Royal Dutch Shell beat analysts' forecasts with a sharp rise in third-quarter underlying profits today, as high oil prices more than compensated for production losses due to US hurricanes.
The world's third-largest listed oil firm by market capitalisation said in a statement its current cost of supply (CCS) net profit, which strips out gains from rises in the value of fuel inventories, rose 68 percent to $7.369 billion.
Excluding one-off items of $1.569 billion, Shell's "clean" CCS earnings were $5.8 billion.
Investors and analysts focus on the clean CCS figure, considering it the best measure of Shell's underlying health.
"Our operational performance is paying off with good results," Shell Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement.
"Despite the hurricanes, the production outlook for 2005 is around 3.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd). LNG growth continues apace. Downstream performance, profitability and cash generation remain very satisfactory," van der Veer added.
Shell said hurricanes cost it production losses of 100,000 boepd and that total upstream and downstream hurricane costs were around $350 million. It said insurance would cover a large portion of these.