Oil-giant, Royal Dutch Shell, in a preliminary disclosure for the third quarter ending September said its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) output increased by at least 10percent, however, its upstream output slumped 2.7percent and charges up to $850 million for the third quarter.
A snapshot of results ahead of its full quarterly earnings statement, scheduled for October 31, Shell puts its Q3 upstream production at 2.60 million-2.65 million b/d of oil equivalent, down from 2.67million boe/d in the third quarter 2018, without indicating the oil and gas split.
Shell noted that the end-of-quarter statement was in response to investor feedback and part of efforts to increase transparency.
According to Shell, prices for gas and natural gas liquids continued to be “disconnected” from Brent benchmark oil prices, reflecting exceptionally weak gas market conditions, indicating an uptick in write-offs for unsuccessful exploration drilling, saying well write-offs would be $250 million-350 million higher than in Q3 2018, when the write-off level was $149 million.
Shell refinery availability had been in the range of 90-92percenr, roughly in line with a year earlier. Oil product sales were up compared with a year earlier, at between 6.70 million and 7.35 million b/d, while chemical sales were down, at 3.90 million-4.00 million mt, it said, noting it had completed the sale of its stake in Saudi refining joint venture SASREF in September.
Shell had in August reported a slump in second quarter on the back of lower oil output and LNG Prices.
The company’s total production available for sale in Q2 2019 was 3.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mmboe/d), a decrease from $ 3.8 Mmboe/d in Q1 2019 but an increase from $3.4bn in Q2 2018.
Shell’s revenue for Q2 2019 was $90.5bn, a decrease from $96.8bn in Q2 2018 but an increase from $83.7bn in Q1 2019. The company also saw cash flow of $11bn from operating activities in Q2 2019, an increase from $8.6bn and $9.5bn in Q1 2019 and Q2 2018 respectively
The company’s offshore operations saw Current cost of supplies (CCS) earnings of $1.4bn, a decrease from Q1 2019 earnings of $1.7bn and Q2 2018’s at $1.5bn respectively.
