions, the supermajor said.
Along with the results, Shell announced a 15% dividend increase for the fourth quarter, as well as $4 billion in share buybacks, which are expected to be completed by the Q1 2023 results announcement in early May.
Shell's 2022 results include charges of $2.3 billion related to the EU solidarity contribution and the UK Energy Profits Levy-the windfall taxes Europe introduced last year for energy producers.
Shell's record profits and the record earnings at the U.S. supermajors could intensify calls for more taxation on oil and gas majors as consumers continue to see high energy bills.
ExxonMobil reported on Tuesday $55.7 billion in earnings for 2022 in a record-breaking earnings tally for any Western oil supermajor ever.
High oil and gas prices were the key reasons for higher profits at Exxon, which beat its own annual earnings record of $45.2 billion from 2008 - when oil prices hit a record $142 per barrel - and posted the highest-ever annual profit by a major Western oil firm.
The other U.S. supermajor, Chevron, on Friday also reported its highest annual profit ever as its adjusted earnings for last year more than doubled from 2021 to hit $36.5 billion on the back of higher oil and gas prices and record U.S. production.
Analysts have expected that ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies will reap $200 billion in combined yearly earnings for 2022 thanks to the jump in oil and gas prices.
BP and TotalEnergies are due to release Q4 and full-year earnings on February 7 and February 8, respectively.
The record profits at the majors already drew criticism from the White House, which slammed Exxon's record earnings for 2022 as "outrageous."
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More
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