ROYAL Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, reported yesterday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 60 percent, due to divestments and higher oil prices.
Net income was US$8.47 billion, up from US$5.28 billion, a company record in dollar terms. Sales rose to US$107 billion from US$75.5 billion despite a fall in oil production.
Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer described the results as "satisfactory'' overall, noting that the company had weak refining margins but "launched new (production) projects ... and achieved exploration successes.''
Shares fell 1.3 percent to 23.77 euros (US$35.11) in Amsterdam.
Despite the "record-breaking'' earnings, which prompted a British labor union leader to call for a windfall tax, the company's fourth-quarter numbers "did miss analysts expectations by a whisker,'' analyst Richard Hunter of Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers in London said in a research note.
He said in particular, Shell's refusal to disclose its proven reserves - a sensitive topic since the company was forced to restate them downward in a 2004 accounting scandal - was weighing on shares.
Van der Veer said the company would reveal the reserves at a strategy update during its annual meeting on March 17.
"We will make sure we have counted all our reserves ... and can explain at great detail what you may have hoped to hear today,'' he said.
Analyst Hunter said: "Ongoing issues in Nigeria and Canada, along with uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the OPEC meeting tomorrow (today) and weak refining margins, have also weighed on the shares.''
Shell has shut down operations in Nigeria's oil-rich delta region due to kidnappings and attacks on its facilities by local groups seeking a larger share in the profits from production there. One of its Canadian facilities suffered a loss in production due to a fire in November.
At Shell's production arm, profit rose 38 percent to US$4.87 billion.
The company's production was 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, down 5.5 percent from 3.6 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Shell said its average selling price per barrel of crude was US$82.96, versus US$55.37 a year ago.