A decrease in profits and total energy in the third quarter despite exceeding expectations

On Thursday, Shell announced a 10% drop in adjusted earnings for the third quarter, to 5.4 billion dollars, compared to 6 billion dollars in the same period last year, due to the drop in oil prices, but exceeded analysts’ expectations of 5.09 billion dollars, supported by strong performance in the gas business.

Shell confirmed that it would continue its share buyback program worth 3.5 billion dollars during the last quarter of the year, while its competitor Total Energy announced that it would reduce its share buyback during the same period to limit its debt.

According to Reuters, since it bought back more than a quarter of its shares over the past four years, its total operations exceeded $3 billion over the past 16 quarters, and its dividend payments reached $2.1 billion, bringing the company’s total payout to shareholders during the last four quarters to 48% of operating cash flow, in line with its target range of 40% to 50%.

On the other hand, French Total Energy recorded a slight decrease in adjusted net income to 4 billion dollars during the third quarter, compared to 4.1 billion dollars in the corresponding period last year, in line with analysts’ expectations according to the data collected by the London Stock Exchange Group.

Reuters said that the increase in production in the upstream activities and the improvement in air quality in crude oil refining have partially affected the decline in oil prices on the results of the French company.