Royal Dutch Shell third-quarter profit rises to $5.8bn

Royal Dutch Shell said third-quarter profit rose, beating estimates, as earnings from refining and natural gas offset the impact of lower crude prices at Europe's biggest oil company.

Profit excluding one-time items and inventory changes gained 31 per cent to $5.8 billion (€4.6 billion) from $4.5 billion (€3.5 billion) a year earlier, the Hague-based company said today in a statement.

“Our results today show that we are delivering on three priorities I set out at the start of 2014 - better financial performance, enhanced capital efficiency and continued strong project delivery,” chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said in the statement.

Shell appointed former Du Pont CEO Charles Holliday to succeed Jorma Ollila as chairman next year.

Mr Holliday has been a non-executive director since 2010.

Mr Van Beurden, who became CEO this year, has prioritised selling underperforming assets and reducing costs. Shell has agreed to sell its onshore fields in Nigeria, where it lost almost $1 billion to sabotage in 2013.

This week, it asked the US for five more years to explore for oil off Alaska’s coast, where it halted operations in 2012 for repairs.

Oil prices have tanked since July as production from US shale fields boomed and the global economy slowed.

The price of Brent crude oil, a global benchamark, is down more than 20 per cent since the start of this year. BP and BG Group, the other two largest UK-listed gas producers, this week reported lower profit on oil prices.

Bloomberg